Review of THX 1138 (1971) by Will S — 31 May 2009

By the looks of it - nothing overly special. It flopped in 1971 and was the beginning of the end for Coppola's and Lucas' "American Zoetrope" co-op. Sparse, yet effective futuristic San Francisco backgrounds, a (deliberately) minimal set dec and costume budget had their impact on the final look of this movie, which was sound and editing guru Walter Murch's and Matthew Robbins' script from 1966, which was made into a short by Lucas at USC.

There are critical undertones aimed at the 1970ies consumer society - and most of the points are still true even today. But it was Lucas's first feature, made on a shoestring budget for its time. And what effect "THX1138" would have on the (science-fiction) movie world, no one could predict.

Of course, it paved the road for Lucas' own Star Wars universe, as many of the story elements and sound effects would later on be used on the original trilogy (all I say is rocket motorcycle and "Wookie"), but it was also highly influencing for the likes of Tron, Blade Runner, The Matrix (white spaces, interrogations, system), Steven Spielberg and his "Minority Report" (shaved heads, amongst many others) as well as "I, Robot" (the chasing sequence in the tunnel).

Should be made mandatory for movie history reference purposes. And what you can achieve with a limited budget ("limited" in American terms). Also, you might want to listen to Walter Murch giving you a wonderful lesson on sound design (Director's Cut only).