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THX 1138 (Director's Cut) Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: R Theater release: September 10, 2004 by Warner Bros. Directed by: George Lucas Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes Cast: Robert Duvall (THX 1138), Donald Pleasence (SEN 5241), Don Pedro Colley (SRT), Maggie McOmie (LUH 3417) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Editor's note: THX 1138 is only playing in 20 cities, but the DVD will be available on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

It always brings me a small chuckle when I consider how many young boys (like myself) have likely fallen prey to THX 1138 over the last 25 years. So enamored with George Lucas' much beloved Star Wars films, we browsed the sci-fi section of the local rental store. And lo! There came the day when we discovered that the famed filmmaker had already directed another sci-fi film, before Star Wars. With glee, the film was brought home with the promise of robots and rocket cars. But instead of a rip-roaring action-laden space opera, we saw a slow-moving, 90-minute, quiet-paced oddity that left most of us scratching our heads and asking, "What was that?"

SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasence) and THX 1138 (Robert Duvall)

That was George Lucas' first film, originally written and directed as a school project by the film student. It earned him enough acclaim to attract the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, who helped Lucas expand the film in 1971 as the first feature release for American Zoetrope (Coppola's then new independent studio). With a budget under $1 million, Lucas delivered an original work of sci-fi that today resembles a combination of the Big Brother paranoia and social commentary of George Orwell's 1984 and the pessimistic futurism of Phillip K. Dick (Blade Runner or Minority Report).

THX 1138 tells of a not-too-distant futuristic society, grown cold from an over-reliance on technology and prescription drugs to keep their problems, emotions, and libidos in check. Citizens' medicine cabinets are equipped with interactive computer systems that ask, "What's wrong?" before prescribing sedatives. And is it any wonder? The world suffers from overpopulation. Men and women need to shave their heads for some reason. Unauthorized marriage and sexual activity is prohibited. Humorous-yet-eerie chrome robots that resemble a cross between C-3PO and the cops from CHiPs enforce the law. Roommates are assigned to each other via computer, regardless of sex or age—"You're rated highly on sanitation. I checked." Even religion is computerized, requiring people to confess sins to a programmed image resembling Christ called OMM. (In the future depicted here, they practice some kind of Unitarian hybrid of Catholicism and Buddhism.)

Lightning fast transportation in the world of THX

And on top of that, citizens are given three-letter names with a four-digit designation (and you thought area codes were a pain!), which brings us to the title character played by a pre-Godfather, post-To Kill a Mockingbird Robert Duvall. THX (pronounced "Thex") finds this life unfulfilling, if you can believe it, and we come to realize that he's slowly going through withdrawal symptoms. It turns out that he and his roommate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) have stopped taking their medication. With their humanity suddenly unleashed, they fall in love and engage in "sexual perversity" (as defined by future law) caught on camera by weaseling programmer SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasence, Halloween and The Great Escape).

With unchecked emotions leading to imperfection at THX's job, the lovers are soon arrested for drug evasion. After a frighteningly shorthand trial, THX is sentenced to reconditioning and imprisonment (along with SEN) in a maddeningly white wall-less asylum that makes One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest seem like a day spa. It's from there that THX decides to make a break for it, find LUH, and escape the city.

The problem with the original THX 1138 was not high concept or movie making as much as it was simply ahead of its time in so many ways. In the 33 years since its release, audiences have slowly developed more sophisticated tastes to accommodate art films with challenging ideas. And while this has been regarded as a minor sci-fi cult classic, even more filmgoers might have discovered Lucas' imaginative debut if it weren't such an abstract, low budget experience. The film's special effects were more imaginary than imaginative—there's a humorous scene in which we see an audience respond to some sort of futuristic tennis match that we hear but never see. Stilted dialogue was further diluted by muddy sound and cheap visuals. This used to be a movie that only the most hardcore sci-fi fanatics could truly appreciate … but that's changed now.

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