THX 1138 (1971)

Before George Lucas became best known for 'American Graffiti' and a little franchise known as 'Star Wars', he had made a student film that impressed a lot of people. When he finally set off to become a true director in the big, wide world, he remade his student film into this full length. It still is pretty impressive as one of the first films any director will make, even if it is not without its flaws. 

It is an unspecified future. People live in sparse surroundings, all conforming to the same look. Everything is white and sterile, everything and everyone is closely monitored and no one is allowed to break the mould. In order to achieve this, the unseen government sedates and drugs the residents and in case anything else is out of place, there is an android police force to oversee proceedings. 

LUH, the female roommate of THX, first begins to tone down her drugs, because she feels something isn't quite right. She also lowers his dosage, making him become less focused on his job and questioning everything. Even the computerized confessional does nothing for him. Eventually, they give in to physical love, which is highly frowned upon. They are being watched by SEN, who also longs to be different, but is a bit of a douche and removes LUH from the equation. THX further rebels and is incarcerated, together with SEN and some others. But where THX now absolutely wants to get away from this stifling society, SEN discovers he actually wants to return to how it all was before, realizing that he will be terminated. So in the end, only THX escapes and finally makes it above ground. But how everything is there, is unknown. He just sees the sun for the first time in his life and from there on, it is a mystery. 

This is not a happy film, I can assure you. The future society feels claustrophobic, sterile, emotionless and quite frankly: scarily accurate if you consider how much the dehumanization of society is sometimes set in by powers that be or companies. A sedated populace is an easy to control populace, you know? This might be what the ultimate fascist regime would dream of, although it does feel as if this entire civilization is run by computers and only computers. You will not be very comfortable watching this. 

The few actors chosen for this project are great, especially Robert Duvall as THX and Donald Pleasence as SEN. Maybe Pleasence even more, because instead of being cast yet again as the villain, here he feels more like an inquisitive child who only later realizes that his dreams and ideas are too big for him and he becomes scared of it all. Duvall is more stoic and more single-minded in his goal. 

There isn't a large amount of dialogue, instead its mostly the images that speak for themselves. The reworked Director's Cut does insert some new scenes to make this underground world feel larger as opposed to the empty corridors it mostly shows, but except for a part of a vehicle chase that feels woefully out of place, most of it is well done and not as lavish as one might assume. The drab and dreary look of it all syncs up with the story, but it does feel tiring to watch, because nearly all of it is white and grey. 

This also leads up to the films main issue: it is incredibly slow, teetering on tedium. Not that this needs to be an action-packed extravaganza, but still. For a film that's barely 80 minutes long, it keeps going and going and it could have done with better pacing. Or maybe it's just that something this depressing simply feels drawn out. In any case, you will not experience a whole bunch of happiness whilst watching this. 

Dystopian science fiction was the craze at the beginning of the 70s and this one rightly fits in with other films like 'Silent Running', 'Logan's Run' or 'Planet of the Apes'. It is distinct in its look and there is much to say for the story. But if it was edited a little better, it could have had even more of an impact. Now it can be a slog to get through. Only watch if you're really up for it.