Thx 1138

[Boyd Ostroff]

Well I just watched the new director's cut of this film and have mixed feelings. This is a movie I've wanted to see again for quite some time but it has only now been released on DVD, and even the VHS version was hard to find before.

Once again Lucas has indulged in serious revisionism. Viewed on its own merits I think the film is very good and I enjoyed it. But quite a lot has changed; watch the original trailer on the disc and you can see some of the original scenes which look very different. It looks like he also changed the color and overall feel of the entire film. The CG changes are impressive, but they really stand in contrast to the original material.

I understand that Lucas is within his rights to do whatever he likes with his intellectual property, but I also think it's just wrong to eradicate film history in the process. The original film told us more about 1971 than it did about the future, and this is something that I always find fascinating with vintage sci-fi epics. But this now looks like a 2004 movie, with some strange retro computer throwbacks (like the impact-printed FORTRAN code that scrolls down the screen during some sections).

Here's a page I found that shows some of the changes to the original: http://thx-1138.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32

[Yi Fong Yu]

i never saw the original THX 1138. after viewing the 'diretcor's cut' i don't think i would ever want to. this edition is so much better than what i saw in the trailers. plus this little gem is still about our future currently. i don't think it had a lot to say about th 70s as much as it did have to say about our current future. about consumerism, automoton and the concepts of individuality. i really like lucas's intellectual dabbling in all his works. it presupposes that you should know about the film-world he is creating.

having said that... i still don't think it's a "classic" in every sense of the word. it's good but there are better movies about the same subject.

also didya get the bonus disc's special on american zoetrope. oh man that was so much better than the THX movie itself! as far as i know it is the ONLY feature that had a student ID of student lucas smiling. i luv the special so much because it's about sex, drugs and FILMMAKING! hahahhah that was awesome.

PS one thing i've noticed about lucas's fictional movies is that his bonus material's documentaries are always a notch above all other movie bonuses out there. take episode i's "The Beginning" i have yet to see another documentary that surpasses the quality and rewatchability. i think lucas's eye for good documentaries are awesome and unmatched. i mean as good as the CONTENT of the lord of the rings extended edition documentaries it still pales in comparison to the shorter more refined webdocumentaries from episode I through the recent III. luas himself said on this bonus disc that all he originally intended to do was come out of film school and make documentaries!

[Rob Lohman]

I never saw the original either (must have missed it somehow),
but quite liked this edition (bought the 2 disc DVD). I wasn't too
distracted by new versus old stuff, although it did get me
wondering whether they pulled that off way back then or whether
it was new. It's a nice movie!

PS I've been following the web documentaries on www.kongisking.net
on the new remake, pretty nice behind the scenes stuff there
as well.

[Ken Tanaka]

I have owned the original VHS release for years and always found the film haunting from both dramatic and imagery perspectives. I'll guess I watched the original version six times over the years.

I, too, grabbed the DVD release as soon as it was available. While I have only watched it once thus far (and have not yet had a chance to venture into the extras) I didn't find the changes to be obtrusive. In fact, I would be hard pressed to identify many of them. I did come away with the impression that the new version enhanced Robert Duvall's performance, leaving a much richer memory of his character than the VHS version ever did.

Of course the DVD looks measurably better than the circa 1980's pan-and-scan VHS release. It was the first time I had seen what Lucas actually shot.

[Rob Lohman]

Do check out the extras Ken, there is some quite neat stuff tucked
away on the second disc! It looks amazing for such an "old" and
"cheap" film indeed.

[Yi Fong Yu]

thx to lowry digital. what an amazing company and what an amazing and stable job! cleaning up old negatives will take a VERY long time to run out of titles! i wish i thought of that! =)