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| TITLE: |
THX 1138 (Google this title)
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| WHAT IT IS: |
George Lucas's first feature film. |
| DISCS: |
2
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| RELEASED: |
2004 (theatrical release date 1971) |
| EXTRAS: |
beefed up effects, documentaries |
George Lucas's first feature film didn't get a fair shake when it was released in 1971. Nervous executives and a perplexed marketing department at Warner Bros. didn't know what to make of the film's stark depiction of a future when people are numbers and tenderness is a crime. An assaultive soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin and Walter Murch didn't make the film's bummer story-line any easier to digest for mainstream audiences.
The two-disc DVD release of the film makes good. The director's cut beefs up the original film with new computer-generated effects. The second disc contains a few excellent documentaries, including one devoted to the early years of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope, which produced "THX 1138" as its first title. Also present is Lucas's original 15-minute film, "THX 1138:4EB," which he made as a student at the University of Southern California before reworking it to feature-length with Coppola acting as executive producer.
It's not a feel-good movie you'll likely want to watch again and again, but "THX 1138" is a visually stunning, highly-stylized work well worth a look.
review by Craig Bailey
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