Film Details
Part of the series, MOTHER CUTTERS.
A chilling exploration of the future is also a compelling examination of the present in George Lucas's THX 1138, starring Robert Duvall as a man whose mind and body are controlled by the government. THX makes a harrowing attempt to escape from a world where thoughts are controlled, freedom is an impossibility and love is the ultimate crime. "The real excitement of THX 1138 is not really the message but the medium - the use of film not to tell a story so much as to convey an experience. Stunning...dazzling...chilling and terribly powerful" (Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times).
The film was edited by George Lucas with assistant editor Marcia Lucas in their garage. As the studios - and the moguls who ran them - had imploded, oversight had vanished, leading to a new freedom in American cinema without which films such as THX 1138 might not have been made. While the film further cemented Marcia Lucas's reputation as an editor its failure at the box office helped usher in the downfall of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope.
More than half a century after its release, THX 1138 is more interesting than ever, and offer students of film - and particularly editing - a swift 90-minute exercise in The New Hollywood.
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Maggie McOmie
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 87 minutes