THX 1138

[arguchik]

i am finally watching THX 1138, which i have out from netflix right now.

yes, i am blogging while watching.

this flik is freakin my shit right out, but i'm gonna finish it if it kills me...

/pause

Comments

[gushgush.livejournal.com]

What is this movie and why have I never heard of it before...?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

it was george lucas' first film, came out in 1971. robert duvall stars.

here's the wiki link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138).

you may have noticed, while watching other movies, that "THX" is the name of the lucasfilms digital sound system. they play that long, bendy chord that gradually resolves into a big major chord, over the THX logo, to show it off.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

please excuse, me, for that previous, post, for, all the, comma, splices...

[gushgush.livejournal.com]

Hey! Are you making fun of my compulsion tendency to use too many commas in my writing?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

no no, just my own. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

I just got done googling and reading about it; it seems very cool!
I kinda' remember hearing about this but I have yet to see it. I will be sure to put it on my list.

btw: have you heard of a new film called "The Savages"?

[gushgush.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why that last post was as Anonymous...?
but it was me.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yes, i want to see "the savages." it looks somewhat depressing but interesting. i had a chance to see it for free a few weeks ago, but ended up not going.

according to the wiki entry, lucas denies that the THX sound system is named for THX 1138, but i think he's bullshitting--it's WAY too much of a coincidence, IMO. did you see the list of places where THX and/or 1138 show up somewhere in ALL of the movies he's ever done, plus as a special code you can enter into DVD's to get "easter egg" extras? crazy! talk about being obsessed with one's own juvenilia...

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

hey! I wanted to watch that too!

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

LOL--i know...i was just bored out of my mind last night, and it was the only thing to look at. i'm interested in watching it again, though. if you want to, we should do that soon--i've had this quite awhile, and it feels like a waste of my netflix fee to keep it so long.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

well, if you want to do it tonight, I'm game.

if not, we could hit it over the weekend.

or you could just return it and I could get it another time.
I've got All Creatures Great and Small and Aguirre Wrath of God coming in the mail today, and those ones that I rented the other night as well if you are interested in seeing any of them with me over the next 3 or 4 days.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

tonight: it's a date. i'm also potentially interested in watching the other stuff, depending on what it is. you know how i love the james herriot... :-)

[asterisk8.livejournal.com]

I love THX*. It's a bit contrived in that utopia/dystopia-esque sort of way, but I vaguely feel like that whole vibe got a short canonical cinema-run anyway. Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury got some decent film versions, but nearly everything original always feels a bit eye-roll inducing (suggestions welcome). THX doesn't introduce anything that feels overwhelmingly new/significant, but it holds its own in trying to mix aspects of what its references.

Trivia item! pivotal industrial and techno bands of the 90s sampled the film heavily:

Front 242 (medicine cabinet)
Ministry (torture telescreen scene)
Orbital
etc

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

i enjoyed it a lot, actually; it was just freaking me out a little bit, so i needed a break. i tend to get really freaked out by totalitarian shit--it's worse for me than any of the most violent, violating violence out there. it makes me feel claustrophobic and just...sad, somehow; i think because i always suspect/expect that they're going to come to a scene like in 1984, where winston has that horrible contraption on his head with the rats...and in order to avoid the rats, he rats out his girlfriend. i hate that it's even imaginable for people to do that to other people, in the name of power. but still, 1984 is one of my favorite pieces of literature (and i really liked the film version (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/) i saw too...with john hurt, richard burton, and suzanna hamilton--which reminds me that i should really watch that again sometime soon; maybe i'll have a "crazy dystopia" film mini-fest in january, after glaucon gets back from PA).

i have to say, though...and this isn't that much of a stretch, i don't think, especially given the SW episode 1, 2, and 3 debacle...that THX 1138 is probably the most interesting film that lucas has ever done.

[asterisk8.livejournal.com]

oh, definitely gets my vote as most interesting. Vadar's the great American Satan and that's nice and all, but certainly all his best work was when he was fresh out of college: American Graffiti, THX...okay that's pretty much it, innit :]

I love John Hurt and think he can do no wrong, so of course I love the film. I still question the notion that if he'd resisted at the end, he'd have brought down the entire government.

Hurt's also great in Jim Henson's The Storyteller. I highly recommend watching one a night. You'll sleep like a rock for weeks.

I can see how the totalitarian angle is a bit of a freak-out; it's a bit of a culture shock. I'm more disturbed by the fact it's not that much more of a culture shock though.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yeah, i think most totalitarian dystopias are playing with things that are very familiar from our everyday culture, just...kicked up a notch.

i don't think i've seen the storyteller. perhaps i'll check it out. i do love my sleep. :-)