THX for the Memories: Thoughts Tangential to a Saga Journal Essay

Now that my essay looking at George Lucas's first feature film with an eye for how it can be compared to and seen to anticipate Star Wars is up on Saga Journal, I can indulge in sharing some merely personal reflections I had on THX 1138 while watching and writing. I suppose that when I picked up the two-disc DVD from the discount bin at the local department store, I was wondering how I'd react, and part of that was linked to how I seem to sweat and struggle to get through any work of fiction declared to have "literary merit." Of course, an "experimental non-linear film" would seem to be something different, and yet I wondered if it would somehow be too much for me... along with another possibly disconnected yet probably as bizarre thought, that the movie would somehow help prove that George Lucas "shouldn't have become sidetracked by Star Wars." (And then there was the fact that I had a "revised edition," linked in its own way to the endless griping about the Special Editions and some hypothetical "pre-burnout period...")

In the end, though, I was impressed by the film, quite impressed. I watched through it four times (once to see it, once to listen to the commentary, once with the subtitles on to transcribe dialogue that might have a bearing on my essay, and once to jot down useful points from the commentary) and stayed interested throughout. I suppose that the story was never elusive to me, and neither were the characters... so perhaps I might wonder a little about whether the movie truly seemed "non-linear" to me or if I was "reading" it as deeply as I could, but not so it really bothered me.
( The reflections continue )