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krpalmerNow 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.
One thing that came to interest me about the movie was how the "found technology" used to represent a future, the bulky headphones and remote-manipulator arms and stacks of relays, is now dated... but perhaps that adds a sort of off-kilter touch deepening the movie's world. Of course, in some ways it's especially odd to have a future with doorknobs.
It may have helped to have George Lucas and Walter Murch on the commentary explaining particular points, although I suppose the counter-argument is that it may relieve me of the need to use my own imagination. However, I did notice that they seemed to be emphasising one point, and so was the bonus material and Lucas's note on the DVD case and perhaps even the re-release trailers, that the movie was a commentary on a "consumer society..." I was tempted to say instead that it seemed more just a "straight dystopia," or a "surveillance society," or even a "medicated society." Too, nowadays anti-consumerism critiques can seem a little too easy to roll out, and there was the strange thought (and yet a somehow dangerous one to mention with Star Wars collectors on my friends list) that some people would make a big deal of "George Lucas pointing out a world where buying hunks of plastic are supposed to make people happy?" However, I could find myself content with the thought that this could be seen as a link suggesting that the underground society in the movie had to at least some degree evolved from our own, not just been created in some dystopian counter-cultural revolution.
In contemplating how the movie's society seemed "medicated" to me, I did find it amusing to think that the story had been worked out in the late 1960s and yet took an antidrugs message... and then I found myself believing that there had to have been "good drugs" and "bad drugs" for just about everyone, and that that could well depend on "society's stance" from just about every perspective. In that case, the movie became more "Mother's Little Helper," less "Eight Miles High."
All in all, the THX 1138 experience was an interesting one... although perhaps one I wouldn't want to see just everyone try for themselves. Given how critically some people dissect the Star Wars movies, I can worry about how they would react to the female character not escaping, nor the black hologram, nor even the guy with a hint of ambiguous sexuality, when the heterosexual white male does make it to the surface...
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.
One thing that came to interest me about the movie was how the "found technology" used to represent a future, the bulky headphones and remote-manipulator arms and stacks of relays, is now dated... but perhaps that adds a sort of off-kilter touch deepening the movie's world. Of course, in some ways it's especially odd to have a future with doorknobs.
It may have helped to have George Lucas and Walter Murch on the commentary explaining particular points, although I suppose the counter-argument is that it may relieve me of the need to use my own imagination. However, I did notice that they seemed to be emphasising one point, and so was the bonus material and Lucas's note on the DVD case and perhaps even the re-release trailers, that the movie was a commentary on a "consumer society..." I was tempted to say instead that it seemed more just a "straight dystopia," or a "surveillance society," or even a "medicated society." Too, nowadays anti-consumerism critiques can seem a little too easy to roll out, and there was the strange thought (and yet a somehow dangerous one to mention with Star Wars collectors on my friends list) that some people would make a big deal of "George Lucas pointing out a world where buying hunks of plastic are supposed to make people happy?" However, I could find myself content with the thought that this could be seen as a link suggesting that the underground society in the movie had to at least some degree evolved from our own, not just been created in some dystopian counter-cultural revolution.
In contemplating how the movie's society seemed "medicated" to me, I did find it amusing to think that the story had been worked out in the late 1960s and yet took an antidrugs message... and then I found myself believing that there had to have been "good drugs" and "bad drugs" for just about everyone, and that that could well depend on "society's stance" from just about every perspective. In that case, the movie became more "Mother's Little Helper," less "Eight Miles High."
All in all, the THX 1138 experience was an interesting one... although perhaps one I wouldn't want to see just everyone try for themselves. Given how critically some people dissect the Star Wars movies, I can worry about how they would react to the female character not escaping, nor the black hologram, nor even the guy with a hint of ambiguous sexuality, when the heterosexual white male does make it to the surface...
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Date: 2008-05-08 03:05 am (UTC)I don't buy the consumerist society nonsense, with all due respect to Papa George. If they're so consumerist, why does everybody live in a crappy plastic world in small, cramped apartments? He did accurately foresee a society dependent on pills though.
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Date: 2008-05-08 11:34 pm (UTC)That parallel between LUH and Padme is interesting, if perhaps more than a little ambiguous. I did notice in the movie that LUH was "consumed" on "21/87," an early reference by Lucas to the Canadian short film 21-87 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21-87). When I managed to see it online, I suppose it was "more experienced than comprehended..."