Set reading 3 – THX 1138
Year: 1971
Directed by: George Lucas
Written by: George Lucas (story and screenplay), Walter Murch (screenplay)
Story: The computer in the shelter that extended under the soil in 25 century was ruling the human race. People were managed by the number without having even the name, and were silently engaged in work, as taking a mental stabilizer was obligated there. THX-1138 (Robert Duval) and his female roommate and LUH-3417 (Maggie Macorme) stop taking a mental stabilizer so by an own intention. Two people liberated from a mental stabilizer exchange the sexual relationship that comes to be going to love before long each other, and prohibited. THX-1138 decides to escape for LUH-3417 though the computer that notices the thing separates the two immediately, and imprisons THX-1138 to the trial.
I was surprised by that this movie was made when the director was in university and he is the director of Star Wars as well. I believe he is very talented and shocked he created this movie when he was almost same age as me… I also watched the original version of this movie, 15mins long, but it still works well. Actually to understand what is going on in this movie, I had to watch it again and again otherwise it is quite difficult to get it. This movie is a good example of low-budget art and it creates many effects and represents a cold feeling this movie has.
The first impression of this movie was fear and scare. This movie is very abstract and the set with full of white background made me sick and it represents the controlled future society. The use of “white” is very interesting and it attracts many audiences. But at the same time, it drives audience crazy as well. Also the silence of this movie was very insane. The progress of this movie is quite slow, so in the middle I was a bit bored. But this original worldview and futuristic mood were very intrigued me and excited my curiosity. I also felt the decadent mood from this movie. Also the BGM was quite scary as well, very slow and somber music.
I liked the robot police in this movie. It was quite funny actually. They looked very disgusting and also they were inability.
This work reminds me of the movie “Matrix”. There are similar points in both movies, however the mood of movie is quite different and I like “matrix” more than this movie because I prefer action movie.
I could feel a issue for the controlling society and anxious of it. This movie is not like usual SF movie, however I think the quality of graphic and interesting story is quite reasonable to watch.
