Very Cool!!!

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is found on the 2-Disc George Lucas Director's Cut release of THX 1138 that came out in 2004. His student film. You're probably more familiar with the remake that he made(and everyone who's watched any of his work may have seen the four numbers appear somewhere, and he used the prefix as the title of his sound-system). This and especially the theatrical version of '71 had an ambivalent effect on his career in the field; the studio had no idea how to sell the latter, and it led to the downfall of the original dream of what American Zoetrope was. It also proved that he could make something otherworldly and unique, and he might not have made Star Wars(or it could have been less than it was) if not. This is very experimental, and its visual side is compelling and interesting. The sound is creative(given the constraints), and editing is skillful. In 15 short minutes, this manages to convey many of the themes he would explore to a greater extent in the feature-length quite subtly and without anything feeling staged. The acting is satisfactory. There is a bit of disturbing content in this. I recommend it to any fan of cinema that takes chances. 7/10

The film departments of UCLA and Southern California University had an annual film competition for students from both schools at a time when they and New York University were about the only schools in the country offering a degree in cinema. In 1967, I attended the showing at UCLA's Royce Hall, and George Lucas's THX-1138 was a standout work among many very good ones. Not only was it the audience's favorite, but the judges awarded it best picture. Lucas was called to the podium to accept his award. He seemed nervous and shy at the microphone, but then startled as he was interrupted at the microphone, apparently a surprise to all on stage, by a lawyer from Warner Brothers who announced that Warners was offering whoever won the competition the opportunity to turn it into a feature. That was of course George. It seemed an eternity while he stood speechless, mouth open. Warners already had the young Francis Ford Coppola under contract, so they assigned him as producer to George. I then saw the resulting feature "THX 1138" in 1971 at a theater in Hollywood. It was not great commercial success, but as we all know, the success of the George Lucas career is legendary.

After seeing the theatrical THX 1138 and enjoying its feel very much, I was hyped to be able to see this student project. Let me say that, first and foremost, most of the shots in this film are of absolutely nothing happening. Shots of mainframe computers and other such gadgetry probably lent this film quite an alien feel in 1967, but now it merely fills time waiting for the plot to advance. For 15 minutes, you watch as the story of THX slowly unfolds, how he runs to escape his sterile surroundings and finally reaches his goal.Probably the most remarkable thing I noticed about this movie is how things changed and how they stayed the same for Lucas in his later pictures. He still treats his actors like action figures. However, I noticed the utter lack of 'cute ideas' that spiced up even the theatrical release of this film. Very monochromatic in emotion and execution, but still gripping in a very real way.

I was fortunate enough to get a copy of this on video. It is very interesting and even more surreal than the feature film. Some things about George's directing never change even after 32 years.