THX-1138: Feel the Force

Since Star Wars is the Thunderbirds of my adulthood, I like to extend my experience of the George Lucas canon wherever I can. To that end I today watched for the first time his movie THX-1138 made when I was a mere 9 years old in 1970. I had read a little about it beforehand but not too much. I enjoy looking up movie background online as it happens onscreen.

Within a few minutes of THX-1138 starting I knew I was watching a forerunner of Star Wars. By the end I was smitten. Lucas's proto-vision of a New Hope is there for all to see [Star Wars in italics]: Android Policeman - Stormtroopers, the mind-deadening monotony of the dystopia - Empire, the OMM-Force, the awakening of THX - Luke, the complex relationship THX has with roommate LUH - Leia, the dead-faced Androids - Darth Vader, the Monks - Emporer, the gold Androids - C3P0, the clinical often-white surroundings and the use of muttered technobabble and jargonese.

An online forum alerted also alerted me to three other similarities, which were clear when I watched them: the tiny shelldwellers could be forerunners of the Jawas, the first use of the word Wookie [aided greatly by having the subtitles on - it appeared onscreen], the tunnel pursuit  of THX by speederbikes, which hints at the later Daeth Star trench chase and probably most emphatic of all the imagery, the final scene were THX stands tall against the backdrop of a bright red sun, so redolent of Luke staring up at the twin Suns off Tatooine.

But above all of these it is the soundscape which predicts Star Wars. THX-1138 positively rattles with Artoo bleeps, droid grunts, Tie Fighter screeches, electronic lance zaps, teletexts, radio fuzz, tannoy voices echoing down corridors, alerts, warnings, sirens and shakey intercoms. The DVD I had allowed me to watch the film with just the soundtrack on minus the actor's voices - a soundscape with it's own name, The Theatre of Noise.

The musical score is also excellent composed by Argentinian Lalo Schifrin, who's work I already loved through his score for Enter The Dragon. Schifrin's THX also reminded me of the melancholic feel to the music in Kung Fu The TV series, brilliantly scored by the late Jim Helms [I remember buying the LP at our local garage!].

The THX 'in-jokes' throughout Lucas's later Star Wars movies, although well-known to die-hard fans, are new to me and will be fun to watch out for when I catch his flicks again. For now though I'm pretty confident that I've seen an iconic movie and  the basis for a whole glut of later dystopias seen in films like West World, Future World, Aliens and the Matrix to name but a few.

Be efficient. Be Happy.