THX 1138

George Lucas's THX 1138 was a pretty confusing film to me. Maybe it's because it was so similar to Ninenteen Eighty-Four and Soylent Green in tone and setting, and because I thought THX 1138 was inferior to both, but it just felt like nothing really interesting happened in the film. Or maybe it's because I simply misinterpreted the film, which is the more probable reason. Here's what I have:

The giant picture of Jesus Christ was a fairly obvious allusion to religion, and it got me immediately thinking about God. Now, I know basically nothing about religion, and my knowledge of Christian parables runs about as deep as Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark. The story of Adam and Eve seemed like the obvious fit when LUH switches THX's medications, allowing him to experience love for the first time ever (read: she seduced him). And later on SEN (read: SIN, the snake in the tree) tries to convince THX to be his roommate, which would result in THX kind of breaking the law because it would mean not reporting SEN for committing a crime. But then THX shoots down both SEN's offer and my theory about this being an Adam and Eve story.

From this point on, I have basically no idea what's happening in this film. THX gets arrested and is sent to some weird prison where he reunites with LUH and finds out that she's pregnant with their child (not sure about the significance of this beyond the obvious symbolism associated with childbearing and childbirth).

And then they get separated again, and THX winds up with SEN and a bunch of other prisoners. Then THX and SEN try to escape, but not before joining up with one of the hologram people who tells them that he wants to be a real person (again, I'm not really sure what the significance of this character is). Then, SEN gets separated shortly after escaping the prison, and THX and the hologram person find that LUH's organs have been harvested for some reason (I couldn't figure out why), and then THX escapes to the surface of the world, alone, and he sees the setting sun.

All the while this is happening, SEN has some sort of cathartic episode, where he's all zen-like and serene while talking to a bunch of children, and I don't know why this happened. Then he gets arrested.

On a side note, this film had a few bits (mostly the sound design and the androids) that reminded me of Star Wars. It makes sense, since both THX 1138 and the Star Wars films were directed by George Lucas, but as a whole, they were completely different experiences. It was interesting to see George Lucas tackle the more philosophical side of science fiction, but I'm afraid that I don't think he did so particularly well here. While I think there's something to be said for slow-paced and thoughtful films, like Stanley Kubrick's 2001, this film was just slow and not really all that thoughtful.