The History of THX 1138: How Hollywood Ruined George Lucas’s First Film 

1. I think it'd just end with Warner Bros, eventually leaving them anyway. There's a reason Warner Bros didn't like it, because the mainstream doesn't appreciate experimental art, even before the cinema. Abstract art is in no way as popular as Romanticism, even though the art galleries promote them the same. Then if Warner Bros backed them, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas would make another surreal, artistic movie with a huge budget. And it'd flop like Heaven's Gate, tainting their image in the public's eye. Killing their career in the process, so no Star Wars or Godfather. That said, a world with only experienmental films in the cinema is an interesting concept. The cinema would turn into the art gallery, and your average joe would despise it. Television would gained popularity even sooner, as TV tailours their shows for the mainstream. 2. I've got no problem with it. Every other artists seems to have a say on their final product, I don't see why a director can't. The only issue people have with Star Wars is that Lucas is altering their childhood by altering his films. You remembered the film a certain way, and that nostalgia is taken away from you when you rewatch it and it's different. 3. I highly doubt it. It's just too big of an industry to mess with. Sure they tweak their formula every now and then, throw in a few Deadpool-like movies. But they've had success for so long it doesn't make sense to go back. Though in the future they may make a separate indie industry. The world is expanding so much, eventually raising funds for $1/2m an indy film will be a piece of cake. And the bigger the population the more indy film fans will exist.

You have seen William Friedkin's Sorcerer? It was, infamously, released in the wake of Star Wars. It fell off the radar until it's re release about 5 years ago. It does encapsulate your point here I think. When Friedkin began the film, Hollywood was interested in one sort of movie. After Star Wars, they were only interested in another. Point two. You'll have to remind me of the time lines, but I seem to remember the Star Wars re cuts came out after a cut of Blade Runner was infamously played at an LA film festival. A cut that had no voice over, a weird, seemingly unrelated clip of a unicorn in the middle and no tacked on ending. It began a trend for re cuts and Director's edits. I'm sure the improvements in home media played a part too.

One thing that _THX-1138_ [1971], although it's Sci-Fi, it's very _cerebral_ Sci-Fi, which has always been a hard sell to them. Television's _Star Trek_ was given certain production troubles from the Networks, some not so dissimilar to what Lucas' film got from a movie studio, Warner Bros. in that case. Before _Star Wars_ in '77, _American Graffiti_ [1973] was a big hit for Paramount at the box-office, and also with critics and audiences. _Star Wars_ made 20th Century Fox even more money than that, and then three times over three GOOD films in six years. Lucas' three GOOD Indiana Jones films (dir., Steven Spielberg) made Paramount more money again! _THX-1138: Easy Rider 2_ for Easy Profit-- those late-'60s Warner Bros. execs must been out of their gourds kidding, LOL what the crap!

are you ever going to upload again?

Really wouldn't call The Godfather a popcorn movie but yeah the irony is there

Lucas did, I think Coppola's films largely are not for everybody - but they're good, hardly popcorn films.

@@mattturner7531 Point taken -- I meant they (including Spielberg) wanted to be serious indie artists but became commercial industry legends instead -- because the money was just too good. Coppola nearly turned down The Godfather but needed the cash. They still haven't done the little art films they used to talk about.

Most of their films were only successful because of the people they had working for them... They pushed the directors to have realism and authenticity. That went away as they became more popular

I agree with your assessment Jared. I think for historical purposes both the theatrical cut and whatever version Lucas wants should be made available to the public. What I think Lucas is trying to do is enforce the idea that the director owns the film and it should be up to him to decide which version is the "correct or final" cut. But, with a film as monumental and industry-changing as Star Wars, it's important that the original theatrical cut is made available as a historical document for others to watch. I grew up with the special editions, so for me, my experience isn't changed watching either version, but not making the theatrical cut more easily available is an unfortunate erasure of cinema history that while I understand the intentions behind, I do not agree with.

@@CelluloidCinema I don’t have a problem of directors cuts being the final cut for theatrical releases. Though it’s cool to have the option to watch both theatrical and directors cuts whenever you’d like, as it’s cool to see the differences between the cuts. I’ve read an article that Lucas talked how he allowed a theater in Los Angeles screen the 1981 rerelease of the original Star Wars film in 2019, with the only change is the added Episode IV: A New Hope, as Empire Strikes Back was released as Episode V. I think the reason for this was for a film festival or something of the sort where films were being shown for a specific reason. So the upshot is, Lucas isn’t completely against people seeing the original film as uncut as possible, but he’s still not interested in people having the theatrical cuts on blu-ray. At least at the moment.

@@Jared_Wignall Interesting piece of trivia, I never heard of the 1981 screening that you mention, but it does add another layer to the situation. I'm still holding out that one day Lucas, or rather Lucasfilm, will reverse course on this stance and make the theatrical version available for home viewing. But at this point, it's been nearly 9 years since Disney acquired Star Wars and there really hasn't been too much rumbling about them intending to release the theatrical version anytime soon. I always wondered if this was something Lucas had written into the contract when Disney purchased Lucasfilm.

@@CelluloidCinema sorry, I meant he showed it in 2019. He actually let the festival show the 1981 version in 2019. For some reason I didn’t complete my sentence. Probably was tired when I wrote that, hence the lack of completing of the sentence. I’ve edited the comment now though.

Or since cululoid has a finite life span perserve them? I think their made of oil you know, that black goop that's bad for the environment and catches fire easily?

agreed. they were on to things back then, now its just a series of amusement park ride movies like the DC and marvel franchises. thx 1138, logans run, brave new world (never made into a film but done as tv movie for the bbc back in the 70s) are a scary warning of our "utopian" futures. when will we get movies like this again? we sure need them.

It's for your own good

It’s a message to you, so is Star Wars. In Star Wars you can see THX 1138 all over the movie.

While a lot of people might scoff at the idea of Lucas being an auteur, if you look across his feature films, they all explore nearly identical themes of maturing and choosing to leave where you are from.

@@PublicNuisance2K24 Yes. It's also the story of rebels trying to escape a totalitarian governing power. One is for adults, the other is a family movie.

I believe, or at least hope, that there are dozens of us that are fascinated with Pre-Star Wars George Lucas lol. Hopefully, this video will allow us to find each other and convert more to the cause. What I found really interesting in looking at Lucas's pre-Star Wars films is that the themes he explores of leaving your home town to be part of something larger in the original Star Wars film through Luke, are present in both THX and American Graffiti. To me, this signifies that even though Star Wars helped start the blockbuster trend of films as a consumable product, at least initially, the central character of Luke came from a personal place for Lucas, and from his desire to explore an issue that mirrored his own experience of deciding to leave his small farm town in California to pursue filmmaking.

In the 70s he directed three great films. Better than what most directors can claim.

Bro i prefer first director movies than their last lol

I love American Graffiti. Hows your career going?

I haven't heard of that version before. it sounds interesting. Do you have any additional information?

@@CelluloidCinema ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-65AGJDK9by0.html

Sounds like a cop out by the Italians to be fair. The idea is the audience asks themselves 'how do we avoid a future like this', you know? If you don't fill in the backstory, an audience can also ponder, 'maybe we are at this point already?'.

@@davidlean1060 We are.

We as a society are at risk of becoming automatons as in THX1138. In some ways we are already in the initial stages. For example, we don't really know what kind of toxins are added to our foods, just that we are the consumers of them. Strange illnesses are on the rise and I would submit that they are the cause of many of our modern day ailments. There really are government sanctioned sinister activities going on in top secrecy at this very moment. For instance, what exactly is going on at station 51 in the American desert underground. It is even likely that the American government is in cahoots with alien beings, and has been for a long time. And people like Elon Musk could even be willing, buy malevolent participants in a secret grand plan for humanity. Elon has already made it publicly known that he is going to change the world as we know it. All the talk of AI of late is certainly in line with his hyperbole regarding his plan/s for a monumental world altering event. Guys like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other are likely co-conspirators in this extremely disconcerting act will undoubtedly have far reaching, life altering repercussions, the likes of which the world has never experienced before. And no one really has any idea of what exactly humanity is in for, or when it will occur. That said, and as I noted earlier, we are very likely in the beginning stages. What we do know for certain, is that the speed of technological changes in our society is accelerating exponentially. Whatever it is that's coming our way is cause for great concern - our future is at stake. What is even more frightening is that once the events begin to unfold, there simply will not be anywhere to hide - at least not for any appreciable length of time! I certainly hope that the catchphrase often used in the movies 'no one gets out of here alive' will not be our fate!

Hi Chris, I am aware of the restored version of THX 1138 that Warner Bros. released in 1977 after the success of Star Wars. This version in fact did have the footage Warner Bros. originally removed edited back in, and was used as the master for subsequent home video releases. However, because Dale Pollack in his book, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, notes that upon release this version of THX “again failed to catch on with a mass audience” and because today this version is only available on obsolete formats like LaserDisc and VHS, I decided to omit this version because it had little effect on the legacy of THX 1138 and the story I was trying to tell. An argument could be made that since the 2004 Director’s Cut of THX 1138 is identical to the 1977 re-release except for the added digital effects, that it would be worth mentioning since it parallels the situation surrounding the Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy. However, since in my research I couldn’t find anyone championing the 1977 re-release over the 2004 Director’s cut, I felt like the comparison wouldn’t be valid. Especially since the discourse between the original versions of the Original Trilogy and the Special Editions is so prominent. With that being said, even though I omitted the 1977 re-release from my video, I also took precautions not to erase its legacy by making sure to not call the 2004 Director’s Cut of THX 1138 the first release of the film that featured the footage Warner Bros. had cut from the 1971 release. In the video what I said was, “In 2004 Lucas made a director’s cut of THX 1138 that included the footage that Warner Bros. cut. This version of THX 1138, released more than thirty years after the film’s debut, is widely proclaimed as Lucas’s lost masterpiece and has replaced Warner Brother’s version as the definitive cut of the film.” As such, I believe the entirety of this statement is still valid, even in regards to the 1977 re-release and subsequent home video releases. Do you think this is a fair assessment of the information I presented? And if not, what did I say that is invalid?

Thanks Konrad! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Hope to have more content for you to enjoy soon!

Thanks for watching, planning to have some more content out soon!

what happened?@@CelluloidCinema

Thank you for the kind words! I hope this video made you appreciate the film even more! It is definitely an overlooked treasure.

It would have been fascinating to see how Lucas’s career would have gone if he continued making films in this style instead of the more approachable films that defined the rest of his career.

Thank you for the kind words.

@@CelluloidCinema No problem! :D

Good points! I would like to think that had Star Wars not have been as successful as it was, Lucas eventually would have returned to making more experimental-like films, but I guess we will never know! From when he finished the Original Trilogy, all the way up until 2012 when he finally sold off Lucasfilm, he still maintained that he had an interest in making personal films, but its now been eight years and he has yet to do so. I know its crazy to say considering the success Lucas enjoyed in his career, but what his career could have been might be one of Hollywood's biggest what-ifs.

Also the bald headed extras were members of the Synanon cult which was a big surprise to me.

@@CelluloidCinemawell george lucas has also said that he would be the only person to see those personal films. that they would never be released to the public, because no one wants to see experimental films.

Thanks for the kind words, Mike! And you are correct, the science-fiction genre underwent a massive revitalization during this period starting with 2001 in 1968 that carried on well into the '80s with films like Blade Runner in 1982 and Aliens in 1986. Do you have any other less popular favorites from this period?

@@CelluloidCinema You’re very welcome. I would include The Neptune Factor from 1973. Like THX 1138, it has a particularly attractive soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin.

@@mikebasil4832 That sounds cool, Mike! I'll make sure to add it to my watchlist.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

it never ends.

Glad I could confirm your sanity, Marty! Here is a "recent" article from 2012 where Lucas discusses his desire to make smaller personal films. Interestingly, last year Francis Ford Coppola did an interview where he expressed he was sad Lucas never got around to making more personal films. www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/31/george-lucas-retiring www.indiewire.com/2020/12/francis-ford-coppola-sad-star-wars-dominated-george-lucas-career-1234604256/

You're not insane, he was also saying it in the 2010s after the Disney takeover.

You bring up an interesting point that is not talked about enough: directors, in most cases, are not collaborators, they are contractors that the studio hires to make a product.

Maybe, but Hollywood did embrace sci fi (I know Star Wars is not strictly speaking sci fi, but we understand the term and what it broadly represents, so we'll use it for now) and that allowed for darker sci fi films to come about after that. Alien is a great example.

Thanks Zentagon! Glad you enjoyed it.

Lol I appreciate it! Planning to have more for you soon!

@@CelluloidCinema Speaking of THX, was you scared of it (the logo and the Deep Note SFX) in your childhood every time you watch a movie? And which THX trailer is your favorite (or least favorite)?

@@nicolasribeirodossantos6082 Of course! The better question is, who wasn't?

Yes,i Just watched and its impressive How much content the film has

I agree with you completely, Tyler! I wish all the versions of his films were available for prosperity's sake, but there is no reason he should not be allowed to continually edt his work. A quote I like from Lucas went along the lines of “you never finish a film, its just taken away from you.”

I was aware of Alphaville by name, but I wasn't aware that it was a science fiction film. I guess I assumed Godard wouldn't be interested in making a sci-fi film but I'll definitely have to check it out now. I assume it probably did have some impact on Lucas. After all the French New Wave was a big deal for his generation. Thanks for the insightful connection!

Lee Marvin really makes the movie worth watching, classic!

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you

@@CelluloidCinema ill be generous -- 1979 Star Wars and Alien kinda set everything into warp-drive --- Too bad it wasn't Judoroskys Dune :(

@covert0overt _ I definitely agree that _Star Wars_ really turned up the dial and accelerated Hollywood's corporate transformation. However, I think the US as a whole underwent a similar corporate transformation in the eighties as a result of the easing of regulations for mergers and acquisitions during the pro-business Reagan administration. As such I would argue that _Star Wars_ just helped propel the industry into the inevitable, and even if the film never existed, the trajectory of Hollywood wouldn't have changed.

@@CelluloidCinema I'll agree partly -- Star Wars really came out of nowhere at the time -- People got a taste of something "like that" in 2001 -- But SW tapped into the "collective" -- No one had faith in the film -- the first cut was a horrible disaster -- and Lucas was pushed (rightly so) By Gary Kurtz to creatively make a better movie. You also have to give Marsha Lucas for saving the film in edits -- and it wasn't by accident cause she had fantastic talent (akin to Thelma Schoonmaker, Sally Menke). It's a miracle and a curse it got made haha "There are 2 tragedies in life, not getting what you want, and GETTING what you want."

"Marketing" says it all.

Glad you enjoyed it! Please subscribe for similar content in the future.

Further note: Having dug deeper into American Graffiti, I found d George's reasons for doing it were partially because of the failure of THX-1138. Even hs own wife asked why he didn't do something more whimsical, and his reasons were that it went against his fill school sensibilities, responding "You want to a whimsical film? Fine... I'll show how easy it is to make something that appeals to people's sense of whimsy!"...and did it, out of spite. Needless to say, he learned his lesson about appealing to the public with his work, as seen by his next few major movie studio pictures: Jaws and Star Wars.

Glad to hear you liked it, Erik! Planning to have more for you to enjoy soon.

​@@CelluloidCinema Sounds good! Subscribed and excited to see what's next!

I appreciate it! Planning to have more content for you to enjoy soon!

@@CelluloidCinema I can't wait

Thats a really unique connection to the film Jack. I'm curious if your parents have saw the film since and if their opinion on it has changed. It seems like THX is hit or miss for a lot of people.

@@CelluloidCinema - I'm pretty sure they didn't, although I think my dad was more tolerant, being an engineer and all. My mom just liked "nice" movies that she could half watch while sitting on the couch and knitting. If they ever mentioned it again, it was just a reference to "that awful movie shot at Val" (as they called it). Also, I suspect that she really meant Robert Duvall who came in for the aspirin since Pleasance wasn't in any of the scenes using the manipulators.

Glad to hear it!

Oh and I'm subscribing

Thanks for subscribing, I am planning to make similar content about the inner-workings of Hollywood soon!

Good catch, I’ve heard it called both before and was never sure which was correct. However, it does look like Kah-pola is the proper pronunciation. That one is going to take me a while to correct!

@@CelluloidCinema Haha, no worries. I heard both too, had to look it up. And I just realized I never mentioned it in my original comment, but great job on the whole video. Very informative, and has a unique voice, as far a perspective and opinion. It’s easy to be opinionated and annoying, or robotic and stiff with this kind of format. Really did a great job. It was just a tiny nitpick that I felt I’d make you aware of, especially since the whole thing was basically perfect otherwise.

@@Figgypooh Thanks! I really appreciate the kind comments! No problem at all, I value the correction, it's important for videos like this to be as factual as possible, and comments like these help do so.

I agree that the added CGI in the most recent version of THX 1138 is excessive and incredibly distracting. Supposedly shortly after the success of Star Wars, Warner Bros. released Lucas's version of THX 1138 that he made before the studio took the film away, but to my knowledge, there has never been a home release of it.

Excellent point! Even later on in his career, for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, he would film in Australia to be even further away from Hollywood.

Thanks for catching that, I updated the title last week and made a typo.

Thanks! I'm planing to have more content soon!

I agree, the style and the narrative blend together so seamlessly that it creates a unique viewing experience.

Thanks Ulysses! Glad to hear you want more content like this. There are definitely more George Lucas videos coming down the pipeline. Make sure to subscribe so you are notified when they are available!

@@CelluloidCinema thanks man im going to subscribe to youre channel

I enjoy some of the set extensions in the Director’s cut, but I think the added cgi animals are distracting as well. Like some of the edits in a New Hope, they feel like changes that were made just for the sake of making changes.

so hard that I can't find it actually :_ ( George Lucas overproduced his director's cut.

@@viarnay He ruined the movie. The Directors cut is unwatchable and doesn't make any sense.

Are there multiple cuts of _American Graffiti_ as well? I don't think I have run across that before.

@@CelluloidCinema The original theatrical cut didn’t have Terry stopping at the used car lot, Steve telling off a teacher at the hop dance or Bob Falfa singing Some Enchanted Evening to Laurie.

How so? Maybe it's a sign that it is now safe to live abovè ground.

@@George-rb6bvI pretend the world of THX 1138 takes place after Modern Civilization collapsed after Humanity finally destroyed itself through Warfare BTW right in 2024 I think THX 1138 should get a sequel

It's fun to speculate what type of special effects a revised _American Graffiti_ would have

It's so apparent from just this small clip how much his college short, 1:42:08, would later inspire Podracing. But when you see the full short it's undeniable. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hkzIXFJwpfg.html

My issue with the sequels is that they are made by committee films void of an artistic vision. While the Prequels are a mess in their own right, I feel they are more interesting artistically as they reflect the ideas of a singular person and not a multinational corporation with many individuals adding their input.

That would be a humongous task, even for someone like Lucas, who only technically directed six films! However, one day I would love to. This video only represents one part of a six-part undergrad thesis that I wrote chronicling Lucas's career-long battle against the studio system that led to him making his own studio (before ultimately selling it back to Hollywood).

That is an exciting idea. While the concept of a "prequel" existed before The Phantom Menace, I think there is a case to be made that Lucas jumpstarted this trend for the 21st century. Similarly, Coppola is mainly responsible for sequels in the adult drama genre because of _Godfather Part II_

It begs the question of whether the executives could be self-reflective enough to understand they were being critiqued and angry with the film or if it just went over their heads.

Hi Tim, Thanks for engaging with the video so passionately and I would love to discuss this further with you. I’ve given your points some thoughts, and here are my responses to the questions you raise: 1. I completely agree that "American Graffiti" is Lucas’s most personal film, and the experience Lucas went through making the film also impacted his career in tremendous ways similar to "THX 1138." I hope to one day touch on this period in Lucas’s life in more depth. However, the deal he made with 20th Century-Fox for "Star Wars" was actually outlined, albeit not signed, prior to American Graffiti being released according to Lucas’s attorney in the article from Deadline I’ll link below. To me, this shows that even though "THX 1138" underperformed at the box office, executives like Alan Ladd Jr. at Fox were not only still willing to back Lucas, but also finance a science-fiction film from him even before he proved himself with "American Graffiti." The success of "American Graffiti" did however did give Lucas leverage to renegotiate this deal and acquire the merchandising and sequel rights for "Star Wars." deadline.com/2015/12/star-wars-franchise-george-lucas-historic-rights-deal-tom-pollock-1201669419/ 2. What I mean here, is that after "Star Wars" was released in 1977, for better or for worse, Lucas no longer had to compromise creatively with the studio system. From "The Empire Strikes Back" and onward every film he produced/directed was self-financed and only distributed by the studios. For this reason, Lucas was given the freedom to experiment with his films in any way he wanted such as spending massive amounts of money testing and accelerating computer graphic technology without regard to profitability with the Prequels. In this regard, this freedom mirrors the freedom of the Canyon Cinema filmmakers as, like the Canyon Cinema films, Lucas’s films were not constrained by the creative limitations of the studio system and represented the filmmaker’s creative vision. 3. I think you may have misunderstood my point. What I am saying is that because of Lucas’s experience with "THX 1138" and Warner Bros., his career trajectory was altered which stopped him from making personal, transgressive films and put him down the road of making less risky genre films. I am not arguing that Star Wars and Indiana Jones are transgressive pieces of art in the slightest, but rather he might have made more experimental films had "THX 1138" not altered his career so dramatically. I also disagree with the common sentiment of Lucas getting lucky with "Star Wars." That is not to say he wasn’t lucky with the film, but rather most successful films are the product of luck and collaboration, and Star Wars isn’t an outlier. The same comments about John Williams and Star Wars could be made about Bernard Herrmann and "Psycho," but no one would say that takes away from Alfred Hitchcock’s achievement in the way they do with Lucas. 4. While I have a soft spot for the Prequels, I agree that they leave a lot to be desired. However, I think an argument could be made that while the Prequels don’t highlight Lucas’s artistic talents, the technological advancements pioneered by the Prequels and the OT Special Editions harken back to the experimental nature of the Canyon Cinema filmmakers who were more interested in pushing the boundaries of film form than creating entertainment. And of course, I agree, above all else, Lucas is one of, if not the most business-savvy filmmakers. While I do believe the OT Special Editions were created with the intent to propel and test digital filmmaking technology, the way Lucas monetized "Star Wars" makes it difficult to not imagine there was some financial interest as well.

this came out 2 years before american graffiti.

Thanks for the support!