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kingstrauss55
Reviews
THX 1138 (1971)
Inspiring, innovative and intellectually rigorous sci fi
I loved this film when I first saw it at university around 1974. I thought George Lucas was one of the most innovative and inspiring filmmakers I'd come across and looked forward to seeing more of his work.
I was terribly disappointed when he turned his talents to making cinematic fluff like Star Wars. That's the kind of Buck Rogers Saturday afternoon matinée-style sci fi I just don't like.
I prefer my sci fi intelligent and intellectually stimulating and THX1138 fits those descriptions exactly.
One of the things that really impressed me was the way Lucas used current (at the time) industrial locations to create a sense of the future. Also, the white limbo prison spaces and the black-garbed silver-faced Police androids. As far as I knew nobody else had ever done anything like it before which made it a seminal film.
I still see echoes of THX1138 in other films, especially David King's Purge, a no-budget underground sci fi film which i viewed recently. I suspect King was equally impressed and inspired by the film.
I haven't seen the remake. In some ways, I don't want to as I would hate anything to destroy my memory of the original. To my mind, Lucas was a giant when he made this film.
The only part that might have been improved was the over-long philosophical discussion in the white prison space. It simply went too long. But that's a small flaw in an otherwise great film.
Purge (2010)
Interesting no budget sci-fi
Seems a lot of IMDb voters don't like this film. I suspect they were seeking conventional sci-fi with action, CGI and possibly stars. A lot of people can't imagine sci-fi being anything else.
This film has none of that but some very interesting ideas about genetic engineering and programming for roles in life. It's a film that suggests if we don't care about each other, if we lose sight of what it means to be human, to love someone, we will doom ourselves as a species.
But it also has hope. It suggests that no matter what kind of control various governments or other control systems seek to impose on people, humanity will eventually reassert itself.
Some of the things I enjoyed about it were: a compelling and unusual story that asks the viewer to think and refuses to take the usual sci fi route of a hero triumphing over adversity (it's more complex than that); an original style which made liberal use of mock news reports, community service announcements, commercials and current affairs interviews as well as things like text and titles, rapid cutting and images within images. In short, a film which is not afraid to take risks.
I also noticed that some of King's mise-en-scene echoes those of several all-time great films - A Clockwork Orange, North By North West, and THX1138 come to mind.
I enjoyed it but as another reviewer says, it's not for everyone. If you like passive entertainment with predictable stories and lots of whizz-bang and bang bang, you probably won't enjoy Purge. But I see that people who like that sort of thing have also liked Purge so it's really up to the individual.
It's a pity those IMDb voters who didn't like it can't find the words to say why.