THX1138 vs. American Graffiti

George Lucas’ first two movies, “THX1138” and “American Graffiti”, before “Star Wars” blew our minds in 1977. I decided to check out the former and revisit the latter.

1. THX 1138 (1971). Taking place eons in the future, in a very clean totalitarian regime – somewhat like 1984 (George Orwell), We (Yevgeni Zamyatin), Anthem (Ayn Rand) and Brave New World (Aldous Huxley). The main character, THX (Robert Duvall) works in a radiation plant, and comes home to his cubicle he shares with a cute number LUH 3417. Their lives, of course, are rigidly controlled: they’re not supposed to have sex, but they are supposed to constantly consume certain prescribed drugs. Eventually some other guy, SEN 5241, manages to get the girl transferred away and himself installed as THX’s roommate.
THX himself isn’t too happy. Although he has some cool holograms and a bizarre counselor, he’s alienated somehow, and ultimately tries to escape. They’re under some sort of mandatory medication, apparently something like the “soma” consumed in Brave New World to keep everyone docile and cooperative; in his case it doesn’t seem to work very well. He’s chased by cops, who look pretty much like the “bad” Terminator in T2 as the motorcycle cop. The plot isn’t very strong and not much happens, though it does have the obligatory “cars driving fast chase” scene every single Lucas film has to include.
The film is less notable in and of itself, as for its obvious inspiration for a much newer one, “The Island”, with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsen. “The Island” picks up where “THX1138” left off.

2. American Graffiti (1973). One night in August or September somewhere in 1962 Modesto, California, various teens have their respective adventures and find themselves. Steve (Ron Howard) (aka Richie Cunningham from “Happy Days” and nowadays a big-time director with much less hair) and Laurie (Cindy Williams) (aka Shirley from “Laverne & Shirley”) break up with the stress of Steve going off to college and Laurie remaining in town. Curt (Richard Dreyfus – very young) – chases after a hot older woman, a blonde in a T-Bird (Suzanne Somers), not an alien spacecraft or a huge shark, briefly hanging out with the Pharoahs, the local gang. Tiger (Charles Martin Smith) (some nerd) borrows Steve’s hot rod to go cruising, picks up a chick, Debby (Candy Clark), and has his own bizarre misadventures. Milner (Paul Le Mat – looking like Chekov from “Star Trek”), the top gearhead with a yellow Ford deuce coupe (see above, with license plate THX 138), picks up underage Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) (later in the show “One Day At A Time” with Valerie Bertinelli...schwing!) while being shadowed by Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) in a souped up, jet black ’55 Chevy Belair – his early version of the Milennium Falcon, though with Cindy Williams instead of Chewbacca (she’s considerably prettier and more articulate, though I doubt she’d rip anyone’s arms off). Incidentally, that ’55 Belair later showed up, in grey primer with a dual-quad 454, in “Two-Lane Blacktop” driven by James Taylor and Dennis Wilson. Even Wolfman Jack has a role.

In a sense, this film is the movie prequel to the series “Happy Days”. It’s very much like “Dazed and Confused” and others of these films involving aimless high school students drifting around over the couse of a single evening. Between the two of these, I much prefer “Dazed and Confused”, although myself I was far too young to have experienced high school in the 70s, but I remember being a kid at that time. This film is more a reminder of the 50’s nostalgia that was the rage in the US during the 70s, particularly Sha Na Na and “Grease”.

A good start – but Star Wars blew them both away.