THX 1138 -- a "documentary" with CGI?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THX 1138 -- a "documentary" with CGI?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/thx1138.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html\",\"name\":\"THX 1138 -- a \\\"documentary\\\" with CGI?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"THX 1138 — a “documentary” with CGI?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"THX 1138 -- a \"documentary\" with CGI?","description":"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"THX 1138 -- a \"documentary\" with CGI?","og_description":"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/thx1138.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html","name":"THX 1138 -- a \"documentary\" with CGI?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-02-16T19:11:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids in the hospital (where they will probably be for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"THX 1138 — a “documentary” with CGI?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2379,"date":"2006-02-16T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-16T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi\/"},"modified":"2006-02-16T19:11:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-16T19:11:00","slug":"thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/02\/thx-1138-a-documentary-with-cgi.html","title":{"rendered":"THX 1138 — a “documentary” with CGI?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Gadzooks, my blogging has really slowed down the last few days. Between work and visiting the kids<\/a> in the hospital (where they will probably be for another week or so), I guess I\u2019ve been busy.<\/span><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>At any rate, I wanted to post a thought or two on the \u201cdirector\u2019s cut\u201d of THX 1138<\/a><\/i> (1971), before I return the DVD to the library. I watched it with my wife a few nights ago, and I checked out almost all the extras (everything but the bonus audio tracks). And what leaps out at me the most is how George Lucas insists, on more than one occasion, that he wanted his first movie to be \u201creal\u201d like \u201ca documentary from the future\u201d, and so he shot the film in existing locations, etc. \u2014 yet the \u201cdirector\u2019s cut\u201d is peppered with CGI images that were created just for the DVD.<\/p>\n

I have not seen the film since my high-school days, two decades ago, so my memory of it is pretty vague; and the version that I saw was on television, and was thus probably somewhat censored anyway; so I haven\u2019t a clue just how extensive the changes are, between the original film and the \u201cdirector\u2019s cut\u201d. Maybe Lucas has not only added footage, but has trimmed stuff out and moved things around, I don\u2019t know. I did notice that he turned at least some of the \u201cshell dwellers\u201d into CGI animals, which is weird.<\/p>\n

I do appreciate Lucas\u2019s remark that he wasn\u2019t very interested in \u201ccharacter\u201d and suchlike, but in a more abstract kind of filmmaking. I think the film does work fairly well on that level. If only his Star Wars<\/i> prequels<\/a> had also abandoned any pretense of character development! One thing THX 1138<\/i> does have in common with Lucas\u2019s Star Wars<\/i> films, though, is its muddled philosophizing. It definitely feels<\/i> like a glorified student film, like the work of a recent university graduate in his mid-20s.<\/p>\n

Walter Murch makes some interesting comments about the sound editing. I believe he says he wanted the robots\u2019 motorbikes to \u201cscream\u201d. I found myself wondering if his sound work on those machines had influenced the light cycles in Tron<\/a><\/i> (1982).<\/p>\n

I had no idea Caleb Deschanel was part of the American Zoetrope gang way back then. For a while now, of course, I have mainly thought of him as the cinematographer on Mel Gibson\u2019s The Passion of the Christ<\/a><\/i> (2004), and as the father of actress Zooey Deschanel, who I adore<\/a>. Learn something new every day.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Oh, and why is consumerism such a big bogeyman in this film? Never mind that it\u2019s presented, improbably, as something that people are forced to do by the totalitarian state, rather than something that grows out of a liberal capitalist economy or whatever; that\u2019s just one of Lucas\u2019s philosophical incoherences. I just find it strange that Lucas, that owner of lucrative pop-culture franchises, that self-proclaimed \u201ctoymaker\u201d, would still pretend to take a bold stand against it. Not inexplicable, just strange.<\/p>\n

I also find intriguing Robert Duvall\u2019s remarks, in the making-of featurette, about how good it was to work with Lucas \u2014 because he gave the actors space! Duvall, evidently, is one of those actors who doesn\u2019t need a whole lot of direction to turn in a good performance. And that makes him rare among Lucas\u2019s alumni.<\/p>\n

Oh, and unless someone says something in the commentary, there is Not One Word about the CGI revisions in the extras. It is as though Lucas wanted us to think his film had always been this way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"