increase production. prevent accidents. be happy.

Sounds like my job.

So last night I was watching the Biography channel at some ungodly hour of the night (why can't I go to sleep?), and they were showing the George Lucas bio. Obviously, I think he's done some brilliant things, but there's one little known movie of his that I almost completely forgot about - THX 1138. This is perhaps his most obscure film, but for some reason I remember watching it on TV (local station, not cable) when I was really little, maybe 7 or 8 years old. It's so odd that something like this would have been broadcast on regular TV. I remember being really enthralled by it, as all of the imagery was so minimal - all white and "cyber"-like, with robo-cops with emotionless metal faces. If it were remade today, it would probably have a soundtrack by Daft Punk! Here's a brief synopsis stolen directly from Wiki:

"THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas, from a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch. It depicts an Orwellian future, featuring three residents of a dystopia in which a high level of control is exerted upon the populace through ever-present faceless, android police officers and mandatory, regulated use of special drugs to suppress emotion, including sexual desire.
It was the first feature-length film directed by Lucas, and a more developed, feature-length version of his student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which he made in 1967 while attending the University of Southern California, based on a one and a quarter page treatment of an idea by Matthew Robbins.
THX 1138 shares themes with The Machine Stops, Anthem, Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Giver, Ira Levin's This Perfect Day and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, and was inspired in part by the short film 21-87. The film was produced in a joint venture between Warner Brothers and Francis Ford Coppola's then-new production company, American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971."

The movie starred Robert Duvall as the title character. I wonder if he was already famous at this point or not. Now the curiosity is eating at me and I really want to see it again to find out if it still holds the same kind of fascination. I think it didn't do that well in 1971 because it was way ahead of its time. But if you think about it, "The Matrix" definitely has some very similar plot points. Bit of trivia - the "THX" audio system used by Industrial Light and Magic derives its name from this movie - you can see that familiar THX logo at the beginning of a lot of movies.

I'll check this movie out and let you know if it's worth watching or not.