A Film From the Future, About the Future: Walter Murch on ‘THX 1138’

In 1971, George Lucas‘ debut feature “THX 1138” was released to decent reviews but empty theaters — Variety’s reviewer presciently predicted that Lucas‘ dystopian vision of a future dominated by oppressive conformity and consumerism was “likely not to be an artistic or commercial success in its own time,” but “might in time become a classic.” 55 years later, that is indeed what has happened, as the American Cinematheque‘s revival screening on Saturday played to a packed house of enthusiastic fans.

The crowd was at the Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre to pay tribute to “THX 1138” sound designer and co-screenwriter Walter Murch, whose work was celebrated throughout the weekend at a series of screenings showcasing his work as an editor and sound designer (“Apocalypse Now,” “The Conversation”) and director (“Return to Oz”). Appropriately for a film that took years to find its audience, Murch said he and Lucas always saw “THX 1138” as not only a film about the future but a film that should seem like it’s from the future.

We were very influenced by Akira Kurosawa and films from Japan,” Murch told the Cinematheque audience at a post-screening Q&A. “At one point, George even wanted to make ‘THX’ in Japan.” Murch said that he and Lucas liked the fact that Kurosawa’s movies were Japanese films made for a Japanese audience, and thus didn’t stop to explain things or provide context for American viewers. The intention with “THX 1138” was to do something similar.

“The idea was that we would push the envelope in terms of what was understandable and say that this was a film from another culture that had somehow landed in 1970,” Murch said, adding that as far as studio executives were concerned he and Lucas had gone way too far in their approach. “They hated what they saw. On the same day that we showed them the film, we handed them the six or seven scripts that Francis [Coppola] had been developing as part of American Zoetrope’s deal with the studio — among them ‘The Conversation,’ ‘Apocalypse Now,’ and ‘The Black Stallion.’ They pulled the plug on all of them, because they thought if any of these scripts turned into something like ‘THX,’ they just were not interested.”

Coppola, a champion of both Lucas and Murch who pushed “THX 1138” through the studio system at a moment when Warner Bros. was eager to capitalize on the youth market that had made “Easy Rider” a smash hit, had convinced the studio executives to finance not only the movie but the development of all those screenplays that would later become classics. According to Murch, Warners hated “THX 1138” so much that they not only dumped it but demanded that Coppola pay back the money they had spent on the other scripts. While the initial failure of “THX” was dispiriting, Murch said it had positive repercussions for both Coppola and Lucas.

“Francis found himself owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, which produced the financial crisis at American Zoetrope that ultimately resulted in him accepting the job directing ‘The Godfather,'” Murch said. “The failure of ‘THX’ also triggered George to make something that was completely the opposite, which was ‘American Graffiti.'” Coppola and Lucas making huge hits as their next movies gave them both the leverage they needed to sustain careers in Hollywood, though according to Murch, Lucas was never as happy with his subsequent mainstream films as he was with the experimental, avant-garde “THX.”

“ At one point he said, ‘On ‘THX’ I got 90% of what I wanted, and the film was a commercial failure,'” Murch said. “‘ On ‘American Graffiti, I got 50% of what I wanted, and the film was a big success. On ‘Star Wars,’ I got 20% of what I wanted, and it was the most successful film of all time.'” Murch said that later on Lucas changed the handful of things he was never happy with as technology and resources caught up with his vision.

“We made this film with rubber bands and gaffer’s tape,” Murch said. “It had a budget of $700,000, which is roughly $6 million today. But in the intervening years, George created [visual effects company] Industrial Light and Magic, so he had this huge machine to produce the kinds of images that he had wanted at the time, but we just weren’t able to manufacture.” The version of “THX 1138” that screened in 35mm at the Cinematheque was Lucas’ preferred “director’s cut,” though Murch is still fond of the theatrical release version. “I would have liked to have seen that, just for nostalgia’s sake.”

Although “THX 1138” was intended as a film about the future, it was also very much a product of its time — and a film as timeless as it was timely, given its resonances with current political events. “The Vietnam War was happening, and the election of Nixon had parallels with the election of Donald Trump,” Murch said. “There were similarities with the extension of American power into Southeast Asia, and all of asking how that war was going to end — we find ourselves verging on that same situation today. The idea that this was a film from the future…I don’t know, in some weird way maybe it was.”

For information on upcoming American Cinematheque events, visit their website.