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THX-1138 (1st Director’s Cut) - 35mm Grindhouse Edition (Released) — Page 3

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So the Criterion Channel will be hosting this movie next month. Bet they’ll sacrifice their integrity and participate in Lucas’ historical revisionism like TCM do now. I’d love to be wrong though.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Mike O said:

So the Criterion Channel will be hosting this movie next month. Bet they’ll sacrifice their integrity and participate in Lucas’ historical revisionism like TCM do now. I’d love to be wrong though.

It’s going to be the new version, yes; https://youtu.be/1x6sOHzgIyw?t=7

Though I personally would go so far as to say “sacrificing their integrity.” There’s hardly anything they or TCM can do about it. They “rent” the film from the company that owns them (Fox? Dinsey? I’ve lost track) and the new version is what they’re given. They’re probably counting their losses as the film is at least available in some fashion.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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ZkinandBonez said:

Mike O said:

So the Criterion Channel will be hosting this movie next month. Bet they’ll sacrifice their integrity and participate in Lucas’ historical revisionism like TCM do now. I’d love to be wrong though.

It’s going to be the new version, yes; https://youtu.be/1x6sOHzgIyw?t=7

Though I personally would go so far as to say “sacrificing their integrity.” There’s hardly anything they or TCM can do about it. They “rent” the film from the company that owns them (Fox? Dinsey? I’ve lost track) and the new version is what they’re given. They’re probably counting their losses as the film is at least available in some fashion.

Then they should choose not to show the movie at all, though I confess that for financial reasons, that’s probably not possible.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Mike O said:

ZkinandBonez said:

Mike O said:

So the Criterion Channel will be hosting this movie next month. Bet they’ll sacrifice their integrity and participate in Lucas’ historical revisionism like TCM do now. I’d love to be wrong though.

It’s going to be the new version, yes; https://youtu.be/1x6sOHzgIyw?t=7

Though I personally would go so far as to say “sacrificing their integrity.” There’s hardly anything they or TCM can do about it. They “rent” the film from the company that owns them (Fox? Dinsey? I’ve lost track) and the new version is what they’re given. They’re probably counting their losses as the film is at least available in some fashion.

Then they should choose not to show the movie at all, though I confess that for financial reasons, that’s probably not possible.

I doubt there’s any serious financial loss for not showing the film. They probably feel that it’s better for people to see the new version of the film than to simply never see it at all. If I was in their place I’d do the same thing. Better that people see an (obviously) altered version than to never be exposed to it at all. It’s a really weird situation that thankfully only apply to a handful of films.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Hi there, how do I obtain a copy of this version? Thanks.

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ZkinandBonez said:

Mike O said:

ZkinandBonez said:

Mike O said:

So the Criterion Channel will be hosting this movie next month. Bet they’ll sacrifice their integrity and participate in Lucas’ historical revisionism like TCM do now. I’d love to be wrong though.

It’s going to be the new version, yes; https://youtu.be/1x6sOHzgIyw?t=7

Though I personally would go so far as to say “sacrificing their integrity.” There’s hardly anything they or TCM can do about it. They “rent” the film from the company that owns them (Fox? Dinsey? I’ve lost track) and the new version is what they’re given. They’re probably counting their losses as the film is at least available in some fashion.

Then they should choose not to show the movie at all, though I confess that for financial reasons, that’s probably not possible.

I doubt there’s any serious financial loss for not showing the film. They probably feel that it’s better for people to see the new version of the film than to simply never see it at all. If I was in their place I’d do the same thing. Better that people see an (obviously) altered version than to never be exposed to it at all. It’s a really weird situation that thankfully only apply to a handful of films.

I’d feel that now showing the film is better than showing that abomination, but hey, I’m on this website, so I would 😉.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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I get to see a 35mm print of this soon, will take notes, anything I should look out for.

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Chewielewis said:

I get to see a 35mm print of this soon, will take notes, anything I should look out for.

Off the top of my head, look for the extra few seconds of SEN interacting with the kids towards the end of the movie.

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Where were you in '77?

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Class316 said:

These are the two releases I got from myspleen:

THX-1138 1971 Theatrical (Unspecialized Reconstruction based on 16mm)

Can anyone share this version?

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Imgur

Well I saw this yesterday. An interesting experience. I had never seen the original cut.

It was the roughest print I had ever seen, red as hell, so scratched and dirty it makes 4K77 grindhouse look pristine.

Came with the Buck Rogers trailer at the top and a rather modern looking warner logo rather than a WB shield.

Got a good laugh when the officer fell of his bike and the number of active officers changed by one.

Very confusing movie, the directors cut makes a lot more sense, although I hate the CGI changes in it.

SilverWook said:

Off the top of my head, look for the extra few seconds of SEN interacting with the kids towards the end of the movie.

Scene ended at the point where he references the huge bottle of economics he had to take. Don’t think there were any extra seconds, will have to review the LD.

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Would they splice a new logo into an ancient print? I wonder…

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Where were you in '77?

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Yeah, logically, since George Lucas won’t allow pre-DC versions to be released nowadays, it’d still have the Kinney Shield.

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THX had a limited reissue in the wake of Star Wars’ success though.

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Where were you in '77?

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Ah yes, I remember seeing that one on my Warner black clamshell VHS, of the first Director’s Cut.

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SilverWook said:

THX had a limited reissue in the wake of Star Wars’ success though.

Chewielewis, the copy that you saw in the cinema was this version that SilverWook says. This Warner logo was used between the years 1972-1984, what fits with the premieres of the original trilogy. The sky at the end is “clear”, not “dark” as in the 1971 version, with now, the Kinney Shield (used between 1970-1972). And this version also differs in the beginning: there is no Buck Rogers, instead a fragment of the movie Things to Come (1936).
No more changes in this 1977 version. If I’m wrong, that someone correct me.

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The 1983 VHS which is most likely taken from the 1977 prints has the Saul Bass logo and opens with Buck Rogers

Raccoons

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Chewielewis said:

Imgur

Well I saw this yesterday. An interesting experience. I had never seen the original cut.

It was the roughest print I had ever seen, red as hell, so scratched and dirty it makes 4K77 grindhouse look pristine.

Came with the Buck Rogers trailer at the top and a rather modern looking warner logo rather than a WB shield.

Got a good laugh when the officer fell of his bike and the number of active officers changed by one.

Very confusing movie, the directors cut makes a lot more sense, although I hate the CGI changes in it.

SilverWook said:

Off the top of my head, look for the extra few seconds of SEN interacting with the kids towards the end of the movie.

Scene ended at the point where he references the huge bottle of economics he had to take. Don’t think there were any extra seconds, will have to review the LD.

On my spleen they have this version which IMO is the best version that exists. From what I understand multiple sources were used to restore the laserdisc release. Here is the write up:

As you may know, thxita, a member on the board, recently obtained a 35mm IB print of THX 1138. This print is from Italy so all the titles, and computer screens are translated into Italian and the sound contains the Italian dub. The print has been scanned and is currently being cleaned up by Poita and Harmy has expressed interest in creating a ‘despecialized’ version.

While their efforts will help create the best version of this film whose original version has little chance of seeing the light of day, I thought it would be nice to take what we have so far and whip up a quick and dirty English version for people to enjoy now. Poita recently released a file containing the whole scan as-is, and I took this and made an English version.

I used the laserdisc as a point of reference for this sync because it’s the only official release of the original version of the film. In a sense, I felt this to be the closest thing to a ‘GOUT’ that THX has. This is the 1st director’s cut of the film that was released after the success of Star Wars; the 35mm print, however, is the 1971 theatrical cut. The only changes between the two are re-arranged scenes in the middle and a shortened scene towards the end between SEN and a couple of young children (and by short, it’s only about 5 seconds shorter). I decided to maintain the edit of the laserdisc version because it was easier to simply edit the footage to the laserdisc than trying to edit both the 35 and the laserdisc and moving both around. I’ve viewed both versions of the film and to be honest, it doesn’t change much. The scenes in question are independent of each other and don’t enhance or take away from the overall narrative. At worst, these edits change our views about how quickly this futuristic society expedites criminals or tortures them prior to trial depending on which version you watch. I just say: meh.

Here are some additional notes:

  • The first 3 minutes of the film were taken from the bluray version. This includes Buck Rodgers, the Warner Bros logo, the Zeotrope logo, the intro titles and a close up of a clock. At first, I was going to just leave the laserdisc footage, but Buck Rodgers looks particularly bad on the LD and three minutes is a long time to look at badly upscaled LD captures.

  • Any additional missing footage though is filled in with the laserdisc. This is much easier to do since the laserdisc footage was already laying under the 35 footage in my timeline and any gaps in the 35 timeline is replaced by the laserdisc footage. These last from a mere few frames to a few seconds at a reel change. I really didn’t feel like pulling out my hair to splice in frames from other sources and I prefer this to black frames. Plus, this helps show the difference between this and the LD and what footage is missing from the print and what any future restorer will need from alternate sources. I also might have missed a few frame splices here and there and the sync may slightly go out here and there.

  • I replaced all of the Italian info screens with the laserdisc. The Bluray uses new computer screens so that was worthless anyway. A future restoration might be able to use the 16mm print that Poita scanned.

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 (Edited)

If and when I’m able to afford an Adobe Premiere Pro subscription again, is anyone interested in me color-correcting the Grindhouse edit to match skin tones closer to the director’s cut? Something akin to Harmy’s work on SW.

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Hyperion2323 said:

If and when I’m able to afford an Adobe Premiere Pro subscription again, is anyone interested in me color-correcting the Grindhouse edit to match skin tones closer to the director’s cut? Something akin to Harmy’s work on SW.

You do know there are “alternate” ways to get such things, right?

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I wasn’t aware the computer screens had been replaced?

And let’s avoid discussing “alternate” ways of getting software. Thanks.

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Where were you in '77?