THX 1138 "preservations" + the 'THX 1138 Italian Cut' project (Released) — Page 6

<p><blockquote><p><strong>SilverWook</strong> said:</p><p>Welcome aboard, erri_wan!</p><br /><p>What you displayed from the version you have is good old fashioned bad pan and scan. It's interesting they didn't squeeze that shot to avoid chopping it up that way. In the old days, these things were often left up to whoever was transferring the film to videotape, often to the dismay of the director and cinematographer!</p></blockquote><p> </p><br /><br />

Hi there, thanks for the welcome everyone.<br /><br />To reply your post, yes I do remember now that they used to do a lot of these chopping up with the conversion to 4:3... I almost forgot the VHS-age!

<br /><br /><blockquote><p><strong>ChainsawAsh</strong> said:</p><p>Hmm. So is it possible that the 1971 US theatrical cut <em>didn't</em> have the narration at the beginning?</p><br /><p>It's maddening that we don't have a proper, confirmed reference for this ...</p></blockquote><p> </p><br /><br />

I agree it's all quite weird. As SilverWook said to skyjedi2005, this isn't like the Spanish version of Star Wars with rolling titles being read aloud (we don't have that in Italian, they translated them) this is an actual off-screen narration in the style of Blade Runner with implications on the plot and philosophical metaphors!<br />I agree that Lucas wouldn't have allowed this so I think we are left with two options:<br /><br />1) Italian dubbers thought the film was too hard to follow if left unexplained and decided to add the narration<br /><br />2) The distributor of the film had the rights to do whatever he wanted with the film outside the USA (without asking Lucas) and decided to test their own version on the Italian public with an off-screen narration that they had prepared for Lucas (he did afterall say that they wanted that if I'm not mistaken, forgive my memory but I sold off the S.E. DVD so I can't check the commentary).<br /><br />In any case, I doubt this narration exists in English. It was probably written by the studios and never used (aside for the Italian market). <br /><br />It's just a hunch but I believe my second option much more than the first. First of all because, although I keep Italian dubbers in high regards (not for national spirit but because they are as a matter of fact really good), I doubt they would have came up with an off-screen narration so appropriate, secondly I don't think in Italy anyone in the distribution of foreign films have the power to even edit a film adding a flashback and a background story that wasn't there in the first place. It's something nobody would be allowed to do unless the WB, American Zeotrope or whoever had the film rights, wanted.</p>

<p>By the way, the Special Edition for DVD in Italy was redubbed to have a 5.1 audio. This also happened for Jaws, Superman and many other classics. There was an uproar of fans when they were trying to do it with Star Wars and Indiana Jones... but local stories aside, I'm trying to find out who the heck dubbed this film so if they are still alive I might ask directly (if they remember) what's the deal with this narration off-screen.

Could it be taken from the novelization? Has anyone read it?</p>

Just to confuse things, if you will, AG is now coming to Blu-ray. ;)

skyjedi2005 said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

Just to confuse things, if you will, AG is now coming to Blu-ray. ;)

Oh goodie, another blu ray i can boycott for not being the theatrical version of the film free of cgi, digital edits and a new color timing.

It will probably be a new DTS mix too.  Screw Lucash, thanks to him i have to hold onto laserdisc to watch the real versions of the star wars trilogy, the real versions of graffiti and thx.

 I doubt it's going to be a new mix.  Might be encoded in DTS...but probably not a new mix.

So where are you guys at on this? wouldn't mind seeing it at some point since all I have ever seen was the new version.

SilverWook, I sent you via email the translation for the Italian audio. It's basically what Leonardo wrote (way better than my original quick translation, bravo Leo!) with only a couple of minor corrections.

So does anyone have the novelization of THX-1138? I had the thought that this background story might be found there.

Again, about this voiceover, I find it curious that it describes the story as being set 270 CENTURIES after 2002. So the film is supposed to take place around the year 29000.

They used to be very creative with posters in the 70's and early 80's. Have you ever seen the Italian poster of "The Evil Dead"? (in Italian called "La Casa" meaning "The House") http://www.lazonamorta.it/UserFiles/Image/la_casa%201.jpg

As for the Buck Rogers clip, it was my understanding that Lucas simply wanted us to feel like being in a cinema of his youth (his "famous" matinées that he's always going on about), with THX1138 as a new serial being shown with advertising for a Buck Rogers episode at the start. Quite smart I have to say, because by doing so he also shows a difference between an adventurous, idealized (and relatively happy) future opposed to the oppressing future shown in THX... not necessarily meaning that they would be set in the same century. But maybe I'm reading too much into it!

However I also wonder if it's due to the excessive creativity of Italian dubbers, Warner Bros over-zealousness or (also possibly) a mistake by the Italian dubbers in saying centuries instead of years (that would set it in late 23rd Century).

No worries about the rest, I'm glad I could help and I'm very glad I can relieve myself from the burden of holding the only (as far as I know) existing copy of this THX edit... if my hard disc will ever fail I know that this rarity is at least safe in someone else's computer!

By the way, the length, as you surely have noticed SilverWook, is 1:17:24 (in PAL). So in PAL it's just over 77 minutes. That would make it the shortest version around (unless it was cut at the start due to manual recording), on wikipedia I read:

• Original cut: 86 minutes, released in 1977
• Theatrical cut: 81 minutes
• Director's cut: 88 minutes, released on DVD in 2004

The closest thing is the Theatrical cut then. Maybe the clip from Buck Rogers was removed for TV broadcast so making 81 minutes into 77-78 mins.

I read some descriptions for the novelization (in Italian) and one of those DOES describe THX as an "Adam" of this future social "Eden" (or something along those lines)... I think we might indeed find the origin of this voiceover in the book.

That PAL runtime comes to 81 minutes when you convert back to 24fps.  Perhaps it is the theatrical cut?  O.o

In this case I guess the flashback scene can be accounted for the missing Buck Rogers sequence

Well, in the 1971 release, it wasn't a clip of Buck Rogers, it was (at least, according to IMDb) a clip from Things to Come.  It was replaced with the Buck Rogers clip in 1977.

At least, according to IMDb.

I take the theatrical cut is not available anywhere (?)