Ok, I think I'm done with my info text regarding the various versions. I will upload the Italian Cut probably to myspleen as soon as you send me a Italian translation of the text erri_wan.
- The different versions of THX 1138 -
When THX 1138 was originally released in 1971, it was in a hacked apart - 81 minutes long version after the studio Warner Bros had taken the film away from George Lucas and cut 4-5 minutes from it without Lucas' approval, mostly scenes in the "white limbo" and some of the films bizarre humor were taken out. According to a furious Lucas in '71, Warner had also changed parts of the films sound design by Walter Murch. This original theatrical release version have never been available on video.
Even though THX 1138 was released in UK and France in 1971, it wasn't released in Italy until 1976, then under the title "L'uomo Che Fuggì Dal Futuro", literally translated: "The Man Who Escaped From The Future". How much this cut resembles the "Warner Bros-cut" released five years earlier in terms of editing is hard to tell, but both cuts are approximately 81 minutes in lenght. The editing is much different than what we would later see in the "restored cut," besides having many scenes missing obviously, the most significant differences are:
* The film opens with a segment of the chase sequence from the end of the film narrated by THX himself complete with an added background story in place over the title sequence, it's like it sort of trying to tell the whole film as it was projected through THX mind, a flashback or perhaps like THX himself describes it in the narration "I want to leave a telepathic message so that posterity will know my real story..." Oddly enough the narration is never picked up in the film ever again.
* The scenes where LUH visit THX in detention where they make love and the medical examinations of THX, both occurs before we see his trial, which makes the context of the scenes and the following scenes leading up to him being put in prison quite different. What is interesting is that this is the order the scenes appear in the shooting draft, which suggests that this may not have been an editing decision made by Warner after all, if this actually was presented this way in the '71 theatrical release that is.
* SEN's conversation with the children is slightly longer.
Besides the different editing, the Italian dubbing is sometimes very poor with translation errors in a few places, making the plot confusing in some parts. In addition to the previously mentioned opening narration, the dubbing also alters the story and plot in many other ways throughout the film, sometimes new concepts are added to the film and sometimes the dialogue is just completely different. Much of the editing is probably a reflection of the "Warner Bros-cut", but the story differences and concepts that occur in the dubbing is more likely liberties taken by "Societa Italiana Distribuzione Films" which was the distributor for it in Italy. This was oddly enough the only version available on video in Italy until the "2004-Director's Cut" was released and replaced it, this time the dubbing was more faithful to the source material. In conclusion, George Lucas' "restored cut" was never released in Italy.
It wasn't until 1978, after George Lucas' enormous succes with Star Wars the previous year that Lucas was able to finally re-release it for a limited time in a fully restored cut. This version restored the 4-5 min of previously cut scenes, making it approximately 86 minutes in length. It was later released on video rental in 1982. This version was widely available on Betamax, VHS and Laserdisc through the 80's and 90's, the last release was on VHS in 1996, it has not yet been released on any new video formats.
1978 was also the year the film had its TV-premiere in West Germany, this broadcast and an American/English 16mm print has revealed that yet another version exists, it is basically identical to the "Restored Cut" but it includes the slightly longer scene when SEN is talking with the children and the same re-ordering of scenes seen in the Italian version.
Finally in 2004, a new version was released in theaters for a short limited time and released on DVD and later Blu-ray under the banner "The George Lucas Director's Cut", which is a rather silly title when he already had basically released his director's cut in 1978. Anyway, this version is approximately 88 minutes in length, using alternate takes, have a much different editing which even alter the story in subtle ways, utilizing modern CGI etc. Lucas even let new footage be shot and even reshot several scenes using computer systems to insert the actors and replace existing footage. While interesting in its own way, this is the only version currently available on modern video formats.
* 1971 Original Theatrical Release - approx.81 min
* 1976 Italian Cut - approx.81 min
* 1978 Restored Cut - approx.86 min
* 1978 German TV-Broadcast - approx.86 min
* 2004 The George Lucas Director's Cut - approx.88 min
Btw, IMM in the end credits isn't an error of OMM I previously pointed out, it's an entirely different character credited in the US version as well, it's only SEN who is typed wrong as JEN.