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THX-1138 on DVD, please... — Page 5

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I went in to rent the original THX-1138 today (never seen it before) and the clerk tried to dissuade me, telling me that iy was "15 years old" and had "bad picture quality." He also said to wait for the new DVD which he thought would be much better.


his nametag didnt say jimbo did it?
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Yeah, I'm on a real shoesting budget ATM. My wifes car needs considerable work done, and I just got shafted by the local salvage yard, cos they waited til they had like half dozen chacks from me (totalling about $300) before they decided to deposit them all. All at once. The bastards. So I'm paying overdraft charges on checks I wrote like a month ago. And I still have all my other standard bills to pay. I'll let you know as soon as I can swing copies. Oh, BTW, how did you grab the LPCM from your Star Wars set? Did you just jack in line level from your player to your PC? I'm working on a DIY mod on my LD player to get AC3 out and I was curious about your adventures in LD audio capture. Cheers!
What do you mean there's no ice? I gotta drink this coffee hot?!
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so what are the differences in this new director's cut DVD?

i know that is digitally remastered with better picture and audio, but are there added scenes, scenes removed, different dialog?

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i believe someone posted links in this thread to pages with screenshots and all
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Well, there are like two days now until it comes out on DVD. I still want to see the original version before getting the DVD, however, so I won't be buying it right away.
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Me too, but the original one is unavailable over here. Well, if it's unavailable, then it's not illegal (or should I say imoral) to download it? Like Homer Simpson going through a red light with his eyes closed, saying "If I didn't see it it's not illegal."
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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So has anybody bought it yet? What did you think of the changes?

As I said before, I'm holding off buying this until I can watch the original version first. Unfortunately, I don't think I have any real way of viewing it right now.

Any word on that torrent from a while back? I'm not getting impatient or anything, I'm just wondering what happened to it.
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Hey, if anyone has the original laserdisc, I'll put it on DVD for them. This is another pet project of mine.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I have the original cut on DVD, but whoever was interested in it never got back to me. If you're interested, let me know.
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Check your PMs.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I just got done watching the new DVD release and I hate to admit it, but it is a vast improvement in both shot composition and picture/sound quality. I also compared some shots between the 2 discs and unlike the Star Wars films, most of the changes are seamlessly integrated and actually look like they belong in the film. The most striking example would be the part where THX is mind locked while working with a radioactive isotope-the scene lacks any real punch in the original cut, but it becomes clear how dangerous the work he is performing really is, as there are many new shots of the isotope doing damage to the unit he is working on. The isotope itself was only a small piece of metal in the original, but is now a menacing glowing orange rod. The only bad shots come near the end where the CGI characters attacking him look fake and out of place. The very last shot of him standing in front of the sun is also changed; it is now a large red sun instead of a large yellow sun, perhaps indicating just how far into the future the movie takes place and why they live in an underground city (as a red sun could not sustain life). I only wish Lucas would have tried making the changes to the SW films more natural looking, and not just changes for their own sake. The only explanations I can think of for this oversight are:
He was not experienced enough in doing this until more recently (which does not explain why the rest of the SW shots were not redone)
This was a deliberate action to generate controversy, so he can resell us the original cuts for the 40th anniversary on blu-ray/HDDVD and then be hailed a hero for "realizing the errors of his ways" or some similar marketing scheme.
I tend to think the latter is a real possibility, but we'll have to wait a long time to find out.
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As much as I wish he would, I don't think he ever will. Why should he? He'll still break selling records every time with his Star Wars - NT editions.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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nice to know TR47...

ill definatly look into this film now...
but even if i like it no money goes Lucas' way...
the hell with him
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Sorry if this has been brought up, but is there anywhere I can find a torrent of THX 1138 anywhere? None (and I mean NONE) of the rental stores near me has it, and I don't want to buy it and then realize I can't stand it (like Kubrick's 2001). Anyone know of a site?

--edit--

Found what seems to be a .torrent of the director's cut DVD, though I just started it and can't vouch for it's authenticity yet.

<Torrent removed as per new forum rules>

It has three files:

Quote
Files:
pme-thx1138dc.avi
pme-thx1138dc.idx
pme-thx1138dc.rar


If anyone can tell me whether this is real or not, please do. There are 12 seeders and 26 leechers. It should be done (if Azureus is accurate) in 16 hours 14 minutes.

--edit again--

Just watched it, and it is indeed the 2004 Director's Cut. Good movie, but it was extremely...odd...while I've never seen the original, I didn't like the CG freeway car chase and those weird monkeys, but it was done a lot better than the Star Wars SE's.

Info on the file:

[pme-thx1138dc.avi]

Anamorphic 2.35:1 (note that this is true 2.35:1, not 1.78:1 with bars on the top and bottom like the DVD would have), XviD video codec, and GSpot identified the audio as "0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3" (it's stereo by the way, not 5.1). Runtime 01:28:28, the video itself is 700 MB.

[pme-thx1138dc.idx]

I dunno what the hell this is, if anyone knows please tell me.

[pme-thx1138dc.rar]

RAR Archive containing the subs. Haven't tried them out yet though.
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ewwwwwwwww hey Ash as much as i loved that fact you posted that torrent, you may want to check with Jay before doing that...
we got in trouble for posting torrents to the 2004 SW trilogy and he's already warned us once...

just wanted to let you know...
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Well, it seems a torrent of the original THX-1138 is now up at suprnova.org, but I can't get it to download. It won't work. When, I clicked on it, it said "Unauthorized Download" and had a whole bunch of other stuff written on the page, and when I right clicked and saved it to my harddrive and then opened it to download, it didn't download, it just says "got bad file info".

How can I get it to download properly?
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Well? Can somebody help me out here? Thanks!
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I have to agree in principle with TR47. The film does look good. My old VHS tape has been eaten up for a while though so my memory might be wanged just a bit. Some of the shots look like a$$ though. The monkeys are the dumbest thing I've ever seen...aside from Greedo shooting first, and the RotJ Music Video, and Jar-Jar, and...oh hell, I'll stop while I'm ahead. So he didn't apparently screw this pooch as bad as SW, but I still want the choice of both films. The end scene with the sun in the background looks awfully bad, too. I don't remember it being that fuzzy. Oh well, guess I have to wait till I get the LD transfer from TR47.

I'll reserve final judgement for when I see those, till then, I'm skeptical as all getout.
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I've bought and watched the new DVD. It was my first time watching the film, so I can only imagine what it was like originally. I have both positive and negative feelings towards the CG additions -- they clearly make the scenes look better, but they clearly stand out as new CG scenes too. Most noticable new shots:

- Big wide establishing shots that are digital mattes. Look good, but CG.
- The radioactive rod thing THX is installing into a droid is glowy and melts through the droid when dropped... looks cool.
- A totally CG sequence of THX driving the car through traffic, before entering the tunnel again.
- The car crashes through new barriers and scaffolding.
- The "shell dwellers" were all originally hairy midget guys. Now the ones that attack THX are totally CG monkey creatures. Looks very CG... but which is lamer-looking, CG creatures or hairy midgets?

Those are the more obvious things.

Now my thoughts on the film itself: weeeeeeird. I didn't like it the first time. It was uncomfortable and strange. But after it finished and I thought about it more, I appreciated all the things it tried to do. I love the confession booths where the recorded voice clearly isn't listening because it's automated, and it says, "Buy. Buy more. Buy more now." I love the comment on consumerism -- everyone buys useless coloured objects for no reason and throws them away straight afterwards -- they were just told to buy them.

The most interesting thing about the DVD - and the reason you need to see it - is because it will give you great insight about George Lucas. The hour-long documentary on American Zoetrope is wonderful. Lucas isn't just a guy who made Star Wars... he says his heart is in this kind of radical experimental filmmaking. He is really lively in the documentary, and enthusiastic in his commentary... far more so than for Star Wars. Towards the end of the commentary he says (paraphrasing): "I wanted to make a comedy after this, so I made American Graffiti. Then I wanted to try a fun kid's film, and, uh, I kind of got stuck doing that for a long time. But after I'm finally done with Star Wars, I hope to get back to where my heart really lies, and do experimental films like this again."
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Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
ewwwwwwwww hey Ash as much as i loved that fact you posted that torrent, you may want to check with Jay before doing that...
we got in trouble for posting torrents to the 2004 SW trilogy and he's already warned us once...

just wanted to let you know...


Yeah, I removed the link...probably should remove basically the whole post too, since it now serves no purpose...