Showing of THX 1138 in Los Angeles area!

A print from 1971? If you can see anything on it that would be a miracle. But THX was very unpopular, so maybe it only got played a few times. Still, it should be pinker than Darth Vader's lightsaber in the Special Edition.

Sadly, this is probably the Directors Cut, which had a very limited theatrical run in 2003. But I'd like to know either way!

Hmm, yeah true.

To be perfectly frank, I would rather watch the Director's Cut. There's one or two things that I'd like to see left out, but it thoroughly enhances the scope and enjoyment of the film. But it would be great if this was the original just so people can see it and keep its memory alive.

The making of the new version THX is an interesting, mysterious thing that apparently no one involved ever talks about or acknowledges. Yet it was pretty extensive and was done smack in the middle of Revenge of the Sith. And it wasn't just a matter of replacing old shots with new ones, some real thought went into it, it's very meticulous compared to the hamhanded trilogy stuff. Whole scenes are moved around, etc.

Yeah, its not just about adding CG here and there--a lot of it is very invisible-seeming if you hadn't seen the original, and a lot of scenes were completely re-edited and re-thought. But no one has ever talked about the creative or technical aspect of it, you are right, I never considered that. It is a bit strange. Maybe no one really cares, it's still an obscure movie even with Lucas' name attached.

There were screenings of the director's cut the week the dvd came out back in '04. The screening at the Aero will more than likely be this version.

By the way, has the '04 master of the trilogy been digitally projected anywhere? I'm not talking about throwing in the dvd, I mean Lowry's HD master. There was that 30th anniversary screening of Empire earlier this year with Harrison Ford. Did they show the '97 or was it the '04?

The original version felt oppressive and dirty, that quality isn't quite the same now. The Aero theater is nice and old and grindhouse-y, like the kind of theater you can imagine seeing THX at in '71 before taking a few 'ludes. Showing the new version there of all places doesn't seem right.

Has the theatrical cut even been released on home video at all? I know it's kinda pointless, since the longer cut released several years later is basically what Lucas wanted out there to begin with, but I'd still like to see what those handful of people saw in the art house theaters back in March of '71. Five whole minutes of running time is kind of a bigger difference than adding a few words to an opening crawl.

Pretty sure it's never been released. I don't think anyone even knows exactly what the cuts were anymore. (With Graffiti, I believe we know it's two distinct scenes that were cut and then put back in post-star wars.)  It's too bad when you consider a movie like Mr. Arkadin can get 3 distinct versions on the dvd. Okay, maybe it's not really a crime against history/film preservation, it's more a measure of douchey-ness. You'd think it would be flattering that anyone cares enough to want to see this stuff.

Like I said in another post recently, I can at least understand WB not putting out the original version(s) of THX, but that's not how I look at Graffiti. It's had one of the biggest gross-to-budget ratios of all time. It's in the national film registry (just like Star Wars). It's just ironic how the only cgi tinkering done to the film is that one single shot.

I still say, given its relatively short running time, WB could've easily fit both cuts of THX on a dual-layer blu-ray. Actually, I'll be curious to see if next month's release ends up being a single-layer disc.

No way in hell it's anything but the director's cut. Move along, move along.

captainsolo said:

There is no reason that they couldn't have included the original. It is simply because the original is withheld.

WB included both cuts of Dark City on the Blu ray.

What's curious about THX is that LFL didn't even exist at the time it was made. I sold off my dvd a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure the fine print doesn't say anything besides "copyright Warner Brothers." Makes sense, since they payed the 300 grand to get it made back in the day. What's not so clear is who footed the bill for the director's cut.

In any event, it's a pretty good bet that even if there wasn't some agreement with Lucas not to include the original version, WB did it to avoid his ire. I mean, it would've kinda been an awkward situation to have both cuts officially out there two whole years before Lucas even bothered to throw us the scraps of the GOUT.

I seriously wonder if there would've been any consequences for WB including the original version. It may simply have been an issue of disc space. I remember throwing those discs into my computer and they were both pretty crowded, so on dvd the inclusion of the original would've meant a three-disc set.

Bah, I'm probably over-thinking the whole thing. Like I said, it will be interesting to see if the blu-ray is single-layer or not.

Yeah, it's still American Zoetrope. The only difference in terms of credits is the new Warner Bros logo at the beginning, which is funny since the old logo is still there right afterward.

Like I said, there's no copyright for anyone besides Warner Brothers. At worst, they signed a deal with Lucas not to include the original. At best, they simply didn't include it in the dvd/blu-ray because of the restoration and remastering required. Who knows.