THX 1138 ~ B+
I watched the original version a while ago, and the one I watched today is a "Director's Cut" version, retouched by Lucas, which I was not a big fan of, I mean if it's not broken, why fix it? That's not to say that the movie is completely ruined, it's still a masterpiece for it's time.
One cannot be help but be reminded of "Brave New World" and "1984" when watching this movie, this is Lucas' attempt at portraying a nightmarish dystopia where everything is controlled by a totalitarian government, including religion and human emotion itself, and the citizens of the state are mandated to be intoxicated at all times to perform the taxing labor needed.....which in turn strips them of their very humanity, while "Unichapels" reassuringly hum on in the background telling them that everything will be okay....but the reassurance itself seems more frightening than empathetic, and this is true of every single element in the movie that serves as a device to aid the miserable existence of the "slaves" in the hypothetical society presented by Mr. Lucas.
While THX manages to find true love with LUH, this doesn't last long, as the state will not tolerate treason, and their escapades meet with an unfortunate end. The contrast here is obviously between the human love of LUH and THX as opposed to the "mechanical" assurance of the state, who delivers everything to the citizens in a "solo" fashion, from drugs, to sexual intercourse, which is provided as pornography in each citizens individual residence.
Visually enchanting, the movie leaves a lot to the imagination in my opinion. Definitely one worth multiple viewings. I remember enjoying the un-edited version more for some reason. So I'll give that an A and this a B+. I don't know if it's just me but I could see that certain bits were "added"...this may be due to the fact that I have already seen the movie before...wonder what people who have not seen the un-edited version would think.