THX 1138 was George Lucas' first movie and you can tell by watching it that he was headed in the direction of Star Wars in terms of special effects and thoughts on the future. Compared to other science fiction movies of its time, it is pretty solid.
The story, written by Lucas himself along with a friend, definitely fits into the sci-fi/dystopia genre, similar to stories such as 1984 and The Giver and Anthem etc. The setting is gloomy in its white sterility and all of the characters are subdued and passive (except for our 'awakened' protagonist, of course). Personal freedoms are prohibited and life basically sucks. Like other Western movies and books of this genre that were written amidst the Cold War, this awful future is blamed fairly explicitly on communism. Damn commies. Blame who they will, I'd say the plot in THX 1138 is at times a bit tedious, but is overall compelling. The ending is interesting.I'm glad that Lucas wrote this to take place in the 25th century because I find it seriously hokey when people predicted such extreme change in society to take place in just a few decades (like in 2001 and Soylent Green, both of which claimed that our present would be radically different- man were they far off).
I dare say that the effects were probably pretty cool back in the early 70's, but today of course they look a little phony and cheesy. Considering what they had to work with way back then, in the Stone Age before computers, they're admirable. Yet, I'm not sure why everybody in the 70's thought all future people were going to surround themselves with hundreds of flashing buttons and wear all white uniforms. In a related thought, Lucas definitely recycles the robotic C3PO-like police officers and moving holographs in Star Wars.
As with many of these old sci-fis, I'm glad that I watched it; it's cool to see how far the movie industry, as well as science fiction thought, has come over the years. (Robert Duvall has also aged and changed a bunch since he did this movie as well.) It both gives me a chance to learn up on film history as well as laugh at their elementary attempts at special effects.
