Early Films: George Lucas

POSTED BY Wesley Scoggins, 23 August 2008

This week I decided to go back a little further than I did last week, to a Director that everybody knows, George Lucas. Mostly known for the monolith in his career that is Star Wars, George Lucas began his career far more modestly with 1967's Electronic Labyrinth.

Lucas first became truly fascinated by film by his early exposure to the avant-garde, filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Arthur Lipsett, and Chris Marker, became part of the Young Lucas' cinematic diet early on, and much of their aesthetic princples and influence can be seen in this film.  

Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138-4EB, was one of Lucas' first explorations into the Science Fiction Genre. Made in 1967 while he was just a student a USC, it Features a man whose been numbered and processed by a dystopic civilization of the future who one day decides to escape at all costs. We are left in the dark about what compels the character or what caused this austere world to come into formation, we are only left an environment whose history we can only conjecture upon based on our interpretations of the mood that Lucas' creates. 

With no real dialogue in the film, the buzzes and clicks of the society merge into a stream of consciousness of a singular hive mind, unable to comprehend or capture a single man who refuses to be numbered or tracked any longer, the operators sit at their tables operating like neurons in a brain, directing and handling the chatter of the hive mind, which as the movie wears on, appropriately begins to take on the quality of the buzzing of insects, one swarm of voices and thoughts. 

The Escapee has real human fear and emotion in his eyes, as he pumps his legs as fast as he can, sweating as the hive nips at his heels.

The production is very sparse, with a liberal application of close-ups, and a great utilization of the minimalist landscape (which are simply utility tunnels and parking garages), he creates a very focused film, once again echoing the mantra repeated by Rodriguez of writing for and using what you have access to. Lucas knew what he had access to and planned the film out meticulously, probably utilizing a lot of creative framing to keep more "normal" parts of the scenery just out of frame, he was able to create a dystopic science fiction film for practically nothing, the props being old computers, and simple wires and hoses, the costumes obviously something easily obtained like Nurses scrubs, he's able to take into consideration the clean minimalist quality of his props and make a film whose qualities they assist, rather than struggling to fit them into a reality that they obviously were not designed for.

In this, the cold featureless environment, the featureless uniforms, the odd composition, they all are designed to fit into the film, to create a unified world and not have to really strain his budget to do so. 

When it was showcased at a annual film festival it was a big hit, winning the festival, and also winning Lucas a development deal with Warner Brothers, allowing him to turn the film into a feature length project, THX-1138 starring Robert Duvall, which unfortunately was not successful in finding an audience at the time of it's release, but that has gone on to assemble somewhat of a cult following, becoming known as one of George Lucas' best films, and a gem that I think everyone should definitely check out.