Recently I watched the sci-fi film THX 1138 from 1971 by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It’s a dystopia in the Orwellian sense and has the typical ‘one person breaks out’ scenario going on. Very much ahead of its time and certainly not a blockbuster. But watching it in this day and age it’s really a non-dated film. The clean cut and minimal style in the film makes the style in it lasting – and definitely the all the shaved heads in it contribute to this, since hair style is blatant time stamp.
The film was worthwhile and I think anyone who’s watched through sci-fi in this dystopian theme will find something in it. It’s not so well plotted though in detail and maybe because of it being a first of its kind – it deals with the aspects of dystopia and not so much who’s ruling society, how it’s organized and so on. So much is left for the viewer fill in. The film isn’t what people associate George Lucas with, to put it like that. And it’s a fine film indeed!
One of the things I found interesting was Maggie McOmie who acted as LUH. She’s gorgeous and beautiful in the shaved head style of the film. Apparently she was picked up by George Lucas while working in a health food store. But the strange thing is that she didn’t pursue her career, as she could have had after THX 1138. It was her only major film credit and she did some small roles and stage performances. Very mysterious and weird career move.
Could she have been in the Star Wars films? Who knows and I don’t know what she did after it all. There are many of these actors with strange fates, like Mark Frechette from Zabriskie Point, who was a trouble maker, did a robbery and finally died in prison while dropping weights and choked under them.
There’s a short piece called Bald where we see her getting the head shaved. She cried while it was done, something documented in the extras for the movie.
Christian van der Sanden
August 24, 2021Yesterday I saw some snippets of THX1138, and noticed Maggie Mc Omie too. Very strange that she had only this leading role.
Another “strange” thing is, that Maggie (with bald head) looks like a twin sister of the american actress Robin Tunney!
Greetings from Germany
Christian van der Sanden
Ruprecht Von Stachel
March 4, 2023No doubt, the genesis of this film was, at least in part, BRAVE NEW WORLD, however, with sex reversed and elements of 1984 mixed in.
Alarmingly, it may prove prescient. We have seen the totalitarian vaccine mandates, for a Jab which has proven to be ineffective against this laboratory-created Bioweapon. Even today, actions, speech, and even thoughts, are controlled, under pain of cancellation.
A growing social credit system is emerging. The social media giants, private industry, our government and the intelligence community, have been weaponized against the individual, punishing and silencing dissent.
When it comes to Maggie, gifted with natural beauty, we can understand in retrospect, given the predatory nature of Hollywood’s casting couch, why someone more principled might have thought the cost too high to continue in the industry.
But mostly, 1138 should have been a warning, not a blueprint.