Sally Kline’s collection of interviews with George Lucas is essential reading for any student interested in an auterist study of THX 1138. The introduction reminds readers that George Lucas has been remarkably reticent during his career. Perhaps more than any other filmmaker of his generation, Lucas has preferred to remain relatively anonymous. The editor points out that rarely have interviewers questioned Lucas about the revolution in marketing and merchandising he inspired after the success of Star Wars; still less is known about Lucas’s personal life and its influence on his filmmaking. Kline also highlights the fact that Lucas has been very hostile towards the Hollywood establishment; a hostility that has often been reciprocated.

    The interviews presented in the volume are unedited so as to create an accurate a record of Lucas’s thoughts as possible. Helpfully, the book provides a chronology of George Lucas’s life and a short filmography.

    A 1971 article by Judy Stone portrays George Lucas as a daring independent film maker; an oppressed artist fighting unsuccessfully against the short-sighted Hollywood film moguls who cut out sections of his first film, THX 1138. Lucas is quoted as being very upset by this turn of events. Lucas describes the film as an attempt at social criticism. With THX, Lucas hoped to tell his audience that they could escape the quotidian pettiness of their lives by simply walking away. “They’re people in cages with open doors,” says Lucas (4). Later in the article, Stone describes Lucas’s early upbringing in Modesto, California, his conservative upbringing and the creation of American Zoetrope, an independent company co-founded with Francis Ford Coppola.

    Another article, reproduced from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer offers an invaluable contribution to any study of THX 1138: an interview in which Lucas describes his concept for the film. Lucas says that he wanted to make a cinema verite film of the future. Lucas then describes the rushed nature of the filming process and the reasoning behind various artistic decisions. Lucas concludes by saying that the final product came out pretty much as he hoped it would.

    J.P. Telotte begins his study, Science Fiction Film, with a helpful discussion of the problems associated with defining science fiction as a genre. As with many other works, Telotte covers definitions provided by previous authors before eventually formulating one of his own. His definition is a broad one, but its direct applicability to THX 1138 makes it especially invaluable to any study of the film. Borrowing from Tzvetan Todorov’s structuralist analysis of “the fantastic” in literature, Telotte argues that science fiction exists only in relation to other forms of literature. Science fiction is thus a constantly shifting genre with blurred boundaries. Taking this further, Telotte establishes a continuum of literature in the form of the uncanny—focusing on the power of the unconscious mind—on one end and literature in the form of the marvelous—consisting of the supernatural and the spiritual—on the other. The fantastic as a form of literature occupies a space between these two poles. Three common narrative types are then identified, each corresponding to the aforementioned literary forms: respectively, stories about the way technology can alter the self, stories about encounters with alien beings and stories about possible changes in society and culture.

    This complicated theoretical framework provides the foundation for a detailed analysis of THX 1138 in the third part of the book. Telotte uses the film as an example of the fantastic science fiction film. He points out, like other authors, that dystopias are explicit vehicles of political discourse. In the case of THX 1138, George Lucas has created a film in which capitalism has run amok; workers have become commodities controlled through the use of drugs and all activities are subject to a mechanical exercise in cost/benefit analysis. Lucas also provides a criticism of contemporary race relations, presenting black characters as marginal and ethereal figures designed only to entertain and serve. Telotte’s film analysis is a valuable contribution to any study of THX 1138, especially one seeking to describe the film’s role as a dystopia.

    Vivian Sobchak’s Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film seeks to fill a “small part of that vast black hole in space which metaphorically represents the lack of aesthetic criticism available to serious film scholars (and fans) of the genre” (11-12). The study is limited in several, very helpful ways. First, Sobchak concentrates solely on American science fiction film. This allows for a more detailed description of the various films. It also allows her to make broad arguments about the unique nature of American science fiction film. The author also confines herself to science fiction films made after 1950. Finally, this book deals primarily with the aesthetic qualities of science fiction film. Thus, the chapters are organized thematically. Chapter one focuses on definitions of science fiction, problems with the concept of genre and a comparison of science fiction literature and film; chapter two with the visual qualities of science fiction film; chapter three with the auditory qualities of film; chapter four with the concept of postfuturism and its relevance to science fiction.

    Chapter three contains a very interesting discussion on the role of dialogue in science fiction films. More specifically, Sobchak argues that, oftentimes science fiction films will feature radio broadcasts, public speeches or television news presentations as an integral part of the film world. This dialogue serves to draw the viewer into the film. No matter how exotic or futuristic the world depicted in the film might be, the viewer is comforted by the “ritual” of traditional news dialogue. In the case of THX 1138 Sobchak insightfully calls attention to the film’s separation of television and public voices, even though they are linked by implication. Thus, characters in the film will communicate through intercoms—they are completely dependent upon the media for their interpretations and experiences of other people. “In this film, speeches and rhetoric unattached to human bodies fill the sound track, seem to emanate from corridots, phone booths, confessionals, and black walls” (196). The rest of the chapter is also helpful, illuminating the way in which science fiction transforms spoken language ( for example, the use of “nadsat” in A Clockwork Orange), the concept of the “word as image,” and the importance of non-verbal sound.

    Dale Pollock’s biography of George Lucas—the director of THX 1138—provides details of the filmmaker’s life from his teenage years up to the production of Return of the Jedi in 1983. The book, using extensive interviews with George Lucas and his associates, provides unique insights into Lucas’s personality and background; key ingredients to any auterist treatment of THX 1138. The book is complimentary, sometimes bordering on the hagiographic. Opening chapters provide an overview of Lucas’s career and an assessment of its accomplishments. The author points to the fame of the Star Wars trilogy, the respect accorded to Lucas for his technical accomplishments and Lucas’s ability to independently produce his own films under the auspices of his film company, Lucasfilm. Lucas’s diffident personality and relatively innocuous personal presence are emphasized in order to highlight the unique nature of his success.

    Chapter four offers a fascinating look at the relationship between George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola, a relatively young independent director, provided Lucas with his first job after finishing film school. Working with Coppola on the film Rain People, Lucas was given a small sum of money to shoot a documentary of the film’s production. The resulting project, Filmmaker, gave Lucas legitimacy and helped to advance his career. Coppola convinced Lucas to turn his film school project, THX 1138, into a feature-length film and helped convince Warner Brothers to finance the film. Pollock presents compelling commentary from Lucas about his tumultuous relationship with Coppola. According to Lucas, Coppola was often overbearing and sought to portray Lucas’s success as completely dependent on his support. Lucas obviously takes umbrage with this portrayal, telling the author that THX 1138 would eventually have been made even without Coppola’s help.

    The book includes a detailed filmography with information on THX 1138’s production, principal credits, cast and technical credits.

    As the title would suggest, Phil Hardy’s contribution to The Film Encyclopedia provides a very general overview science fiction films. It covers film from the very beginning of the cinema until 1983. The book is notable for providing information on international science fiction films—this makes it much easier to do research on a comparative study seeking to review films produced in different countries at approximately the same time. The encyclopedia’s introduction helpfully provides a brief synopsis of science fiction films produced in different regions: Japan, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. The study is also broken down chronologically; each decade is presented in its own section with an introduction reviewing the major breakthroughs of the period. The chapter on the seventies, for instance, describes the development of the big-budget science fiction film (largely a consequence of the phenomenal success of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey). Hardy also points out that this transition effected a fundamental change in the nature of the science fiction films: the cinema became less about questioning contemporary society and more about escapism.

    The encyclopedia’s description of THX 1138 is useful. Its brevity is both a blessing and a curse; blessing because it allows for a quick overview of the most important elements and curse because the encyclopedia format does not allow for a detailed analysis of those elements. The entry describes the film’s origin as a film-school project by director George Lucas, its bleak depiction of a future society and its substantial reworking by Warner Brothers after its shooting.

    The major advantage of a general survey like The Film Encyclopedia is that it contextualizes the film being studied. In the case of THX 1138 the researcher can immediately access short synopses of other science fiction films depicting either utopias or dystopias. Some examples include A Clockwork Orange, Zardoz, Rollerball and Logan’s Run. The book is recommended as a supplement to more focused research.

    Roberts begins his History of Science Fiction with the somewhat controversial argument that the roots of modern science fiction can be found in ancient Greek novels describing fantastic voyages to far-away places. Robters explains the dearth of what might be called science-fiction literature in the period between Classical Greece and the Renaissance by pointing out the shift in thinking that occurred during the Protestant reformation. This cataclysmic historical event opened up a debate over the nature of the cosmos. Theologians were forced to consider a Copernican model of the solar system that made possible the existence of extra-solar worlds. Speculation about what life on these worlds would be like (and whether they would embrace Christianity) created a theological divide between Catholics and Protestants. Science Fiction is primarily a product of western Protestant culture.

    Roberts’s work also illuminates any study of science fiction by providing a detailed and lengthy debate over what defines the genre. Chapter one presents several contrasting definitions from a variety of sources before making the argument that contemporary science fiction can be defined historically: science fiction is the literature that developed out of the Protestant legacy of rationalist science. Literature within the genre features fantastic events made possible through the use of science or technology. This distinguishes it from fantasy—tracing its roots back to Catholic theology—which relies on magic and mysticism to explain extraordinary events.

    Chapter twelve offers a lengthy and helpful overview of science fiction cinema from 1960 to 2000. Once again Roberts presents his material through an illuminating analytic lens: he argues that the cinema transforms science-fiction from a literature of ideas into a visual aesthetic that acquires cultural prominence. This position leads Roberts to argue further that any approach to science-fiction cinema can not ignore special effects as meaningless excess. They are, rather, core to the text; central to the science-fiction cinema’s self-awareness and cultural power.

    David Seed’s American Science Fiction and the Cold War reviews the major cinematic and literary works of science fiction from the end of the 1940s to the late 1980s. The book begins with a particularly captivating introduction focusing on the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Seed first brings attention to a school of post-structural analysis called “Nuclear Criticism.” Members of this school, including Derrida, argued that nuclear conflict can only be a signified referent of a discourse or text because the real referent has never occurred. Using this as a foundation, Seed makes the argument that the status of science fiction literature is raised—“if nuclear war can only be approached speculatively then [the literature] can occupy a space equal to sociological, strategic and other modes of speculation” (4). This adds a layer of depth to any study of Cold War science fiction film and makes it easy to argue why that study is relevant.

    The introduction also provides a useful description of the way in which science fiction literature during the Cold War was used as a vehicle for social criticism. Literature and film of the time often insightfully illustrated the power of secrecy and its use as a mechanism of social control. Chapter 5, focusing on “Cultures of surveillance” elaborates on this theme. A thorough discussion of iconic science fiction dystopias—1984, Brave New World, and Player Piano—provides examples of Cold War writers criticizing the development of the national security state during the conflict. Once again, Seed helpfully sketches out links between this literature and contemporary philosophical developments. In this case, Seed points out that these “cultures of surveillance” are akin to the “panopticism” elucidated in Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. Chapter 10 provides a further extension by looking at how this surveillance gave rise to the “conspiracy narrative.” The chapter looks at the work of Philip K. Dick in detail. While THX 1138 goes unmentioned, the larger arguments of Seed’s work are certainly relevant to a study that seeks to position Lucas’s film in the dystopian tradition.