Poor George Lucas.
Though the US filmmaker is far from being a one-trick pony, his varied and wide-ranging contribution to the pop culture pantheon is often overlooked in favour of a series he started work on back in the ’70s – a cinematic legacy kicked off by a little film you might not have seen called Star Wars.
Indeed, little media attention is ever really afforded to his debut, a surprisingly dark, cynical work named THX 1138. Though it shares the sci-fi setting of Lucas’ best-known film series, it bristles with cynicism and bitterness, concerning as it does a world in which sex and emotions have been outlawed. Look elsewhere if you’re after a film about underdogs and wookies: this one is about as bleak as they come.
But despite decades of being poorly reviewed and largely ignored, THX is finally getting its dues, thanks in no small part to the folks over at Graphic Festival and ragga/electronica/punk crew Asian Dub Foundation. The Foundation, led by charismatic frontman Steve Chandra Savale, have long been fans of the film, and now they’re getting the chance to pay tribute to it in the best way possible: by playing a live, updated score alongside a screening in the Sydney Opera House.
“I first saw the film in the late ’80s,” says Savale. “When I first saw it, what struck me was the brilliant and radical idea that a 20th century viewer looking at a society 500 years into the future would find it completely unrecognisable and have to gradually feel out how that society worked.”
Savale credits a lot of the film’s success not only to Lucas but also Walter Murch. Though best known as a sound designer and film editor, having worked on such masterpieces as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Murch co-wrote THX with Lucas, and is partly responsible for the film’s distinct feel.
“Lucas and Murch view the film like an artefact from the future that is inevitably alien to the artefact’s discoverers – i.e. us,” Savale says. “The ironic thing is, as time has gone on, the film has become less unrecognisable. Lucas and Murch’s projections in the realm of surveillance, religious fundamentalism, pharmaceutical control, racism and the ever-present cacophony of digital bleeps are much closer to the mark than critics thought they were in 1971.”
Both Lucas and Murch have been hugely supportive of what the Foundation have been doing with the film, something that Savale could never have dreamed of. “I personally thought initially that someone like Lucas would never find the time to even consider giving us the permission to rework his film. I was wrong. And many thanks also have to go to Walter Murch, who has been so supportive of what we’re doing too.”
Given the high regard in which they hold the film’s creators, it’s been very important for the Foundation to nail this performance, and they have been practising and re-watching the film exhaustively. Indeed, their aim is to pay homage to the real thing as much as they possibly can: they’re not reinventing original composer Lalo Schifrin’s work as much as they are encouraging audiences to see it in a brand new light.
“We try to complement the original score,” says Savale. “It’s pretty much 95 per cent as it was. I personally owe a great debt to Lalo Schifrin, whose music I have loved since I was nine years old. Working with the soundtrack has seriously expanded the band’s musical horizons – it’s been amazing.”
George Lucas’ THX 1138 Live Scored By Asian Dub Foundation as part of Graphic 2016 takes place in the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Saturday November 5.
