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Wednesday October 9th 2024

THX 1138 | 1970

THX 1138: the dystopian world of THX 1138: Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California
THX 1138: the dystopian world of THX 1138: Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California

George Lucas’ first feature film, before he went on to American Graffiti and his other little sci-fi project Star Wars, is a self-consciously film-student art movie.

Set in a clinically dystopian future, the film utilised a number of real Californian locations. The claustrophobic underground environment is the (uncompleted) tunnel system of the San Francisco BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) (BART).

Other locations include the Lawrence Hall of Science, 1 Centennial Drive, in the hills above the main University of California campus at Berkeley.

The clinical world of the future used Frank Lloyd Wright’s magnificent 1950s extravaganza, the Marin County Civic Center, Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, north of San Francisco. The same setting was used as the ‘Gattaca Corporation’ in Andrew Niccol’s underrated 1997 sci-fi Gattaca with Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law.