Ladies and gentlemen, we will now analyze a scene from…George Lucas’ 1971 sci-fi dystopian masterpiece…THX 1138. The scene in particular we shall dive into is labeled “The Confession”. Please take a look!
This scene has the protagonist, THX 1138, is a confession in which he feels guilty about his mistake at work, and needs reassurance about his role in society. The scene starts out with THX 1138 entering the confession booth. Upon his entrance a pre-programmed message comes from a Jesus-like digital picture that says “my time is yours”. This saying is actually quite ironic in nature, as the members of this dystopian society have none of their own time; the time they have is purely dedicated to being a good ‘worker; and expressing no emotion or own intrinsic thought.
The pre-programmed message then says, “go ahead”, “very good”, “proceed”, “I understand”, “yes”, all on repeat in no real harmony with what the THX 1138 is saying. THX 1138 talks about how he made a small error at work, and how his roommate is acting strange (she is simply showing signs of love and human thought) and he wants forgiveness. The pre-programmed message serves no real guidance and just says words of ‘encouragement’.
These words of encouragement coming from the Jesus-like pictures are quite ironic. As THX 1138 knows his role to work hard and contribute to the miserable dystopia he lives in, these words of encouragement are supposed to ‘guide’ him to continue his miserable existence. These words of ‘guidance’ are basically telling its society’s members to continue building the robot cops that are enforcing the ‘rules’ of no emotion and free thought.
The pre-programmed message then goes to say, “let us be thankful we have an occupation”. This continues the irony of this dystopia…why would anyone want to be thankful for living in that cycle of misery? It is the responsibility of those within the society to keep up their productivity and to just blindly work hard and obey this destiny. It is after this saying from the picture that we then see that it is all computerized, and continues the trend of this dystopia that no real human connection or emotion is allowed; when THX 1138 is at his most vulnerable state it is a computer’s job to comfort him.
Finally, the scene wraps up with the computer saying, “and always remember, be happy”. This might be the most powerful line of the whole film. There is no way anyone in this society could be truly happy. These people are punished by their peers if they show emotion or free thought. Further, the ‘best’ one can be is being as productive as possible…this productivity leads to making robot cops that further suspend emotion and thought. This dystopia has no way of happiness, and this is what causes THX 1138 to realize that he needs to escape.
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