Visit the future where blogging about ‘70s movies + ttrpgs is the ultimate crime.
My American Dystopias series continues with the first feature from George Lucas, THX 1138. The movie itself is… fine, I guess? It starts out well enough, then narratively gets into a rut before ending in a long chase sequence, because why not. Anyway, it’s really interesting visually and aurally, and there’s one small part that’s hella provocative, so much so that, as I say in the piece, I’m not 100% sure it was intended. Here’s a peek:
Black people don’t exist in THX 1138.
Okay, that’s not technically true. There are, but at least at the outset, they can only be found in one place: on hologram television. There’s a pair of comedic actors in some kind of sitcom, complete with audience laugh track; there’s a newsreader; then there’s two nude dancers, one female and one male, both are whom are intended as masturbatory images for the white citizenry. All of the Black people have been pushed aside into everything that could be considered entertainment. As horribe and soul-crushing as this society is, it still concluded that Black people have no place in it. That’s pretty dystopic, but considering I live in a country that’s attempting to re-segregate while nominally valuing and respecting Black voices and bodies (the NBA Finals are going on as I write this), not that far from fantasy.
Oh. But it’s actually worse than that.
As for the game material, I hadn’t done a Cypher System creature in a while, so I wrote up statistics for the Robot Cops in the movie.
Hope you enjoy the post!
NEXT TIME, ON AGAINST THE ‘70S:
