george lucas and movies

George Lucas and Movies: No Future?
When looking into the future people see many different
things. Whether
it be flying cars, buildings floating in the air, or people
walking around in
space suits, everyone has their own idea. Most of the time when
people look
into the future they look far into it, not in the next several
years. The
future is usually defined as twenty or more years beyond the
present. Many
movies and stories written about the future world seem to have
the common theme
that technology will play a big part in the development of the
future. The
development of technology will lead to the advances that will
take the world
into the next century and beyond. George Lucas' film THX 1138
and Robert
Zemeckis' Back to the Future are both examples of movies that
portray technology
and the advances of the future. THX 1138 and Back to the Future
both portray
technology as a danger to society that could ultimately lead to
its downfall.
George Lucas made THX 1138 long before he became famous
in his later
movies. He based the film on his movie that he used as his
graduate project and
thesis. It was his first attempt at directing and producing a
Hollywood film.

His goal was to create a film that would show the future state of
the world if
it was to continue on its path of the search for perfection of
everything. He
shows the future as a place that many people would probably not
want to live or
to be associated with.
Lucas shows that everyone will be the same. People will
wear the same
clothes and have the same haircut. Names are no longer a part of
society. In
the movie each person is given a prefix of letters followed by a
number. They
are basically drones who follow orders. Technology has advanced
so far that
every motion or action of the person is monitored. Anytime that
one of them
does something wrong it immediately appears on the computer
screen as to what
they are doing and what their number is. It is possible for the
computer to
monitor all of their vital signs and mental activity. Each
person is carefully
monitored and watched. The people are told what to do and act
based on how they
were trained. They work in shifts of labor and are almost
extensions of the
computer that tells them what to do. There is no more guessing
about disease or
how a person is feeling. Everything is fed to a computer which

processes the
information and figures out what to do. Computers have begun to
control the
lives of the people and it is almost to the point that they are
running society
as a whole. Computers are no longer devices that simplify life
for humans;
humans are now devices that help computers.
Science has developed a drug that keeps the people
submissive and almost
with no thought of their own. The drugs take away the humans
ability to think
and to be creative. Ironically it was those attributes that led
to the
development of all of that technology in the first place. Humans
are no longer
allowed to think for themselves. Instead of people controlling
the development
of technology; technology is now controlling the development of
the people.
One of the best scenes that tells about the technology of
this movie
takes place in the prison. The people who have broken the laws
are sent to an
area that is totally white. No other color can be scene. They
are put into
machines and forced to take the drugs and the computer monitors
them. Just
through several test the entire body of the person can be checked
for what is

wrong. The person is checked up on like a machine. The computer
then decides
what to do with the person. When people are treated like
machines and not
allowed any freedom of thought it is very dangerous to society as
we know it.
This could easily end society through the emission of people's
rights.
There are very few positive sides to this society. There
is no problem
of human error in society. Computers make most of the
decisions. There is
almost no problem with crime or violence because all of the
people are so
controlled and watched. While those two positive aspects may
seem good to some
people, the society that was created is not. All of the things
inside of
people that made it possible for technology to be developed have
been taken away.
There is no more creativity or individuality. Everyone is the
same and they
have no way to be an individual. There is no heart and no fun
involved in life
any more. The society is no longer a society of people. It is a
society of
machines. The people have become the technology. The technology
that the
people worked so hard to create and control, now controls them.
Robert Zemeckis shows a much nicer and happier future in

Back to the
Future. Technology is still very present, but the people are
still in control.
Society is almost the same place as it is today. The people
still work and
still have their own personality and still make decisions for
themselves.
Nothing seems to have changed from the present except for several
advances in
technology. Zemeckis chooses to concentrate on one aspect of
technology that
has been developed in this future time. That one main aspect is
the development
of the technology necessary for time travel to happen.
Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) has developed a time
machine. It looks
just like a DeLorean, but it has been modified to allow it to go
into the future
or back into the past. Marty (Michael J. Fox) gets in the car
to escape danger
and ends up in a time period before he was born to the time when
his parents
were his age. He goes back and forgets about the advances that
have been made
in technology between then and the time in which he was living.
He keeps
remembering things from the future that are not in the time
period in which he
is stranded. Even his clothes represent changes that have
occurred in

technology in the few years that separated these two time
periods. Technology
is truly evident in the way that things look and the way that
things are run.
Time travel is not a new concept of technology, but it is a
new concept
which is believed to have been invented this short distance into
the future.
The technology that was used to develop this machine was based on
an idea that
had occurred to the scientist long in the past. Technology in
this society has
allowed for the machine to be developed. The society as a whole
has not changed
from the present very much. The time machine seems to be the
only difference.
It is scary to think that people could use this technology to
travel throughout
time. The only problem with it is that it can be used to change
history. When
Marty returns from his trip, he realizes that he has created an
alternate future.
Technology can now be used to change the past as well as the
future. It has
made it possible for people to control all the events that have
ever happened in
the history of the world.
Back to the Future presents a much nicer picture of the
future than does
Lucas in THX 1138. It shows that it has not changed very much.

The one thing
that is scary is that the future could be constantly changing, if
the technology
of the time machine was made available to everyone. This would
mean that there
would be no set future for the world. Each person would try to
change the
future so that everything would benefit themselves. This would
lead to the
eventually destruction of society and maybe no future at all.
George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis both portray the future
in their films.
The future however is very different between the two movies. In
THX 1138
everyone is controlled by the technology that has created
computers that can
control things. In Back to the Future each individual person has
the option to
control the future of the world. Both movies give too much power
to one thing.
Either Technology or the individual have too much power to have
society run
smoothly. Both of these things would most likely lead to the
destruction of
society as it is. A point must be reached somewhere in the
middle or there may
not even be a future for people to dream about.
Works Cited
Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox,
Christopher

Lloyd, Lea Thompson. 1985. Videocassette. Universal Pictures,
1986.
THX 1138. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Robert Duvall, Donald
Pleasence. 1970.
Videocassette. Warner Brothers, 1971