THX 1138

http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/t/h/x/thx-1138-1970-18-g.jpg

Just watched this dystopian sf and my friend pointed out how it perfectly melds with Socrates' Cave Allegory. In the beginning we see THX in the factory, lined up with other human beings all looking the same way. They are building robots (or androids), mere shadows of humans. They don't seem to care that they have such dangerous work. We quickly learn they use sedatives to keep their minds honed on the delicate mechanical labors. Once LUH gets the idea to stop taking the drugs, reality begins to take over, as does true emotion. This sparks desire to escape. We are then imprisoned in the white light limbo, a false escape. The sterile light is not the Truth. And yet THX does not have all the answers, it takes the insight of another to show us the next step. (And there is some humor to missing the blinking black spot in a world of white).

After various chase scenes we follow our hero to the brink of the city to where the monkeys live. (I forget their official name but they were primitive apes for sure). There is a sense of humanity degrading, a possibility that the entire escape was futile, perhaps the city is the only existence possible. Until we overload our preset criminal containment budget and climb the last cement tube. Behold, the True Light.

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