Edgar Allan Pooh . . . or is there more here than meets the ear? A careful analysis of ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH's plethora of on-screen numbers provides an answer to this query. When you painstakingly add together ALL the numbers presented here (be sure to include the ones in the binary computer printout), the sum is 11,142,017. Some folks may dismiss this total as "eleven million something." But those of us trained to think outside the Cube will immediately see a date: Nov. 14, 2017. The big news happening that day, of course, was the release of EPIC-MAR's poll indicating that 54% of 2,102 leading American political scientists believe that the USA will be forced to "French" American Czar Vlad "Mad Dog" Putin's mouthpiece--Sean Hannity--and lop off his noggin via a Public Guillotining to restore some semblance of Poetic Justice to the Annals of Our News. (However, 37% of those surveyed opined that Hannity would emulate Adolf "Fartso" Hitler in offing himself before his date with the Chopping Block, while 9% were Undecided--Margin of Error, 3.1%.) ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH will make a lot more sense if you view THX 1138 as a fleeing but doomed Hannity, slimmed down by his two-year Solitary Confinement diet of baked beans and gutter water.

peefyn Having seen the feature length version first, it's hard not to see this short in light of it. The connection between the two is strong and obvious. Both have style over story, and the style is intentionally confusing/busy, dystopian and impressive. In my review of the feature length movie, I especially focused on how well picked the locations were, and the same has to be said (though in an understandably lesser degree) for the short.I'm more forgiving for a weak story in a short movie like this, as it is in no way in focus. You're only meant to put together what few details you are given, and not expected to become (that) emotionally involved in the world it is set in.Consdering it is a (cheaply made) student film, Lucas does a remarkable job showing of his visual chops, and using the sci-fi genre to point out negative aspects of his own time.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) George Lucas was in his early 20s when he shot "Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB". This must be taken into consideration when evaluating this 15-minute short film. He has worked on a couple other films before already, but unfortunately this seemingly was not a great help in improving this short film, maybe his most famous early work.It's the year 2187 and we see a man running through a futuristic labyrinth, in which he is under constant surveillance by a higher authority. From start to finish, the audience is confronted with scary choir voices, undefined blinding light effects and radio voices. Sometimes less can be more and I wish Lucas would have taken that approach. The torture scenes and depicting the protagonist equal to a lab rat made for quite some shock value, but there was not a single point in this short film, where I really felt the character's helplessness and claustrophobic scare, which would have been necessary to really experience his delight when he finally manages to break free.I've watched quite a few very early short films from notable directors and this is one of the weaker examples. Hard to believe that only 10 years later, Lucas brought to life the probably most renowned movie franchise of all time.

MisterWhiplash Sure it may be no-budget, sure it may be using film equipment and film stock that's not to the 'studio' standard. But, as someone who has come out of being a film student, I look at George Lucas's award-winning student short film with a good deal of awe. And Lucas, who has described himself as being a filmmaker who is split between the avant-garde and the more 'mainstream' films (the latter personified film-wise in Star Wars and Indiana Jones), goes to the extreme of his powers with his visual prowess. It is surreal in that it tries to express an idea through an unconventional means, with a story but without being stuck to it by any means. And because it's so short there's only so much time to get the message across with such little film.Electronic Labyrinth takes just a slice- the more action packed and suspenseful slice- from what would become the feature film of THX 1138, using absolutely no dialog. That to me is a phenomenal, but very dangerous, step to take. There's always the chance, especially with young, experimental filmmakers, to go into the over-indulgent, or rather just to go in over your head with abstract concepts that just don't connect out of likely just not being well made. Here the quasi-beating over-the-head of image and sound works, because it's a film about technology, about the control of it over people, and it makes a very basic kind of statement of going against the overwhelming power of it. The hero of the film for almost all of the film does a lot of running, down corridors, down spacious, domineering spaces, leading up to a sort of bleak ending.It may not get enough thematic ground like the feature-version does, and the lack of dialog sets a kind of gap between a viewer not ready for the combination of twistingly sci-fi visuals of the screens and numbers and videos and such. But it's got guts, and that's what I like to see in student films; the cliché that this is a "sign of things to come" is not far from the truth (ironically, after the feature-film of this, it would go more towards the mainstream for Lucas, but you never know).