George Lucas

George Lucas - THX-1138 (1971)
1) Lucas’s first feature was THX-1138 (1971),
2)a sci-fi film about a dystopic future where the population 
3) is controlled by android police officers and drugs that
4) suppress all emotions, including sexual desire.
5)The film is sometimes referred to as independent, but it cost nearly $800,000 in 1971.
6)Adjusted for inflation this would amount to 4.6 million dollars in 2015.

Comment by Bryan Young:

Star Wars fan Bryan Young investigates how many of the tropes/motifs in Star Wars were previously explored in THX-1138:

"It might seem rather obvious that the films of George Lucas would influence George Lucas and Star Wars, but there’s so much of the spirit of Star Wars in the director’s early films, I thought it was worth revisiting them.

George Lucas’ first feature film from 1971 was a hard-science fiction film that audiences today might call dystopian in nature called THX 1138. It’s about an almost alien society, oppressive in nature, that controls its citizens with drugs and religion. THX 1138 is actually the designation of the main character, played by Robert Duvall. His wife, LUH 3417, begins purposely mixing up his medications so that he might come out of the stupor of his reality. The society is so oppressive, he’s not even sure who he can trust or how to escape, but he does know that he needs to get out.

The film explores themes that seem almost universal to the work of George Lucas. That the unnamed, faceless automatons are oppressing a people and robbing of their individuality is seen pervasively through Star Wars. And the naming convention in the world of THX, letters and then digits, matches the naming structure of the clones and later the stormtroopers."

THX-1138 (George Lucas, 1971):

Film Trailer: Click Here
the clip we saw in class was of some robots hitting Robert Duvall with poles

post class notes

George Lucas' long history of using his 'Star Wars' Money to Save Film History.
Click Here