Monday, September 2, 2013

Logan's Run (1976)

Director: Michael Anderson                            Writer: David Zelag Goodman
Film Score: Jerry Goldsmith                           Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Starring: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter and Peter Ustinov

Perhaps it’s because I didn’t see this as a kid when it was released in theaters and therefore have no associations with the film, but I thought Logan’s Run was terrible. I understand it was made nearly forty years ago and so there are many apologists for the cheesy special effects, but seriously, Star Wars came out the following year and it still holds up. But lest you think it’s just me, even Siskel and Ebert, the big name critics at the time, didn’t like it. Ebert, in keeping with his personality, thought it was fun in a goofy way, but that’s not really an endorsement. Siskel, whom I always felt more of an affinity for--though not always agreeing with his assessments--hated it. For me, the entire project is weak in every way and as much as people might like it--even Ed Wood has his fans--I think it’s a bad movie.

The opening shot of what is supposed to be a domed city in the 23rd century, after a catastrophic war--I’m guessing the nuclear kind--looks more like seventies automobile headlights, completely destroying any semblance of suspension of disbelief. The more the camera lingers lovingly on the model train set exteriors, and the doll house interior of the domes, the less I wanted to continue watching. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis from 1927 looks more realistic, and yet the film won a special Oscar for special effects. Really? Inside, it looks as if the people are living in a shopping mall, simply wandering around doing nothing. People are born through artificial insemination--merely to avoid the pain of child birth, as these kids are having sex all the time--and when they reach the age of 30 they go to the Carousel to be “renewed,” which of course means they are killed to allow room for those who have recently been born.

The only other option besides “renewal” is to become a runner. They, however, are hunted down by Sandmen, men with ray-guns who kill runners on sight. Michael York and his pal Richard Jordan are Sandmen and enjoy their jobs. When York meets Jenny Agutter and she questions the whole “renewal” process he thinks she’s nutty. But the giant computer that runs the entire city--what would a sci-fi film be without one of those--presumably worried he might start thinking for himself, sends him on a mission to hunt down the runners who have disappeared over the years, in excess of a thousand. He’s supposed to infiltrate the group of those who want to run, find their sanctuary, and bring in the Sandmen to wipe them all out. What actually happened to them is ludicrous, and it turns out the rest of them have been living under the dome for so long they don’t even realize everything is fine outside.

The premise might have been okay, but the way York manipulates Agutter rather than slowly understanding the truth, ruins the film for me. He even takes her to a detention dome housing juvenile delinquents who only live to age fifteen in order to deceive her further. And those kids are right out of the Star Trek episode “Miri” from 1966. You half expect them to call York a “grump.” In fact the entire film is reminiscent of a Star Trek episode and is otherwise derivative of any number of sixties sci-fi films, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, you name it. The acting is horrible, the script is banal, the ending is happy . . . it’s maddening. The long sequence with Peter Ustinov doing a corny American accent made me want to be “renewed.” I know the film has its fans, and we all have our guilty--or not so guilty—pleasures, but for me, Logan’s Run is a complete failure.