Logan’s Run
Logan’s Run is a disappointment. It’s disappointing as camp: you’ve seen far more laughable hair and attire in other films of the period, sci-fi and otherwise, and in William F. Nolan’s version of the future, human society has apparently evolved past ham, because the acting, while not great, is relatively restrained given the dialogue (and situations in which adults must act as though they do not know what the word “cats” refers to…oh, to live in such a world! Heh). It’s evident in several sequences that the set designer and his or her entire staff quit midway through the film, not to be replaced, but this is more pathetic than interesting.
The movie is disappointing on the merits as well — the ideas worth exploring get buried in overly childlike exposition that takes too long and seems dated even in its own time. The overall tone is that of a particularly preachy Star Trek: TOS episode that happens to take place in an early-’70s Sheraton, decorated for Christmas and populated by sedated madrigal groups who aren’t wearing underpants — but, with the exception of the no-knickers part, that worked for ST, in its way. Sixties sci-fi made itself more about how the future, or alternate universes, had the potential to improve on our then-current lot; we could look forward to global organization, interracial accord, sensitivity towards the environment, and so on.
Seventies sci-fi, meanwhile, often feels much darker and more dystopian, and concerns itself not with how we’ll fix things in the future but how much worse we’ll have fucked them up in thirty years’ time, or three hundred. I don’t know when the book version of LR came out, but by the time filming began, Nixon had already left office; the sunny “but we can LIVE — outside, and have pets!” mood just doesn’t go, quite, and the subversion of the “don’t trust anyone over 30” trope, if anyone even noticed it, is left to speak for itself, which it then does not do.
It’s also so easy for Logan to escape — and to effect the functional implosion of the city — that any tension that may have built up even to ankle height in two hours is dissipated when it becomes clear that the stakes aren’t all that high; Logan doesn’t spend much time actually running. Credit to whomever voiced the computer, but her creepiness is wasted during interminable scenes with Farrah Fawcett-Majors; a robot made out of tinfoil who blathers about fishing; and other affected weirdnesses that don’t speak to a larger point. Good visual wallpaper on mute in a bar, but not worth two hours of anyone’s full attention. Maybe the 2010 remake will spend less time imagining the skimpy hooker-wear of the future, and more time wondering how human society would come to this ageist point.
Tags: chewed scenery Farrah Fawcett-Majors movies sci-fi Star Trek William F. Nolan
But Sars, you don’t have to die at thirty. Nobody has to die at thirty. You can LIVE! LIIIIIIIIVE!
I don’t want to live in a world where the Lincoln Memorial looks like it was crafted by Demi Moore’s character in “Ghost.”
If you weren’t impressed by the movie then you won’t want to touch the book with a ten foot pole. Awful, AWFUL book. I have to wonder why anyone would want to give it a wider audience by making a movie out of it.
I question the logic of making a remake: sometimes it’s hard to improve on the original when the original was just plain crap.
They’re making a remake? They should totally cast Basil Exposition in the role of the old dude who lives Outside.
This is definitely part of the cheesy sci-fi of my childhood (along with the original BSG), and in high school and college, my friends and I would reminisce about the cheese. (I always feel a perverse pride that I first heard TS Eliot’s cats poems from Peter Ustinov in this movie, several years before Cats was produced.) For my 30th birthday I thought it would be fun to watch this at the party, and what I realized is in between the goofy moments is a whole lot of boring running, making it a long, long movie. So kudos to you for making it through the whole thing.
Here’s hoping in the remake the “heroine’ won’t be wearing the secret society which is planning to take this whole corrupt structure down’s ahnk symbol AROUND HER NECK. And a huge, gaudy version, too, so it couldn’t be missed by a blind armless man. That damn thing bugged the whole time I watched this film.
The only thing about the book which is better than the movie is that in the book they die at 21. That’s hardcore, yo. Which means that their society is one of teenagers having lots of sex (guess the movies wouldn’t go for that). Otherwise, yes, both book and movie are awful. The good thing about the movie is that it helps put “Star Wars” in context as the great leap forward in both sci-fi moviemaking and special effects that it was — “Logan’s Run” came out only a year before “Star Wars” and was actually nominated for Academy awards in art direction and cinematography, if you can believe it, and then a year later “Star Wars” came out and everybody was all, “Oh.”
The other good thing about “Logan’s Run” is that it makes a fabulous 30th birthday party theme. That’s what I did for my 30th, and I highly recommend it.
But it had a prophetic vision of internet hook-up sites. Craigslist and Manhunt probably owe royalties to the film’s producers.
I didn’t see the movie until I was an adult, but I remember as a child that my 12-year old sister was obsessed with the television show that was spun off the movie.
I remember seeing the movie in the theater (me=old) and everything made sense. . . until Box.
The first time I saw the movie, I was about 9 and found it boring and tedious.
The second time I saw it, I was about 14 and found it to be endlessly entertaining. The only bad parts were those that didn’t feature Jenny Agutter…
This movie was what induced me to break up with a guy in high school. He was all, “You HAVE to see this movie. It’s, like, SCARY and deep.” And it so utterly wasn’t, and I hated him for asking and expecting me to watch it, and things just went downhill from there. I spent so much time glaring at his stupid profile, hoping to make his head explode, that I don’t even remember large swathes of that crapfest. I think he’s dead now, anyway.
I think the TRUE theme of the movie (and the book) is that at least the people who have Many Cats will live to a ripe old age. Or maybe Peter Ustinov was really supposed to be 26; having a lot of cats can do that to you.
I wish someone would go ahead and make a movie that was actually based on the book Bladerunner, which I recall as being vaguely contemporary with Logan’s Run. Unlike the movie “Bladerunner”, which is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the book Bladerunner is a look at an overcrowded society where healthcare has failed, and was a riproaringly good story.
*sigh* How thrilled I was with the sci-fi shows and movies available when I was growing up. And how painful many of them are in retrospect. You really can’t go home again. You can’t even go through a time warp to get there.
And then there’s the cats. Fifteen minutes about cats. !!!
“Maybe the 2010 remake will spend less time imagining the skimpy hooker-wear of the future”
That seems like unwarranted optimism. Speaking of which, @ Kate: I wish I had your faith that Hollywood is interested in improving on anything with this rash of remakes. Of course, “re-imagining a cult favourite” sounds so much more civilized than “we’re digging up old crap to repackage,” doesn’t it?
My older brother (I wasn’t born yet) was so traumatized by how awful this movie was that he refused to go to Star Wars the following year. My parents ended up getting a babysitter, going to SW by themselves, and then dragging him back the next night because they knew he would love it. That is kind of the “how Brent almost wasn’t a nerd” story in the family.
A remake?!?! Seriously? I saw this randomly in college (mid 90’s) and found it hilarious at the time. My friends and I ran around the dorm writing quotes (Welcome Humans! I am ready for you.) from it on everyones door whiteboard thing. I’m sure there were some confused people the next day. We were 18, what can I say… :)
I’ve just discovered that the director also directed “Orca.” Not the biggest surprise of my day, I must say.
FISH*BZZZZZT*PLANKTON, PROTEIN FROM THE SEA!
*****
La BellaDonna: Actually, I read the book “The Blade Runner”. It’s tremendously stupid.
Okay, so, it’s the future, as it usually is unless it’s the past or sometimes the present. Health care has resulted in everyone living forever, which means that there’s massive population pressure and huge demand for medical services. The Government decides to fell two birds with one stone, and declare that you can only go to the doctor if you submit to voluntary sterilization–but anyone who’s sterilized gets permanent infinite health care for free. This leads to the development of a black market in health care; the “blade runners” of the title are Third Man-style operators who handle supplies and transport for the doctors that provide illegal medical service. In the book, the government’s refusal to provide service sans snippage results in an outbreak of viral pneumonia.
Why is this book stupid? Well, for one thing–sterilization? Really? Like, for ANYTHING? I get in a car wreck and the EMTs break out the vastectomy gear before the cervical collar? I can’t buy bandaids without providing a semen count? Seriously, now. (I mean, if a cute chick in a latex nurse’s outfit is involved, well, maybe, but it’s the PRINCIPLE of the thing.)
Second: There’s a big subplot about how doctors conducting surgery were being required to wear pantograph machines that recorded their movements; these were then programmed into robots who would support (and eventually replace) human doctors. The doctors were very very upset about this, and continually acted to sabotage the robots. Well…HELLO, MCFLY, the reason you idiots are running around doing black-market diptheria immunizations is that there aren’t enough doctors! By wrecking the robot plan, you’re ensuring perpetuation of the situation that required the robot plan in the first place!
Well, I must weakly defend Logan’s Run — only for those (like myself) who are attached to it, in all its Seventies mall glory. I saw this when it came out, when I was ten. Something about it really made its mark on me — maybe a young (gay) crush on Michael York, or something. I was a Star Wars nerd also — and it’s true, SW wiped LR off the map. But believe it or not, for a long time there were a lot of Logan’s Run fan clubs & things (this was pre-internet, where you had to actually do this all by mail — !) The Sandman guns are still pretty popular as fan-built collectibles, etc. etc. etc. The TV show, much as I tried to like it, did not resonate with me.
Now, of course, when I got older I appreciated the glitzy badness of it — I mean, it was literally filmed *in a mall.* And I used to show people Farrah Fawcett’s “I remember!” monologue as an example of supremely bad acting (sorry Farrah, may you rest in peace.) And I agree with all the criticisms of weird pacing (there is a section that was cut out actually with the tin foil robot which explained things a bit more … not that this wasn’t a movie already chock full of explanation.)
The book: well, yes, it’s written in a very overwrought kind of way … it reminds me of early Stephen King crossed with very pulpy “sex-ay” sci-fi. But there is a lot of good material there (IMHO) that a remake could draw on. The entire world is under the 21-and-you’re-dead edict, not just a domed city; there’s no exploding Carousel (much as I loved that), just Sleep a la Soylent Green; lots of sex; and it’s pretty violent, as these things go. There’s also some kind of gang with flying broom-like jetski things — like Mad Max meets Harry Potter.
Oh well. I don’t expect anyone to really love LR these days, since my own affection for it is just based in childhood familiarity. (In the way that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can be fun in memory, but is sort of torturous in reality.) They didn’t quite get there, but at least to my young mind, it did seem like it had a certain sophistication and mystery about it. And who doesn’t love Jenny Agutter … ?
Grainger: you thought Nourse’s “The Blade Runner” was stupid, I didn’t. That’s why Sars has contests for cookies, cheeses, cereals, ice creams, etc.
And if you think that there aren’t doctors who’d sabotage the chances of their being replaced by robots, despite a critical shortage of medical care, you have more faith in humanity than I do – and you’ve been dealing with an entirely different medical community.
As for the mandatory sterilization requirements … there are probably quite a few people in this country who would be happy to see it as a condition of treating both illegal immigrants AND welfare recipients.
You may not have enjoyed the book; you may not have found the book’s parameters to be plausible. That’s fine. However, I’ve read books whose What If basis seemed much less likely to me than the What If in “The Blade Runner”.
Is it too late for me to mention that my screen name has NOTHING whatsoever to with Logan’s Run? It is? Darn.
@LaBD “You can’t even go through a time warp to get there.” I hear ya!SciFi movies just don’t age well. I used to think some of the effects on the old Cap’n Kirk Star Trek were amazing, but now the video games on my cell phone are more realistic. It takes more than a hissy lizard head to engage us these days… (Hey, Star Trek ran an ep w/a similar theme as LR…”Bonk bonk on the head!”)
I hear ya on the WHAT IF too – one of my favorite series has a premise that cats evolved into the “top” species, developed space flight, etc…(A cat lady such as yourself might dig it – C.J.Cherryh – the Chanur series)
And I’ll admit it – I thought Logan’s Run was pretty amazing too. Dude, I was 12. I’m going to have to watch it again…
FISH*BZZZZZT*PLANKTON, PROTEIN FROM THE SEA!
Grainger has put the finger on the best line in the movie, that is for sure. I mean, who wouldn’t want a sentient, buzz-saw armed, fishlocker?
@Profreader: It’s OK to defend the things you love, even if no one else loves them! Heck, Grainger excoriated a book I really enjoyed. I don’t know if I would enjoy it as much now as I did when I was a young teen, but it’s OK to have enjoyed stuff as a youngster that wouldn’t appeal to you the same way now. Heck, I grew up on Dark Shadows! I loved that show with a passion – even though I could see its failings – missed cues, props that failed to work, etc. – at the time. Seeing it now can be excruciating – and the Ben Cross remake is just paralyzingly awful. Doesn’t take away from its importance to me as a child growing up, any more than the cheesiness of Dr. Who, Blake’s 7, Star Treck TOS, etc., diminishes the love of their fans.
@Margaret in CO: It’s painfully true that the effects don’t age well. I remember the crickets chirping in the background when one of the actors from Blake’s 7 admitted that the actors all had banded together in self-defense; they felt as if the special effects were the focus of the show. And all we could think was, REALLY? Because you could see the buttons falling off the ship’s “controls”. You could see the floorboards sink when one of the actresses ran down the corridor in her high, high, high-heeled boots. And these RADA-trained British actors felt as if they had to “band together in self’defense”? They WERE the show. The years of my youth, when the special effects were designed by Pong. *sigh*
Thanks, I will keep a weather eye out for C.J. Cherryh; it seems to me (in the dim dark recesses of my memory) that I read some of her work and enjoyed it very much. The curse of literacy means haunting second-hand shops for some of these memory-prompts; I bought the original paperbacks, some of them, for .65 and .75. Then it was $1.25, $2.25 – now it’s $9 for the same paperback! Or I could eat for a couple of days, instead.
Hee. Oh, god, I remember this movie. My high school English teacher showed it to us, one day. For the life of me, I can’t remember why, though; we didn’t read the book, so it wasn’t exactly a comparison.
Logan’s Run represented an end to the the type of socially conscious sci/fi seen up until then, such as Silent Running, THX-1138 and Soylent Green. It’s too bad the film itself is so inept. I love how at the end, all the citizens of the dome shuffle out into the dusk, suddenly free of the controlling computer, and you realize that none of these people will now know how to take care of themselves. Looks like none of them will make it past 30. Thanks alot Logan!
Wasn’t there a lot of talk that “The Island” (I love you, Ewan, but . . . ugh.) being basically a rip-off of “Logan’s Run”? In which case, the remake is even more pointless.
@FloridaErin:
I have seen Logan’s Run, haven’t seen The Island, so I can’t compare the two. But I do know this: The plot of The Island was so similar to the film The Clonus Horror (a movie so bad it was on Mystery Science Theater 3000), that the makers of The Clonus Horror successfully sued the makers of The Island.
@Georgia
I saw both. They really haven’t got much in common save actors running away and the movie sucking badly. But I will watch any and all sci-fi, the “worse” the better. I love me some bad scenery, bad acting, and bad story.
When I watched it, I was mostly just wondering why everyone in the future was blond and white, and why we were supposed to think that was a utopia.
Star Trek, made the previous decade, was able to show racial diversity. Why not this crud?