At least in literature, the 1970s were a particularly prolific period for science fiction morality tales; most foreboding, forewarning and, occasionally, foreshadowing visions of an apocalyptic future where some facet of mankind's own stupidity brings about the end of his civilization only to give rise to another even more terrifying than the one left behind.
Based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson novel of the same name, director Michael Anderson's Logan's Run (1976) is supposed to be a movie about a dystopian 23rd century megacity where population control is achieved by killing everyone over the age of thirty. That the resultant motion picture emerges as a colourful claptrap rather than lush metaphor for this moral decline and societal evolution is indeed a shame as well as a gross bastardization of the source material.
Cheap jack sets and ultra tacky special effects (that won an Academy Award!) are painfully obvious in all their 70s chic moderne design. This isn't the future. It is, in fact, the then immediate present, gussied up with a few flashy/trashy pieces of modern art that have severely dated over the last 30 plus years.
Of course, as a time capsule of 70s cinema all this oversight in Robert De Vestel's Production Design would be largely forgivable if the screenplay by David Zelag Goodman did not degenerate into a pointless chase spectacular, shot mostly in and around Fort Worth and on the old MGM back lot (in a deplorable state of decay and about to become a housing project).
The film stars gooney-looking '70s pop star Michael York as Logan 5, a bounty hunter working the policed state circa 2274. On the surface, the future is an idyllic paradise populated by half naked sex kittens wearing no bras or panties beneath their paper thin diaphanous gowns and buff young surfer dudes who can barely hide what God gave them under their Nylon/spandex ensembles. All these ludicrous outfits are colour coded to reflect the age of the person who wears them.
At birth, infants have a chip imbedded in the palm of their hands that changes colour as they grow up. Red proves to be the most lethal hue in the spectrum. For once the chip turns red and begins to blink it signifies the end of an imposed life expectancy. These inhabitants are collected together, trade in their colour coded robes for white hooded garments (that look like cast offs from the KKK) and demonic looking black and white hockey masks and are sent to 'carousel'; a new fangled take on the old Roman arena.
With the rest of the city's gentry cheering them on, these expired individuals are hurled toward a spinning vortex that vaporizes them in much the way a garden bug zapper dispatches unwanted mosquitoes and flies.
Logan 5 and his best friend, Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) are Sandmen - assigned to capture a wayward expiree - known in the film as 'runners' - who has escaped the most recent carousel. After some silly running around all over the multileveled interior of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the runner is quickly dispatched by Logan and Francis using their childish 'flare guns' that are about as excitingly executed on the screen as watching lead paint dry.
All hot and bothered from the chase, Logan returns to his apartment to search for recreational sex on 'the circuit' - a pay as you go service that teleports companionship right into your room. Logan's desires come to rest on Jessica (Jenny Agutter); a Twiggy-esque blonde airhead.
But after Jessica and Logan engage in a conversation about why it is wrong to run, Jessica opts to leave Logan to his own devices. Before she leaves his apartment, however, Logan takes notice of an ankh pendent around her neck. Back at Sandman headquarters, the computer reveals to Logan that the runner he and Francis killed also wore a similar pendent belonging to a secret organization that helps runners escape their fate by showing them the way to 'sanctuary'. Logan is given the assignment to locate sanctuary and destroy it. To convince the organization that he is also in jeopardy of being called to carousel, the computer advances Logan's palm crystal time clock so that it begins to flash red.
Remembering Jessica's ankh pendent, Logan reunites with her and helps another runner escape. Francis, who is unaware of Logan's assignment takes Logan's actions as treason against the state and sets out to destroy him.
Logan and Jessica's first port of call is a medical clinic overseen by Doc (Michael Anderson Jr.) and his sultry assistant, Holly (Farrah Fawcett-Majors). Here, life altering plastic surgery is achieved through instant laser procedures in a matter of seconds. Jessica assures Doc that Logan is their friend, but Doc is unconvinced. He places Logan in the operating chamber then attempts to cause the machine to malfunction so that the lasers will burn Logan to death.
Too bad for Doc that Logan is a better fighter than the machine. After escaping the operating table, Logan manages to toss Doc inside the chamber where he is seared to death by laser beams. Holly follows Logan and Jessica to an abandoned part of the city where members of the organization who save runners are waiting. After some initial convincing, one of the members instructs Logan and Jessica to make their way beneath the city, using the ankh pendent as a key to open various vapour locks along the way.
Unfortunately, Francis and an army of Sandmen arrive at that moment. They blow open the first gate barring their entry and this explosion kills Holly. Logan and Jessica escape into the bowels of an underground 'fish farm'. Francis floods the chamber with sea water but Logan and Jessica manage an escape and find themselves in a brightly lit frozen cave overseen by the robot keeper, Box (Roscoe Lee Browne).
After some initial exploration of the cavern, Logan and Jessica come upon the tombs of all the previous runners whom Box has frozen. Box now informs Logan and Jessica that they too must be frozen as a possible future food source (shades of Soylent Green). Logan fights back, destroying Box and much of the cavern to reveal a porthole to the outside world...but is this sanctuary?
Decidedly not. In fact, after walking some distance through swampy marshes and densely overgrown forests, Logan and Jessica come upon the tattered remains of Washington D.C., a city they have never known but whose landmarks are distinct and easily recognizable to the audience. In the Capital Building, Logan and Jessica discover 'Old Man' (Peter Ustinov); a rather hapless, cat loving curmudgeon whom they promise to bring back to their world as proof that one can grow old. Unhappy circumstance that Francis has found his way to the Capital Building and, after a struggle, he is killed by Logan in the vine encrusted hallows of the former U.S. Senate.
Logan and Jessica take Old Man back to the city, though why either of them should desire to ever return there is beyond the scope and understanding of this critic. Leaving Old Man just beyond the city limits, Logan and Jessica are captured and taken to Sandman headquarters where the computer attempts to extrapolate the true origins of sanctuary from Logan's thoughts.
The revelation that sanctuary does not exist is too much for the computer to bear. It overloads and short circuits. Logan and Jessica escape, killing more Sandmen in the process. The city's authoritarian command centre self destructs and the inhabitants are released into the outside world where they discover Old Man eagerly waiting to meet them.
Logan's Run is utterly mindless in both its narrative and execution. The acting is universally terrible, except for Peter Ustinov who seems to be having a ball hamming it up and, as such, delivers a most amusing cameo.
I must admit that the matte work and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo is first rate, particularly when melding the MGM back lot to paintings of the corroded and overgrown Lincoln Memorial and Capital Hill. But Dale Hennesy's Art Direction is a disaster. Glen Robinson and Wayne Rose ought to be ashamed of their SFX work that singularly fails to fire the imagination.
The long shot miniatures of the domed city have all the believability of a cartoon model of the 1960s New York World's Fair. If this is a vision of the future, it is one of the most lugubrious and uninspired yet to make it down the Hollywood pipeline.
Warner Home Video brings Logan's Run to Blu-ray in a rather middle of the road transfer. When the transfer kicks into high gear, the 70mm elements are bright, registering good colour fidelity and contrast levels with a considerable amount of fine detail evident throughout. Unfortunately, optical process shots are extremely grainy and even more obvious to the naked eye. The audio is unexceptional, with Jerry Goldsmith's score given solid representation. Dialogue is never natural sounding and sound effects are often strident.
Extras are restricted to a rather meandering and self congratulatory audio commentary from Michael York and director Michael Anderson who gush and coo about the film as though it were the futuristic equivalent to Gone With The Wind. There's also a vintage featurette, badly faded and full frame, where star and director once again extol the virtues of their efforts in the film.
If there's nothing like a great sci-fi movie to kick off the summer season of blockbusters than Logan's Run is indeed nothing like a great sci-fi movie! It's not even second tier vintage camp. It's just plain awful, two hours of one's life that can never be taken back, and should be avoided at all costs. This is, quite easily, one of the worst motion pictures to ever be financed by a major Hollywood studio!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
0
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
1
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