Logan’s Run (1976, Dir. Michael Anderson)
Synopsis:
In the future, humans are living inside huge geodesic domes and under strict control. Despite the eradication of poverty and transformation of life into one long hedonistic experience of casual sex and beautification, no-one is allowed to live beyond the age of 30.
On “last day”, those whose life clocks (a Gemstone embedded in each citizen’s hand to keep track of their age) are flashing must submit themselves to Carousel: a spectator sport where those who take part are systematically murdered but hope that they will find themselves “renewed” (reborn inside another body).
Logan 5 (Michael York) and Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) are “sandmen”, killers whose job it is to hunt down those who chose to “run” instead of submitting themselves to Carousel and the possibility of renewal. Logan is beginning to question whether anyone has ever actually renewed, but Francis believes it absolutely and seems disturbed by Logan’s doubts.
After finding an ankh symbol amongst the belongings of a runner he has just terminated, the city computer gives Logan a secret mission: to discover, infiltrate and destroy “Sanctuary”: a place where missing runners have escaped to. He uses his relationship with a young girl, Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) to try and make contact with the resistance trying to help runners escape; but they don’t trust a sandman and Francis, unaware of Logan’s mission, thinks he’s trying to run and is determined to hunt the pair down.
We begin a short season focusing on underrated Sci-fi, with this slightly cheesy (in a good way) but still powerful 70s gem.
We can all think of films that are “ahead of their time”, but how many can you name that are “behind their time”? I’m not talking about attempts at recapturing a particular era or style, but films whose entire style and mis-en-scene was dated by the time it was released. Logan’s Run is one of these unlucky films.
It’s dystopian vibe set in a vibrant, shiny future that resembles a giant shopping mall mark it out as an early 70s sci-fi film.
Except it’s not.
Logan’s Run was made in 1976, the same year as Star Wars, which immediately became the new template for how sci-fi should look. The future could no longer be shiny and new, it had to be grimy and used instead. It’s not just the look of Logan’s Run that dated it. Post Star Wars, sci-fi needed to be optimistic, and attempts to make dystopian sci-fi popular again would fail until the mid 80s/ early 90s when the rise of video had people re-evaluating films such as this, Westworld, Blade Runner and many others that had not found their audience initially…
Despite all this, Logan’s Run didn’t do that badly at the box office and has maintained a cult following that has grown over time. It’s by no means a perfect movie and yet, like many other 70s sci-fi films, it has a certain power and a scale to it that still hold your attention even today.
For me the film’s most serious flaw, aside from some weak green screen work and matte paintings, is Michael York as the titular Logan. His plummy voice and slightly effete screen persona, which were so perfect for a film like Cabaret, are utterly out of place here. The audience is really supposed to accept him as a cynical killer? At the finale of the film, where he tries to convince the citizens that they don’t need to go to renewal, he sounds so completely camp it seems as if he might be about to burst into song at any moment.
The prize for second worse performance goes to the usually reliable Peter Ustinov as the old man, who is so hammy that it’s close to self parody. Ustinov gets away with it by the skin of his teeth, and only because he’s Peter Ustinov, and I adore his larger than life performances in so many other films.
Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6 and Richard Jordan as Francis 7, however are excellent in their roles, with Agutter giving the rather two-dimensional character of some much needed weight and seriousness; whilst Jordan, who was a last minute replacement for William Devane, throws himself into his character with extreme relish and gusto. His Francis 7 is a barely contained psychopath, made all the more dangerous by his fervent belief in everything he has been told. Just imagine for a moment how much more fascinating the character of Logan would have been if he’d been played more along the lines of Jordan’s character…in the end, the only difference between them should be that Logan asks questions about what he’s been told and Francis obeys blindly.
However, great character acting is not the reason why any of us watch sci-fi, it’s the concepts behind the storylines and what they say about the nature of humanity and where we might go as a race that is inevitably the most interesting side to this type of film. Logan’s Run, with its themes of conformity and conditioning has some of the most intriguing of any sci-fi film: Not only in terms of beliefs (Logan and Francis’ conversations about whether or not people really renew could just as easily be about religion) but also people’s roles in society (Sandmen are set apart from the rest of society in terms of their status as killers, the cubs in Cathedral are literally kept apart from the rest) and in terms of sexual partnerships (there are no longer marriages and people are encouraged to have as many one night stands as possible, birth rates are also clearly controlled — hence the opening scene with Logan watching the baby that will eventually replace him as a Sandman).
Unusually, Logan’s Run is actually both a utopian and dystopian film and it is this duality which makes its concepts particularly fascinating. The city under the dome may seem like a dystopia to us, with its heavily controlled population and totalitarian regime, but to the citizens within it (especially those who believe, like Francis 7) it is a utopia — a life spent enjoying yourself; the need to earn money or to search for accommodation or love have all been eradicated but, like all utopias, this luxury comes at a cost.
It’s high concept doesn’t interfere with its pace, however, and watching the film again recently, I was struck by how quickly the story moves along in the first 2/3rds of the film, only slowing, like Logan and Jessica’s lifeclocks, once they have finally left the city. Up until then the film is essentially one long chase, after Logan’s life clock is sped up and he’s instructed to find sanctuary.
Ultimately the film’s slightly prosaic “there and back again” structure can feel a little disappointing, but perhaps that’s the point. Yes, the ending feels a little rushed and low key and yet, tellingly it ends on a question. The freeze frame at the end is used as correctly here, as it is in the 400 Blows: to offer the viewer a sense of closure on this particular part of the story, but with the acknowledgement that there are now even more questions. Like many revolutionaries, Logan and Jessica have achieved their aims without really thinking about the consequences of their actions. How long before their new utopia, where age is not restricted spirals out of control? Without the infrastructure of the dome how long will it be before there is infighting and war between those who remain? Is this why, at the very end of the film Jerry Goldsmiths’ superb score, returns to a moody and uneasy theme that we heard earlier in the movie? There’s no triumphant March music to end this journey, because the journey is not over…
It’s the fact that Logan’s Run dares to look at all of these themes and ask questions that makes it more important than some hammy acting or dated special effects and costume design. There’s enough intriguing subtext here, for you to look past it’s gaudy surface and that’s why it’s also worth watching or even re-watching; as it will not be a waste of time, no matter how much of it you have left.
