Run Logan, Run!
I recently rewatched one of the first sci-fi films I ever saw, Logan’s Run. I was glad to see that it still stood up as a pretty decent film. The visual effects (which won an Oscar the year before Star Wars) are laughable, especially the blatant miniature sets and the bizarre pyrotechnics. There are plenty of acid-trip visuals and gratuitous sex/nudity scenes that scream 1970’s. The worst thing in the film is probably Box, who looks like the result of a breeding accident between a vacuum cleaner and a disco ball.
But the dystopian future story still holds up. The concept a society devoted to pleasure is a logical progression from today’s world. Michael York (Logan 5) feels a bit too theatrical in some scenes, but his emotion when he receives his assignment from the computer is still chilling today. Peter Ustinov steals the movie as the half-senile T.S. Elliot-quoting Old Man, but my favorite performance is Richard Jordan as Francis 7, Logan’s friend and fellow Sandman. Jordan plays the extreme emotional arch quite well despite limited screen time.
I really need to track down and read the novel that inspired the movie, as it is quite a bit different. The Bryan Singer film project which may or may not happen now is/was supposed to be much closer to the source material than the original film was, so it will be interesting to see the story he will be/would have been working with.
In a semi-interesting related note, I had the opportunity to meet Michael York when he visited University of Miami when I was an undergrad. At the time, he was best known by college-age students for his role in the Austin Powers movies, but when I got a second to speak with him, I told him I remembered him from Logan’s Run, which I had seen as a kid. He didn’t seem exceptionally thrilled by that, but he was still very cordial.