Customer Reviews

Logan's Run & Coma (Score)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The CD Soundtrack for Logan's Run is back in all of it's wonderful glory! Jerry Goldsmith's fantastic futuristic score of the 23rd Century still plays wonderfully well today as it did when it first premiered back in 1976! The electronic MOOG sounds successfully create a certain eerieness to this futuristic, cautionary future world where no one can live past 30. As an added bonus, we also get to hear Jerry's equally superb score from the medical thriller "Coma".

All in all, a great soundtrack package from Chapter III records!

LOGAN'S RUN (1976) is a significant score, in my opinion one of Goldsmith's very best, and certainly among the most memorable sci-fi scores ever - a unique listening experience with lots of "futuristic" electronic sound. All of it is beautifully constructed and most of it derives from or interpolates a simple thematic conjunction of two 3-note motives, both beginning on the same note:

(1) two ascending half steps followed by (2) one ascending half and one ascending whole step (B - C - D flat - B - C - D, for example).

During the first half of the film, in reflecting life within the dome the writing is almost entirely for synthesizer or strings (maybe with percussive piano). Later, at the point where the two protagonists (Michael York and Jenny Agutter) escape to the outside and for the first time experience the natural world, Goldsmith's palette becomes the full orchestra. At that moment, a melody which had been introduced in the fourth cue, "On the Circuit", suddenly bursts into color in "The Sun". It is reprised in "The Monument" and again in "End of the City". This may be Goldsmith's most yearning and romantic melody; it's almost agonizingly beautiful.

COMA (1978) is cold, creepy and stark, and features one of Jerry's great scores from maybe his greatest year (Other films that year were PSYCHO II, OMEN II, MAGIC and THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL). The score is reminiscent of early 20th century music such as Berg or, especially, Bartok (think MIRACULOUS MANDARIN) and was a perfect match for the film in which Genevieve Bujold sneaks around in and is chased through a medical facility that is not what it seems. There's more percussive piano here to match that in LOGAN'S RUN and plenty of unsettling strings, tentative clarinet solo and echo effects which leave one hanging and emotionally on edge. A lovely, innocent 70s pop theme, too.

Cool disc. Only two problems here for me. One, the tracks are not sequenced as they occur in the films, and two, I could really do without the few disco numbers in COMA. This CD is simply a replication of the two original soundtrack LPs - complete and combined; the disco, having been included on the COMA soundtrack, is therefore here as well.

PS. It's beyond me how anyone could say that this music doesn't hold up away from the films. I think all of this is better listening, frankly, than either of Goldsmith's oscar-nominated scores for THE SAND PEBBLES or PATTON, but to each his own.

While Goldsmith's contributions to "Planet of the Apes," "Patton," "The Omen," episodes of "The Twilight Zone," and the most recent "The Mummy" will stand the test of times as major scores, the compositions for "Logan's Run" and "Coma" are suited solely for the 70's from which they came.

Sounding as dated as a pair of polyester suits and wide-legged bellbottoms, the scores can't stand apart from the films from whence they came. The mark of a good score is its quality to be enjoyable separate from the film. These just don't hold up.

As a fan of the composer, I purchased this disc for that reason only. It is for that reason that it can only be recommended for those that are followers of the film-scoring maestro.

Goldsmith is a space music composer. But not type-cast. His Patton score really gets you up and running. Logan`s Run and Coma (I think both have never been issued on CD). I liked the Logan`s Run love theme the best when it first came out somewhere in 1978 on LP. It takes off just like the main title of The Blue Max (another Goldsmith gem). Both scores are noteworthy on screen but somehow doesn`t stand very well alone. The Coma love theme is just as sweet.