Customer Reviews

Logan's Run

5 star:		(122)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

UPDATED FOR BLU-RAY VERSION 11/12/09

For those thinking of upgrading to the Blu-ray of "Logan's Run" there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that while this does improve on the original DVD, it's not a huge jump in quality. The film needs some restoration and it appears this is a new transfer (the same one that was used for the reissued DVD with the same cover). The image quality is soft throughout lacking the sharp image quality that you'd expect from a recent film or one that has been restored.

The other bit of bad news is that we get none of the extras that were included on the old three disc laserdisc instead getting only the original special features ported over from the DVD (which is good news in a way since this could have been bare bones). We get the original promotional featurette (which looks really, really bad), the commentary track featuring director Michael Anderson, star Michael York and costume designer Bob Thomas discussing the making of the film.

Anderson points out in the commentary track WHY there are some plot holes (the film under went some heavy editing to allow more showings per day)but it's a pity that none of this footage has been found or and restored for a director's cut more than likely the footage is missing.

The flaws in the film are less of an issue for me 33 years later. Sure, the production design can be cheesy at times but "Logan's Run" is a product of its time. The themes examined by Anderson and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman still does a good job even if the last third of the film falls apart.

The 5.1 mix sounds pretty good overall which is more good news but it would have been nice to have Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score available as an isolated track.

Many of the visual effects look dated with the miniature work in particular leaving a lot to be desired but the for time it was pretty good. The matte paintings by Matthew Yurichich are one of the few highlights of the visual effects in the film.

Logan's Run started off with a pretty amazing concept--(courtesy of science fiction writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson)what if our youth obsessed society put everyone over the age of 30 (21 in the novel)to death as a means of population control? This film version of a classic cautionary tale is intermittantly successful. David Zelag Goodman's screenplay condenses and changes around several key characters.

The basic plot--In the future our society is enclosed in domes. As a means to control the population, everyone has a life clock crystal on their hand. When you reach 30 you have the option to become "renewed" in a ceremony attended by the citizens. Logan (Michael York) and Francis (Richard Jordan) are Sandmen who hunt, capture/or kill runners (people who choose to not go through renewal and try to escape).

Logan is sent undercover by the computer that runs the city to find the location of Sanctuary and uses Jessica (Jenny Agutter "Walk About")who helps runners escape. He and Jessica discover more than they could possibly imagine.


The film is quite good despite some gaping plot holes. Michael York gives a impassioned performance as Logan 5. Jenny Agutter is enchanting as Jessica. Richard Jordan shines as Logan's former partner Francis who feels betrayed and hunts Logan down. Roscoe Lee Brown is exceptional in his cameo as the demented cyborg Box.


Logan's Run attempted to tell an adult cautionary tale in a world of light weight escapist movies. It's a commendable film and the film makers frequently bite off more than they can chew. I'd rather have a film that's too ambitious than not at all.

Still, I appreciate the ambitions if not the execution. It's nice to finally have this fine if flawed movie on DVD. The transfer is quite good although the print has a number of flaws. There's also quite a bit of dirt evident on the print. These probably could have been cleared up with a direct digital transfer. Additionally, the 5.1 soundtrack occasionally sounds "tinny" and when played in the stereo format can be quite difficult to hear.

3 1/2 stars.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Logan's Run fan, if such a thing exists, and was overjoyed to see the film released to DVD. The transfer looks great, and the letterboxed format preserves the lovely cinematography.The acting is, by and large, pretty good. Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Richard Jordan are all in fine form. Peter Ustinov chews scenery in his portions of the film, but isn't that what you put him in a movie for?The visual effects won an Oscar back in '76, pre-Star Wars. I would place their quality somewhere above Marooned, but below 2001:a Space Oddyssey. The Aerial view of the city that opens the film looks really cheesy, but the Carrousel sequence is downright eerie. It is even more remarkable when you learn that the whole sequence was done in-camera, on-set with no compositing aside from the white beam of light that emanates from the ceiling. The compositing and matte paintings are breathtaking.The film takes a lot of flak for its costumes and for looking like it was shot in a shopping mall. I think the costumes are moot--who know what we'll be wearing in the future? These people live in a hedonistic, weather-free society. It stands to reason that they would be very revealing and purely cosmetic for those very reasons. As far as the look of the sets goes--this is a materialistic, consumer-mad, hermetically sealed society that the film portrays--of course its going to look like a shopping mall.The film is not exactly an accurate representsation of the events in the book (something I wouldn't mind seeing someday). Budgetary, time and technological constraints would made doing so impossible at the time. Still, it holds up well on its own merits.One last note: Am I the only one who finds the love story angle of this movie touching? It's interesting to see two people experiencing love for the first time, especially in the world portrayed in Logan's Run, where people don't have lasting emotional ties to one another.What the love story kind of implies is that this is the first time in hundreds of years that people have thought and felt in terms of strong emotions for each other. In an era like our own where the word is bandied about so much as to be meaningless, it's refreshing to see a future where its meaning is rediscovered.

A forgotten piece of futuristic sci-fi that had the misfortune of coming out the year before the groundbreaking "Star Wars", Logan's Run is a well-made, exciting, creative movie that succeeds despite the fact that it has not aged well. Based on the book by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, the movie tells the story of a post-apocalyptic society that lives out its existence in domes, where everything is automated by a central computer so that all of the dome-dwellers can live out their life with ease. However, to prevent overcrowding, no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. To avoid being euthanized, some residents of the city attempt to flee the domes and live out the remainder of their lives; these people are called "runners". Police officers called "Sandmen" are charged with stopping "runners".

Logan, the movie's central character, is a sandman and is played by Michael York. He is given orders by the central computer to track down a group of runners who have not been "put to sleep" and might have set up sanctuary outside of the City of Domes. To do this, the computer advances Logan's life clock (all the citizens of the city have life clocks that tell their ages) to make him appear as if he's 30. Now Logan is forced to run, hence the title.

While the billowing, disco-ish haircuts and outfits might scream "'70s!" to those who watch "Logan's Run", the truth is that there is a lot to like about the movie. For starters, the premise is an intriguing one, and handled well. Giving Logan a succeed-or-die mission gives much of the movie an urgent, claustrophobic feel. York and Jenny Agutter (who plays Jessica, Logan's accomplice in his escape) appear on the surface to be the perfect bland "pretty people" for the shallow society depicted in the movie, but in the course of the movie, reveal their characters' depth and passions. The filmmakers have also crafted a believable world for the characters to inhabit, which is commendable considering much of the film was shot in scenic Dallas and Fort Worth, two places I would describe neither as "scenic" nor "filmworthy".

"Logan's Run" is time capsule of what large budget sci-fi movies were before "Star Wars", but it succeeds, mainly from having a creative plot that draws the viewer's interest and transcends the trappings of the dated 70's designs. By no means the best sci-fi movie of the seventies, but one that is quite enjoyable nonetheless.

Ah, 70s science fiction... ridiculous costumes, campy visual effects, social commentary... and an underlying weirdness you just can't ignore. Logan's Run is something like THX 1138, only to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World instead of Orwell's 1984. And in the words of the character Logan himself, "It all made sense until Box..." In the future, mankind survives in a mall-like bubble of society that entirely subsists off of pleasure and materialism. Everyone is forced to die at the age of 30, basically to prevent the knowledge of suffering from getting into their minds. Those who do not want to die at 30 are "runners" that get tracked down by "sandmen" who blast them with what essentially amounts to flare guns. Despite this, the walls are not TOO scorched with spent rounds, and most people go on happily. Unfortunately for the status quo, this world is a lie and not everyone is happy, resulting in one particular sandman, the eponymous Logan 5, to have to become a runner himself.

There are some pretty bizarre scenes in the lieu. The whole rite of the carousel is actually quite disturbing if you think about it. An entire quadrant of the city is filled with derelicts and gangmembers, and of course this part is the one called "The Cathedral". On the other hand, there's visual candy as well, with superb modeling for the cityscapes and, yes, Jenny Agutter in a miniskirt that only gets more revealing as it slowly falls apart over the course of the movie.

Unlike THX 1138, Logan's Run doesn't end upon successful exit of the city; that's only the first half. Afterward the audience is treated to a gorgeous vision of the empty and abandoned Washington D.C. The movie kind of drags at this point, but is made up for mostly by the disturbing visions of American landmarks in various states of decay. When all else fails, science fiction's greatest asset is the ability to displace the audience with what they feel are familiar landscapes--just look at Planet of the Apes or 28 Days Later...

This is a very enjoyable movie, nonetheless. People who like the fact that Star Wars is a Campbellian construction of the Hero's Journey should definitely check this movie out--it might as well have been the primary source for George Lucas' later work. And for science fiction fans as a whole, it's a classic example of the form.

But MAN, was that robot and the ice cave WEIRD.

--PolarisDiB

My comments pertain only to the Blu-Ray version. The technical quality is very disappointing for me. The sharpness and detail does not compare to most of the other Blu-Ray titles I have watched. It is much improved over the DVD version, but that isn't saying much, because the DVD release of this title looked like a bad dub of a bad VHS tape. This Blu-Ray release is comparable to what the earlier DVD release should have looked like. The back indicates that it is released through the Turner and Warner Bros operations, so I suppose that says a lot. I wish that companies such as these would throw in the towel and turn this stuff over to companies that care at least a little bit about the quality of the product, as opposed to how much revenue it generates. They care only about how much revenue it generates, and for the most part could care less whether the technical quality is up to the standard for the media.

I remember that Logan's Run is the first science fiction movie that I ever watched, which probably has some bearing on how I've rated it.

This movie is based upon the best selling book Logan's Run by William Nolan. The movie does take some artistic license but nothing too drastic as to completely disown it from the book, such as that horrid movie, Starship Troopers. The effect is that more people are better able to relate to the characters...also probably because they couldn't find actors young enough to match the book.

Another unfortunate is that after the movie had been edited, the cut tape littering the floor was disposed of rather than saved for posterity purposes. One of the cut scenes that I wished could have been saved is where Box creates the ice statue of Logan and Jessica.

Many people like to disregard this movie as too cheesy and/or campy; however, you have to put the movie into context as to when it was filmed and released. The advancement of special effects as seen in Star Wars (released the year after Logan's Run) wasn't available to other studios at the time. Using miniatures was still considered cutting edge in addition to some of the 3D holograms that were used in the computer room.

I'd highly recommend watching this movie as it's a wonderful return to the mid-70's world of science fiction.

"Logan's Run" is a big budget sci-fi classic of the 1970s which ranks with "Planet of the Apes" and "The Andromeda Strain". In its day it was the most ambitious science fiction movie ever made and it doesn't fall short of the quality of "Star Wars" if you look at the details and the overall "feel" of the film stock. The cinematography and production values are pretty good, especially the interior sets of the Sandman headquarters, Carousel and the full-sized glass travel pods. One wonders, however, what the filmmakers were thinking in filming real life holograms - which look anything but three-dimensional on the screen. But the combination of the rich Jerry Goldsmith score and the fairy-tale quality of the story (Box is right out a Grimm tale with elements of Frosty the Snowman) help make "Logan's Run" an engrossing, though simple tale of a flawed utopia. Matte paintings of the Lincoln memorial look obviously fake on DVD but one cannot help but admire the classic techniques of illusion in film before the digital era.

This film is enjoyable to watch as a straightforward sci-fi chase adventure. However, it has much more to offer - as a possible future for mankind where a "utopian", closed, domed city has imposed death at 30 in order to keep "balance" - one dies, one is born (or reborn, as the system would have you believe). It follows the story of Logan 5 (Michael York) as a sandman (someone who kills "runners" - people that attempt to live beyond "lastday") and Jessica 6 (the beautiful Jenny Agutter) as they try to find "sanctuary". Importantly, they also find their adventure bonds them in a truly loving relationship, something they never experienced in a city of free love. Their journey also earns them a freedom they don't expect, and an exposure to discomfort and danger they find truly alarming. Is it all worth it? Peter Ustinov does a great job as the "old man".

The DVD is of good quality, and there is a nice commentary by the directory and Michael York. Apparently this was the first film to use holograms. It was originally shot in Todd AO.

I have fond memories of seeing "Logan's Run" in the theaters many years ago, and am delighted to see this film getting a fine presentation on DVD. Directed by Michael Anderson, the film takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humans live a hedonistic life in the shelter of a domed city. There's just one catch to this pleasure-oriented utopia: nobody is permitted to live past the age of 30. The title character, played by Michael York, is a Sandman: an elite policeman assigned to kill those who flee the birthday death sentence. But a surprising assignment takes Logan on a voyage that will change him profoundly.

"Logan's Run" is an adventure tale, a love story, a crime drama, a social satire, and a sumptuous visual spectacle all in one. The whole package is superbly enhanced by Jerry Goldsmith's inventive and varied score. This is one of the most visually stylish science fiction films ever made; it's full of scenes that are truly unforgettable.

The film is really grounded by the performances by the superb cast. Michael York and Jenny Agutter make an absolutely enchanting screen couple; the evolution of their characters' relationship is one of the key pleasures of the film. Richard Jordan brings complexity and intensity to his role as a fellow Sandman. And Peter Ustinov is delightfully warm, funny, and loveable in a critical supporting role.

The DVD includes a vintage "making of" featurette, as well as a full-length audio commentary by actor York, director Anderson, and costume designer Bill Thomas. The three discuss casting, stunts, special effects, Peter Ustinov's ad-libbing, and other aspects of making the film. They reveal some fascinating and delightful bits of trivia along the way. This is one of those great commentary tracks that makes you appreciate the film even more.

Don't bother replacing your old DVD copy of Logan's Run for this new one with a modernized (lamer) cover. This is another bad transfer, blurry with all sorts of film abnormalities.

Still gets a 4 because this movie is wonderfully strange and fun.