OVP: Logan's Run (1976)

Film: Logan's Run (1976)
Stars: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Farrah Fawcett, Peter Ustinov
Director: Michael Anderson
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Cinematography and Art Direction)...the film also received a Special Award for Visual Effects (side note-so did King Kong that year, and Midway was also out in theaters, so why not have a competitive category?  It's not like they hadn't had a competitive Visual Effects category before at the Oscars or would do it again...the very next year, in fact)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Ross Geller once called it the sexiest movie ever.  That was probably my first introduction to Logan's Run.  However, once I learned a little bit about the plot, I decided to wait before I experienced all of the paleontologist-approved sexiness, and instead wanted to watch the film right before I turned...a certain number that is important in the film that I'm still a bit in denial about turning.  That date is now approaching, and so last night I curled up on the couch, watched the movie (though not, as Ross did, with my Denise Richards-looking cousin), and giggled throughout.

(Spoiilers Ahead) Ross's definition of sexiness is a bit questionable to me now, but I kind of see what he's going with-he is indeed correct that everyone is at least dressed sexily, I suppose.  It's the year 2274 and the entire world is in a domed city, where at the age of thirty people must undergo the process of Carousel and be renewed.  What we learn fairly quickly is that this process is bogus, and what actually happens is that everyone is killed at the age of thirty.

Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman, and celebrates this culture obliviously.  Sandmen track runners in the city (people who try and flee when they are nearing thirty) and terminate them.  Logan is given an assignment by the governing computer (oh how technology was feared in the 1970's) to find and destroy a place called Sanctuary, where successful runners have escaped and are now hiding.  To do this, the computer pushes Logan's tracking crystal (which is in his hand) to be red, meaning that he is now 30 instead of 26 like in reality.

This follows a series of events that you'd expect.  Logan flees the city to save his life, with a beautiful girl named Jessica 6 (Agutter) by his side, though being hotly pursued by his fellow sandman Francis 7 (Jordan).  Once outside the city, we find that this is the United States, and they go through the swampy remains of Washington DC, with the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial all covered in vines.  There they meet an old man (Ustinov) and realize there is no sanctuary.  Rather foolhardily, they return to the city and try and stop Carousel, and though no one believes them, the computer overrides when it learns that there is no Sanctuary and the city explodes, forcing everyone out and into the real world.

I just rushed through that last explanation on purpose, since the film itself does that.  The movie is indeed, well, sexy, in certain aspects-it's very modern, and it actually pegs some parts of our modern life quite well.  One of the more famous scenes is where Logan 5 is using a transmitter and shopping throughout the city for a sexual partner.  If there's a better predictor in 1970's/80's cinema of Chat Roulette, I don't know what it is (also, interestingly enough the first person to show is a guy, which implied gay sex to anyone paying attention-anyone think this a bit odd for a blockbuster from 1976?).  There's also a "Love Shop" sequence that involves what may be the earliest cinematic depiction of "third base" that I've seen insinuated onscreen.  Edgy stuff, for 1976.

But the film is too poorly-paced to be any good, and the acting too stiff and silly for anyone to take it seriously.  The film spends so much time with Jessica and Logan exploring DC, talking with the Old Man (Ustinov, whom you would assume is the best part of the ensemble, is far too full of tics and giggles to be anything other than a Walter Huston-style impression of a human being), that it completely ignores the ending.  Are Logan and Jessica so stupid as to think that that shouting from a balcony is a good plan?  The ending is completely rushed, and feels tacked on in a way that you think the director was forced to do so by the studio (I have found little evidence of this while searching the IMDB trivia page, but it's still my theory).  The movie just sort of finds an out-are we really to believe that the computer was never faced with something it didn't believe before?  It seems far-fetched.

The movie is a lot like that though-a lot of surface level pleasures but nothing really of substance, despite having the elements of something to say in there.  It clearly wants to be more important than it is, picking topics such as group think and ageism to focus on (I have long felt that while every prejudice is idiotic, ageism is literally the stupidest prejudice from a practical standpoint, if only because it's the only prejudice we are fully aware we will fall victim to if we live long enough...end side caveat), but every time it seems like the movie is about to say something interesting, it pivots and seems more intent on a special effect or a crazy side story about a robot obsessed with plankton (weirdest scene in the film...and I already mentioned the Love Shop).  The cinematography is only okay-it doesn't have the consistency of some other films of the era like Chinatown, though the art direction (also Oscar-nominated) should be rewarded for its scale (it seems huge) even if practically speaking it never actually seems believable that the city could hold that many people in such luxury.

I'll leave it there-have any of you seen Logan's Run?  Do you agree with Ross Geller's assessment?  What do you think of its Oscar nominations or future-predicting skills?  Share in the comments!