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Logan's Run (1976)
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Jenny Agutter...sigh...
Witness a society driven underground by the near utter ruination of the Earth to a great domed city. Hedonism is the lifestyle, and great pains are taken to ensure that their unique ecosystem is balanced. This entails a procedure known as Carousel, which you must enter when your life clock blinks red, indicating that you have turned thirty. In Carousel you are essentially obliterated, with the hope that you will be renewed. But has anyone ever been renewed?
This is the conceit of the Michael Anderson directed Logan's Run, one of my personal favorites. I guess that that should sort of inform you how the rest of this review is going to go. Actually, looking at it now, it seems like sort of a precursor to Minority Report. Michael York plays the titular Logan (5), a Sandman whose duty it is to terminate runners. Runners being, of course, people who do not necessarily feel the need to burst to a sparkly death on their 30th birthday, known here as Last Day. When Logan finds an ankh in the possession of a recently terminated runner, he is called upon to take on a mission to find and destroy a mythical place known as Sanctuary, where it is thought that all of the unfound runners have gotten off to. Enter Jessica (7), played by the absolutely yummy Jenny Agutter, who seems to know a bit about Sanctuary, or at least the small resistance group that attempts to aid and abet runners. Together they venture through the city seals to discover what may lie outward.
This is just such a great film. The Carousel scene is enormous, even if the rest of the special effects are not terribly special. It is also very sweet in it's own way. The denizens of this unnamed city are born in breeders, never knowing their parents. They put themselves in "The Circuit" when they are feeling randy, and most of them never question the necessity of their life clocks, which basically define their very existence. The core of the film is about finding your humanity, about questioning things, about making real connections to real people. It is also an allegory for coming to terms with your own mortality, and how there just might be some wisdom that comes with age.
As I stated early, Jenny Agutter is fine, and Michael York plays Logan with just enough Luke Skywalker-whininess to be believably naïve, but enough heroism to be able to root for him. But the real treats for me in this film are Richard Jordan as Logan's Sandman pal Francis, who tries to understand Logan's plight but ultimately fails, and the amazing Peter Ustinov in an unnamed role. He is referred to, by Logan, as "That sweet, old madman," with more than a little affection.
So, pop the movie in because you love sci-fi and out of the way movies, but stay for the action, charm, and really outstanding costume design :)
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