Logan's Run (BD)

In hindsight, this movie can be credited as one of the first cyberpunk movies ever made, and it's also a testament of how rigid the rating system for movies has become at present. Logan's Run was rated PG back in 1976 and includes nudity (almost full-frontal, no less) from Jenny Agutter in one scene, plus the clothes she wears are pretty much transparent throughout; you'd never see that in one of today's PG-rated films. The next few paragraphs contain spoilers of the plot, so for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to skip over. I've never read the novel it's based on, but the premise of the movie is pretty unique, considering. About 300 years in the future, the whole of civilization is contained inside one huge domed city, with the ruins surrounding it the result of some apocalyptic event. Life inside the city is utopic. There are no worries beyond choosing what you're going to do with your free time. There are drugs. There's sex with no commitment (indeed, any kind of emotional attachment is looked on as an aberration). There's getting a different face at the local New You bodysculpting kiosk. Everything is provided for you by the computer mainframe that runs the city. There is no crime, save one. Running. You see, the price for this kind of carefree existence is that your life ends when you turn thirty. In an effort to maintain population control, the mainframe has conditioned people to accept their thirtieth birthday as 'Lastday' and present themselves for a special celebration called Carousel where they 'renew' and start life over. People know when their time arrives when a small crystal imbedded in the palm of their hand begins flashing. Certain individuals rebel against this and they've formed an underground movement with the ankh (the ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life) as their icon. They don't believe in the myth of Carousel and they choose to run instead. The Sandmen, the only real police force the city has, exist specifically to hunt these Runners down and eliminate them. The main character of the movie is Logan 5, a Sandman, who is perfectly content with his job hunting Runners with his friend, until he meets up with Jessica 6, played by Jenny Agutter, who has one of the underground's ankhs in her possession. The mainframe then chooses him to infiltrate the underground movement and eliminate it from the inside. The incentive it gives him is by taking away his remaining time, forcibly turning him into a Runner. He begins to question everything he's been taught to believe after teaming up with Agutter's character to escape the city. Through their journey, being pursued all the while by Logan's Sandman friend, they discover a rather chilling side to both the city itself and the society within it. Outside the city they come across something they've never witnessed before, a man who's lived long enough to be in his dotage (played convincingly by Peter Ustinov of 'Spartacus' fame). They bring him back to the city, where Logan is captured and brought before the mainframe computer for questioning. The computer cannot reconcile his answers with the information it possesses and self destructs. Logan then reveals the Old Man to the rest of society, letting them know they don't have to die. People are then free to make their own decisions and live life as they see fit. End of story. END OF SPOILER This movie was one of the first to portray the dangers of what civilization could become. At first glance, everything might seem to be bliss, but the degree to which everything has become impersonalized and controlled and how de-valued the individual has become in the story is really rather frightening. Look at society today. Companies now refer to us as 'human resources' rather than personnel, willing to cut 25,000 jobs here and 50,000 jobs there, calling it a 'business decision' and leaving many people on the verge of homelessness. Political correctness is currently all the rage. Computers are taking a much more prominent role in our personal lives than ever before. With our current 'entitlement' attitude, we pretty much insist on having everything set before us on a silver platter and complain LOUDLY when it isn't. Don't think. Exist. We are now SO content to let others handle our personal responsibilities that Logan's Run has almost a prophetic air to it. The one difference is that our lives don't currently have a time limit. Yet... This vision alone puts it up there as one of the classics of the day. I'm also not taking off any marks for the 1970s special effects. They may seem incredibly dated today, but they were considered good at the time. They just didn't have access to CGI. Also, the dialogue and the acting were par for the course for the time period so I'm giving that high marks, too. The movie was also popular enough to spawn a short-lived television series. The series was rather more cinematic than the movie in scope, considering some of the creatures the trio of adventurers comes across, but it was still entertaining in its own way. All in all, Logan's Run was a movie with a VERY powerful message behind it, and it is one worth listening to. Keep an open mind and you might enjoy it. And before you think of jumping the gun and trashing Logan's Run because it WAS a cheesy 1976 sci-fi flick, movie producer Joel Silver likes this show enough to be pushing to direct a new version of it. Two thumbs up.

Good flick.

Still good entertainment

I like Logan's Run. more because of sentimental values really, but nonetheless a good film in itself. Story of a community ruled under a "dome" by specific rules and based in the future in the year 2274, very much far ahead that realistically I hope we make it that long. This film was released in 1976 and it did good when it first came out winning two Oscars at the time. It is a "sci-fi" movie which in 1976 looked pretty good then, but when you watch it, you need to make sure you don't compare the quality of the special effects with the technology that exists today so many years, so if you are able to do you'll enjoy, is a classic on its own merits. As I said every one in earth lived together under a dome and no one could get older than at the age of 30, which will then become the time for that person to be executed thru a specific way they had how to go about it. In fact when they were called upon to report once they became 30 years old, they reported without any complaints as this was the only kind of world they ever knew, till they discover different later, but I will let you find that out yourself when you see it. Michael York was the main character whom plays the role of some "law enforcement" enforcing the rules among one of the main ones is to make sure those that thought about escaping the dome known as '"runner", he was in charge of stopping them. This one also was co-starred by Farah Fawcett-Majors during her early acting career. The joy of the whole movie I thought of it to be at best when Peter Ustinov, classic actor, comes into the picture laying a specific role that would amaze you as well as it amazed them "runners" those that made it, of course.

This would be a good movie to remake and upgrade, but who is the new Ustinov?! He is my favorite character! Great revisit to childhood.

Für ein siebziger Jahre Film ist die Handlung sehr überzeugend und aktueller denn je

Great classic film

parfait

Arrived exactly as described.

Ener der besten Oldy-Filme