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Logan's Run (1976)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 3:44 pm    Post subject: Logan's Run (1976) Reply with quote


This one didn't exactly knock my socks off when it first came out, but I've warmed up to it over the years. Star Wars was just a year away, but nobody knew that except a few thousand people who were working on it — and how weird that must have been. Sort of like being the planners of D-Day, knowing how it would change the tide of World War II.

Although the sets are a mixture of full-sized sound stages, miniatures, and borrowed locations like glitzy shopping malls, they work together well. But today's audiences are used to seeing multi-million dollar sets that are as solid as real architecture, seamlessly combined with green-screen CGI. Compared to these, the fullsized sets in Logan's Run tend to look a little shaky, and the miniatures are blatantly . . . well, miniature.

That's not the movie's fault. Times change and standards change with them.

But there's no denying that Logan's Run is a delight to the eye. Allowing for the era in which it was made, it convinces the viewer that this futuristic habitat has been polished to a high luster.















The characters are interesting and appealing, too. Jenny Agutter is a pure delight, and Michael York is both macho and classy — a rare combo indeed.









Veteran actor Peter Ustinov makes aging look cool and poetry sound intelligent. (I'm not a big fan of either one, so that's quite a feat.)





I'm not sure if the scene below was shot on a set built for the movie or a location they borrowed because it was 90% neon and just looks good.





I wasn't too keen on Box, the mirrored robot, when I first saw him, but I admire his glitz and glitter. If he hadn't shaken around so much when he tried to move, he might have been more convincingly hi-tech. Maybe a floating version might have worked better, but that wasn't so easy to do back in 1976.







Farah Fawcett was just another Hollywood blonde back in 1976, but a certain Aaron Spelling cop show started the same year the movie was released, and before you could say, "Good morning, Charlie!" she was the subject of a decorative poster that was more popular than the Power Ranger actions figures were in 1994. (Remember that marketing fiasco?)



I haven't heard anything official yet, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts Hollywood is going to get around to a remake of this movie before the current crop of hot young directors turn thirty!

No doubt about it, Logan's Run is high on the list of well-done science fiction movies that stand the test of time. Jerry Goldsmith's score provides the perfect soundtrack for this enjoyable adventure into the FUTURE . . . Future . . . future . . .
future . . .


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Nov 13, 2022 2:54 pm; edited 7 times in total
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ralfy
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Logan's Run To Be Remade With Female Lead"

https://uk.yahoo.com/movies/logans-run-to-be-remade-with-female-lead-115836115209.html
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________

This could work just fine if the writing is good. It forces changes on the story (subtle ones, not really big ones) that would make it look less like "Ray Gunn stars as Micheal York -- who starred as Logan 5!"

You know. Comparisons to the original movie, instead of just enjoying the new one.

We shall see.

_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Nov 24, 2020 3:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2016 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

The trailer for this classic certainly makes a great pitch for it, and not just by flashing quick images on screen and then fading to black, over and over again, like the annoying trailers of today!

This is what trailers are supposed to look like!


________________________________

______________ Logan's Run Official Trailer #1


___________

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Nov 24, 2020 3:04 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 87 trivia items for this movie. Here's a few of the ones I found the most interesting. Very Happy
________________________________

Peter Ustinov's character has no name and is billed only in the credits as "Old Man". Despite having a major supporting role in the second half of the film, no footage of Ustinov appears in the trailer.

Note from the other Old Man: Peter's performance is a highlight of this movie.

Though the model of the dome city's interior lacks sufficient detail to give it any sense of realism, it was nonetheless constructed on a fairly large scale in order to accommodate the rail system for the miniature maze cars. Many of the buildings in the foreground of the model were three to four feet in height. The buildings were built at differing scales based on their distance from the camera, to give the model landscape a greater sense of depth (a common photographic/special effects technique known as "forced perspective").

Note from the other Old Man: I'd never noticed the trick in perspective while seeing the city scenes, so I guess it worked pretty well! Very Happy

Peter Ustinov improvised much of his dialogue.

Note from the other Old Man: No wonder it sounds so natural for Peter! What a guy. Wink

Roscoe Lee Browne both voiced and performed Box the robot on-set. The unwieldy costume made it impossible for Browne to right himself if he fell over.

Note from the other Old Man: It's unusual for actor who completely covered (like Darth Vader, for example) to also do the voice. And Box's voice is perfect for that robot.

The picture spawned a short-lived 14 episode American CBS television series Logan's Run (1977) which aired during the 1977-78 season.

Note from the other Old Man: I watched a few episodes when it first aired. I wasn't very impressed.

Before producing the film himself, producer Saul David shopped the property to producer Irwin Allen, who picked up the book rights as an option. Unfortunately, Allen was at the top of his game with his legendary disaster films The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and The Towering Inferno (1974) and so put Logan's Run (1976) on the back-burner.

Unfortunately, the property rights lapsed, and so the film was eventually produced by David himself.


Note from the other Old Man: I don't think that was unfortunate at all. I don't believe Irwin Allen's version would have been as good.

The Sandmen's laser guns worked using tiny butane gas cartridges, but were very unreliable on-camera, as the gas did not always ignite when the trigger was pulled.

Note from the other Old Man: The design of the guns were pretty good, but cigarette lighter effect (instead of beam FX) was not impressive.

The catfight between Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett was planned to be a much longer scene. This had to be changed when the two actresses pulled hair too hard and Michael Anderson feared they would end up fighting for real.

Note from the other Old Man: Women: Can't live with 'em, can't let 'em fight in movies. Rolling Eyes

The cats in Peter Ustinov's scene actually lived on the set. To ease the boredom, Ustinov made cat drawings for Jenny Agutter. One was called "Cat-tastrophe," and featured a squished cat. Another was of a zombie feline, titled "Cat-atonic."

Note from the other Old Man: I tried to find some pictures of the drawings. No luck. Sad

A partial release of the film score composed by Jerry Goldsmith was released on vinyl LP by MGM Records in 1976. The expanded and complete score was not released until January 2002 - by Film Score Monthly on CD.

Note from the other Old Man: Ah yes, I have that album. Great score!

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LR is a visually appealing film for that era. However, the concept of death over 30 was intriguing. Especially in our society.

Few other countries seem to worship at the altar of youth (aka Madison Ave) than America. Movies & television cater, focus, spotlight the all important 18-49 demographic market. This is reflected in film & TV.

They rarely want to do a project that centers upon actors much older than 50. So the concept of LR was relevant in '77 & even more so now. But I never warmed up to the movie.

Somehow it did not come together & deliver the message with power. Sort of meandered & was dull in spots.

Box was silly looking, not threatening as it should have been. Looked like he'd be more at home on Pee Wee's Playhouse.

The Sandman pistols were a fine looking design.

I did like the cast. Just watched Peter Ustinov in Spartacus again for the millionth time.How I love that classic epic historical film.

Peter is fantastic in it & I relish every minute he's on screen. Of course the entire cast were no slouches.

Watched the CBS TV series of LR. Back in the day we had only 3 television channels. So when a brand new sci-fi series came to our small screens you darn well made sure to check out every sf show.

We were lucky to have one or two sf shows per season. Police shows dominated the 3 networks.Followed by legal.medical series & sitcoms.

Watching the LR TV show was disappointing, but they did attempt to cover intriguing ideas & topics. But like the movie it just never seemed to be executed well.

Harlan Ellison wrote the episode "Crypt", David Gerrold scripted "Man Out Of Time". Both shows presented compelling plots, just as we would expect from these marvelous writers. And both scripts were interfered with enough by the producers so that both men were frustrated & angry. I believe each gent had their names removed from the credits on screen.

LR was not a great show but it tried to set the sci-fi bar higher than anything we saw by Irwin Allen.

No, the LR TV series is hardly a classic by any means. I do give it an A for effort . . . some of the time.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read once that they couldn't get the lens they needed to get the city miniatures to look correct.

The Sandman pistols used the guts from a pistol-shape butane lighter. The guns had a tank in the back which held water and a piece of carbide to produce acetylene gas. There was a switch in front of the trigger that activated a model airplane glow plug. When the trigger was pulled, acetylene gas would be released, and the glow plug would ignite the gas. A felt washer coated with copper flux produced the green flame.

The problem with the flame gun was that the gas lighter valve could not contain the pressure from the gas tank, and would leak. If the glow plug was left on, which could happen while holstering the gun. Then the actors could, and did find a ball of green flame surrounding the pistol, at their side, or in their hand. Michael York said it was a very startling experience.

I remember reading on a Logan's Run web site, where they were going to make some flame guns using the original gas lighters. They quickly dropped that plan, as they found the lighters to be too dangerous to use.

For the TV show, the flame guns were remade with custom valves. It was a much safer prop.

David.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 9:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LOGAN"S RUN was also made into a couple of comic series.
First in 1977 by Marvel Comics :







And again in 1990 by Bluewater Comics :




And Adventure Comics :

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 2:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This should drive Bud crazy.

Here's a few Cos-play shots of Jenny Aggutter from LOGAN"S RUN !




Too bad his life crystal has expired!!!


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mach7
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord, where are the photos!

This movie is next up in line for me to watch. I expect I'll get to it in the next week.

I have very fond memories of this movie, probably
because it's the first time I saw breasts on the big screen. It kind of made an impression on me...

I did read the book about a decade ago and thinking that this was the rare occasion of the movie being better than the book. Blade runner is another.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:

. . . Though the model of the dome city's interior lacks sufficient detail to give it any sense of realism, it was nonetheless constructed on a fairly large scale in order to accommodate the rail system for the miniature maze cars.

I assume whoever originally wrote that meant to say "the model of the dome city's exterior."

The domed city model could have been more convincing if they hadn't shot it mostly from high angles that made it look like -- well, like a large model of a futuristic city.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
I assume whoever originally wrote that meant to say "the model of the dome city's exterior."

Hmmm. Tricky situation here. The exterior of the city is on the interior of the dome. But I agree that the IMDB author confused things, when all he had to say was "the model of the doomed city . . .", using neither exterior nor interior. Very Happy

scotpens wrote:
The domed city model could have been more convincing if they hadn't shot it mostly from high angles that made it look like -- well, like a large model of a futuristic city.

No confusion here. The high angles (and the lighting) were mistakes. If the city had been equipped with many small lights (like windows in the buildings and street lamps along the streets), it would have been more convincing.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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mach7
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just finished Logan's Run.

It holds up very well. The only real drawback is the interior/exterior city. It just looks terrible. The lake really ruins the effect, it looks like tub water. No ripples, just a completely smooth surface.

The movie is well acted and except for the city the effects are very good for the time. I could see many matte lines though.

I like Box. I think the chrome look to his head really works, I could only see RLB's mouth twice inside the mask.

I noticed there was VERY little diversity in the city, only good looking Caucasians.

The story flows good, very little fluff. Barely enough gratuitous nudity for the mid '70s.

The Carousel scene was not meant to be watched in BluRay, I could see some of the wires.

As I did the '70s, I love the Washington DC stuff. As has been posted, Peter Ustinov really steals the movie here.

Over all a nice, fun movie, and as I posted, one of the few times the movie is better than the book.
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Custer
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm sure Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett didn't have any rivalry at all on the movie set...

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ralfy
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe they can do some computerized tweaks of the special effects to make it look better, like one sample for Star Trek TOS.
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