Dir. Michael Anderson
USA
1976
IMDB 6.7
Novel by William Nolan and George Clayton Johnson and TS Eliot ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’
Star Michael York
Borrowed DVD from Eric Barkey
Knox, 2008
In the future you are have a mark which shows at age thirty, at which point you are ’sent up’ in a ritual ceremony. There are police (Logan) there to stop – the runners, who try and escape. But Logan becomes a runner. Is it true that the ritual renews us for a better life, that it is for our protection – or is there a more sinister answer?
It is a utopian ideal story. The society has been constructed in a controlled way for maximum productivity, efficiency and happiness, at the cost of old age. Logan, of course, represents the human striving for freedom against models of society (and humanity) which are incomplete, and harmful, but which are enforced in the situation where individual egoism (for creating a new ideal world) overtakes the purported concern for the greater good.
It’s not a very good film, really, but it captures the imagination. The tagline is good, the actors and actresses are beautiful, and the concept is sound. It’s a little flat – the acting, the execution of the plot, everything. But it still stands as the prime example of a type.
One could judge it by the white-washed image above, and say it would be a beautiful film, or by the movie poster, and say, well, it’s not exactly art, is it? Clearly an ideology film, with a stiff but admirably clear approach.
