ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here’s three science fiction movies that don’t age well.

Logan’s Run was somewhat impressive when first released . . . but less so now, for a variety of reasons.

A Boy and His Dog definitely has it’s fans . . . but if you didn’t care for it back in 1975, you’ll problem be unimpress if you see it much later.

Futureworld is a lame sequel to the less-than-stellar original film.
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Logan's Run (1976)

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I'll have to be honest here . . . the reason I went to see Logan's Run a 2nd time in theaters back in 1976 was Jenny Agutter . . . plain & simple. I couldn't get the picture of her in that diaphanous attire — hardly concealing anything in her first scene with Michael York — out of my mind.

That said, there were other very attractive elements to this. Big budget Sci-Fi pictures were still rather rare (just before Star Wars) and I was impressed with the scope. It all takes place in the far future of the 23rd century, showing us an enclosed Utopian society of exclusively young people (under 30 yrs old), but policed by a force of "Sandmen" — fairly ruthless, callous enforcers who hunt down "Runners" or those citizens who choose an escape attempt when their time in paradise is up. The society is run by some sort of super-computer to keep the population always correctly balanced; it's female-voiced.



Unfortunately, this film began on the downside with the opening credits — the shots of the multi-domed city were too obviously a model and threw me out of the picture before it even began, really. I tried to get those opening shots out of mind as the film progressed and mostly succeeded. Some of the interior long shots of the city weren't much better, however — though they looked OK back in the seventies.

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I'm also not too thrilled by the lack of any substantial backstory for this entire set-up. It's almost like some godling created this magical city one day and set up all the rules. Many details are missing — we see a baby hospital in the beginning, but rarely any adolescents or teens except as wild urchins in one section of the city no one else goes to. Who raises the kids here? (my guess is the computer).

Also, Logan himself (Michael York) is problematic. He's presented as one of the Sandmen villains at the start, then sent on a secret mission by the ruling computer. His motivations from then on are either ambivalent or self-serving. He is, after all, seeking to escape his own turn at Carousel (death) out of self-preservation — there's nothing heroic about that. Yet he is depicted as the hero of the story for most of it, almost noble in his attitude (this may be the fault of actor York, who can't help but act in a certain manner; he's British, you know — that D'Artagnan ideal).



But the film was quite entertaining. I was kept hooked for most of it, as Logan & Jessica began their quest and moved from one interesting locale to the next (and Agutter even had a brief nude scene later). There was always something strange or wondrous going on.

I liked the tense conflict that developed between Logan and fellow Sandman Francis (Richard Jordan). Farrah-Fawcett was already becoming famous in the first season of Charlie's Angels. And it was great to see Peter Ustinov appear amid all those cats in an otherwise-deserted Washington D.C. But again, there's a lack of details: why only Ustinov in this decaying city? (see ZPG-1972 for one intriguing possibility as a prequel).

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

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Besides the short TV series which followed, Marvel Comics adapted this into a 6-issue series, art by George Perez. There were 2 more issues that attempted to continue the story without Perez (art by Tom Sutton), but the series was then canceled.


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Some Trivia on the casting:

Jon Voight was in talks to play Logan but nothing ever came of it. William Devane actually signed on as Francis but felt he was wrong for the part and bowed out. Lindsay Wagner was considered for the role of Jessica, the part that went to Agutter. William F. Nolan is very proud of his baby (Logan's Run and the sequel novels, Logan's World and Logan's Search), referring to it by such descriptions as a 'global phenomenon.'

I'm going by dim memory, but I think he (or Johnson) got very upset at writer David Gerrold way back in the day (late seventies) after Gerrold said some unkind words about the concept. Gerrold may have been referring more to the movie, less the novels.



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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A Boy and His Dog (1975)

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Well, now . . . here we have A Boy and His Dog (1975). I obtained a Laserdisc in 1996. Don Johnson (Miami Vice) stars in an early role and Jason Robards also pops up.



The year is 2024. The atomic bombs we see going off some years before do not represent World War III as many think. The titles tell us it's World War IV. What happened to World War III? Probably pushed aside to another part of Harlan Ellison's mind. (Actually, I re-checked: Blood the dog tells us WWIII was the Cold War, from 1950-1983, according to this re-telling of history).

Nowadays, we can argue that World War III is happening now, as it has been for the past decade or two, and World War IV is the one where we really empty our nuclear arsenals.



When I first saw this in a theater in the seventies, I confess I was put off by some of the elements. I was old enough already to recognize the dark, twisted humor, but some of the narrative, mostly in that weird underground recreation of small town Americana (the last half-hour), was just too bizarre and a turn-off.

Someone was trying very hard to offer a vicious sideways view of certain institutions many hold dear — I get it. L.Q. Jones himself (the director) has stated repeatedly that this isn't for kids, despite the dog — the most likable character, of course . And the best one, perhaps. As the story goes, the dog was almost nominated for an Oscar, as a person. Overall, this is an unusual & esoteric depiction of a post-holocaust landscape.



The one thing that caught my attention & appreciation right off the bat was the set design, the visual depiction. I watched Vic (Don Johnson) and the dog wander over this desolate landscape, sometimes surreal, sometimes downbeat (well, almost always downbeat) and thought — yeah, this is the way it really would be.

There was a lot of thought put into the visuals, based on some theorizing that I never heard before. Like, that setting off all the nukes at once would stop the Earth's rotation just for a fraction of a second — but with enough momentum for the oceans to sweep over the land masses. So, now everything is covered with a 20-foot layer of dried, caked mud.

And that's what we see here, in this film.



ABOVE: Vic HUNTS FOR FEMALES & FOOD; Vic ATTENDS AN OUTDOORS MOVIE SCREENING

I also liked it that makeshift theaters were still operating. Out there in the middle of nowhere, in the desolation, someone was still running a projector, officiated by armed guards. And one could still sit down and watch some old movie on a tattered screen — maybe even a softcore porn film.

Even Ellison himself liked this film and he had that reputation of trying to throw Hollywood producers out of windows when they would erase a line of his written dialog. They screened this film for him right after putting it together and he walked out after simply stating that this was his story! Oh, btw, L.Q. Jones has said that director George Miller admitted he more-or-less copied A Boy and His Dog for his own post-holocaust adventure The Road Warrior, but with simply a lot more action.

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BoG's Score: 7 out of 10



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Futureworld (1976)

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This is the sequel to Westworld (1973). Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner star as two intrepid journalists who are invited to the rebuilt Delos resort/adult amusement park by the top exec (Arthur Hill). Chuck (Fonda) smells a rat because a contact of his was killed just as he was about to give him some information.

Sure enough, the reporters soon uncover a plot to replace the leaders of the world with bio-manufactured duplicates. That's the twist; it's no longer robots but the then-new cloning gambit.

See also: Scream and Scream Again/1970 for a similar plot, as well as a few sci-fi seventies films about cloning. However, some robots do show up.

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I admire the film for trying to go in a different direction, rather than just duplicating the first film's plot, but here's a case where I wish they stuck with some of the visceral bite of the original.

The story again touches on the possibilities of a society indulging in decadence with the escalation of technology, but it's a perfunctory sidelight here. The story focuses more on the investigative thriller angle — on this nefarious plot to take over the world — but the reasons for this diabolical scheme are never really explained.

Some of the concepts seemed outlandish back then — the clones. But they're more relevant now and the advances in entertainment since then, included in places like Disneyworld-Epcot, makes this somewhat more topical.

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There are also some bizarre, hard-to-explain sequences. At one point, a trio of samurai warriors materialize and chase the 2 reporters. Were these holograms?

Still, there are good things. The reporters are like a hip version of Clark Kent & Lois Lane. Chuck's pet name for his partner is "Socks" — they start out as adversarial but warm to each other.

One robot (see pic above) is named Clark, btw, as an homage to the "Man of Steel". Stuart Margolin plays an on-site maintenance man who has an interesting relationship with this robot.

There are some brief, intriguing bits about future gaming, like a holographic chess game (a year before a similar scene in Star Wars). And there is a good shocker of a revelation during a struggle. The finale, when Chuck gives a salute to the main villain, is a crowd-pleaser.


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But, overall, it's slow — even the climactic chase when the reporters are battling their evil duplicates.

Another clear example of failing to utilize the best ingredients of the first film is the appearance of the gunslinger robot character (Yul Brynner). When I first went to see this in the theater, I expected the gunslinger to be unveiled in one scene as a last resort weapon of the main villain. Instead, it's not even the actual gunslinger we see here — it's an imaginary version presented in a strange dream sequence as part of the female reporter's fantasy.

I think this sequence is the main reason most fans deride this sequel. This was the last screen appearance of actor Brynner.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10


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