"Sometime in the 23rd century... the survivors of war, overpopulation and pollution are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the forgotten world outside. There, in an ecologically balanced world, mankind lives only for pleasure, freed by the servo-mechanisms which provide everything.
There's just one catch: Life must end at thirty unless reborn in the fiery ritual of Carrousel..."
Another classic, but at least sci-fi cult film from 1976 (I mean from 2274:) by Michael Anderson about the possible future: at least in its above quoted prologue it encounters all our actual threat which might lead to the depicted utopia (the film definitely made influence on such movies like the Polish cult Seksmisja, but even Verhoeven's Total Recall or Bay's The Island). Our protagonist, Logan 5 (Michael York, who sometimes looks pretty much like Guy Pearce - see the pic) is a "sandman", a member of a special unit who are collecting and killing the so called runners, the ones who doesn't want to "renew" when they turn into 30.
"One is terminated, one is born. Simply, logical, perfect."
One day the 26 years old Logan gets a special mission: his superiors transform him 30 to create a runner from him in order to infiltrate and search for the secret place of the runners called Sanctuary. Why do they run? Why is it wrong to run? Logan's run is more a process of his awake, the realisation of the cruelty of their "well balanced" system.
After the first scene and the initial tune of the atmospheric soundtrack (omg Jerry Goldsmith was a genious! (he wrote the score for The Omen (best st. ever), Chinatown (or this would be the best?) from the same year, and later - not accidentally - for Totall Recall, too)) you feel Anderson's effort to make a "big" film; whish I could watch these classics on a big canvas...
Anyway, Logan's Run isn't a flawless film, for example the middle part is definitely longer than it should be, but if you're a sci-fi fan, then it is a real delicacy. Otherwise: you decide.
6/10
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