Logan’s Run (1976)
Posted by admin | Filed under Films!
(Warning: I dont need to tell you that, if you havnt already seen this film, reading the below may entirely ruin your experience! If you want to experience this movie properly, watch it before carrying on!!)
So ive begun with this movie because it has a personal significance, in that it was the first film where i felt there was a story, underneath the one being told. It was about 13 years ago, during a time of personal crisis, and in a moment i remembered this film, which i hadnt watched since i was a child. I remembered that I had a feeling when watching it - that there was something deeper and more personal hidden within it. Importantly, that feeling matched the one I was going through at the time - a process of internal transformation.
So here goes:
Logans run is a story set in a future world. This world is entirely composed of large domes, which house all of humanity. The outside is meant to have been destroyed, and is unable to be inhabited by humans (there is also a wonderful comedy version featuring a similar theme, called “Sexmajizska” which i will talk about later). The lead character “Logan” is a “sandman” - one of the higher class of individuals, with responsibity for security, especially in relation to “runners”. Runners are those who seek to escape the compound, and notably the mandatory death sentence that everyone faces once they reach 30 years old. The only escape they have is a “death match” game called “carousel” in which players can have the possibilty of another incarnation, and escape death. (This is revealed during the film to be a hoax - a trick).
For me, the connections are obvious - a society which is sealed off - i.e. there is “no exit”, dedicated to pleasure seeking, narcissism and youth-obsessed, where there is litte way of accessing a deeper spiritual life. Ring any bells? (When i use the term “deeper spiritual life” - i mean a *direct* experience of the divine, and transcendence - *not* religious activity).
I like that the first words, of the first film im going to talk about - are: “wake up” 
Here is the first scene:
In the film, this scene is to describe how the birth process happens - i.e. the mother and father both do not bring up the child, but just “seed” it. Notice also the absence of any human carer! And also, the distress the child is in. Attention is also given to the red mark on the palm of the babies hand - an indication that the mark is there _at birth_. This has significance later on. Importantly for me this scene is about infant distress, as a signifier for the rest of the film.
