You better run all day and run all night
We watched the Logan's Run DVD that Joe gave Maribeth on her 30th birthday. I read the book long ago but I never watched the movie until now.I was struck by the many parallels between this 1976 movie and the 1982 movie Blade Runner. There's, um, the "running" title, and special policemen chasing escapees who are unhappy about their abbreviated lifespans and "want more life." There's the ambiguous sympathy between hunter and hunted. Certain lines of dialogue are almost the same. There's some similarity between the Old Man who lives alone with his cats and the "prematurely senescent" J.F. Sebastian who lives alone with animate toys of his own creation. I wonder if this movie wasn't as much of an influence on Blade Runner as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was. In particular, Ridley Scott is said not to have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but maybe he saw the movie Logan's Run.
In Logan's Run, the Computer does a really abysmal job of motivating Logan for his mission. By refusing to answer or even acknowledge his questions, the Computer effectively says in not so many words: "I've been lying to you all your life, you're going to die in four years time without hope of rebirth, actually I'm taking those four years away from you now, no you won't get them back. Now go forth and do my bidding!" If you believe in Deckard-as-replicant theories, then this parallels (I think unintentionally) the miserable job that Tyrell Corporation has done filling replicant-Deckard with enthusiasm for his work.
I was interested to sort-of recognize bits of Dallas/Fort Worth scenery where the movie was shot, but I'm a bit confused about the exact locales. Some shots were from the Fort Worth Water Gardens. I think some others were from downtown Dallas, but The Internet doesn't confirm this.
posted by Richard Mason @ Saturday, January 19, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home