| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Logan's Run (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... for Jerry Goldsmith's masterful interplay between the
score's two themes, the romantic payoff at the end a hearty conclusion
to an otherwise challenging work.
Avoid it... if the composer's synthetic explorations of atonality during the 1970's drive you insane, for the completely electronic passages in the score are wildly intrusive.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Logan's Run: (Jerry Goldsmith) The distinction
between utopia and dystopia is explored in the 1976 futuristic thriller
Logan's Run, a science fiction extravaganza highly awarded for
its visual aesthetic. Several hundred years into the future, humans live
in relative comfort under giant domes, with all their needs guided by
computers. Orgies and other heathenistic activities are encouraged and
normal. But in return for that lifestyle is a rule that all people must
die at the age of 30. Naturally, some people find such a restriction
unacceptable, and they try to escape the city. Thus enter the "sandman"
assassin force that tracks down and kills such dreamy malcontents. But
what happens when a sandman and his love interest escape the city and
discover the ruins of old America? The fate of the city is sealed at
that point, but not before flashy fight sequences, the obligatory
talking robot of 1970's imagination, and a man versus machine showdown.
Although Logan's Run wasn't particularly popular with critics, it
showed well with young audiences and briefly spawned a television
series. Hired to accentuate the dichotomy between the bizarre human
experience in the city and the realities of the heart and world beyond
was Jerry Goldsmith, who was in the midst of truly embracing electronics
as an experimental form of atonal ambient force. His approach to
Logan's Run was destined to resolve with his trademark symphonic
romanticism, laced as necessary with the robust action methods common to
his late 1970's works. But for the city's environment, the composer
leaned into the journey that had earned attention with his outlandish
synthetic music for The Illustrated Man. The electronics in this
score are not the early iterations of his 1980's sounds that listeners
heard in The Cassandra Crossing or Damnation Alley.
Instead, they were all-out analog funfests of atonal layering of several
performances using sound effects that are distinct from those that
Goldsmith used thereafter. Various sounds of squishing noises are
particularly interesting even if they are not entirely listenable, the
composer using this collection of wet noises to likely augment the
sexual nature of the lifestyle in the city.
For casual listeners, the score for Logan's Run will seem like two separate works jammed together and, sadly, Goldsmith doesn't mingle the synthetic and organic sides of the soundscape as much as one might hope. The distinct styles were meant to be that disjointed, but Goldsmith never really adopts the most outrageously creative synthetic lines into his otherwise orchestral cues. The two halves sometimes overlap in the understated suspense passages, but usually the worlds of the real and the fake exist at a musical stalemate. Some of the synthetic cues are maddeningly obnoxious, with "Fatal Games," "The Interrogation," and the source-like "Love Shop" all exploring different tones of the synthetic array but all achieving the same frustratingly claustrophobic feeling of inauthenticity and even insanity. On the orchestral side, Goldsmith understandably introduces his traditional players only as the story allows for the possibility of escape and a love affair between the two leads. It takes until the actual escape and witnessing of natural beauty and the artifacts of old society before any intensity guides the ensemble. But these passages are the immense payoff for the pain experienced in the score up to that point, and listeners must be prepared to earn those tonal moments of grandeur. Thematically, it can be tempting to casually write off Logan's Run as exhibiting only one major theme, that which develops and flourishes as the freedom is achieved and humanity is redeemed. But the dominant theme of the movie actually represents the city, and it's a brilliant and easily distinguishable identity. The city's theme consists of two rising trios, the second phrase one note higher in its third note. It's intentionally off-kilter and yearning, seemingly positive but not quite resolving. The theme opens the score as an abrasive bass synth rhythm in "The Dome" and is formally introduced by troubled, lonely trumpet layers over tense strings. It bubbles on electronics in "The City" and very cleverly twists into a sinister celeste extension in "Nursey," the motif still dominant but Goldsmith clearly messing with audiences' minds using those progressions. Informing the challenging analog electronic tones of the totally foreign "Flameout," the city theme is plucked on strings under the humanity theme at the outset of "On the Circuit," and the deep electronic menace for the motif continues in "The Assignment" before shifting with muted panic to violins in "Lost Years." Goldsmith never allows us to escape the treacherous city theme in Logan's Run during the majority of the picture, the motif guiding the tumultuous string suspense of "She'll Do It" and "Crazy Ideas" and agonized on string layers in "Terminated in Cathedral," which leads to a thunderous piano climax for the needless death of the scene. The theme serves as the foundation for some of the frantic action bursts in "Intensive Care," is manipulated to only its secondary phrase in cyclical motion in "They're Watching" to suggest the monitored escape, and transitions to full orchestral action mode in "The Key." It strikingly interrupts the humanity theme with brutal brass and percussion at 1:18 into "The Sun" for the city's pursuit, transforms into an almost giddy orchestral figure in "The Monument" for the two leads' discovery of freedom from their life clocks, and stews ominously as the villain returns once again in "The Truth." The city theme is diminished to solemn remembrance on woodwinds and strings late in "You're Renewed," becomes optimistic over flourishing string figures in "The Beach," overtakes the humanity theme again in "Return to the City," and adopts a highly annoying electronic alarm formation in "The Interrogation." Goldsmith allows the theme a whimpering death on trumpet at the start of "End of the City." During this whole time, the city theme battles with the composer's humanity theme, considered by some to be a straight love theme but representing more than just the relationship between the leads. This idea is actually less commonly referenced in the work, and some of the more obtuse references to its structure may not go noticed because its melodic lines are so much more complicated than those of the city's theme. You hear hints of the humanity theme flirting near the climax of "The Dome," its first actual performance on sparse violins layered directly on top of city motif in "On the Circuit." In this cue and several others involving both identities in unison, the humanity theme cannot escape the city motif by design. The lighter theme is badly tormented on strings in "Let Me Help," provides an interlude during the Box robot material in "Ice Sculpture" as a better preview of later romance, and finally explodes for the full orchestra at 0:23 and 1:03 into "The Sun" for the escape realized. It is tender on flute in "The Monument" amongst wondrous woodwind meanderings, briefly returns in the troubled suspense of "Return to the City," and overtakes the city theme on soothing strings in "End of the City" for a massively victorious finale. As customary at the time, the humanity theme for Logan's Run is translated into a light pop variant in "Love Theme From 'Logan's Run'" to help sell the album. Though pleasant, the tone of that radio bait is so different from anything in the remainder of the score that it just doesn't fit into the listening experience at all. This despite the irony that it probably would have fit well as a source piece in the background of the city's orgy environment early on. Goldsmith instead opted to provide most major cues in the city's confines with the grating electronic ambience, and listeners must be prepared to encounter some wickedly atrocious synthetic ramblings in these parts of Logan's Run. A handful of truly unique moments is mixed in between the otherwise divergent halves, however. The string and piano tension of "A Little Muscle" is a nice sideshow but not as intriguing as Goldsmith's weird motif for the Box robot, a slightly oriental theme for strings and percussion in "Box" and early in "Ice Sculpture." More palatable is the second half of "The Monument," which offers its own triumphant view of the American civilization past (including Richard Nixon, whose legend survives for hundreds of years!). For pure Goldsmith action enthusiasts, the ambitious, trombone-led rhythms in "Intensive Care" and "You're Renewed" will appeal. In the end, however, Logan's Run is a score begging for culling to separate its two halves. The original LP record of 41 minutes translated into the first two CD incarnations of the album from Bay Cities in 1992 and Chapter III in 2000, the latter a bit tougher to find because the label quickly and unceremoniously went out of business. This presentation was extraordinarily frustrating because it presented the score's major cues out of film order and did so in a way that exacerbated the dichotomy between the two styles of the work. Avoid these products if at all possible. In 2002, the Film Score Monthly label corrected the ordering and expanded the length to 74 minutes, a vastly superior treatment that disappeared due to its limited pressing. In 2015, though, WaterTower Music re-issued those same contents as a commercial CD. Any Goldsmith collector interested in this score should seek one of these two longer options, especially considering their improved sound quality. On any album, Logan's Run can be a difficult listening experience, but the complicated interplay between the two themes is masterful, and if you can program out the purely synthetic explorations of atonality, the remainder will give you just enough symphonic Goldsmith heart to keep you coming back. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1992 Bay Cities/2000 Chapter III Albums:
Total Time: 40:51
2002 FSM/2015 WaterTower Albums: Total Time: 75:08
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of the 1992 Bay Cities and 2000 Chapter III albums
contain no extra information about the score or film. That of the 2002
Film Score Monthly album includes extensive details about both. The
digital 2015 WaterTower album offers no packaging.
Copyright ©
2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Logan's Run are Copyright © 1992, 2000, 2002, 2015, Bay Cities, Chapter III Records, Film Score Monthly, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/20/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
