Logan’s Run (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B+ Music:
A-
Since Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968), M-G-M tried to be to Science Fiction what they had been to the
Musical. The most epic attempt at this
was Michael Anderson’s 1976 opus Logan’s Run. What was supposed to be the next step in a
golden age of serious science fiction films turned out to be the end of the
cycle that 2001, Godard’s Alphaville (1965), and Truffaut’s 1966
adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 began. Though the film was criticized for being more
escapist and flashy than thoughtful, even having problems with its acting, it
was a smarter film than it got credit for and did decent business in its
time. For its lack of African American
characters, Richard Pryor joked that when it came to the future, the makers
though they were not going to make it!
Even beyond the futuristic sets, or accurate capturing of
the 1970s attitude in way rarely considered, the score by Jerry Goldsmith is a
brilliant one. That helps the film in
its poorer parts, because it is a score so great, that it believes in the film
even when we might not. Film Score
Monthly Magazine’s FSM CD label has issued a limited edition (only 3,000
copies) of the film’s score that blows away the vinyl version the defunct M-G-M
Records issued back in 1976 with only 11 tracks, by expanding the set to 23
tracks. Three of those are longer than
that vinyl original.
I have heard this music in almost every way
imaginable. I never saw the 70mm
blow-ups (the poster says Todd-AO, but it fudged, as the lenses were Todd-AO
35mm, not 70mm), which offered some of the earliest Dolby magnetic six-track
stereo sound. That was a test run, but
still a year before George Lucas’ first Star Wars broke the sound
in. I never heard the 35mm Dolby-A
either, but the Pro Logic Dolby surround on the VHS, Beta, and older LaserDisc
were not bad in their time. Then, MGM/UA
Home Video (when they still handled Turner’s M-G-M titles), issued a limited
edition LaserDisc that offered better PCM CD Pro Logic surround tracks and an
early Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 mix. That
mix was recycled on the disappointing basic DVD of the film still in print,
minus most of the elaborate extras of that LD version.
The 2.0 PCM Stereo on this CD easily rivals the previous
versions. Many of the tracks even decode
nicely in Pro Logic, though the CD is not marked as compatible for that. Either way, I hear detail on this CD I have
never heard before, which is awesome for someone who has heard this music literally
hundreds of times. What is so amazing
about this work is how Goldsmith seamlessly melds beautiful music, strong
traditional action music, and electronic music in a way that was not lite. He goes for it in the way he uses electronic
music, pulls no punches, and even in a way we could consider hardcore. That is to say daring to make it work
dramatically, not using what was stereotypical lite “beep – blip – beep”
noises, and not letting it be that separate from the traditional score. It feels integrated in a way never done
before, and also happens to be a score where every track has surprises and that
is why it may be one of the greatest soundtrack scores ever made. When we think of post-modern music genres like
Punk, Rap, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Electronica, the DJ scene, and Turntablists, this
score does everything but sampling in laying the groundwork for that kind of
music more so than Wendy Carlos’ scores for A Clockwork Orange or Tron. John Williams is unthinkable in this
respect. On that one level alone, this
score is way ahead of its time.
It also made the permanent entry of electronic music into
action scores like those of Goldsmith’s possible in the New wave 1980s and
beyond. Besides that, each new part of
the new world Logan’s Run offers, is marked by a whole new density of
music. Cues do get revisited where
applicable, keeping the narrative tight and advancing it further. The world of dying at 30, no matter what you
decide to do, become more realistic because of the energy and power of each
piece. The way we could also split the
score is into three planes: personal, technological, and naturalistic. All have their wonder, surprise, and
space. That is not easy for most composers,
but Goldsmith is a master and one of the greatest in all of cinema history, so
he is working on an extremely advanced level few composers in any realm of
music ever achieve. The music integrates
so well into the film; it is always a revelation to hear it alone again.
Though intended ultimately as a more commercial film that
art picture, the maturity of the score respects the audience, which cannot be
said of most post-Star Wars, Korngold-inspired works that hammer the
audience into infantilism. This is real
music, not some sickening, tired, melodic manipulation job from hell. Goldsmith is as much a storyteller as the
writer and director, a point one too many composers miss. This is elementary, but commercial films have
become so overblown, it is easy for even the best new composers to stay
focused.
Page five of the sixteen-page booklet suggests Goldsmith
was doing a score edgier than the film turned out to be. That is correct, beyond the nude ice
sculpture scene. From that LaserDisc
set, it turns out the scene at the Love Shop (a place for group sex) was cut,
as noted on page eleven of the booklet.
That scene, besides being cut for ratings purposes, was not only
integrated better into Goldsmith’s score, but was said to just have better
editing work overall. That extra footage
is still lost to this day. More
conservative forces at M-G-M, also excised a comment about Nixon and a portrait
of his, when Peter Ustinov’s Old Man remembers something about him being called
“Tricky Dick”. The film was meant to be
even smarter than the studio allowed, in a cut we may never see.
That is why this score is all the more amazing. It is a testament that the film was trying to
stay in the post-2001 school of thought.
Without even knowing that information, the consistent quality, power and
enduring life of the music itself is one of the great triumphs of film
scoring. You should strongly consider
obtaining a copy, available for order exclusively at www.filmscoremonthly.com with many
other great titles while supplies last.
You can read about the TV series CD they issued at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1114/Logan's+Run+TV+Series+(Limited+CD
- Nicholas Sheffo
