Logan's Run Free Screening

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Sun 21 Aug 2011

Sci-fi fans and movie buffs are in for a treat this coming weekend, when 1970s futuristic classic 'Logan's Run' screens for free at the State Library of Queeensland.

This is a rare chance to see a public screening of the film, which won a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects when it was released in 1976. While those effects don't exactly look sophisticated now, 'Logan's Run' still offers a compelling story.

Based on a 1960s novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, the film is set in 2274, in what at first seems to be an idyllic society. Humankind enjoy lives of leisure in an enclosed 'pleasure dome', where work is not required.

There is one catch, however: to keep the dome's population at a sustainable level, each resident must die at the age of 30, in an elaborate ritual on the 'Carousel'. Those who do try to escape their early deaths (known as 'runners') are pursued by a 'Sandman', an official executioner appointed to track them down and kill them.

A ridiculously young and pretty Michael York stars as the Logan of the title -- a Sandman ordered to pose as a runner so that he can infiltrate a community of escapees living outside the dome. During his search for this 'Sanctuary', he is joined by a young woman, Jessica-6 (the wide-eyed Jenny Agutter, in lots of shiny, futuristic, apparently Grecian-inspired outfits).

Naturally, the tables turn, and Logan and Jessica become runners themselves, pursued by Logan's former friend, Francis (Richard Jordan). Peter Ustinov turns up as an elderly man living in the ruins of Washington DC, and you can also spot Farrah Fawcett as 'Holly'. ( Check her out on YouTube to catch some killer 70s hair and glitter spandex.)

'Logan's Run' went on to be a fairly run-of-the-mill TV series in the late 1970s. A remake of the movie is also currently in development, tipped to star Ryan Gosling and Rose Byrne, with a tentative release date of 2014. But if you want to see the original film -- described by Variety as 'a spectacular-looking escapist adventure as well as an intelligent drama' -- you can do it a lot sooner by heading along to the State Library next Sunday afternoon.

For a full program of the library's free SLIQ Flicks (and there are some other real beauties coming up), go to http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/events/sliqflicks .

#cinema
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#south_brisbane
!date 21/08/2011 -- 21/08/2011
%wnbrisbane