creslin_black said:
I think perhaps that I might have liked the book more
Perhaps, but I rather doubt it. The two had very little in common, other than the general premise and the odyssey sort of storyline. The novel was also extremely brief (I recall reading the entire thing in about an hour or so). I like it, but it has very little in connection with the film.
I will say that I find
Logan's Run to be a rather underrated film, that had some rather subtle performances in some parts (including a certain blonde that was rather big at the time; I thought she did rather well in depicting the effects of such a society on a person, how easily their mind is molded, but how, when jogged, the sparks of intelligence can still sometimes flare into life again). I personally have some trouble with the model work at the beginning, but I know quite a few people like it. I do remember the use of the holographic photography made it an impressive visual experience at the theater: 3-D effects without glasses, and used in just the proper places in the film to enhance the strangeness. And I like Box very much, I must admit. I think that the "Ice Sculpture" music used for that sequence is among Jerry Goldsmith's better short pieces.
As for why these people didn't go outside, I felt that was briefly explained in the film itself. It was a post-war world, where the population had overrun resources, were confined in these dome cities, but eventually (reflecting the culture division of the 60s when the book was written), the distrust of those who were over 30 and had brought the war into being caused the development of a society that abolished aging, thinking to thus eliminate the tyranny of the military mind. Unfortunately, they themselves became totalitarian through this very rigidity, as any such movement will tend to do. And, of course, as they became ever more involved in the youth aspect, and the frivolity of an ultimately pointless, hedonistic existence, the practical aspects of life began to fail over time (hence the beginning of the breakdown of the reclamation plants, parts of the city becoming abandoned due to increasing technological failures, because no one could be troubled to learn how to repair the machines, etc.) They became children in a nursery without any guidance other than a very primitive code given to a machine, one that would not allow mental or emotional growth or questioning, because that would upset the balance and bring back the world that had brought about the war in the first place. All this is given in bits and pieces in the film, as I recall (having seen it again about two years ago); and they didn't go outside because they were programmed not to -- beyond the biosphere of the city, the "renewal" gems didn't work -- that is, the machine couldn't keep track of them, so they were made to believe that the outside was contaminated and deadly, nothing could live out there.
