Apocalypse Now (1978) and Logan's Run (1976)

Film Trace

In episode six of our Manhunt series, we face the masterpiece that is Apocalypse Now (1978) alongside the much lesser Logan's Run (1976)

Special Guest: the great Mike Field, Co-host of the Forgotten Cinema podcast

Any film critic or scholar who dares traverse the muddy waters up river within Apocalypse Now feels doomed to be bereft of insight about such a well-established pure cinema magnum opus. But alas, here we are swimming upstream in one of the many backwater tributaries that make up the cultural cache of the definitive 1970s New Hollywood film. Yes, Apocalypse Now is a manhunt movie at its core, but that plot is a thin veneer overlaying a philosophic treatise on violence and madness. Any attempt at trying to decipher it often renders us stupefied. Coppola would probably find the same is true for him. It is the best type of film, an untouchable mystery.

Logan's Run (1976) has been held in somewhat high regard for decades, but it looks quite poor in direct comparison to Apocalypse. Perhaps it is unfair to pair it against one of the best films ever made, but I think this juxtaposition only highlights the flaws that were already there. What was probably a very interesting and unique film for its time, Logan's Run now feels sluggish, stilted, and all together boring. There are some interesting ideas in the script, but those are stuffed into the first 30 minutes. By the time the chase really begins, no emotional foundation has been built for Logan, and we are left filling out a plot box score as the film diddles along to a flaccid conclusion.