Dystopian Month - Soylent Green and Logan's Run

Dystopian movies are some of my favorites. Social commentary wrapped up in a foreboding package that tells us the path we are on is not a good one. Our protagonists live in an outlandish future world or alternate reality and eventually question the equilibrium that is making that particular system operate. The outcomes can range from bleak to slightly less bleak.

Charlton Heston plays Detective Thorn in 1973's "Soylent Green." In 2022 the world population has exploded and resources are slim. This is a story that takes the theories of Thomas Malthus and gives it an insidious twist. The lower classes are forced to live on this substance called Soylent Green and sleep wherever they can, in some cases piled on top of each other in staircases. The rich on the other hand live in swank high rises and have female live-in companions/prostitutes called 'furniture.' Heston investigates the murder of a wealthy businessman which leads him on the trail to the origins of Soylent Green.

I was a bit torn on this movie. I thought it was pretty good, but really wanted to see a wacked out version of the future. Instead it was like looking at a cracked reflection; the future was highly recognizable to our own world now, but at the same time distorted. If you made it this far in life without somehow hearing the twist of the movie I don't want to be the one to spoil it for you, but it is pretty bleak. Heston uncovers a horrible truth and tries to expose the powers that be. Even if people do get wind of this secret (it is not really clear that they do), exposing it could cause widespread unrest and result in the deaths/starvation of millions.

So it goes.

"Logan's Run" delivered on the bizarro future reality that "Soylent Green" didn't. Set in 2274 where overcrowding is a concern in this movie too, the society limits peoples life to 30 years. People voluntarily die in a ceremony where they are promised to come back in a process called Renewal. It takes place in a ritual called Carousel in which people gather in a circle and start to float in the air, not unlike the fizzy lifting drink in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," but instead of almost getting chopped up by a fan, the people explode. Citizens are free to do as they please for their 30 years.

Every now and then someone tries to escape their fate and are chased down by Sandmen, who kill the runners. The title character is one of these Sandmen who is chosen to infiltrate a group who assist runners, in order to do this he must become a runner himself. He meets up with a female member of this underground group and together they escape into the outside world. During this time he learns that the Renewal process is a lie. Farrah Fawcett makes a fairly useless cameo and there is a robot somewhere in there too.

The question that came up here was why are they so worried about overpopulation then why are they living in this gigantic complex when there is a whole world outside? Maybe I missed that part.

Anyway they find this crazy old man who has a bunch of cats and talks the same backwards riddle speak as Yoda. This old man is crazy and the pair decide they must show him to everyone back home. After fighting with Logan's old Sandman friend they get the old man back to the complex, but no one will listen to Logan. The whole place starts to burn down for some reason or another and everyone flees to the outside world. There they see the old man and gather around him to touch his old face.

The rub is that now everyone must fend for themselves in the outside world that they are totally unprepared to deal with. They have had everything provided for them their entire lives and now that is all gone. What seems like a hopeful ending (no longer having to die at 30) winds up being just as bleak as "Soylent Green."

Is one more hopeful than the other? What do you think? Either way these are both pretty enjoyable Science Fiction flicks. There have been talks of remaking "Logan's Run" with Ryan Gosling as the lead...so there's that.

Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

REALLY?!?!

This is quite the lemon, one that is widely recognized as the worst of the series. I was wondering if my own biases against Superman were going to come up watching this movie, but that was definitely not the case. It was both fun and painful to watch, Nuclear Man was maybe the worst villain in history. The whole story is set against a preachy nuclear disarmament backdrop. And then there is John Cryer.

The movie starts with Superman talking to a green glowing orb underground in a barn that identifies itself as his mother. His mother has one last gift, a shard that is some sort of powerful thing that once Superman takes will make his mother cease to exist. Apparently he just wanted her to shut up because he took the shard and then stuck it in the pocket of some overalls that were hanging up on the wall.

Flash over to Lex Luthor, (Gene Hackman) who is breaking rocks in prison. His nephew Lenny (Cryer) drives some cartoon looking car into the rock quarry and after dispensing with the two guards leaves with his uncle Lex. Lenny is given maybe 20 lines in the whole movie, most of which are barely audible or incoherent, and he seems to be some sort of inept new wave surfer. A pretty useless character that seems like he should have been the comic relief, but winds up not doing anything funny.

Superman is challenged by some 4th grader to do something about making the world a peaceful and nuclear free place. He finally declares (in a weird UN meeting) that he is going to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Then the world powers, on the honor system I guess, fire all their missiles into space where Superman catches them in a big net and then hurtles them into the sun. Unbeknownst to Superman, that evil Lex Luthor synthesized some Superman stuff from one of his hairs (that could hold a one ton weight but could be easily cut with wire cutters) and attached it to a missile. The combination of nuclear mass, Superman stuff in the sun was the perfect storm to create Nuclear Man.

The fights between Nuclear Man and Superman are the lamest, most unsuspenseful, ever committed to film.
Nuclear Man blows up a volcano in Italy, Superman plugs it with a mountain cap.
Nuclear Man freezes Superman in a block of ice, Superman waits a bit and breaks out.
Nuclear Man destroys some of the Great Wall of China, Superman repairs it with some new fangled optic-masonry power.
Nuclear Man picks up the Statue of Liberty and tries to drop it on some people, Superman stops it and puts it back.
Then...Nuclear Man scratches Superman with his radioactive fingernails, END OF FIGHT! Here it is in the original and uncut version. It's longer that the fight in "They Live."

Superman gets bummed, talks to Lois Lane and then uses the magical glowing mom shard to heal himself. Nuclear Man returns to demand a date with Murial Hemmingway which Superman refuses to facilitate. Another fight, this time on the moon, and finally the villain is defeated by being thrown into a nuclear reactor. Superman then gives Lenny to a Catholic School and returns Lex to prison.

I left out the Superman/Lois flying date and the ridiculous Daily Planet b-plot. Flat bottles of Coke are more engaging than this movie. Its 90 minutes felt like two and a half hours and 45 minutes were cut out. Not to be too down on this movie, it was fun to watch and offered plenty of laughs, but I do not think I'll return to this one anytime soon.