Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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By Chuck Cromer Science fiction has remained a resourceful 1 for allowing directors to moralize about the nature of humanity. With settings situated years in the future, sci-fi societies are able inadequacies of any past civilization and < reasons for its demise. The director often e own opinions of what reforms need to be imp uv,tp ino own tuiiicui|juici(j sut'iciy iroin proj the inevitable chaos of the future. "Logan's Run" is the latest of these sci sermonist films to depict a bleak futuristic ea make its social comments on how this inev mare can be avoided. Unfortunately, the m from hypertensive oversell. Based on the best selling novel by William 1 George Clayton Johnson, Logan's Run is an at inhabitants of earth in 2274 after the destructi of nuclear war, overpopulation and pollution earth's remaining people to seek security in a All of the connecting ties that they had witl outside the dome have been severed so i destructive infectious characteristics will be these children of the future. The social structure of this domed city is tot to the pursuit of sexual pleasures. This sex continues until one's 30th birthday, when 1 ft must participate in a test on the Carousel t whether his or her existence will be 44rene^ additional thirty years or be terminated. The Carousel is a form of rotating gladiat the participants are observed by their fellow as they float through the air attempting to re? at the top of the lighted arena before they are i some unseen force. Unknown to any of the cl that no one has been successfully rene\ Carousel. Michael York stars as Logan, a sandman ! nr*i ' i ine uamecocK Enfertainmc , 'Chocolc By Tom Shea ley On a cool, fall evening back in '73, I took a chance and purchased an album by an unfamiliar group known as PFM. That album, PHOTOS OF GHOSTS, contained some 01 me ngniest ana mosi encnanting music I had ever heard; a unique blend of classical and rock motifs that created images of calmly walking through a beautiful pasture on a sunny afternoon. The world was a beautiful place to be when ? listening to this music. Since that time, PFM (Premiata Forneria Marconi) has released two more albums and now have a fourth on the racks entitled CHOCOLATE KINGS. After repeated listenings, it is obvious the pastoral music of their first project has been replaced by the noise of a Fiat assembly line. In retrospect the type of music on CHOCOLATE KINGS should have been f a n At ? ? *i? * un seen. /\ner meir semioaroque entrance into the world of progressive music, PFM released THE WORLD BECAME THE ? WOULD, which was more commercial and less serene than the first. The third album, COOK, was recorded Hnov performt Logan' an elite police force) who refuse to confc system. However, when hi quest for survival I along with his beau ter), decide to "run j underground networl ilm medium Sanctuary. Essentia; i destructive Agutter's search for hundreds of of the authoritarian to judge the Director Michael t evaluate the Days, 1984), purpose XDresses his nublic interest in vita )lemented to world. These issues < pressing into forgotten by most pi The main difficul ence fiction phasizes his intentior rth and then Logan's actual run, I itable night- of the special effects lovie suffers conceived or suffer I that they are uninte Nolan and If "Logan's Run" ccount of the blatant overemphasi ive catalysts and visual implicat have forced D.C., it might have domed city. culture of the '60s. I i their pasts had incorpoated the none of the by hinting and not o inherited by had become, "Logan emotions within us t ally devoted The acting is onl :ual odyssey detract from the film each citizen as good as the scrij o determine credibly atrocious, wed" for an cellent, such as Peter old man who is the la: or pit where implementing a Mr. companions Ustinov provides ins ?ch a crystal the movie. The part /aporized by his third Best Su lallengers is nomination. ved by the The special effects "Logan's Run" if tl (member of consistency. With o s represent the city, \s I and sets as orieinnl I Dallas shopping cent were as obnoxious a Michael Anderson stract and more s; notations of the film through nature, are i we witness two socie The domed city re{ no responsibilities ifo' fnci live. It still baffles me as to wh; would release a live album after or studio recordings. But they did ai result was less than brilliant; ex jams, aimless keyboard pas: squealing Moogs and faltering atterr the guitarist to display his playing Which brings us to the new < although not really new because been available as an import from It; nine months. Lyrically CHOCOLATE KINGS ferior to any previous PFM album b< of the absence of poet-lyricist Pet field. Musically it is more intense, might be attributed to the addition < vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti. Lanzetti came to PFM from Fragile, another Italian entry in progressive market. His vocals ? similar to Peter Gabriel's, forme Genesis, that it is unbelievably ec times. The vocals are not the only simila Genesis; the music on KINGS is id< to the style, tempo and structure o English counterpart. It is h< ince good runs no , that eliminates all those dissenters >rm to the mechanized totalitarian s 30th birthday approaches and the Decomes more personalized, Logan || tiful comrade Jessica (Jenny Agutfor it", by escaping through a secret k to a location outside the city called lly, Logan's Run concerns York and the legendary Sanctuary in defiance norms of their society. Anderson's (Around the World in 80 for making Logan's Run is to revive 1 issues affecting our existence in the ire still relevant, but they have been eople in the apathetic '70s. J ties arise when Anderson overem- w is to the point of ludicrousy. The plot, the acting with few exceptions, most ; and the dialogue are either poorly from dramatic overkill to the extent ntionally amusing. had been made in 1967 even with its is of concept, abusive trite dialogue ions using abandoned Washington, been relevant and satisfying to the f the film had been more subtle and format of "The Planet of the Apes" verexagerating what earth's society 's Run" may even have stired some oday. \7 nnn nf mant? c? nA?v? i J vuv v/i Uianjr OIIUI ICUllllUgd lllctl J i's statement. Yet the actors are only )t and in this case the script is in- i Sometimes the acting is quite ex Ustinov's portrayal of an extremely i st living relic of Washington, D.C. By : Magoo drawl with comic overtones 1 tant relief for the last 30 minutes of ' will undoubtedly garner Mr. Ustinov \ pporting Actor Academy Award and lavish sets might have rescued ley had not been plagued with in- 1 ovious moaeis oeing employed to < 'ires seen holding people in mid air, i as the architecture of a Houston or I er, it's no wonder the special effects < s the script. 1 is successful, however, on an ab- y ymbolic level. The religious con, paganism versus God represented < quite impressive. In "Logan's Run" \ ties and their religious implications. ( >resents a pleasurable religion with < worshipping a false God (The < fes bitte y they keyboard-oriented, employi llv two varipH Ipmnn phanups . ? nd the The five, multi-layered song: tended none from PFM's earlier days sages, now more involved and (foi ipts by "Heavier." There is a grea speed. discontinuity in the songs. ' album, periodically goes into frantic it has making the selections sound li aly for bits that have been pieced togetl smooth transition. is in- One gets the feeling that these scause would have been better ii e Sin- strumentation had been carefi which This would leave one side of \ 3f lead music instead of five songs st unnecessary lengths. It takes Acqua create a song that can be playe< to the to 10 minutes without becomin ire so repetitious. PFM does not _ r - riy 01 possess the ability or ingenuit Tie at this type of music. The songs s after a while. rity to Everything on this albui ?ntical familiar; there is nothing f their CHOCOLATE KINGS. The t savily vocals and style are easily at where Michael York fires his ray pistol in order to complete an escape for himself and Jenny Agutter from confinement. Carousel) where life supposedly can be renewed but won't oe since the God only exists in mechanization. The ^arousei is more or less an emotional ritual somewhat of a parody of the scene in Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments where Edward G. Robinson leads the Israelites in drunken orgy to worship the Golden Calf. The world outside the dome represents God in nature as ve know it to exist. Throughout Logan's run, we see lature and mankind in their many stages of development, rhe sea represents the beginning of life; the Ice maze represents the continual development of life through the Ice Age. When Logan and his woman emerge from the dome they represent the beginning of mankind on the surface of the earth. The symbol is further enchanced vhen Logan picks up a wooden table leg to use as a veapon in much the same manner that primitive man jsed the club. Anderson is quick to defend our society's traditional /alues, even though he feels that as time passes their /alue will have less meaning. For example, he forsees a nechanized society gone wild in our future where the concept of individualism, where man determines his own uture, is destroyed, along with the structure of the raditional family. He tries to show the absurdity of a life )f total pleasure which is in essence one of total stagnation >y observing the 23rd century youth as mindless masses, vith no goals, and in reality, no future. "Logan's Hun" as a film will remain an irrelevant 'ommentary of the destruction and rebirth of mankind )ecause the hokey manner in which it was produced camouflages its more meaningful intentions. What we md up with in the final analysis is a third-rate Star Trek pisode. i".1 m K i n?;S ? resemble . They are "Oivp mol t deal of rhe group tangents. Genesis, but there are many instances ke random where the music is blatantly similar to Yes lerwithno (especially the bass), Flash and PFM's mentors, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, five songs When PFM emerged with PHOTOS OF the in- GHOSTS they ranked higher than the other illy edited. Italian groups that made up the 4ood, solid Mediterranean school of music. They retched to showed promise and inventiveness. talent to Although CHOCOLATE KINGS presents i well fnr ft a "new" PFM with a different vnralist and g dull and renovated style, it is still merely typical, appear to stereotyped, progressive rock. If you are y to write tired of Bad Company or Foghat and are tart to lag seeking something that seems "sophisticated" on the surface, you will n sounds like this album. CHOCOLATE * KINGS new on gives the listener a quick, step-by-step echniques, lesson on how to create progressive-type, tributed to rock music.