Logan (2017)
Directed by James Mangold
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hideout on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.
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What critics say influenced Logan
Some things are a little on the point like the clips from the Western Shane (a clear influence on this story) being watched by the group in a hotel room.
Not only does Logan make explicit reference to Shane, the film borrows the genre’s self-critical eye, questioning our need to mythologise heroes.
Traversing dusty American backroads haunted by the ravages of social downturns, this trio of interlocking misfits morph into warped western characters, a notion blatantly underlined by a scene in which Xavier and Laura watch Shane.
A closer analogue is the 1953 western Shane, which Mangold quotes liberally.
But mostly the movie is brilliantly on point in its influences — the 1953 Western classic Shane plays a key role — and how it ties in to the previous movies without being beholden to them.
Mangold uses clips and quotes to draw a pointed comparison between Logan and the protagonist of Shane, the 1953 Alan Ladd Western about an aging gunfighter whose attempts to settle down with a family lead to tragedy.
Taking a page out of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, as well as perhaps Sam Peckinpah’s own story of American legends aging gracelessly in ignominious gore in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Logan opens on a grim and sparse future.
When Clint Eastwood made Unforgiven, he filled it with everything he wanted to say about the Western, about violence, and the complexities and damage that violence does to the human soul.
So if you want a very general comparison, the tone and feel of Logan is sort of like if Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven had been a claw-wielding mutant and the story was set in the future instead of the past.
“Logan” calls back directly to “ Shane ,” including a scene in which the characters watch the film, but it has more echoes of late-career films for icons such as “ The Shootist ” and “ Unforgiven ” in the way it deconstructs the line between hero and legend.
In the way it explores the inescapable nature of violence and its long-term effects, Logan is the Unforgiven of superhero cinema.
With its overt allusions to Shane (clips of which are shown) and echoes of Unforgiven , Logan demands to be given consideration as a “serious” movie.
With its hero suggesting a broken-down cousin to Mad Max, it’s like “The Road Warrior” meets “Shane” meets “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (yes, there’s a “bad” Wolverine).
When “Logan” breaks out into action, it feels organic to the plot, moving the themes and characters forward, much like in James Cameron ’s “ Terminator 2: Judgment Day ,” another film which this one reflects in its road structure and that of a protector for the next generation (and in another way that I won’t spoil).
(In that sense, Logan owes more to Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s aesthetics than, say, Man of Steel.)
Here we’re in a story rooted in the humanity of Logan, not the superpowers of the Wolverine, echoing themes of Cameron’s Terminator 2 and Mendes' Road to Perdition.
In a motel room, Laura catches George Stevens’ Shane on TV, and while the reference feels appropriate — Logan probably owes more to Westerns than to superhero flicks, with a bit of Firestarter, Children of Men and Terminator 2 also thrown in — we may be struck by how little our nihilistic lead behaves like Alan Ladd’s romantic, all-American drifter in that 1953 classic.
After much ado we eventually get on the road, and instead of following typical superhero formulas Logan bites off massive chunks from other movies like Children Of Men, Firestarter, True Grit, The Professional, Terminator 2, Alice In The Cities, The Outlaw Josey Wales, A Perfect World and hell, pretty much the entire cinema of Clint Eastwood until the last-half hour when it becomes a straight-up remake of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
Hence, like Children of Men, she is the future they must protect.
The “tired man travels cross-country with an endangered child” plot mimics both Children Of Men (with all the despair, though without the bravura no-cut combats) and Midnight Special (with all the spooky-kid action, though without the Spielbergian wonder).
The year is 2029 and, in a set-up reminiscent of Children of Men, people have stopped giving birth to mutants.
In a motel room, Laura catches George Stevens’ Shane on TV, and while the reference feels appropriate — Logan probably owes more to Westerns than to superhero flicks, with a bit of Firestarter, Children of Men and Terminator 2 also thrown in — we may be struck by how little our nihilistic lead behaves like Alan Ladd’s romantic, all-American drifter in that 1953 classic.
The comparisons to “ Children of Men ” and classic Westerns may lead one to believe that this is overwritten and overly intellectual.
Logan, which features a pack of brave mutant kids forced to live entirely on their own, also brings up memories of Children of the Damned and Children of Men, although it’s not as good or resonant as either.
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The film is a relatively straightforward western drama, a “famous gunslinger’s last rodeo” type adventure not unlike The Shootist and it is quite successful in its respective goals.
“Logan” calls back directly to “ Shane ,” including a scene in which the characters watch the film, but it has more echoes of late-career films for icons such as “ The Shootist ” and “ Unforgiven ” in the way it deconstructs the line between hero and legend.
For this superior followup, Mangold and Jackman turn to the Western; "Shane" is referenced directly, but the violent result is closer to a Sergio Leone revamp of John Wayne's final film, "The Shootist," as an ill, perhaps dying hero, Logan (Jackman), aka the Wolverine (the ex-X-Man with the adamantium claws), is pulled from self-medicated seclusion for a final mission involving his former mentor, Professor X (Patrick Stewart), who is succumbing to a neurodegenerative disorder, and a silent, scary-eyed little girl (transfixing newcomer Dafne Keen), whose own retractable talons and lethal athleticism have made her the target of the usual hunting party of corrupt government/corporate agents.
Logan uses violence, profanity, and other unnerving, shocking artistic choices the way a film like Bonnie and Clyde, The Passion of the Christ, The Wild Bunch, or RoboCop for example pushed boundaries as statements and to speak to greater truths about the characters and the world they inhabit, to evoke responses that make the moments of violence resonate within the viewer as expressions of the themes and how we connect to them personally.
Here, he imbues Logan with elements of Shane as well as the likes of Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (especially in its use of elegiac violence) and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven with a touch of the more contemporary likes of the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men.
Logan becomes tinged with the tragic; it may sound absurd to recall The Searchers ’ Ethan Edwards, but...well, never mind.
Like Millie Bobby Brown, in “Stranger Things,” Dafne Keen seems both haunted and haunting, her reticence blended with a fierce glare; there are echoes, too, of the young Lukas Haas, in “Witness” (1985).
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But certainly, the genre influences are strong and reminiscent of other modern day westerns such as No Country For Old Men and Hell or High Water, while being very hard to compare to any other actual superhero movies.
Part-Western, with multiple standoffs, open references to Shane , country music and barren landscapes, by act two Logan morphs into a road movie and cat-and-mouse chase that's reminiscent of the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men .
When Jason Mewes references “Wolvie berserker style” in Mallrats, this is the brutality he’s mimicking.