Silent Running [1972]

Amazon.co.uk Review

After creating many of the innovative special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Douglas Trumbull tried his hand at directing, and 1971's Silent Running marked an impressive debut. (In addition to creating the visual effects for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and directing 1983's Brainstorm, Trumbull later turned to the creation of high-tech cinematic amusement park rides.) One of the best science-fiction films of the 1970s, Silent Running stars Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell, a nature-loving crewmember aboard the Valley Forge, a gigantic spaceship in a small fleet that carries the last surviving forests of the Earth, which has fallen victim to overpopulation and ecological neglect.

Freeman's name reflects his nonconformist philosophy, which runs counter to the prevailing recklessness of his three ill-fated crewmates, who are eager to jettison their precious payload and return to the bleakness of Earth. Before they can sabotage the forests, Freeman does what he must, and spends the remainder of his mission with three robotic "drones" as his only companions, struggling to maintain his sanity in the vastness of space. Dern is superb in this memorable role, representing the lost soul of humankind as well as the back-to-nature youth movement of the 1960s and the pre-Watergate era. (Appropriately, Joan Baez sings the film's theme song.) A rare science-fiction film that combines bold adventure with passionate social conscience, Silent Running will remain relevant as long as the Earth is threatened by the ravages of human carelessness. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

habit wearing bunny hugger does nothing.......2007-12-18

I read the reviews for "Silent Running" and could not understand why I had never seen such a classic. I have now seen it and it is short-listed for my waste bin. The concept is great, the scenery stunning in a way that we have all become accustomed to, but the plot, the acting and the lack of exploration of any of the issues raised by the concept make this film a missed opportunity and to me a great disappointment.

If you have an interest in the ecological question, then I would recommend "Soylent Green". If you like good effects, music, an interesting concept and some thoroughly thought out work, watch "forbidden Planet". These are films I really value, "silent running" is not. If you are just looking for old sci fi, then try "the day the earth stood still" or the original "Solaris", these films all have reasonably strong ideas and explore them.

"Silent Running" is probably worth watching as a museum piece to see a particular stage in the development of visual effects, but not for the story.

The critical question of the value of plant life was explored to the extent that the leading character's best argument for it over artificial manufactured food was its better "because I grew it". Gravity on the ships remains unexplained. The final sections of the film have all the plants failing because they have no light and the botanist cant work out why they are failing.

Enjoy the visual work.

Save the Forest.......2007-10-05

Set in the far future aboard the spaceship "Valley Forge", Bruce Dern and three fellow astronauts maintain the huge vessel and the forests that it contains with the help of three ingeniously rendered robots. The robots are so convincing that they steal the show, but they remain classic depictions that are on par with Robby from "Forbidden Planet" and the droids of "Star Wars".

This is a sad story with a strong ecological message, "Silent Running" is a visual treat with outstanding special effects and a very realistically-depicted "Valley Forge" spaceship. A production note: Trumbull had use of the decommissioned naval aircraft carrier "Valley Forge" before it was scrapped and he was able to modify many of it's vast interiors for use in the movie, all to good effect.

in space no one can hear you talk sense.......2007-08-06

Just read Bobby cooks review on this underated masterpiece.I wept aswell 30 od years ago and guess what? Nothings changed . Every viewing of this film grabs me by the gut and just dosent let go . Why ? . Because its one of the few films to show us how hidious and uncaring 'humankind' can really be . Dont believe me ? check it out . In my opinion only in a handfull of film works has this emotive level been reached(albeit a very big handfull)see what you think and enjoy:
'cookoos nest''scum''planet of the apes''made in britain''easy rider''repulsion''la haine''long weekend'.....You know the score . I could go on and on but Finally a word for an even more underated Work of Art . Geoff Murphys 'The Quiet Earth' Utterly stunning . See it to believe it and dont forget to show yerself before he shoots the kid . If only somebody had the imagination and the balls to make films like this now.........peace to y'all
Markac

One of the very great Sci-Fi films........2007-07-11

Many Directors have been quick to label their own genius with works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner when, in fact, the genius belongs to their Special Effects Art Director Douglas Trumbull. It can be argued, and many have, that Trumbull is probably the most important figure in modern Sci-Fi, creating the dark world of Blade Runner, the impressive but ultimately sterile Universe in 2001 and the awe-inspiring UFO scenes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But what many don't know is that Trumbull directed his own Sci-Fi film in 1972 named Silent Running. Given a relatively low budget, in comparison to 2001 and his later work Blade Runner, Trumbull would prove that the best work comes from people who have to make do with what little they have.

Silent Running bequeaths the tale of a future Earth extinct of any plant life, with only a very few specimens having been saved in gargantuan space-bound greenhouses attached to a fleet of "Space Freighters" (the 'American Airline' of its day). These ships stay residing just outside the orbit of Saturn until Earth needs them back to reforest the planet. Bruce Dern, who plays Freeman Lowell, the appointed Head Gardner of the greenhouse-in-space, would rather spend time feeding his bunnies than hang out with his knucklehead crew. Well, unless there is a chance of embarrassing them at a game of Poker. However, when orders come in to nuke the remaining greenhouses and become a commercial airline once again, Lowell decides he would rather see his crew dead than watch the last remaining pieces of nature go into the light.

What's truly amazing about Silent Running is how anti-sci-fi it is. Yes, there are some stunning visuals and it certainly looks to be a sci-fi movie, but ultimately this is a story about human beings. This is not the logic based evolutionary wanderings of 2001, neither does it have the philosophical vitality of Blade Runner or The Matrix. Silent Running is not concerned if the reality we are waking up to is in fact another form of illusion, or pondering about what makes us truly human. No, Silent Running is about a relatively simple person in an unremarkable situation. Lowell's basic choice is - do I want human beings to survive, or my garden? He opts for the latter. There are too many human beings, anyway. But as the movie goes on Lowell finds that, although he can only find alienation with his own kind, he can't help but miss them.

In fact, he misses them so much that his robot workers now go by the human names of "Huey, Dewey and Louie". Notice I use the term 'robot' very loosely there. Due to Trumbull's budget what we in fact have are brightly coloured microwaves with rubber-gloved feet. But, my God, are they the most humanised robots ever depicted on screen. On first glance gentle snickering maybe heard from the back of your mind, but as time passes you grow so attached and loving towards these boxes that, when Lowell accidentally runs one over, it's as if your own son has been named road kill. This is such an amazing feature of Directing from Trumbull. Let's face it, anyone can make a robot seem more human when you cast humans as the robots. (Though, I did wonder whether Harrison Ford was in fact the Tin Man in Blade Runner). Trumbull intelligently creates a robot where the audience, as well as Lowell, have to project their own feelings, desires & hopes onto it, refraining from producing a fully formed and packaged robot for the viewer to consume blindly.

But if you want to know why Silent Running truly works, then I'll tell you. It's the first and only sci-fi film that will make you weep. No, not in the sense of Star Wars where you cry for the dim-witted romanticism, but where you actually break down in tears for the emotion shown on screen. This is not a dry, academic, logical maze that you have to weave yourself through, but a journey which you experience and learn from. Notice, I could have highlighted how Silent Running was ahead of its time due to it's forward-thinking ideas about nature and how we must always try to preserve it, if really only for it's unparallelled beauty. But I didn't. At the end of the day Silent Running is a treatise on the evil that we humans do to the planet. But, ironically, what makes this one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time is that it's not about spectacular visuals or interesting, dry technology, but about being so uniquely human.

The end scene shows Lowell releasing his Garden from the space ship so the incoming Mother Ship cannot find the bodies of his murdered victims, and Lowell says to his friendly robot, in an almost Shakespearian tone, "When I was a kid, I put a note into a bottle, and it had my name and address on it. I threw the bottle into the ocean. I never knew if anyone ever found it." With that Lowell triggers a bomb, sending himself in to the light, whilst the one remaining robot tends the love of his life, his garden, which floats quietly into the netherworlds of space. Will anyone out there ever find it?

great movie, but...........2007-06-04

The movie is U-rated, so can someone at Amazon explain why it's listed under 'Horror'? Indeed, Amazon's categorisation of movies seems a bit muddled: I've just seen a Teletubbies movie listed along with the likes of Dawn of Dead and Cannibal Ferox. Like, ummm what's that about? A joke, maybe? Can't you guys tell the difference between one genre and the next?

Anyway, Silent Running remains a classic, if somewhat under-rated movie with a certain level of sentimentality which is justified. Go buy/rent it.

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