Hot Picks
|
|
|
Silent Running
USA 1972
produced by Michael Gruskoff for Trumbull/Gruskoff Productions/Universal
directed by Douglas Trumbull
starring Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint, Mark Persons, Steven Brown, Cheryl Sparks, Larry Whisenhunt, Joseph Campanella (voice), Roy Engel (voice)
written by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, Steven Bochco, music by Peter Schickele, songs written by Peter Schickele, Diane Lampert, performed by Joan Baez, special photographic effects by Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Richard Yuricich
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
The future: All vegetation has long been extinct on earth and humankind
has created a 100% artificial enviroment for itself with strictly
regulated weather and temperature and synthetic food. A spaceship called
the Valley Forge was sent into space as a sort of Noah's Ark,
preserving the last forests and all sorts of plant life in domes - pretty
much just in case. But not humankind has found it too unnecessary and
expensive to keep nature even in space, and the ships are ordered to blow
up their nature domes and return to earth - and crewmen Keenan (Cliff
Potts), Barker (Ron Rifkin) and Wolf (Jesse Vint) couldn't be happier to
finally return to earth, while fellow crewman Lowell (Bruce Dern), who has
been on the Valley Forge for uninterrupted 8 years, feels shattered, as he
was the only one really taking care of the plantlife in the domes and has
dreamed of one day returning to re-naturize the planet. And when he sees
the others happily blowing up one dome after the next, he gets into a
fight with Wolf, killing him in the process, then abandons Keenan and
Barker in a dome already doomed for destruction. To ground control he
reports some unforseen problems with the order to blow up the domes and
return, then hides in the rings of Saturn to make it impossible to be
hauled back and thus preserve the little nature that's left. With only two
small robots, the drones, for company, he experiences peace and
fulfillment, even if he can't completely shake the guilt of killing his
crewmates - guilt that's also mirrored in his plants starting to wilt (for
lack of sunlight, it turns out). And then ground control picks up the
Valley Forge's signal again, and they're only too happy to bring Lowell
back home - without his last shred of nature - which is really the last
thing he wants, but what to do? It's funny that with its
enviromentalist message, Silent Running is at the same time very
much a child of the hippie era, and a film that feels as topical now, in a
world where enviromentalism has inexplicably become a bone of contention,
as almost 50 years ago, and frankly, this film dares to be much more of a
political allegory than most of today's mainstream science fiction. And
besides this contradiction in terms, this film has actually aged
remarkably well, thanks to great sets and wonderful effects work, its very
intelligent approach to the subject at hand, and its deliberately slow
pace that gives the film's underlying ambiguity space to breathe. And the
always dependable Bruce Dern sure gives a great performance in this one.
And all of this makes Silent Running a film that deserves to be
called a classic.
|
|
|