Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
Directed by: Douglas Trumbull
Produced by: Michael Gruskoff, Marty Hornstein, Douglas Trumbull
Written by: Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, Steven Bochco
Starring: Bruce Dern, Cliff Pott, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Original Release: 1972
Reviewed by: John J. Joex
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Synopsis: The Earth has suffered from ecological devastation which has resulted in the only remaining plant life being sent out into space on large domed freighters to be preserved for future reforestation. Botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) is one of the crew members aboard the freighter Valley Forge and he is responsible for maintaining the forests in the domes attached to the ship. However, word comes that the domes are to be jettisoned and the freighters returned to service. Lowell will not tolerate this, though, and he stands in the way of the other three crew members carrying out their orders, eventually killing them to protect the forests. He then changes course to escape from the other freighters, which have complied with their orders, and heads to the dark side of Saturn. Once there, he programs the ships worker “drones” (early R2-D2 prototypes) to provide companionship and to help maintain the forests.
Review/Comments: This movie came to us from Douglas Trumball, who worked on the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and has a similar feel to that movie. It presents a rather introspective story that unfolds slowly and demands the viewers attention and patience. In fact, the script even includes an assist from a young Steven Bochco who would later become a television mogul, creating such shows as Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. However, this movie lives and dies on the performance of Bruce Dern. Few other actors could have brought the flawed Lowell to life as well as Dern. He is not really psychotic, but he has a passionate love of the forests that out-weighs his respect for human life (especially the poor examples of the species represented by his crew-mates). He has a single-minded drive to assure that the forests survive which perhaps represents the only way the ecological matters can ever win in the face of more short-sighted, selfish pursuits. What’s more, Dern’s portrayal has the viewers rooting for the forests over the other humans.
Like 2001, Silent Running offers a realistic and more serious (though much less optimistic) take on future conditions and space travel. However, the movie stumbles from two serious flaws that are hard to overlook. First, why would they have put the forests in orbit near Saturn instead of close to the sun where they can get plenty of light? Now perhaps you can chalk this up to the dismissive attitudes of the human race that caused the extinction of plant life in the first place, but that seems somewhat of a stretch. The second major flaw is the fact that it took Lowell, a devoted almost fanatical botanist, so long to figure out why the forest was dying while it was on the far side of Saturn. No sunlight, Lowell! I believe you learn that in Botany 101! This latter flaw, though, may have arisen from Trumbull’s original premise where Lowell was not a botanist, just another crew member. Still, it would have been nice if they would have dealt with these two flaws better.
In any case, Silent Running is a rare attempt at intelligent Science Fiction, at a time when any examples of the genre were in short supply on the big screen (and television too, for that matter), and it still holds up when viewed today. Despite its flaws (and its occasionally overly sanctimonious tone), it still presents an engaging, moving, and at times even poetic story.
Buy Silent Running and other Movies on the Must-Watch List from Amazon.com:
