I just saw environmental-themed sci-fi film Silent Running (1972) for the first time. Or at least the first time right through. I may have seen little bits when I was tiny.
My mum always loved this film in which Bruce Dern plays an astronaut preserving the last of Earth’s vegetation in space, with the help of two cute droids, after saving it from destruction by murdering the other order-following companions who’d have nuked it.
This was one of the first films we recorded off TV when we had a VHS player in the early 80s, but I think I avoided it in the long run because by the time I was old enough to understand it, I’d acquired the impression it was going to be unutterably sad. Well, it is sad, but not to the impossible extent I’d imagined over decades.
The film is strongly infused by sixties attitudes towards environmental destruction, spirituality and governments issuing terrible orders. Or at least the USA’s government. It even has a Joan Baez song on the soundtrack. (or two?) Bruce Dern gives an incredible performance, often with no-one to act to. It’s interesting that he’s a protagonist who transitions from being in the fringe or extreme position, placed there by societal attitudes, to someone more relatable.
I was a little disappointed by the model work (Trumbull directed, and John Dykstra was involved – both went on to Star Wars, and Trumbull came from 2001). Somehow the photography speed and scale of things, and non-moving starfield, weren’t right, when you think of either of the other films I mentioned, but it was broadly close enough to them for me to really notice. I shouldn’t be surprised, given I’m coming at it anew when it’s over 50 years old. Ssaying that sounds unbelievable to me; I think of 50-year-old films as films from the 1950s, not high tech colour sci-fi from the 1970s. And I’m watching on a Blu-ray, which reveals everything.
My most pernickety critcisms are probably for the droids themselves. They’re in a place of being physically primitive, technically highly capable though slow, able to understand human slang perfectly, but unable to speak, though they can flash a light or vibrate a piece of plastic. The direction has to work around their tech slowness, which would otherwise look silly on film. I guess I’ve seen and read too much sci-fi now to find this particular version of droids too credible. Again, there’s the tension of this film being very high tech when new, which perhaps increases potential for parts of it to date worse.
But overall, an excellent melancholic film.
PS Something came back to me from watching this film. One time I had to ring up a musician I was playing with. His name was Freeman Lowell. I rang up and a kid answered and I asked to speak to Freeman Lowell. The kid didn’t know who that was. After some futzing, the guy came on the phone and explained that was his stage name. It’s the name of Bruce Dern’s character in this film.
-Wade
and I plan not to miss it next time.
