Silent Running
starring: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint, Mark Persons
directed by: Douglas Trumbull
directed by: Douglas Trumbull
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Product Description:
A renegade botanist kills his space-station shipmates to save his garden of earthly vegetation.Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca)Release Date: 10/07/2003Starring: Bruce Dern Steve BrownRun time: 89 minutesRating: GDirector: Douglas Trumbull
Amazon.com:
After creating many of the innovative special effects for 2001: ASpace 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 eagerto 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
A renegade botanist kills his space-station shipmates to save his garden of earthly vegetation.Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca)Release Date: 10/07/2003Starring: Bruce Dern Steve BrownRun time: 89 minutesRating: GDirector: Douglas Trumbull
Amazon.com:
After creating many of the innovative special effects for 2001: ASpace 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 eagerto 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
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- silent running
great old movie long before computer animation/one or bruce derns best. in its time this was real special effects.
Rating: - Classic Sci-fi
This is one of the better science-fiction films out there. Long before modern-day Greeneer-than-green tree-huggers came along, Bruce Dern's character said it all with just a couple of robots.Definitely a keeper.
Rating: 
- 1970s through and through...I LIKE the message, but this movie is now extremely dated
"Silent Running" had its theatrical release in 1972 - about two years after the first Earth Day and seven years after the publication of Rachel Carson's environmental landmark book Silent Spring.So this movie was part of Hollywood's contribution to the blossoming of the American Environmental Movement.
In the early 1970s "pollution" was among the top environemntal buzz words of the day.And that's what this movie is about.The premis is that the earth had become so polluted that ... Read More
Rating: 
- Excellent Environmental Film
Silent Running is an excellent example of the environmental science fiction film of the 1970's.While I remembered the film being run on television in the late 1970's, it was great seeing it on DVD again, and the DVD special features about the making of Silent Running were also good.
Rating: - 2.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
The special effects are still impressive and the movie definitely has moments of power and achievement, but Bruce Dern doesn't have the chops to carry the movie when the other humans are gone and the middle section lags as a result; it's worth a look if you like sci-fi but it's less than stellar.
- silent runninggreat old movie long before computer animation/one or bruce derns best. in its time this was real special effects.
- Classic Sci-fiThis is one of the better science-fiction films out there. Long before modern-day Greeneer-than-green tree-huggers came along, Bruce Dern's character said it all with just a couple of robots.Definitely a keeper.
- 1970s through and through...I LIKE the message, but this movie is now extremely dated"Silent Running" had its theatrical release in 1972 - about two years after the first Earth Day and seven years after the publication of Rachel Carson's environmental landmark book Silent Spring.So this movie was part of Hollywood's contribution to the blossoming of the American Environmental Movement.
In the early 1970s "pollution" was among the top environemntal buzz words of the day.And that's what this movie is about.The premis is that the earth had become so polluted that ... Read More
- Excellent Environmental FilmSilent Running is an excellent example of the environmental science fiction film of the 1970's.While I remembered the film being run on television in the late 1970's, it was great seeing it on DVD again, and the DVD special features about the making of Silent Running were also good.
- 2.5 stars out of 4The Bottom Line:
The special effects are still impressive and the movie definitely has moments of power and achievement, but Bruce Dern doesn't have the chops to carry the movie when the other humans are gone and the middle section lags as a result; it's worth a look if you like sci-fi but it's less than stellar.
