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(More customer reviews)Hailed by some as one of the best science-fiction movies of the 1970s, Silent Running is a quirky, unique movie that conveys a serious ecological message in an unforgettable manner. To be honest, I had never heard of this movie before, but the premise of the film intrigued me, as did the knowledge that a prominent special effects man for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Douglas Trumbull, directed it. Almost despite itself, the movie moved me in places, and I ended up quite enjoying it, even though there are many things about it I didn't particularly like. Many would consider this a boring movie, I am sure, as there are no fierce battles fought or alien beings threatening to destroy mankind. Silent Running is a thinking man's science-fiction film that succeeds or fails on its compelling storyline alone.
The story takes place some time in earth's near future, at a time when all plant life has been destroyed on the planet in some unexplained way; America's last forest land still exists, however - millions of miles out in space on board the Valley Forge. The ship carries along several huge geodesic domes filled with trees, flowers, garden plants, etc., along with much of the animal life that goes with them. A crew of four mans the ship, with the help of a number of mechanical drones, but only one, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) really cares about the forests in his care. We first meet the other three crew members racing willy-nilly around the ship in jeep like go-carts, thinking nothing of trampling a bunch of flowers or taking shortcuts through the grass. In person, they are even less likeable, making fun of Lowell's idealism and basically harrumphing on their own belief that the forests have no importance whatsoever. Lowell himself starts off on the wrong foot, in my opinion, in terms of the audience's reaction to him. The man is a wide-eyed zealot seemingly about two steps away from madness of a dangerous kind; I agreed with everything he said about the importance of the forests, but his words are somewhat lost on the listener (and the crew) because he is simply annoying in his fanaticism. His mood doesn't improve when the crew gets word that they are to destroy the forests and return home to commercial service. Freeman can't handle such a decision, so he does what he feels he must in order to save the last vestige of earth's forests still in existence.
The second half of the film revolves solely around Freeman, as he is basically stranded in space with his forest. His only companions are (originally) three drones, and in my opinion these little robotic guys steal the show. This is a 1971 film, so the drones are by no means technologically exotic, yet these things do have their own personalities; there are a couple of especially poignant moments with the drones that I would like to have seen explored on their own terms, but this would have wandered a little too far afield from the premise of the film. The ending is actually quite touching and, perhaps more importantly, it feels right to this viewer.
There is certainly a strong undercurrent of allegory working in this storyline. Freeman's fellow crew members represent society at large; their lack of concern for the forests and dismissal of any ecological cares at all are meant to be a condemnation of contemporary society's uncaring and unthinking attitude toward ecology on the planet. Freeman is an evangelical fanatic on the subject, a voice crying in a wilderness that may not survive much longer if things continue as they are; up until the very end, he does not give up hope, though, and that is the inspirational message that stays with the viewer after the movie ends. It's a rather somber and depressing movie for the most part, yet I, who would not call myself an environmentalist of any kind, was touched both emotionally and intellectually by the film. Freeman and his crewmates represent the extreme weights on both sides of the environmentalism/commercialism scale, and it is up to us, the viewers, to find a way to balance those opposing weights on our home planet.
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