Friday 9 December 2011

Silent Running: or The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Intergalactic Eco-warrior …

I’ve got to admit, at times like this, I really do miss cash.

Literally.

I actually had an invite to go out: but couldn’t afford it.

Kevin D’s birthday do, so you know.

A shame really, sound like the incriminating photos could well be interesting …

If nothing else, though … ?

If nothing else, it did give me the excuse to dig up something I know I’ve not actually watched for quite some time.

The 1972 film, Silent Running.

Which is definitely something, I know that … !

»»•««

Silent Running sees Bruce DernLaura Dern’s dad, in case you hadn’t worked that out — as Freeman Lowell, one of a handful of astronauts on the Valley Forge: an American Airlines spaceship in near Saturn orbit, that has the remains of much of Earth’s plant and animal life on board.

Until one day, the crew are ordered to jettison the pods that hold the assorted forests and return the freighters to commercial service.

Driving Lowell to kill one of his fellow crewmen in one of the pod: and get rid of the other two by jettisoning the dome — one of the two remaining domes — that they’re in.

Leaving Lowell in serious isolation: bar the ship’s three maintenance drones, or Huey, Dewey and Louis as Lowell dubs them.

»»•««

Now, I was saying that Silent Running was — indeed isdefinitely something?

I’m definitely right, I think.

And while I may disagree with Mark Kermode calling it a “masterpiece”, I’m also pretty sure that when director Douglas Trumbull made Silent Running, he made a science fiction film that did something unusual for SF, back then.



Granted, it was a touch heavy handed with it’s eco-friendly message.

But in studying human reaction to extreme isolation, and how we deal with the world around us.

Made a film that is genuinely beautiful.
Silent Running.

★★★½☆

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