Silent Running (1971)

Silent Running

By James  Dec 1, 2003

Pros: Its timeliness.....perhaps now more than ever.

Cons: The bleak message it sends.

This is one of those low budget movies which proves that "less is often more". It is set in a future where all the earth's forests and deserts are gone, with the exception of small representations of each that have been sent into spa...ce and are being kept under huge bio-domes until the powers that be back on earth decide what to do with them. Bruce Dern plays the part of a botanist who fears the worst, yet fights passionately to save the eco-structures entrusted to him. He tends to his gardens and savors the fresh fruits and vegetables they yield, while his younger shipmates are content to eat the fabricated food the ship's processor creates for them. Unlike Dern, they have never experienced the wonders of food as it was once grown from the soil and only want to return to earth and be rid of the responsibility of caring for forests and deserts they view only as useless and unnecessary. Besides the human residents of the huge space station, there are also three short robots that help the four men by performing various forms of work. Dern uses them in his quest to tend the forest and gardens and deserts while awaiting for the message from earth...a message that he optimistically hopes will bring the bio-domes back to earth and re-establish the ecology to what it once was. To say much more would give away the ending of this bittersweet story. Suffice it to say that Dern's character is saddened by the news he gets from earth. From there the story continues with him taking actions that will have serious effects for all aboard the space station. Movies like this and Soylent Green make me think. They depict futures that are bleak and mostly without hope. In some ways we are heading for just such futures at this very time. Nonetheless Silent Running is a fine movie...and one that should provoke a few uncomfortable thoughts for the viewer. Read more Less