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Rating of
3/4
A True Sci-Fi Classic
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/2011
OK, you’ve run out of ideas for NetFlix selections, or maybe you’ve got an Amazon.com gift card burning a hole in your pocket… My suggestion? How about a classic sci-fi DVD? The title I have in mind is the 1972 movie, ‘Silent Running’. While certainly no award winner or box office titan, I think this particular film is still remarkable for a number of reasons.
Preceded by a more notable film, Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’(1968), ‘Silent Running’ is a more traditional sci-fi drama directed (and produced) by Doug Trumbull. Mr. Trumbull also served as special effects photographic supervisor on the ‘2001’ project and expanded on those special effects for ‘Silent Running’. ‘So, big deal’, you might think – actually, in that era it was. There …
Rating of
2/4
"Silent running" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/17/2011
An overpopulated and industrialised Earth has decided to shoot what's left of the planet's greenery into space (for reasons unexplained) but when the powers that be decide to terminate the program and nuke the ships (for reasons unexplained) one lone space-hippy decides to intervene. Silent Running is a very well meaning but ultimately very naive piece of film making. It's directed by one of the greats of special effects and as a director, he makes a great special effects guy, leaving the story completely unfocussed beyond the initial concept and the characterisation simplistic to the point of being cartoony. The visuals have a quaint nostalgia about them and the most likeable characters are essentially plastic boxes on legs but it really doesn't go anywhere beyond the "destroying nature …
Rating of
3/4
2001: A Space Odyssey goes to Sesame Street.
Drive-In Massacre - wrote on 05/21/2011
As corny as it is - character/writing/political message wise. I'm not talking about special fx. I hate when people's view on a movie is diminished when they see special effects, even though those were the BEST THEY COULD DO AT THE TIME AND THEY SHOULD TAKE THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE! - and the fact that Joan Baez's deeply unfitting and ungodly annoying music is in it, I somehow found this movie very charming and fun.
It's kind of like 2001: A Space Odyssey goes to Sesame Street. It's really, really dated and not in a good way either. It is just so 70's, from the choices of color, (what was with the use of that disgusting orange that seems to pop up everywhere in that decade?)costume, and mentality.
Even with all of these criticisms that I have, I still really like it. Bruce Dern …
Rating of
3/4
Silent Running: The original WALL-E?
SmokeScreener - wrote on 03/12/2009
I watched this film again recently because I was reminded of it after watching "WALL-E". "Silent Running" tells the story of several ships preserving various earth ecosystems, waiting for a time when they can be returned to the polluted planet. One crewman (Bruce Dern) becomes agitated when the order comes to terminate the program because the earth is beyond recovery. He kills his crewmates, and tends to the remaining ecosystems with the help of three, boxy robot drones.
After watching this movie again thirty years later, my instincts were correct! Many of these plot points found there way into "WALL-E"... in a twisted sort of way. In "Wall-E", the boxy robot drone tends to the polluted earth, while the ship preserves human life until the planet is able to sustain it. The …
