Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, one of four young botanists in the not too distant future, who has undertaken an assignment of caring for what's left of Earth's forests and vegetation. At a time where nothing grows on our home planet anymore and people no longer care about the trees, the plants, the birds and other wildlife, it's the job of Lowell and his cohorts to man a spaceship which contains several giant domed globes securing the world's last surviving forests, at least for the time being. This is a story of what happens when chief orders are issued for the astronauts to abandon their mission, return home to Earth, but to first blow up all of the forests. Dern is the only dedicated member of the crew who will do whatever it takes to defy his orders and save nature from man's destruction, no matter what the cost.
This is a good science fiction tale with a message, and this is brought home by two Joan Baez environmental songs which she sings over the soundtrack. Bruce Dern is ideally cast as the well-meaning naturist who finds that his only true friends aboard his spacecraft are his three small assisting drones whom he affectionately christens Huey, Dewey, and Louie. These miniature robots were acted by real-life amputee actors without legs, who were placed inside the shells of these automatons, and who walked on their hands to bring them to life. Young first-time director Douglas Trumbull was also the special effects maestro who worked on Kubrick's classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and he referred to SILENT RUNNING as "my first student project". It's a great testimony to his talent that this film turned out as well as it did, even though today it plays more like a simple yet high-spirited telefilm. *** out of ****
This is a good science fiction tale with a message, and this is brought home by two Joan Baez environmental songs which she sings over the soundtrack. Bruce Dern is ideally cast as the well-meaning naturist who finds that his only true friends aboard his spacecraft are his three small assisting drones whom he affectionately christens Huey, Dewey, and Louie. These miniature robots were acted by real-life amputee actors without legs, who were placed inside the shells of these automatons, and who walked on their hands to bring them to life. Young first-time director Douglas Trumbull was also the special effects maestro who worked on Kubrick's classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and he referred to SILENT RUNNING as "my first student project". It's a great testimony to his talent that this film turned out as well as it did, even though today it plays more like a simple yet high-spirited telefilm. *** out of ****