Silent Running (1972)

[kylor]

This is a film that I watched a long time ago and never revisited it again until recently. It still remains an awesome sci-fi movie that has a compelling story to it, IMO.

Silent Running - Trailer - YouTube

Have you seen this movie? If not, I recommend it.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Okay, you won me over. Going to try to look for it and watch.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

Okay, you won me over. Going to try to look for it and watch.

Arrow edition coming soon...

[CyberpunkCentral]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Arrow edition coming soon...

I may blind buy it. We'll see.

[Lee A Stewart]

Douglas Trumbull is a master when it comes to in camera special effects. As a director - meh. Very boring movie.

[kylor]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Douglas Trumbull is a master when it comes to in camera special effects. As a director - meh. Very boring movie.

I liked the movie honestly. The song for the film was a bit intense and didn't feel very sci-fi, which is my only real gripe.

Although, adding some additional information changes the movie entirely.

When it is broadcast that the forest domes are to be nuked, they never give a reason why.

So my theory is what if they made that call due to the forests returning on Earth? There'd be no need for those forests anymore, and the crew can go back to Earth. After all, nature always finds a way to return to Earth in some form.

It'd make the main characters' decisions rather brash and not so well thought out. It is the lack of reason to the decision that is the catalyst to the events of the film that opens up different interpretations, and I like that aspect.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Oh shit! I just realized that is Bruce Dern. No wonder he looked familiar.

[kylor]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

Oh shit! I just realized that is Bruce Dern. No wonder he looked familiar.

I know him mostly from The Burbs. Although he had a cool little part in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

I really should check out more of his work.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Originally Posted by kylor

I know him mostly from The Burbs. Although he had a cool little part in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

I really should check out more of his work.

Nebraska is also a good one.

[Damon1281]

Originally Posted by kylor

I know him mostly from The Burbs. Although he had a cool little part in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

I really should check out more of his work.

I know him mostly from this movie, but he has bit parts in a lot of movies. You can add this on the cheap to your Vudu collection using the disk to digital option.

[Lee A Stewart]

[Damon1281]

Yeah, but then you would have to watch the hateful eight.

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by kylor

I liked the movie honestly. The song for the film was a bit intense and didn't feel very sci-fi, which is my only real gripe.

Although, adding some additional information changes the movie entirely.

When it is broadcast that the forest domes are to be nuked, they never give a reason why.

So my theory is what if they made that call due to the forests returning on Earth? There'd be no need for those forests anymore, and the crew can go back to Earth. After all, nature always finds a way to return to Earth in some form.

It'd make the main characters' decisions rather brash and not so well thought out. It is the lack of reason to the decision that is the catalyst to the events of the film that opens up different interpretations, and I like that aspect.

Trumbull's original story didn't have the ecology angle at all, it was an older guy alone on a freighter with just drones for company. When the company cashiers him, he just up and steals the ship, cruises around, reprogramming the drones to have some personality, and then he encounters an unknown vessel. He has painted the ship black to avoid detection (hence SILENT RUNNING), so he turns the lights off and the power to try to avoid detection.
Just before the ships rendezvous, he passes out from lack of air.

Then you see the ship from somebody's POV. It goes through to where the guy is, looks around, then turns the air back on and leaves.

When the guy wakes up, he realizes one of the drones stowed away on the ship, and he tells it to go inside and see who this was -- he knows he has kind of sideways made first contact, and he wants to complete this and see them.

Of course, the company shows up right then and docks and tries to break in, while the drone is trying to get inside the alien ship. They break down the door and flamethrower our guy to death just as he sees this totally cool ET Trumbull wanted to do. The drone doesn't know what to do, so he takes this photo of the guy posing with the drones and gives it to the alien. End.

There were three different writers on it, including Michael Cimino and Steve Bochco, I guess all writing different versions, and in the end Trumbull wound up writing the final based on elements from all three. Don't know how or why it morphed so drastically, but this synopsis is from memory, from Trumbull talking about this in a great interview in an old mag called FANTASTIC FILMS from the late 70s.

I still think somebody could make a great movie with the original premise, and told Trumbull that when I got to interview him several years back. He was kind of like, 'let it go, guy' (in a nice way.)

Then again, I think somebody could actually shoot DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP and not have to genuflect too deeply in the direction of BLADE RUNNER, either. I think BR is one of the rare cases of a drastic departure from source material where both are terrific in their own way.

[L.J.]

Have always been curious about this film. Talk in this thread has me really wanting to watch it. The Arrow release looks like a good one.

[Mikezilla3k]

Fun fact: This film was the inspiration for the set and robot design for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

[spaceball-one]

Great movie. Bruce Dern was in a TON of great movies in the 1970s (The Driver, The King Of Marvin Gardens, Coming Home, The Cowboys - all HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).
Love the proto R2-D2 (GL's inspiration).

[Levon]

Originally Posted by spaceball-one

Great movie. Bruce Dern was in a TON of great movies in the 1970s (The Driver, The King Of Marvin Gardens, Coming Home, The Cowboys - all HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).
Love the proto R2-D2 (GL's inspiration).

Great actor, loved him in The Cowboys. Gives a pretty funny interview about John Wayne, along the lines of Wayne saying to him (paraphrasing from memory) you'll be hated for shooting John Wayne in the back and Dern replied yeah but they'll love me out at Berkeley.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by kylor

I know him mostly from The Burbs. Although he had a cool little part in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

I really should check out more of his work.

You have a lot of catching up to do, he's been in a lot of great stuff going back to the 60s.

[kylor]

Originally Posted by trevanian

Trumbull's original story didn't have the ecology angle at all, it was an older guy alone on a freighter with just drones for company. When the company cashiers him, he just up and steals the ship, cruises around, reprogramming the drones to have some personality, and then he encounters an unknown vessel. He has painted the ship black to avoid detection (hence SILENT RUNNING), so he turns the lights off and the power to try to avoid detection.
Just before the ships rendezvous, he passes out from lack of air.

Then you see the ship from somebody's POV. It goes through to where the guy is, looks around, then turns the air back on and leaves.

When the guy wakes up, he realizes one of the drones stowed away on the ship, and he tells it to go inside and see who this was -- he knows he has kind of sideways made first contact, and he wants to complete this and see them.

Of course, the company shows up right then and docks and tries to break in, while the drone is trying to get inside the alien ship. They break down the door and flamethrower our guy to death just as he sees this totally cool ET Trumbull wanted to do. The drone doesn't know what to do, so he takes this photo of the guy posing with the drones and gives it to the alien. End.

There were three different writers on it, including Michael Cimino and Steve Bochco, I guess all writing different versions, and in the end Trumbull wound up writing the final based on elements from all three. Don't know how or why it morphed so drastically, but this synopsis is from memory, from Trumbull talking about this in a great interview in an old mag called FANTASTIC FILMS from the late 70s.

I still think somebody could make a great movie with the original premise, and told Trumbull that when I got to interview him several years back. He was kind of like, 'let it go, guy' (in a nice way.)

Then again, I think somebody could actually shoot DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP and not have to genuflect too deeply in the direction of BLADE RUNNER, either. I think BR is one of the rare cases of a drastic departure from source material where both are terrific in their own way.

Interesting premise for sure, never knew that before. Pretty cool, although I still do like the movie. Would be open to a new adaptation.

[Poya]

It's the 50th anniversary of this. Rewatching it again, it's certainly an odd little flick. It has the distinction of being preachy yet not preachy enough. What do I mean by that? The first 30 minutes are dedicated to its environmental themes, with Bruce Dern going on a tangent to his cartoonishly dumb crewmates on his motives to bring nature back to Earth. It sets off an interesting premise that has relevance to this day but then when he becomes isolated, the whole film is dedicated to his state of mind and doesn't focus too much on the environmental themes, subtly or otherwise, until the last 10 minutes. This certainly was the result of the original premise being mixed in with trying to give it an ecological message and not to say it couldn't work but this needed to be longer for it to explore those themes properly. As a result, it lacks the conviction to truly tell a study on our impact on the environment. Say what you will about Avatar, and while that film isn't as interesting as this, it at least has its conviction in its messages.

The good stuff? The visual effects are still amazing and are light years ahead of any MCU movie these days. Dern gives an impactful performance, even if he goes a bit hammy at points. The concepts are interesting and would love to see them explored in a different film. As it stands, it's an interesting watch but I can't call it great.