User reviews

"Silent Running" is an appealing, unusual sci-fi tale set in deep space. Bruce Dern plays astronaut Freeman Lowell, who's been working on a project for the past eight years: maintain the last of the flora and fauna scavenged from a devastated Planet Earth, inside huge geodesic domes. One day he gets the orders from his bosses to terminate the project and head home. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't appeal to Freeman, and he mutinies.

The film is not subtle about its love-and-respect-for-Mother-Nature, "save the planet" mentality, but it's quite an affecting story no matter what. Lowell does some things one can't exactly condone, but you do understand the man. Thanks to a powerhouse performance by Mr. Dern, you can still sympathize with the man and be moved by his loneliness and social awkwardness. True enough that a story like this would seem like a pretty hard sell to studios, even 43 years ago, since there are no female characters and the main person isn't all that noble.

Special effects veteran Douglas Trumbull, renowned for his work on "2001: A Space Odyssey", obviously has a real affinity for creating interesting environments and striking visuals. He uses these visuals just as much as any dialogue in telling the story, which is a pretty entertaining one; it was scripted by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, and Steven Bochko. The effects are nicely done, and those robot characters - referred to here as drones - do have some personality, and are highly endearing, if not as memorable as, say, R2-D2 from "Star Wars".

The songs, by Joan Baez, and score, composed and conducted by Peter Schickele, are lovely.

Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse Vint are all fun as Lowells' younger, more carefree associates, but after a while only Dern remains as the sole human presence on screen. His performance has to rank as one of his all time best.

Overall, watching this one is a fairly potent experience, and it does stick with you once it's over.

Eight out of 10.

Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, a botanist and astronaut assigned to a spaceship that has the last of Earth's forests in enclosed domes attached to its exteriors. When the order comes from Earth to destroy the domes, and return to Earth, Freeman's fellow crewmen are ecstatic, but he is enraged at the order, thinking it wrongheaded and stupid, so he sets out to ignore the order, and save the domes, even if that means he has to take extreme measures with his crew mates...

Sobering, thoughtful, well acted and directed(by Douglas Trumbull) ecological science fiction tale is really an allegory about humanity's treatment of nature, and what would happen if it was taken to its logical outcome. Though the extreme situation presented here is unlikely(I sincerely hope!) this film works because of its absolute sincerity, with three robots named Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who will play a key role by the film's deeply moving ending, which may bring a tear(s) to the eye.

This film doesn't hit you over the head with million-dollar special effects. It doesn't contain action scenes every two seconds for the easily distracted. It just rips your heart out, and makes you think long after the movie is over. It is about isolation, alienation, lost causes, and the inevitable future. In short, it is a genuine science fiction film, not a gunfight covered with techno-glitz and special effects calling itself science fiction. Star Wars is great science fantasy, but the essence of science fiction is about what could happen, and is happening, and by the end of the film we have the disturbing feeling that it is a prediction of the future that will happen without intervention.

The feelings of sadness and hope this film evokes are inextricably linked in this film, right up until the end. If you rent this movie, you will be haunted by its images long after you have forgotten other films.

Ten out of ten stars; from the writing, directing and acting, right down to the three robot drones (Huey, Dewey and Louie), there is nothing to fault with in this film.

Imagine a future where Earths forests are gone, and the only greenery left floats around in giant domes in space. Thats the world Silent Running drops you into.

Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell a guy tasked with taking care of these last living forests and when the order comes to destroy them, he loses it and i mean really loses it. Sure its a bit slow at times, and you might laugh at some of the dated visuals but theres something heartfelt about it. Those little robots Huey Louie and Dewey are great. Long before the likes of the Star Wars movies and WALL-E they gave mechanical sidekicks humanlike mischief and puppy-dog eyes.

Whats wild is that legendary filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu once called this "the best American film ever made." It might not hit the same for everyone, but there's something about it that leaves a mark. If youre into oldschool scifi give it a shot.

Edit: I had to add that i love the general aesthetics of the retro 60/70s scifi style.

This is a fictional tale with worthwhile message about a botanist named Lowel(Bruce Dern) and his fighting into futuristic space station to keep a giant greenhouse. The large aircraft contains the last surviving forests and remnants of Earth. He receives the order from Earth to destroy the vegetation, then he efforts to preserve those plants and trees . Lowel confront against the remainder crew(Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint and Cliff Potts). He's only accompanied by three robots drones which help him to preserve the greenhouses.

This thoughtful movie packs ecological message, passionate natural conscience, glittering images and is quite entertaining. Outstanding acting by Bruce Dern as the nature-loving and rare member of the Valley Forge space station. Glimmer and colorful cinematography by Charles Wheeler. Sensitive and emotive songs by Joan Baez . Interesting screenplay by Steven Bochco and Michael Cimino. Marked directorial debut of FX whizz Douglas Trumbull who he also lavishly produced along with Michael Gruskoff. Douglas is a legendary visual effects pioneer along with John Dykstra and Richard Yuricich. He achieved several Academy Award nominations and won Award for his extraordinary contribution in this field. Trumbull is currently involved in the evolution of FX utilizing electronic cinematography and digital sets. He was the main crew of the special photographic effects for '2001, Space Odyssey' and supervisor for 'Close encounters in third phase, Andromeda strain and Blade Runner' and director of 'Brainstorm'. The motion picture will like to Sci-Fi buffs and people looking for message about back to nature movement of the 1960s. Rating : Above average, well worth watching.

... of things to come. Perhaps most notable isn't the destruction of earth's natural resources, we lost the planet some time ago, but the development of robots with human characters that are nearly with us now - whether people are aware that's what they are is still debatable.

Universal Studios funded several low-budget productions in the early seventies. By far the best to come out of this program was 'Silent Running', an ecologically-minded 'message film' that stands out today as one of the truly great films of the science-fiction genre.

Bruce Dern stars as Freeman Lowell, a futuristic Park Ranger minding Earth's last forests, sealed in gigantic domes aboard an equally gigantic freighter in space. When ordered to destroy the domes and return home, Lowell is forced to choose between his crewmates and his beloved forests.

The motif of a polluted, or simply, homogenized Earth, the ultimate triumph of human progress over nature and wilderness, is a standard theme of science fiction in the 20th century, and the film is not too different from many other films and episodic television programs seen since the postwar period. Rarely, however, has the theme been explored from the point of view of ecological ethics. The storyline is kept deliberately simple, and asks not the question 'How Would You Act In Such A Position', it merely shows how one particular man might. The characters are given seminal, yet subtle opportunities to flesh themselves out (comments made during meals and card games are particularly noteworthy), and even if the character of Lowell is ultimately dislikeable, he remains oddly sympathetic. Dern produces a remarkable performance here, as a tortured, perhaps even mentally-ill, loner. His work here is still fresh and understated and certainly not of the over-the-top calibre, despite the insistances of some.

The film possesses truly amazing visual images, from the spacecraft itself (the decommissioned and soon-to-be-scrapped aircraft carrier Valley Forge) to the domes (an aircraft hanger at Van Nuys Airport) to the unforgettable Drones, uncanny little robots designed around the amputee-actors that give them life. Visual effects are excellent, the direct prototypes of even more fantastical films to come. The music, composed for the film by Peter Schickele (known internationally as P.D.Q. Bach), is by turns boldly triumphant, softly mournful, and is quite effective; some viewers may hate the vocal work of Joan Baez, but she is a logical choice for this production and time period.

While many films have suffered since the release of 'Star Wars'(which is NOT, strictly speaking, science-fiction) due to dated visuals and obsolete effects technology, 'Silent Running' is still startlingly clean and visionary. A worthy film for all science-fiction fans to see.

Sometime in the future all the forests on Earth have been destroyed. The last forests are transported in giant greenhouses aboard space ships near the planet Saturn. Freeman Lowell, crew member of the space vessel Valley Forge, is an outsider and the only one who cares about what is left of our planet's nature. When orders reach their vessel to destroy the forests, he goes mad. He kills off the other crew members and starts a lonely odyssey...

There's something to be learnt in this movie. More than 30 years old now, it stands the test of time with its message, as mankind is still working on what possibly could end in a scenario like this. Bruce Dern may be overacting in some scenes, but his character is still much more likeable than his crew comrades. Scenery and music are beautiful, fitting well to the dark, moving and unique story. And this is the movie that made "Star Wars" possible. Director Douglas Trumbull and other SFX masters like John Dykstra and Richard Yuricich were chosen to work on "Star Wars" because of the state-of-the-arts special effects they did for "Silent Running". In 1971, they were ahead of their time. In fact, they are easily as good as today's CGI effects, but much more memorable for their time. Even the droids that help Lowell are predecessors of the ones in "Star Wars"... A must-see movie for SF fans and everybody interested in Hollywood classics.

'2001 A Space Oddysey' in unforgettable in many, many ways, one of them is the tripped out acidness of the landing on Jupiter. 'Silent Running' directed by '2001's special effects man takes it all the way. Beautiful music by Joan Baez, evil commercial interests with no regards of anything but money and loving for mother nature.

Effectswise its not completely on par with '2001', but its still darn good. I prefer this style over the expensive CGI of today. Or maybe rather its the set designs thats better on '2001', probably both.. but this is not about the 1968 movie which had more money on its hands anyway. The droids in this kicks ass! Its a very sad story and a very lonely journey. Highly recommended!

Look - Just because there is a message in this movie about mankind's inclination toward destroying the Earth, doesn't make this a good movie. This movie is awful. I can't stand fiction that tries to pawn itself off as Science Fiction with bad science. There are limits to suspension of disbelief. The whole premise of the movie is outrageously ridiculous. There is little if any plot. The movie climaxes in the first 20 minutes and there is little conflict, and what conflict there is, is implied. I love the Earth and the trees and fresh fruit just like everyone else. I consider myself a tree hugging nature guy. I thought I would relate to this nature loving main character after his first speech, however, I later found him repulsive. I cannot understand how this movie ended up on a top 10 list of sci-fi movies. The fact that the main character has to come to the realization that he did in regard to the forest at the end, proves that science was a second thought in this movie. (Any dim-witted scientist wanna-be would have seen the problem inside of 30 seconds.)

If you are and your buddies are looking for a good laugh to go with your "wasted" night, you might get a chuckle out of this. Otherwise, stay away from this movie and don't say I didn't warn you.

Recently someone asked me what was the best sci-fi movie I'd ever seen. "Best"? On what basis -- story, acting, special effects? Generally one would usually choose one of the high-tech, high-priced, superstar biggies.

But I had to say "Silent Running." Oh, it has special effects all right, and I think they're good enough for the purpose; I certainly felt the cramped dimness of the station against the vast implacability of space. Maybe you'd say it doesn't have enough action, surprises, or gore. But maybe this story doesn't need them.

Then why is it my nomination? Because when it was over, I had to turn off the TV -- couldn't let its mood and memory be violated by a late-nite commercial -- and just quietly weep for its poignancy. Anything less (or more) would have denied it the respect it deserved.

If you must, watch it as just more fodder for your entertainment urge. But if your soul is deeper than that... if you can, as Bruce Dern does, put yourself in the place of a character who so cares about the earth and its place in the cosmos ... you'll appreciate the eloquent statement of this film and the way it's presented.

A man, not a god. But if it were you, if you were there... would you, COULD YOU do what he did?

In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut (Bruce Dern) is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's plant life being kept in a greenhouse on board a spacecraft.

The biggest problem with this film is the music provided by Joan Baez. Maybe in 1972 this was cool, but today (2013) it comes off as obnoxious, and it pushes the film over the boundary from "environmentalist" to "hippie", which may be a serious turn-off for many viewers.

Beyond that, great film with Bruce Dern being his wacky self. I love his little robot pals and how he trains them to be (almost) human. The actors inside the robots deserve a lot more credit than they probably get.

First off, gotta say I thought the plot of this movie was Moon for the longest time. However once I figured it out I thought, hey why not watch it. The concept is good and it is done well, but I thought the "climax" was rushed, causing the last third of the film to feel slow. But, a must watch if you're a fan of films like 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Also, there are drones in the movie, and they make this movie for me. They inject little bouts of comedy and fun into it.

One of the streams I love most in cinema are Sci-Fi/horror stories from the 70s dealing with either ecological, dystopian or misanthropy themes. Or better yet, a combo of all three together! For this reason, "Silent Running" stood on my must-see list since many years, and I felt quite convinced I would adore it as much as other contemporary classics like "Soylent Green", "Z.P.G." or "Logan's Run". It is indeed a wondrously unique and powerful Sci-Fi fable, and particularly the first half hour I gazed at the screen with pure astonishment in all my facial expressions. The beginning is so incredibly good, with close-up and detailed images of simple nature footage (for example a snail crawling over a leaf) to the tunes of Joan Baez' mind-penetrating ecological protest music & lyrics. Only when the film's credits are finished, the camera zooms out and the viewer realizes all this beautiful fauna & flora is contained within the borders of a huge artificial dome, floating around in space. One man, with the help of a bizarrely cute miniature robot, is lovingly looking after the trees and plants, but suddenly the peaceful tableau is rudely interrupted by two other men childishly racing against each other with motorized go-karts and destroying the crops.

With this, the tone for the film is set. Freeman Lowell, the calm and introvert horticulturist, is the good guy. The other astronauts (Cliff Potts, Jesse Vint, Ron Rifkin) are the ruthless minions that blindly follow the orders from an unseen government, speaking from an earth that is largely devastated by nuclear warfare and disasters. When the unthinkable command is given to destroy all the greenery that they looked after for 8 years, only Lowell revolts and undertakes extreme measure to safeguard the last remaining forest.

As soon as the other crew members are out of the picture, "Silent Running" admittedly becomes much less of a captivating Sci-Fi adventure. As much as I hate to confess it, there honestly isn't a lot happening here, apart from Lowell humanizing his androids (aptly baptizing them Huey, Dewey and - in memoriam - Louie) and philosophizing by himself. "Silent Running" somewhat bounces back and forth between John Carpenter's "Dark Star" and Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (for which director Trumbull was the special effects supervisor). The former is ultra-low budgeted and heavily plays on parody, whereas the latter is massively expensive and exaggeratedly perfectionist. "Silent Running" is in the middle. Not as cheap as "Dark Star", but only one-tenth as expensive as "2001", and since Trumbull is an effects-wizard, it's plainly clear to see where most of the budget went. The director also tries to narrate the story straightforward and emotionlessly. In the end, you don't feel too much empathy for Lowell, but I don't think you were supposed to.

Silent Running, had I seen it in 1972, probably would have been totally engrossing and astounding as a piece of science fiction film-making that pushed the special effects limits just a nudge further from 2001, and gave a positive (if rather, ultimately, bittersweet) message about taking care of the planet. Today, however, is when I saw the movie, and it's sad for me to see how much of the film hasn't aged very well. Not so much all of the special and visual effects; most of the exterior space shots and the repetitive (sometime too repetitive) shots of the Valley Forge ship drifting along, as well as that quick and trippy thrill-ride through the Saturn rings, are very well done for its time and work for the sake of the movie's own reality of sorts. Just little things, like, say, all of the Joan Baez songs, which screeches the mood to a halt with its hippy-dippy flavor (unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing).

That, and the fact that it being Douglas Trumbull's first film as a director (he's a well-deserved Oscar nominee for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and has his name proudly stamped forever on 2001 and Blade Runner as a special effects man), and whether it was his call or that of the director of photography, Charles F. Wheeler, to shoot a lot of the interiors like it was for television (sometimes they're creative with it, but for the most part it's almost too basic for its own good). So, there are things like that, and a few little scenes (mostly early on with character actors Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin and Jesse Vint) that fall flat. And yet... this is definitely, when it's at its best, one of the most unusual and curious pieces in the genre from the period, or maybe any. Taking aside the pro-environment message of the film, it's a really excellent story about a man going over that certain edge, and being possessive of the very thing that should be shared with the world.

It's a complex character that the writers, Cimino, Bochco and Washburn have created here with Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), so much so that he's both very complex and too simple-minded to figure on. He loves his forest and his trees, worked on it for 8 years, and is told at the drop of a dime to let it all go and the plans for repopulating the Earth with actual greenery is done with, and it's back to a pat return to 75-degree all-the-time normalcy. He snaps, kills his co-pilots, and tries his best to break off contact with his boss ships. And yet there's a level of loneliness seen as the film develops, a struggle with himself not being a bad person but one who's torn up from what he's done. All he has, apparently, are three strange, almost kinda cute robots he names Huey, Dewey and (after the fact of losing him around Saturn's rings) Louie, who do tasks all over the ship.

What the film lacks in directorial polish, therefore, is made-up in spades by the wonderful story and this character who, for 2/3 of the movie, is the only human we see on screen. It's so crucial then that the one consistently brilliant aspect is Bruce Dern's performance. He's an actor of incredible depth when called upon to action in the right part, and here he gives one of the best he had to offer in his prime period. He is so precise at going between subtlety, rage, bewilderment, amusement (i.e. poker game w/robots), sadness and shame, that he commands the screen every time he's on; even when he's put into a ridiculous bit walking outside of the ship in his blue suit walking normally- maybe the lamest moment of the movie- he does interesting stuff. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it was one of the best performances of that year, which had the likes of Brando and Pacino and Olivier to contend with. Now if only the rest of Silent Running, a very good but spotty film of and for its time, held up so well. 7.5/10

I remember first seeing this film on television I think in 1973 and being mesmerized by it. Even though I found the the premise to be absurd (more on that below), the story and movie triumphs regardless. This is flim making at its most brilliant. With the exception of Terrence Malick's "Badlands," I cannot think of a finer directorial debut. It is one of the tragedies of contemporary cinema, that Douglas Trumbull could not find any work as a director for years afterwards. What a loss! The studio completely blew it.

The movie. Yes, the premise is incoherent and it has to be dealt with. Sometime in the early years of the next century what is left of America's forests are gathered up and put on space freighters and shipped to . . . Saturn. Why is most unclear. Putting the forest domes in orbit around earth would have made perfect sense. Moreover, the film goes to great lengths to show that the robots are fully capable of tending to them alone so the whole bit about the unhappy human crew is unnecessary. But off to Saturn we go (where the light for the plants -- surprise -- is really bad).

I understand that Trumbull was thinking of an alien contact story initially -- I am certain to be going out on a limb on this one -- which seemed to bear some resemblence to the Poul Anderson novella "Southern Cross." The aliens were soon dumped, however. What remained turned out to be an utterly compelling psychological drama of a man alone in space that is unlike any SF movie I have seen (it does bear some similarity to a few Twilight Zone episodes, however).

This is an astonishing technical achievement in movie making. Everything about this film works: music, effects, photography, sets, acting, editing, direction, you name it. Folks, this was done for all of one million dollars and is a hundred times more compelling than films that cost a hundred times as much. This is art. This is literature. Get the DVD. Just sit down an watch it. This is a lovely, timeless, piece of work.

Then weep because they don't make 'em like this anymore. .

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 ****

Now, I am not someone who wandered out of his genre and happened to see this movie by accident. I love science fiction -- old, new, I think most of it has something to offer.

This film would be the exception. Some films are fun because they're cheesy (Event Horizon), and some are great because they're thought-provoking (The Day the Earth Stood Still). Silent Running is an obnoxious portrayal of a hippie who should never have been allowed on a space ship to begin with.

The premise here has a lot of promise; had the characters been more believable or the film itself less... well, there are a lot of statements that fit here. Politically skewed, weakly written, off-balance, utterly implausible (even for a sci-fi flick)... the list goes on.

I had heard of this movie as some kind of milestone for science fiction. It is not, and should not be considered such; it's hard to even take this movie seriously, as it is obviously meant to be. It also fails as a campy popcorn flick, which it was definitely NOT meant to be, because the message is so overbearing that most of it is just painful to watch, regardless of whether you agree with it.

I absolutely do not recommend this movie; it has no redeeming value -- not for ecologists, not for pacifists, not for anyone short of Greenpeace supporters on downers. Avoid this, for your own sake.