Silent Running
Just finished watching "Silent Running" released by Universal Studios back in 1972.
I do remember watching "Silent Running" with Mom, Dad, and Selma, when it aired on cable television back in the 1980s when cable television finally gained access to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Back then cable television was akin to the streaming services offered today - although original programming was few and far between on cable television in its youth.
I also remember that the was a novelization of "Silent Running" published by Scholastic Press - and yes, Mrs. Sanders, the woman who was the "teacher" of my sixth grade class at Stone Street Elementary School at Camp Lejeune tried to prevent me from reading the novelization by refusing to give it to me until I threatened to tell Mom and Dad that she was withholding another book order of mine from the Weekly Reader Book Club because she didn't approve of the books I wanted to read. Mrs. Sanders relented and gave me my books that I had ordered - she didn't like dealing with Mom and Dad and she didn't like it when I told Mom and Dad about her actions and words. [Ironically, Mrs. Sanders would probably be fired from her teaching position today if she tried to prevent me or another child from reading a book she didn't approve of.]
"Silent Running" was one of Hollywood's thought provoking science fiction movies from the 1960s and mid-1970s that focused on the environment.
In the future, all forests on Earth have become extinct from careless environmental exploitation. As many specimens as possible have been preserved in a series of enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes serving as closed ecological systems attached to large cargo spaceships, forming part of a fleet of eight "American Airlines Space Freighters", stationed outside the orbit of Saturn.
Freeman Lowell, played by actor Bruce Dern, is one of four crewmen, is the resident botanist and ecologist on one of these ships, the Valley Forge. He carefully maintains a variety of plants for their eventual return to Earth and the reforestation of the planet. He spends most of his time in the domes, cultivating the crops and attending to the animal life.
The crew of each ship receives orders to jettison and destroy their domes and return the freighters to commercial service. After four of the six Valley Forge domes are jettisoned and destroyed with nuclear charges, Lowell rebels and opts to save his ship's plants and animals. He kills Wolf, one of his crewmates who arrives to plant explosives in his favorite dome, and his right leg is seriously injured in the process. He then jettisons and triggers the destruction of the other remaining dome to trap and kill the remaining two crewmen.
Enlisting the aid of the ship's three service robots, Lowell stages a fake premature explosion as a ruse and sends the Valley Forge speeding toward Saturn in an attempt to hijack the ship and flee with the last forest dome. He then reprograms the drones to perform surgery on his leg and sets the Valley Forge on a risky course through Saturn's rings. Later, as the ship endures the rough passage, Drone 3 is lost, but the ship and its remaining dome emerge relatively undamaged on the other side of the rings. Lowell gives the surviving drones the names Dewey (Drone 1) and Huey (Drone 2), while the lost Drone 3 is named Louie - a nod to the nephew's of Disney's Donald Duck - Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Lowell, Huey, and Dewey set out into deep space to maintain the forest. Lowell reprograms Huey and Dewey to plant trees and play poker. He also has them bury Andy Wolf in the bio-dome. Lowell begins speaking to them constantly, as if they are children.
Huey is damaged when Lowell accidentally collides with him while driving a buggy recklessly, and Dewey sentimentally refuses to leave Huey's side during the repairs. As time passes, Lowell is horrified when he discovers that his bio-dome is dying, but is unable to come up with a solution to the problem. When the Berkshire—another space freighter waiting to see if the Valley Forge has survived the trip around Saturn—eventually reestablishes contact, he knows that his crimes will soon be discovered. It is then that he realizes a lack of light has restricted plant growth, and he races to install lamps to correct this situation. In an effort to save the last forest before the Berkshire arrives, Lowell jettisons the bio-dome to safety. He then detonates nuclear charges, destroying the Valley Forge, the damaged Huey, and himself in the process. The final scene is of the now well-lit forest greenhouse drifting into deep space, with Dewey tenderly caring for it, holding Lowell's battered old watering can.
Fun Fact: the "Valley Forge" has appeared in other science fiction movies and television shows, the most notable being the original "Battlestar Galactica."
"Silent Running" is a solid, cautionary science fiction movies that does offer mixed hope for the future at the end.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Running...
I do remember watching "Silent Running" with Mom, Dad, and Selma, when it aired on cable television back in the 1980s when cable television finally gained access to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Back then cable television was akin to the streaming services offered today - although original programming was few and far between on cable television in its youth.
I also remember that the was a novelization of "Silent Running" published by Scholastic Press - and yes, Mrs. Sanders, the woman who was the "teacher" of my sixth grade class at Stone Street Elementary School at Camp Lejeune tried to prevent me from reading the novelization by refusing to give it to me until I threatened to tell Mom and Dad that she was withholding another book order of mine from the Weekly Reader Book Club because she didn't approve of the books I wanted to read. Mrs. Sanders relented and gave me my books that I had ordered - she didn't like dealing with Mom and Dad and she didn't like it when I told Mom and Dad about her actions and words. [Ironically, Mrs. Sanders would probably be fired from her teaching position today if she tried to prevent me or another child from reading a book she didn't approve of.]
"Silent Running" was one of Hollywood's thought provoking science fiction movies from the 1960s and mid-1970s that focused on the environment.
In the future, all forests on Earth have become extinct from careless environmental exploitation. As many specimens as possible have been preserved in a series of enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes serving as closed ecological systems attached to large cargo spaceships, forming part of a fleet of eight "American Airlines Space Freighters", stationed outside the orbit of Saturn.
Freeman Lowell, played by actor Bruce Dern, is one of four crewmen, is the resident botanist and ecologist on one of these ships, the Valley Forge. He carefully maintains a variety of plants for their eventual return to Earth and the reforestation of the planet. He spends most of his time in the domes, cultivating the crops and attending to the animal life.
The crew of each ship receives orders to jettison and destroy their domes and return the freighters to commercial service. After four of the six Valley Forge domes are jettisoned and destroyed with nuclear charges, Lowell rebels and opts to save his ship's plants and animals. He kills Wolf, one of his crewmates who arrives to plant explosives in his favorite dome, and his right leg is seriously injured in the process. He then jettisons and triggers the destruction of the other remaining dome to trap and kill the remaining two crewmen.
Enlisting the aid of the ship's three service robots, Lowell stages a fake premature explosion as a ruse and sends the Valley Forge speeding toward Saturn in an attempt to hijack the ship and flee with the last forest dome. He then reprograms the drones to perform surgery on his leg and sets the Valley Forge on a risky course through Saturn's rings. Later, as the ship endures the rough passage, Drone 3 is lost, but the ship and its remaining dome emerge relatively undamaged on the other side of the rings. Lowell gives the surviving drones the names Dewey (Drone 1) and Huey (Drone 2), while the lost Drone 3 is named Louie - a nod to the nephew's of Disney's Donald Duck - Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Lowell, Huey, and Dewey set out into deep space to maintain the forest. Lowell reprograms Huey and Dewey to plant trees and play poker. He also has them bury Andy Wolf in the bio-dome. Lowell begins speaking to them constantly, as if they are children.
Huey is damaged when Lowell accidentally collides with him while driving a buggy recklessly, and Dewey sentimentally refuses to leave Huey's side during the repairs. As time passes, Lowell is horrified when he discovers that his bio-dome is dying, but is unable to come up with a solution to the problem. When the Berkshire—another space freighter waiting to see if the Valley Forge has survived the trip around Saturn—eventually reestablishes contact, he knows that his crimes will soon be discovered. It is then that he realizes a lack of light has restricted plant growth, and he races to install lamps to correct this situation. In an effort to save the last forest before the Berkshire arrives, Lowell jettisons the bio-dome to safety. He then detonates nuclear charges, destroying the Valley Forge, the damaged Huey, and himself in the process. The final scene is of the now well-lit forest greenhouse drifting into deep space, with Dewey tenderly caring for it, holding Lowell's battered old watering can.
Fun Fact: the "Valley Forge" has appeared in other science fiction movies and television shows, the most notable being the original "Battlestar Galactica."
"Silent Running" is a solid, cautionary science fiction movies that does offer mixed hope for the future at the end.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Running...
No comments have been added yet.
