# Silent Running (1972)



## ZachWZ (Mar 20, 2001)

When i rented this movie.  i thought it had something to di with the mike and Mecanics song.  if you saw the video it played like a Star Wars feature.

As for this movie.  Spoiler Space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





it was weird.  i think judging by the effects that it was made in the later 60's.  After 2001 was released judging by camera work.  I felted moved by the Mankind can no longer dream speech.  My fave scece is what Huey and Duey learn to bluff at cards.  However at the end it took me .000000000000001 seconds to realize that no light was the problem.  it took the plant expert weeks.  A little nit pick.

ZachWZ


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## Dave (Mar 22, 2001)

*Silent Running (1971)*

http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0067756

Lowell Freeman looks giant biospheres in a spaceship somewhere of Jupiter, with the last specimins of life on Earth. When orders from Earth are received to destroy the greenhouses, Lowell can't go through with it, and cannot persuade the other three astronaunts to help him save the plants, so he makes other "arrangements".


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## stevcolx (May 11, 2004)

*Silent Running*

Remember this classic movie? 

Here is a pic of Duey!


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 21, 2004)

*Silent Running*

This is one of extremely few films that absolutely chokes me up - anyone who's seen this film will know exactly what I'm talking about.

 Essentially, in the future there's a ship in space towing about a series of domes with it, helping preserve the remaining fragments of earth's biodiversity.

  The main ship has a handful of human crew, and three little menial robots.

  Everything is pretty fine and normal - unless orders come in that the domes must be destroyed...


  There's a pretty brilliant summary of it all (includes SPOILERS!!!) here:
http://shipofdreams.net/sfmovies/silent.htm

  and my eyes are dribbling simply reading it. If you've seen it, you'd understand why.

  If you haven't seen it then do so - this is one of those films you will not forget.


  For those who have:


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## Foxbat (Sep 21, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

I have this film on DVD and it's probably the least played in my collection because it's such a moving piece of work.


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## The Master™ (Sep 21, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

I have watched that film many times... And each time I can't stop myself from crying...

What is it about a bunch of robots that causes such emotions???


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

This will really show my age...I remember seeing "Silent Running" at the theatre when it first came out.

Those little 'droids (although they weren't yet called that then, as the film was pre-Lucas) were wonderful.  And, yes, it was a very affecting film.  At the time of it's release, the film was seen by some as just riding on the coattails of "2001", but it really was much more than that.


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## Princess Ivy (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

must admit i haven't seen or heard of it. mutters about cultural bans and nonsens. will have to look it up!


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## The Master™ (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

It is a classic... Very late 60's/early 70's look and feel... All the hippy flower power stuff... But the robots are a joy and sadness...


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## ravenus (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

My favorite film critic Richard Scheib's review of the film.
http://www.moria.co.nz/sf/silentrunning.htm


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## dwndrgn (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

I've heard of it (as a matter of fact I first heard of it when doing some research for the scifi trivia thread a while back  ) and have been meaning to see it but rarely get somewhere I might be able to rent it.


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 22, 2004)

*Re: Silent Running*

Schieb seems to have a pretty good grasp of it - though he really misses the emotional impact of the film on the viewer. Everyone who's seen it remember the ending. You could watch it in Russian, not understand a word of dialogue spoken, and still cry at the end.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 9, 2008)

*Silent Running*

I love this film starring Bruce Dern and 3 cute robots, but was a book ever made from it, or was it based on a book(doubtful)?


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## Dave (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

Good film, if a bit slow, and one of the first 'green message' films.

I've never heard of a book and IMdB: Silent Running (1972) doesn't mention one.

If it helps, the screenplay was written by Deric Washburn (Deerhunter) and by Michael Cimino (Deerhunter, Magnum Force, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) and by Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue).


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## AE35Unit (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

One thing I do know about it is that it has a connection with 2001, in as much as the scene showig Saturn was intended for  that earlier film, but they decided to feature Jupiter instead(shame that, Saturn is much more aesthetically pleasing!)


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## j d worthington (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*



AE35Unit said:


> One thing I do know about it is that it has a connection with 2001, in as much as the scene showig Saturn was intended for that earlier film, but they decided to feature Jupiter instead(shame that, Saturn is much more aesthetically pleasing!)


 
Well, this has a lot to do with the fact that Douglas Trumbull was one of the special photographic effects supervisors for *2001*....


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## AE35Unit (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

Yep, absoultely. Would loveto have been on set at the time!


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## Pyan (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

One of the first SF films I ever saw, and definitely one of the contributing forces to a life-long addiction to SF/F.
Yes, it's slow compared to subsequent films, but well worth seeing.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

Huey Dooey and Looey are had a big impression on me as a kid, and you so feel for that robot with the gammy leg! poor bugger, and yet its just  a  machine!!


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## j d worthington (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*



AE35Unit said:


> Huey Dooey and Looey are had a big impression on me as a kid, and you so feel for that robot with the gammy leg! poor bugger, and yet its just a machine!!


 
Well, they did a very good job with giving them "human" emotions... and without a line of dialogue among the three of 'em....


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## AE35Unit (Jan 9, 2008)

*Re: Silent Running*

They certainly did that! God i so love that film(apart from the bad 70s hippy singing which grates after a while) i put it on my wishlist on bookmooch- yes you can get DVDs from there too!


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## Rodders (May 19, 2009)

*Silent Running*

Sorry guys, i couldn't see anything on this, so i thought i'd start one. Silent Running is one of my all time favourite films. I watched it when i was about 8 years old and it was the first film to make me cry (Ahhhh). Infact, i still get a lump in my throat when i watch it now. 

It's safe to say that i liked this film. I liked it's look, i liked Bruce Dern, i liked the Valley Forge, i liked it's soundtrack and i liked it's conscience. 

What does everybody else think?


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## Shadow Trooper (May 19, 2009)

*Re: Silent Running*

Spooky Rodders 

I put Silent Running down as one of my choices in the epic film thread!


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## AE35Unit (May 19, 2009)

*Re: Silent Running*

Yep,wonderful film,definitely a modern classic! Not so keen on the music by Joan Baez but a great film! Did you know that the saturn sequence showing the planet and its rings was originaly meant to be used in 2001 a space Odyssey! Douglas Trumbull did the effects but it was decided to change it to jupiter in 2001 which left the saturn sequence in limbo. Then Silent Running came along and it found a home!


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## Rodders (May 19, 2009)

*Re: Silent Running*

I liked the title song and the piece of music when the camera pulls away from Lowell whilst he's preparing his dinner at the window and the camera pulls back.

I didn't know that about thne footage though. That's an interesting factoid.


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## antiloquax (Jul 22, 2011)

This is one of my all-time favourite films. The idea of an Earth which has almost become unfit for human and plant life was a new one for me at the time but the Bruce Dern character (Lowell) and his love for nature had a big impact on me.
Clearly now, with Global Warming upon us, the film is more relevant than ever.
Lowell with his "slow food" approach to agriculture and his willingness to put the survival of other species before that of his fellow astronauts is a kind of "deep ecologist". (The film was made in 1972 and Arne Naess coined that term in 1973).

I have it on DVD!


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## Mladen (Jul 25, 2011)

I really adore this film, and am willing to forget the sometimes patronizing dialogue and the terrible use of pop music (ugh).
Agree with others here who have mentioned that the topic is as relevant now as it was in the 70s. Kind of surprised they haven't got their grubby 'remake' hands all over it already.


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## Rodders (Jul 26, 2011)

I hear a lot of criticism on the soundtrack, but i never had a problem. Dare i say, i even enjoy it. Mayhap that's the old hippy in me.


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