Silent Running (1972) is another first-seen-late movie. Ms. Spenser went to the premier with her aunt and uncle and had the poster on her wall. But I've never seen it until now.
It's set on a spaceship in the near future. The Earth has become deforested and sterile, so three ships with bio-domes were sent out into space to preserve wildlife, to be brought back to reforest the world at a better time. The four-man crew of the Valley Forge consists of three yahoos and biologist Bruce Dern. The yahoos are ok guys who like zooming around in the ship's golf carts. Dern prefers to stay in the forests under glass and commune with nature. Then they get orders from Earth: mission's over, jettison the domes and nuke them. Come on home.
Dern is pretty upset about this. As he watches the other ships' dome blow up in the stars, the other crewmembers of his ship prepare to blow up ther domes. He finally breaks. and kills one. Then, while the rest of the crew is planting the nuclear charge, he jettisons them and blows them up. Now he's alone with the remaining dome.
Except there are three little robot drones that he befriends. When one is destroyed, he names the others Huey and Dewey, and tells them that their missing companion is named Louie. He treats them like his young or pets - mentors them and spoils them. But he won't be able to keep the military at bay for long, and he's wounded, and so is Huey...
The first thing to know about this movie is that it was directed by Douglas Trumbull, the special effects wizard from 2001 and many others. It clearly inspired a lot of future space movies. It reminds me a lot of Dark Star, although I can't decide which way the influence runs (if there was any). DS came out after, but was an expanded versio of a short film that came out earlier. I was also reminded of Red Dwarf, especially the use of the drones. Anyway, the scenes panning across what was plainly a giant model spaceship will always bring me jpy.
The drones are another important part - their artificial humanity. I watched knowing the drones were suits being worn by legless actors, and I felt like their acting shone through the suits.
Finally, there is Dern's impassioned ecological advocacy. It sounds both a little goofy and dated, but also absolutely sound to me. I mean, the idea of nuking our precious biological reserves just to save the rent on the spaceships that nurture them is crazy, right? I guess at the time (I was alive and aware of the ecological slow-motion crisis in 1972) it sounded pretty plain-spoken and serious. I'm not sure I could say the same for Joan Baez's theme songs. written by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach!). They were a little painful.
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