Bruce Dern in a Low Budget, Big Success
Today is Bruce Dern’s birthday. I am celebrating by watching this obscure sci-fi film! A quirky movie from the 70s that you might have missed!
I found the soundtrack to this film on CD at a sale over the weekend. This reminded me how much I like this movie. I don't completely understand why. It is fairly cheesy, somewhat preachy, the Joan Baez theme is dated and the story very simple. And yet, I really like 1972’s ‘Silent Running’. Somehow, despite its shortcomings, it strikes a cord with me. I care how the story unfolds and what happens to the characters. If you can look past some minor defects I think you might enjoy it too. The film, that you might have missed, has quite a cult following. I guess I belong to that cult.
Bruce Dern portrays an astronaut on a special spaceship that contains the last remnants of plant life on Earth. He has cared for these forests for 8 years as people on Earth have "improved" life back home. There is no poverty, no disease, everyone gets along, it is always 75 degrees and most consider it to be paradise. Not Bruce Dern. He likes trees and flowers and squirrels and real fruit. His fellow astronauts think he is nuts. And he is, at least a little. But when Dern receives an order to destroy the ship, and with it all remaining plant life, he cannot proceed. Can he save the forests and, by extension, an integral part of humanity?
Obviously, this is a metaphor for human destruction of our environment. When ‘Silent Running’ was released, headlines worldwide bemoaned the end of the world. Overpopulation, deforestation, poverty and disease were moments away from killing us all. At least that is what we were told. It has yet to happen. Today, 51 years later, those same worries over the fate of the Earth and the end of humanity are ascribed to Climate Change. People have and always will worry about the end of everything. This film is a simple look at one man's desperation to do what he can to save the forest. It is also a metaphor for everyone fighting to save what they see as beauty. I have a great deal of respect for them, even if no one else shares their view.
‘Silent Running’s crew has some amazing success. The writers include some who went on to fame and fortune. Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino and Stephen Bochco co-wrote the script. Bochco is one of television's biggest producers. His credits include 'LA Law', 'Hill Street Blues', 'NYPD Blue' and many more. Washburn and Cimino wrote ‘The Deer Hunter’ (a truly great and overpowering film) while Cimino directed 'The Deer Hunter' and the ill-fated 'Heaven's Gate'. That's a lot of chops for one cult sci-fi film. Douglas Trumbull debuts as a director with ‘Silent Running’. Best known for his special effects he worked on lots of movies including 'Close Encounters' and '2001'.
Bruce Dern, as almost the only human seen in most of the movie, plays the eccentric/disturbed character with his usual aplomb. The drones are his only companions as he attempts to save what’s left of our natural world. He would later be quoted as saying he was the 18th choice to play Freeman Lowell. He does a great job.
‘Silent Running’ is a quality film done on a low budget. I find it interesting and compelling. I hope you do as well.