{"id":13444,"date":"2011-11-10T02:50:58","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T02:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=13444"},"modified":"2011-11-10T03:09:09","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T03:09:09","slug":"silent-running-douglas-trumbull-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/11\/10\/silent-running-douglas-trumbull-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent Running"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Douglas Trumbull’s moving sci-fi drama gets a welcome re-release on Blu-ray from Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label.<\/p>\n

After the unexpected commercial success of Easy Rider<\/a> (1969) and the slow demise of the old studio system<\/a>, Universal decided to green light some lower budget features by up and coming directors.<\/p>\n

This meant that a young special effects artist who had helped Stanley Kubrick<\/a> create some of the greatest visual effects in cinema history<\/a> made his directorial debut.<\/p>\n

Silent Running is set in a future where all plant life on Earth is extinct and the remaining specimens are preserved in giant spaceships outside the orbit of Saturn.<\/p>\n

When the man entrusted with looking after them (Bruce Dern) receives orders to jettison the floating greenhouses and return to Earth, he begins to have second thoughts about his mission and fellow crew members.<\/p>\n

At its core this is a film about man’s relation to nature, as seen from the isolation of space, but\u00a0it goes further than that by posing interesting moral questions about how far we should go to protect an ideal as well as the conflict of an individual against the society he is from.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In this sense, the film is very much of a product of its time, when there was widespread disillusionment<\/a> at foreign wars<\/a>, a stagnant economy<\/a> and concerns about the environment<\/a>\u00a0– sound familiar?<\/p>\n

But down the years this film has endured as something much more substantial than just a hippy space opera with cute robots.<\/p>\n

Part of it’s unique charm and power comes from Bruce Dern in the lead role, with a brave performance filled with anguish and humanity.<\/p>\n

He conveys a genuine love for the natural plants and animals on board the ship, combined with an empathy for technology, especially his servant drones, which he nicknames Huey, Dewey, and Louie.<\/p>\n

These were actually played by four double-amputees, inside custom-built suits, and they remain some of the most enduring characters in the sci-fi movie genre, influencing Star Wars<\/a> (1977), WALL-E<\/a> (2008) and Moon<\/a> (2009).<\/p>\n

Trumbull also achieved a lot on a limited budget with clever use of front-projection<\/a> and model work to depict the ships in space – despite the enormous advances in visual effects since it was made, Silent Running still holds up as a textbook example of high creativity on a low budget.<\/p>\n

Modern audiences used to the intricate, computer generated world of Avatar might like to note that it shares a similar environmental theme, which suggest that Trumbull’s messages and themes are enduring ones.<\/p>\n

Although the use of Joan Baez<\/a> songs might seem to date the movie, it is a reminder of the despair and hope of the early 1970s, which isn’t so different as we begin a new decade of social and environmental uncertainty.<\/p>\n