A melancholy sci-fi film that makes you think about what could happen, and is in fact happening to our planet, along with the consequences for us all if no action is taken.
Directed by Douglas Trumbull
Written by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, Steven Bochco
Produced by: Michael Gruskoff, Marty Hornstein, Douglas Trumbull
Cinematography: Charles F. Wheeler
Edited by: Aaron Stell
Music by: Peter Schickele
Production company: Universal Pictures
Running time: 89 minutes
Budget: $1,350,000
Cast
Bruce Dern: Freeman Lowell
Cliff Potts: John Keenan
Ron Rifkin: Marty Barker
Jesse Vint: Andy Wolf
Mark Persons: the Drone
Steven Brown: the Drone
Cheryl Sparks: the Drone
Larry Whisenhunt: the Drone
Joseph Campanella: Neal - Berkshire' Captain (voice)
Roy Engel: Anderson (voice)
Trailer
Spoilers follow below....
As the camera pulls out, our view is jarred by the sudden appearance in the shot of a section of an artificial surface feature which appears to be a metal foot-ramp. Next we see a monk-like robed human figure and behind and above him a star-strewn view of space. This is not what might at first have been expected.
The robed individual is Freeman Lowell, one of four crewmen aboard American Airlines space freighter Valley Forge. Lowell is the resident botanist and ecologist who maintains the various plants, cultivates the crops and attends to the animal life, all of which are contained in enormous, geodesic greenhouse domes attached to his and other large spaceships.
The lush foliage being framed against the pitch black of outer space and contained within a marvel of human technology makes the existence of the flora and fauna all the more remarkable and miraculous.
“On this first day of a new century, we humbly beg forgiveness and dedicate these last forests of our once beautiful nation, in the hope that they will one day return and grace our foul Earth. Until that day, may God bless these gardens and the brave men who care for them.”
This is the not too distant future, where all plant and animal life on Earth is becoming extinct. What remains has been preserved in the domes of the 2000 meter long orbiting space freighters. The plan or mission is to eventually return the preserved plant and animal life to earth. The Valley Forge, is part of a fleet of freighters currently located just outside the orbit of Saturn.
Freeman Lowell is passionately and one might say obsessively dedicated to his work of preservation and conservation. Not so, however his crew-mates whose main priority is to return to Earth after their one-year deployment to space.
“Do I have to put signs up here to keep you guys off my grass?”
The tranquility of the scene is rudely disrupted by the antics of Lowell’s crew-mates who burst in on Lowell driving motorized buggies, tearing up the soil and nearly bowling Lowell over. Blowing off steam and having fun is a lot more appealing to Lowell’s crew-mates than dedication and respect for what’s around them and their responsibility toward it.
In the next few scenes featuring his interaction with his crew mates, Lowell comes across not just as some hippie drop-out intent on merely shunning civilization. Instead, this is a man who appreciates the natural world and all that it offers, who is adept at working in partnership with technology as a tool and one who can play a mean hand of poker which suggests skill at strategy and bluff. He probably just prefers the natural world and technology to his fellow ass-hole human beings and is fully committed to the ideals behind the forest preservation mission.
More importantly, Lowell appears to be a hopeless and naive optimist who fervently believes that the authorities back on earth have indeed paid attention to his communications and that “they're about to re-establish the parks and forest system” with him as director. After all, he’s spent the last eight years dedicated to the project and that “here's no way they're gonna announce cutbacks, not after this amount of time.”
“You don't think that it's time that somebody cared enough to have a dream?”
What Lowell doesn’t seem to understand is the fickle and self-absorbed nature of human beings as alluded to by crewman Wolf who tells him, “it's been too long, Lowell, people got other things to do now.”
This sentiment is underscored by a radio transmission from Con Central in which their boss, Anderson informs the crews of the fleet that orders have been received to “abandon, then nuclear destruct, all the forests and return our ships to commercial service.”
"Rejoice in the Sun"
♪ Fields of children ♪
♪ Running wild ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Like a forest is your child ♪
♪ Growing wild ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Doomed in his innocence ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Gather your children ♪
♪ To your side ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Tell them ♪
♪ All they love will die ♪
♪ Tell them why ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Tell them ♪
♪ It's not too late ♪
♪ Cultivate one by one ♪
♪ Tell them to harvest ♪
♪ And rejoice ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
(Joan Baez)
A future time where all flora and fauna is extinct on Earth.
The planet's ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft.
Commercial interests have now taken precedence.
The pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed by nuclear devices.
The crew of Valley forge and other ships can return home to earth.
Botanist and crew member Freeman Lowell has tended the plants for eight years.
How will the dedicated Lowell take the news?
Is the earth destined to lose the last of its forests and living creatures?
Read on for more....
“I don't think you guys understand what this means. Please don't blow up the domes”
Lowell and his crew have been ordered to destroy the orbiting greenhouses and the freighters will be redeployed to commercial service. The effect of this fait accompli and what to Lowell amounts to a kind of betrayal, can be seen in his eyes which have taken on an almost deranged, intense and fanatical sheen.
Unfortunately hectoring and lecturing and appealing to idealistic notions of the past will not help to sway Lowell’s (or anyone’s) cynical and skeptical audience who are more interested in personal comforts, economic security and convenience where “everywhere you go, the temperature is 75 degrees” and where “there's hardly any more disease... no more poverty….(and) nobody's out of a job.” Where's the motivation to change attitude, especially when people have become so dependent on what is on offer?
Lowell’s arguments for achieving change that will bring about a world in which people are not reduced to a banal level of sameness, where there’s more beauty and more imagination and further frontiers to conquer are met with a solid wall composed of apathy and economic priorities.
As for the legacy left for the next generation? Lowell draws the others’ attention to a girl’s picture on the wall and the fact that “she's never gonna be able to see the simple wonder of a leaf in her hand because there's not gonna be any trees.”
Lowell’s appeals and arguments are all to no avail and his crew-mates proceed to follow their orders and set about the task of jettisoning and detonating the greenhouse domes on the Valley Forge.
“We're ready for some real fireworks here”
Lowell then deliberately sets off a premature dome detonation as a ruse to fool his superiors, after which he deliberately alters the orbit of the Valley Forge and redirects the ship towards Saturn in an effort to preserve the last remaining forest dome.
Lowell at this stage seems to be pleased that he has won this particular game of poker, but at what cost? Do the ends justify the means? Perhaps they do in the mind of the fanatic, the terrorist, the radical ideologue and the madman!
“God bless you, Freeman. You're a hell of an American”
Whatever Lowell has become, he now finds himself injured and alone with three robot drones being his only company. Lowell then sets about the task of programming the drones to perform surgery on his injured leg.
Soon after the surgery, Lowell is informed by Commander Anderson that the Valley Forge is on a collision course with Saturn's rings, and that they’’ll never be able to stop him before his ship hits the rings. With the likelihood that Lowell’s ship will be destroyed, Anderson suggests that Lowell might want to consider suicide but this is rejected by Lowell. The only slim hope is that a search party could be sent the long way around, but “it's kind of like a needle in a hay stack.”
Of course, the audience and Lowell both know that this entire scenario is nothing but a laughable sham considering what Lowell has done and intends to do.
Visibly upset at what happened to Drone 3, Lowell asks the now departed machine, “Why didn't you follow them?” Why indeed? Did it panic? Was it frightened? Did it simply freeze, much like a person would do when confronted by such a dire situation? Indecisive? Confused? Almost human-like qualities one might say!
Lowell’s ship finally emerges relatively unscathed on the other side of the rings. If any damage is noticeable, it is within Lowell himself as can be seen from the ‘funeral’ service he conducts for crewman Wolf, the man he earlier murdered in the dome.
It is interesting that Lowell conducts the funeral proceedings via the medium of technology and not personally as he instructs the drones to “dig a hole for him….seven feet long and three feet wide” before putting Wolf’s body down in the grave. It is as if Lowell is burying something that’s too terrible to contemplate – the consequences of his actions and what he has become. Wolf’s body is to become fertilizer for Lowell’s precious plants.
One thing that Lowell cannot escape from is both himself and his conscience and the knowledge that he’ll never be able to excuse what it is he did. He cannot even articulate plainly what it is he did but can only declare rather lamely, “I had to do it.” A truly wonderful justification by others throughout human history for all manner of atrocities, no doubt!
And so, like a seed or plant bulb, Wolf’s dead body is covered over by the drones as per Lowell’s instructions.
“I think that the three of us together, as a team, we can manage okay”
Except for the two remaining drones, Lowell is now alone. He sets about humanizing the drones by relating to them as one might do to children and giving them names: Huey (drone 2), Dewey (drone 1) and (for the recently departed drone 3) Louie. Lowell also reprograms and teaches them to play poker and carry out horticultural activities in the dome in addition to their maintenance duties.
Silent Running
♪ Earth between my toes ♪
♪ And a flower in my hair ♪
♪ That's what I was wearig ♪
♪ When we lay ♪
♪ Among the ferns ♪
♪ Earth between my toes ♪
♪ And a flower I will wear ♪
♪ When he returns ♪
♪ Wind upon his face ♪
♪ And my fingers in his hair ♪
♪ That's what he was wearing ♪
♪ When we lay ♪
♪ Beneath the sky ♪
♪ Wind upon his face ♪
♪ And my love he will wear ♪
♪ When swallows fly ♪
♪ Tears of sorrow running deep ♪
♪ Running silent in my sleep ♪
♪ Running silent ♪
♪ In my sleep ♪
(Joan Baez)
“See what happens when you get careless?”
During this time, Lowell seems to be oblivious to his gradual mental, psychological and emotional deterioration which is a consequence of his human social isolation. He tries to compensate by relating to the drones as if they were akin to human companions. Even though they are quite endearing and do seem to display human-like emotional qualities, they are nevertheless machines that have come to represent Lowell’s distorted and idealized concept of human interaction. Playing pool and playing cards with machines is not the same as playing with fellow human beings and experiencing the kind of dynamics and intellectual and emotional exchanges they bring to such activities. Unlike machines, you can’t just reprogram people to make them be the way you want them to be, even if they do give you the shits.
We later see Lowell racing along the ship’s cargo bay in one of the buggies, much like his crew-mates had done earlier. It is obvious that he is working out the stress of his guilt over having been responsible for their deaths, his responsibility being underscored by the overturned container of soil.
In the meantime, it appears that Lowell has been neglecting his responsibilities for looking after the last remaining forest - the point of him being in this situation. After realizing that he has been eating the reconstituted artificial “crap” on board the ship, Lowell decides to “go to the forest and get some real food.” Once at the dome, he comes to the shocking realization that the forest is dying from some unknown cause.
Lowell desperately tries to come up with a solution to the bio-dome problem and in one such desperate attempt to save the dome he badly damages Huey in an accident while racing to the dome in one of the ship's buggies.
"When I was a kid, I put a note into a bottle, and it had my name and address on it. And then I threw the bottle into the ocean. And I never knew if anyone ever found it."
As time passes, Lowell is awoken by faint radio chatter from the space freighter, Berkshire which has located the Valley Forge after a long search. When contact is established, Commander Anderson informs Lowell that they will be able to rendezvous with him within six hours. Lowell is instructed to jettison the dome but not detonate the nuclear charge, as it is too DARK! to do so safely.
Two things have now occurred to Lowell. The first realization (rather surprisingly and unbelievably) is that the forest was dying due to lack of sunlight. The solution: a series of lights to simulate the sun.
The film then closes with a final scene of the forest dome drifting into space, tended by Dewey wielding a battered old watering can. The implication is that nature has been reprieved by being emancipated and spared destruction.
"Rejoice in the Sun"
♪ Fields of children ♪
♪ Running wild ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Like a forest ♪
♪ Is your child ♪
♪ Growing wild ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Doomed ♪
♪ In his innocence ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Gather your children ♪
♪ To your side ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Tell them ♪
♪ All they love will die ♪
♪ Tell them why ♪
♪ In the sun ♪
♪ Tell them ♪
♪ It's not too late ♪
♪ Cultivate one by one ♪
♪ Tell them to harvest ♪
♪ And rejoice ♪
♪ In the sun... ♪
(JOAN BAEZ)
Points Of Interest
The model of the "Valley Forge" space freighter was 26 feet in length and was constructed with steel, wood, plastic, and over 650 army tank model kits. After filming was completed, the model was placed into storage. Most of the model was later thrown away due to storage costs with only several large pieces including a couple of the domes surviving.
In keeping with the film’s conservation theme, each of the space freighter's names refer to an American National Park or Preserve.
The domed forest environments were shot in a newly completed aircraft hangar in Van Nuys, California.
Bruce Dern was apparently cast in the role of Lowell after 17 other actors turned the role down.
Dern gives an excellent performance as a disturbed and tortured individual who decides on a particular course of action in the face of what he sees as an act of insanity on the part of those in power who make decisions affecting humanity. There are times when we can view him sympathetically while at other times we can quite rightly condemn him for what he has chosen to do. Rarely are things simply a matter of black and white in reality, and this comes through Dern’s portrayal of his character, Lowell.
In the scene where he sheds tears as he tells his crew-mates about the little girl who would never know the "simple wonder of a leaf in her hand," Dern drew upon his experience of losing his own daughter in an accidental death a few years before. The watering can that Lowell uses in the film belonged to Bruce Dern's deceased daughter, Diane.
Part of the film’s appeal is the moral ambiguity of its central character who finds that he is unable to compromise on his ideals and principles, and as a result murders his crew-mates. Is a recourse to violence the only solution when faced with the unyielding power of those in authority whose actions are viewed as being a threat to humanity? How does the fanatic, the terrorist or ideological extremist come into being?
“Silent Running” effectively combines feelings of sadness, loss and hope within a less than subtle message about ecology and human impact on nature. Much of the film’s mood and atmosphere is evoked by the stirring, triumphant and often mournful music, composed by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach). The soundtrack contains two songs written by Schickele and Diane Lampert: "Silent Running" and "Rejoice in the Sun" both which were performed by folk singer-songwriter Joan Baez. Baez’s vocals unmistakably call to mind the time period in which the film was made and the concerns that people had for the future of the world – concerns which have not diminished with the passage of time and which still remain relevant.
“Silent Running” is a very prescient film in terms of its ecological theme and premise. When the film was made, global warming and climate change as such were not yet part of popular discourse. People were certainly becoming more environmentally conscious and there was much anti-war sentiment with the Vietnam War still pointlessly and cruelly grinding away. This was reflected symbolically in the film by the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the last-remaining natural habitats of Earth, as well as the use of a vessel called the Valley Forge whereby an instrument associated with war is creatively transformed on screen into a tool to achieve laudable ecological ends.
In the scene where he sheds tears as he tells his crew-mates about the little girl who would never know the "simple wonder of a leaf in her hand," Dern drew upon his experience of losing his own daughter in an accidental death a few years before. The watering can that Lowell uses in the film belonged to Bruce Dern's deceased daughter, Diane.
Part of the film’s appeal is the moral ambiguity of its central character who finds that he is unable to compromise on his ideals and principles, and as a result murders his crew-mates. Is a recourse to violence the only solution when faced with the unyielding power of those in authority whose actions are viewed as being a threat to humanity? How does the fanatic, the terrorist or ideological extremist come into being?
“Silent Running” effectively combines feelings of sadness, loss and hope within a less than subtle message about ecology and human impact on nature. Much of the film’s mood and atmosphere is evoked by the stirring, triumphant and often mournful music, composed by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach). The soundtrack contains two songs written by Schickele and Diane Lampert: "Silent Running" and "Rejoice in the Sun" both which were performed by folk singer-songwriter Joan Baez. Baez’s vocals unmistakably call to mind the time period in which the film was made and the concerns that people had for the future of the world – concerns which have not diminished with the passage of time and which still remain relevant.
“Silent Running” is a very prescient film in terms of its ecological theme and premise. When the film was made, global warming and climate change as such were not yet part of popular discourse. People were certainly becoming more environmentally conscious and there was much anti-war sentiment with the Vietnam War still pointlessly and cruelly grinding away. This was reflected symbolically in the film by the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the last-remaining natural habitats of Earth, as well as the use of a vessel called the Valley Forge whereby an instrument associated with war is creatively transformed on screen into a tool to achieve laudable ecological ends.
While viewing the film, we cannot help but reflect on our own 21st century concerns over the effect that global warming and climate change is having on our planet. It is as if we have arrived at a tipping point as we witness weather extremes with increasing incidents of flooding, rising temperatures, heatwaves, droughts, ferocious wildfires, fluctuating weather patterns and so on. We realize just how much we human beings have contributed to this situation over the course of the industrial and post-industrial era in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide we have released into the atmosphere. We also lament over what is happening to our own forests – the lungs of the earth – as a result of deforestation due to cutting down of trees for timber and burning huge swathes of forest for agriculture and farming.
With the recent UN report issuing a “code red” for humanity, the need for us as a species to adopt a change of attitude and method of relating to our planet and the natural world is urgent as our own survival may be at stake.
©Chris Christopoulos 2021
With the recent UN report issuing a “code red” for humanity, the need for us as a species to adopt a change of attitude and method of relating to our planet and the natural world is urgent as our own survival may be at stake.
This is a somewhat similar message as that being conveyed over the space of half a century by “Silent Running.” The message in the film is far more optimistic and perhaps a bit simplistic and naive, whereby a catastrophe can be avoided via human resolve in partnership with technology. Then again, despite our own cynicism when it comes to technology, its abuses and its effects on our lives, it may very well hold part of the key to helping us tackle the ecological threats to our planet and survival by helping us to preserve and conserve the gift of the natural world for future generations.
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