Silent Running (1972) First Time Watching Reaction & Review
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- First time reaction and brief review of the movie "Silent Running". Future Reaction Polls + Early Access + Exclusive Content. Available on Patreon: / alexachipman
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Reaction
13:42 Review
Meditation & Lifestyle Channel: / @celticseahag
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I was one of those 7 and 8 year-olds who saw this in the theatres in 1972 and never forgot it. Were all 50-somethings now and we all know it touched us all so deeply. How many of us are still left?
me too
I'm still here.
I’m here and this movie had a great impact on my life!❤️
I love the way you basically guessed the main plot by 3:30 into your video, and the subplots by 7:00.
The "big" submarine movie was "Run Silent, Run Deep" starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
Trivia time! Each of the three adorable little robots has a person inside: a double-leg-amputee experienced in "hand walking" inside, hence their unique locomotion. They're different sizes because each was custom built for its operator.
The spaceship is named "Valley Forge" because they filmed it aboard the decommissioned Essex-class aircraft carrier "USS Valley Forge". That's why it looks so much more substantial than just about any other sci-fi spaceship.
Would you believe your comparison to the "Cloud 9" from the rebooted Battlestar Galactica is backwards? The original 1978 Battlestar Galactica used the huge "Valley Forge" model as the "argo ship" that provided most of the food for the "rag tag fugitive fleet". The Valley Forge model was actually 4x the size of the Galactica, and far more detailed.
You liked the stream and waterfall that Bruce Dern was bathing in. It was ice-cold and foul smelling. I believe the actor caught a skin infection from filming that scene.
Bruce Dern plays that slightly creepy hero perfectly. He's at his best in roles ranging from slightly creepy to full-on creepy. Watch "Tattoo" if you want to see him crank it to 11. His character in "The Hole" is literally named "Creepy Carl". Check out "The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant" for "campy creepy". He gained a unique distinction in the movie "The Cowboys" of being the only movie villain to ever shoot the iconic American movie hero John Wayne dead.
The "great songs" were sung by the legendary activist and folk singer Joan Baez. Some of them were her existing repertoire, others were written by another legend, composer Peter Schickele.
The movie cost just $1.35M in 1972 money. The target budget was originally $1M: it was part of an experiment by Universal. Amazed at how Peter Fonda's "Easy Rider" made $60M in 1969 money on a budget of about 1/2M, they set out to produce five $1M "indie films" and see if any of them "stuck". The five were "Silent Running", "The Hired Hand", "Taking Off", "The Last Movie", and a little thing called "American Graffiti". The last was the only hit, but what a hit: $115M gross, just under a billion in 2024 money.
And that's today's trivia.
A true Classic. A brilliantly underrated movie. It's 50 year anniversary was 2 months ago.
This film was a major influence on the TV series “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” including a lone worker trapped in space, hexagonal patterns on the walls/containers, jumpsuits w/checkered patches, cute custom-built robots, etc.
That's the only reason I ever knew about Silent Running. Joel even had the same hair as Bruce, at least early on.
@@Billinois78 ya mean the pro wrestler mullet Joel sported in the early years?
Probably the only decent service that loathsome series ever performed big it made people aware of this film.
This film used to be on tv all the time back in the 70s, here in Australia. Even as a kid, it used to leave me profoundly sad every time I watched it but I don't think I ever really understood it until many years later as an adult. Iconic film. Great reaction and now I feel like I want to give you a big hug.
I saw this in the theater with my dad and brothers. After we got home, I went outside, looked at the starry sky and thought of Dewey in the dome watering his plants. Bruce is one of my favorite actors and way under appreciated. Thank you, nice reaction
That was a beautiful share, thank you
Hi, Alexa, nice to see you review this movie. Yours is a very understandably deep emotional response to the wanton destruction of trees. I am a Park Ranger. I have helped plant 3,000 trees this year in a dozen parks across Wolverhampton, England where I live. If 600 are planted, only 150 are expected to survive over the next year, so when I see them deliberately uprooted or flattened I get very, VERY angry!
Hewey, Dewie, and Louise are so damned cute, they walk like ducks, and look like cats.
The movie was well remembered by myself with great affection, especially nowadays, considering my job.
I couldn't cope at the end as a child, and I can't now. So, negative, so sad, much like the world we live in today, unfortunately.
As usual, very high standard reviews of films, TV series. Etc.
Must say, Alexa, your reviews ARE the best on You Tube. 😉😉
Thank you so much!
You're doing awesome work, Stuart, and as a fellow lover of nature you have my deepest gratitude.
@@skylinerunner1695 thank you very much, Skyline. Alexa is right what she says...trees ARE more important than us. They will still be on Earth long after we have gone.
I still visit trees at a particular spot I planted in 1982 when I was 18. They are 70ft, tall and strong, and command their environment.
Long may they stand.
@@stuartsharman3055 Great to hear that those 1982 trees are still thriving. It must be like visiting with old friends or grown children. Sadly I lost two trees on my property last month due to gale force winds and torrential rain. One was a conifer and the other a Chilean pine or Monkey tail tree that was well over 30 years old but had been planted on unstable ground by the former owners which was almost continually marshy and flooded. I'm guessing the roots never went deep enough in such soggy soil.
Finally, someone who sides with the protagonist. Growing up, my mother just said "he went crazy" and I'm like "am I crazy? What world am I in here?".
There are men inside the Drones. They are double amputees.
The critics panned this film when released
but it has become even more relevant over time.
Oh, this movie. I first saw it on NBC in 1974 when I was 10 (yes, I'm old) and it just blew me away. I have loved it ever since. It's not perfect, the science is all kinds of wonky, but I just love it. Bruce Dern is perfect in the part and the design of the Valley Forge is frigging iconic.
If I may make a plug, check out Silent Running (BFI Film Classics) by Mark Kermode. A couple of side notes: the drones were played by amputees and footage of the Valley Forge was used in the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to represent the "Agro-ships." Overall, this has always been one of my favorite movies.
Same age as you- and I feel the same about it
@@juneseghniMe too.!
I love your reaction to this unsung classic. A massively influential movie with a quiet and sensitive intensity. Bruce Dern is phenomenal. He took Laura Dern to see it when she was only 5, and they had to leave the theater because she was crying so hard when he was repairing the drone. Of course, she later played a paleobotanist in Jurassic Park, continuing his legacy.
The legendary Roger Ebert gave it a perfect score, saying "Given a choice between the lives of his companions and the lives of Earth's last surviving firs and pines, oaks and elms, and creepers and cantaloupes, he decides for the growing things. After all, there are plenty of men. His problem is that, after a while, he begins to miss them."
Alexa Chipman, thankyou for your reaction on this movie, it really inspired me as well. I was 13 years old when this movie first came out. Back then, 1972 was on the end of the young peoples movement during the 1960's flower children, set in's and Woodstock. This movie was inspired by that movement to protect our trees and our natural enviroment. Today, we are seeing much more of our natural wonders disappear, giving way to concrete and steel. The city in which I live in, is at this very moment bull dozing down forests for new housing developments and our wild life is beginning to show up in our neighborhoods because they have no other place to go. It's sad to watch this taking place and as Bruce Dern said in the movie it seems (No One Cares). We are losing a part of ourselves each time a forest is destroyed and if all the trees are gone, we too will follow.
I love this movie. Bruce Dern was the perfect choice. I always thought it would be a cool cameo for the forest dome to float past in a Star Trek episode or something. The interiors really were shot on the Valley Forge, a decommissioned Korean War-era aircraft carrier docked at the Long Beach shipyard.
They actually have something like that at the end of the first episode of "Star Trek Strange New Worlds" where Star Fleet collected the Seed pods they were sent out during WW3 and built the first Star Base around them... Check around the 48 minute mark...
In saying that having Star Trek somehow using the last dome and finding the cute little robot still working away would make an interesting story.
At point i had a dream. It was about the how the story started on earth. I still remember it. Sort of a one off self made movie seeing how his story began in my own mind.
I loved this movie, too. I was hired as a pilot at American Airlines in 1987. I'm nearing the end of my career at American, but I still like to see the AA symbol on those ships.
This is probably Bruce Dern's greatest role. He's generally known for playing out and out psychopathic scumbags in westerns and suchlike, but he's much more sympathetic in this film. Lowell's a murderer, but we can understand why he was driven to do what he did.
There are strong connections between this and other SF films and TV series. Some of the SFX team had previously worked on "2001: A Space Odyssey", the Valley Forge model was later re-used in "Battlestar Galactica", and the three robots directly inspired the look of some of the droids in "Star Wars". I understand it was filmed on a fairly low budget, but it's still a classic.
This is the only movie I know where Bruce Dern plays. Someone who isn't the jerk that you're supposed to hate or an all-out bad guy.
I'm not sure how you're defining "greatest". It's, certainly, not his _best_ performance, and it's, certainly, not the performance he's most remembered for...
@@malcolmdrake6137 It's the performance where I find his character the easiest to relate to. And it is actually the performance that I most remember him for.
@@malcolmdrake6137On the contrary, this is the film Dern will be remembered for.
@@pappajudas9267 Not many know that Bruce Dern was a very good National class runner, influencing him in another movie he made called, "On the Edge" and as with the character of Freeman Lowell in "Silent Running" he plays pretty much true to himself in this movie.
I absolutely love this movie, and have it on DVD (with an award-winning making-of documentary). It was one of the "one-million-dollar movies" produced by Universal at the time, and what Douglas Trumbull achieved on that budget is almost unbelieveable. The interior sets of the Valley Forge were actually the interior of the airplane carrier Valley Forge, which had been decommissioned and was waiting to be scrapped, and the robots were played by double-leg amputees, and still hold up today after all these years. This is a true classic.
So true. Trumbull deserved a medal. Practical effects age far better than any amount of CGI.
I could write to you for hours about this film. Thank you so much for including it, Alexa. This is a film that grows more important with each year that passes. Like at least one other person commented, I too am an adult man, in my mid 60s, and I break down crying every time I watch this. I saw it at age 15 when it was released in 1972, have seen it multiple times since then, have the DVD, and will continue to watch it - painful as it is. It's brilliant. There are criticisms that can be levied against the story. To be honest, I love the film so much, I just leave them be. The opening and closing song, "Rejoice in the Sun" was composed by Peter Schickele, lyrics by Dianne Lampert, sung by the incredible Joan Baez, and it breaks my heart - especially when combined with the final scene of Dewey watering the plants with the child's watering can. The final scene is humanity's message in a bottle. For anyone who loves this film, the DVD is still available for purchase. Included on the DVD are Bonus Features, one of which is an excellent filmed documentary about how they made "Silent Running". This was filmed as the film was being created. All of it is absolutely fascinating to see, but one highlight is showing and explaning how 4 young people who were double-amputees (both legs removed) were the actors in the "drones". Those 4 people helped create a huge part of the magic and emotion that resides in this wonderful film. Alexa, thank you again for including "Silent Running". Best wishes to you. (Liked and Subscribed)
@ 2:13 Yes. The 1978 Battlestar folks used the greenhouse ships in their story too. Saved money! 😁
@ 3:07 and beyond. Now you know what we were thinking back in 1972 at this point in the movie. 😡 The first Earth Day had happen a couple years before, the "ecology movement" had begun earlier and along side the Vietnam War protests of that period.
When we first saw this movie back then, I and most of in the theater didn't realize they were on a ship in space, orbiting Saturn until the scene at the window and backing away showing it all. That blew our minds! Many left the theater both sad and angry, most with a much fiercer resolve not to let anything like this happen. ✊😎
A few more scifi suggestions from the late 60s to 70s, "Marooned" (1969), "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (1969), "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967) also called "Five Million Years to Earth" in the US, ""Fantastic Planet" (1973) a trippy, really interesting animated Franco-Czech film that won Special Prize at the '73 Cannes Film Festival. It's best to watch the English language version of it, without any distracting subtitles so be sure to look for that. To be honest these suggestions aren't super awesome films like an "Interstellar" or an exciting "Star Wars" adventure type, but they are enjoyable movies worth watching at least once. (I've watched them several time as with Silent Running.)
Another good 80s scifi you'd enjoy is "Millennium" (1989) with Cheryl Ladd and Kris Kristofferson, and my lips are sealed on that one! 😁
Nice reaction video you did on Silent Running. I may have suggested it to you knowing it would make you cry or be upset. Sorry about that. ✌😎
Thank you! I will add your vote to the other films :)
Superb film. It's 0530 in the morning now and I can't sleep. All I can think of is how lovely it would be to be watching 'Silent Running' with Alexa right now.
When I was a little kid in the 70s I remember we watched this film and when the guy blew himself up at the end I bawled my eyes out and none of my family seemed to know why I was upset…
You had the SAME reaction I had when I saw this movie as a kid. It Really taught me respect for nature . GREAT film ! 🎥😎👍
I've been enjoying your reactions to Space 1999, a childhood favorite of mine and was surprised to see this one. Not a favorite of mine when I was younger but pardon the pun, it grew on me as an adult. One of my all time favorite sci fi movies. Thank You for letting us see all the emotion. What a great film. 👍
Cried my heart out as a child in the 70s. One of my favourite Sci-fi movies of all time. Bruce Dern played it brilliant. And the robot aspect, I felt for them on a deep level.
In case anyone is interested, the Museum of Music and Pop Culture in Seattle has/hadthe last surviving dome on display in its Sci-Fi exhibit. I saw it when I visited for my birthday a couple of years ago.
Thank you kindly! _I'm_ certainly interested (even though I'm 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast). ☺️
Dewey, Huey and Louie to the rescue. If memory serves, Douglas Trumbull helped create the special effects. The song by Joan Baez was a great touch to this remarkable film. Two other movies you might consider reviewing are, "Colossus, The Forbin Project" and "The Andromeda Strain." This film had me thinking about the clear-cutting of nearly four-hundred acres of old-growth forest. That was woodland in which I had spent many hours hiking through and camping in. All of the mature red oaks and beech trees were cut down and used for lumber or shipping pallets. Many of the aforementioned oaks were around at the start of The Great Depression. I plant trees that I grow from maple seeds or acorns. Behind my house; in a section of my back yard which I haven't mowed in years; there are oak and maple saplings which are growing quite well. Once fully mature, those trees will not pose any danger to my house or garage/shed. Hopefully, those trees will be around long after I'm gone. Thank you, Alexa Chipman. Peace be your journey -- W
An Awesome Movie, made me cry too, You should go to that area where they took down the trees and plant some more, maybe at night, and plant protected species as well so they can't touch them :)
Quite simply one of the best and most important movies ever made!
P.S. There is no way I'd show this movie to anyone under 13.....Not unless I actually wanted to give them nightmares!
I recall watching this one on TV in the early 1970s. I was into anything science fiction and this film introduced me to the conservationist/green movement (along with Soylent Green and Namu, The Killer Whale). I've always loved the two Joan Baez songs in this film and used to have the vinyl soundtrack album. Douglas Trumbull was finally satisfied with his Saturn in this film after having failed to produce a decent Saturn for 2001. Loved the drones..."The man had a full house and he knew it!"
Was always one of my favorites, saw it in the movie theater when it came out. Always thought it was Bruce's best performance. It was the first and only time where the droids were controlled by paraplegic actors missing their legs or lower halves only. There's behind the scenes videos on UA-cam. I'm so glad you got to experience this, you can tell a lot about someone by the way they react to this movie, you did fine. Anyway, loved the review, love you, take care and stay safe ❤️
I was 5-7 watching this as a child. I was crying my eyes out too and felt so bad for Hue and Due.
This is the film that made me an environmentalist. There is an interesting documentary if you ever get the DVD that details all of the interesting process of making the movie. The footage was reused in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica Agro Ships. The model of the Valley Forge was extremely delicate and was not saved, although a large chunk of the frame was in Douglas Trumbull's garage for years. The Robots were really interesting as they were bilateral amputees who had lost their legs or who were born without legs and could walk on their hands. Trumbull had seen the movie "Freaks" and was impressed with the actor who walked on his hands. Trumbull's special effects crew on this movie graduated to eventually make the effects on the science fiction films of the late 70's including Star Wars, Close Encounters, Star Trek TMP and so on. Trumbull's other great film was Brainstorm (which I recommend watching) and it was awesome as well, although scarred by the tragedy of the death of Natalie Wood. The fight to finish Brainstorm also ended Trumbull's participation in Hollywood as the system basically marginalized him.
I fell in love with Joan Baez's music after this movie. This movie has a lot to say about the future and a future we might face someday. I like Trumbull and his vision of the future where technology is not a villain, but only as evil as we can make it. While technology may have destroyed Freeman Lowell's world in this movie, it was there to keep the last forests alive. Yours is among the only reactions to this movie here on UA-cam and its certainly the same reactions I have to this movie.
I'm so glad you saw this movie. I cried HARD at the end of this movie after I watched it the first time.
Since moving into our home 15 years ago, one by one, we've had to remove all three of our trees either due to disease or weather events that damaged the tree beyond hope. The cherry blossom tree was the toughest to let go. Dern had a rare chance to play the hero here, as he usually played some form of lowlife hood or psycho in the '60s and '70s.
I’m a grown man and this movie always makes me cry at the end when Dewey’s watering with his little watering can.
I love nature so much and the message is very powerful.
The drones were played by double amputees, using their arms to walk.
Saw this first on TV decades ago and Huey, Louey and Dewey brought tears to my eyes, but the uncaring nature of man portrayed here is still completely relevant now.
Silent Running is a favourite of mine since I first saw it on TV years ago.
It was the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, who is responsible for the visual effects of both 2001 and Blade Runner, so you can see that talent on display here.
The songs were written for the movie and sung by Joan Baez.
Other Scifi movies from the same era you might like:
The Andromeda Strain
Planet of the Apes
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Rollerball
Thank you, I'll add your vote to the ones I haven't seen!
The look on Bruce Dern's face when the crew is told to abort the mission and destroy the forests is heartbreaking. Essentially a journeyman actor up to this time, Dern had this film all to himself and critics and audiences definitely took notice. That final image of Dewey with his little water can, keeping the forests going - perhaps to be discovered one day by an alien race - remains unforgettable.
I couldn’t believe how you immediately reacted to the orders to destroy the forests. “Ok, kill the other guys and protect the forests!” 😂
You had the right reactions at every point.. I saw this movie in the theater at 6 years old, and was crying so hard by the end I couldn't walk out by myself. Decades later, just hearing the opening theme song would just ruin me. Yet.. it is one of my all time favorites, and I have built models of the drones, and forest domes.
Also Bruce Dern's first time being the main good guy.. he was awesome..
This might be the most moving film of all time: I cannot recall any other that hit this hard emotionally as a viewer.
The last time I saw this was many, many years ago and I had a better understanding of the story, but I reacted the same way to the ending the same I did the first time I watched it as a kid. When "Rejoice in the Sun" began playing, I was bawling like a baby!
I had to keep pausing because I was crying so much watching this!
I haven't seen this movie in about 40 years. It's an excellent film. Directed by Douglas Trumbull, who is probably most famous for producing the visual effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Try also Brainstorm by Trumbull
Silent Running ? ! Alexa, great Choice, Chapeau :) (Holla die Waldfee ! )IIRC THIS was my first Dystopian Movie (and as a wee lad I fell in Love with the Voice & Songs of Joan Baez )
I revisited this video, Alexa , snyd i must dayy you're a caring person about our world. This film was issued over 20 years ago on DVD now; there's a very informative commentary there in by Dern, and Trumbull. Know this was a tough film for you, They rented the plants for the film from nurseries, so they were fine. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were ancestors of R2-D2, as Lucas tokd Trumbull he wanted to do something similar for Star Wars.
I'm old, saw it when it was new in theaters. It's stayed with me for a lifetime now. Thettes a slim paperback novelization of the novie from Scholastic Books around 1973 by Harkyan Thompson for those interested.
Hope you will do more science fiction teatctions ♥️
Thanks, I primarily watch scifi on my own time, so it is harder to find films to react to in the genre!
0:15 spot on sonar ping 👍🏼
The plot is an obviously the most extreme take on preserving the forest. This is literally the last forest and the last man protecting it, as the government orders that it be destroyed by a nuclear explosion! You could not write a more over the top scenario.
It's ridiculous of course but that's what makes it fun.
Classic SF movie, one of the writers is Steve Bochco, writer of shows Hill Street Blues, LA Law etc. The cute robots were named after Donald Duck characters. And Douglas Trumbull had footage of Saturn done for the ending of 2001 but Kubrick switched it to Jupiter. The Saturn footage made it into this movie though.
This films is pure beauty. I discover it a long long time ago.
"Silent Running" was the inspiration for a Saturday morning TV series called "The Starlost". The Drones were a direct inspiration for R2D2.
I love reading the stories from all the people who saw this as kids when it came out in the theatre. It's incredibly poignant. Thank you all.
Awwww, Alexa, once again, I wasn't expecting such an emotional reaction, at least not this strong (and also so early in the film!). Beautiful reaction, beautiful movie. I saw it in a Drive-In when I was 4! My first movie memory! (That, and Sleeper which came out the same year, not sure which I saw first.) You have such a tender heart! Hey, don't you think the little robots remind you as primitive versions of R2D2? Not quite as cute, but almost! I was thinking that as I watching your reaction. /Next week is Beauty And The Beast, I can't WAIT to see that reaction!
Yes, early R2D2!
Hi Alexa, Britain's most famous film critic of the last 20 years, Mark Kermode, rates Silent Running highly. Its director Douglas Trumbull was one of the most prominent effects experts working on 2001 a few years before. I recommend the UK TV series Timeslip (1970-71) and the TV series Edge of Darkness (UK, 1985). Also, Dark Star (1974).
Thank you, but remember if spoilers are included, recommendations will not be counted as a vote.
@@alexachipman Sure, I just wanted to specify the versions I meant in the case of the first two. I'll be careful.
6:00 of course George Lucas said he saw this film when it came out. In fact the drones inspired the design of the Star Wars droids.
Thank you for your honesty and emotion. I still have this vhs! It was made at a time when no one seemed to care about the earth except the hippie generation and the 1969 oil spill had happened in Santa Barbara, CA. This was an effort to wake people up.
You are exactly right; the term comes from Submarine lingo.
The Eden Project in Cornwall, England, was inspired by this movie. Massive rainforest bio-domes. They screened Silent Running there about 10 years ago and I missed it! Still a dream to visit there though - and to find affordable replicas of the drones!
My Dad took me to see this when I was 12.
The first movie to ever make me cry.
Thank you for doing this one.
I remember this movie as the first one that made me cry. I think I was 8 or 9 when I first watched it on TV.
One of my favorite movies. And yes it is hard to rewatch. I saw it as a kid. I'm 55 now. The music is beautiful. Extremely emotional movie. Bless Huey Dewey and Louie.
I saw this when it first came out and still watch it again every so often. Dewy was my favorite character.
This movie has stayed in my head and heart ever since, (as a kid ravaging everything sci-fi in blockbusters video clubs) , I first saw it 30 years ago. .....that was the moment I realized that sci-fi movies could carry deeper messages than just westerns in space....Joan Baez's song also carries the whole spirit of this movie in the last scene of the little robot becoming the caretaker of Humanity's true source, Nature. By the way, the main actor, Bruce Dern, is Laura Dern's father, ..a truly fantastic actor!
This sorta is like Red Dwarf, a ship with one lone man, in deep space....no way to get home (he was frozen for 3 million years) with an obnoxious hologram of his former roomate, who hated each other, and a senile computer.
I like the scene where the robots help to operate on his leg. Silent Running should absolutely be shown to kids! To help educate to them the importance of looking after our Nature on this planet. You should check out Soylent Green, damn that's a dark and sad film
Reaction to it is already up! Check the Classic Movies playlist
@@alexachipman Oh ok cool 👍
I’ve watched this film about 5 times roughly 5 years between each viewing, but each time I watch it’s like I have never seen it before. I know I like it so when it’s on tv I watch it and enjoy it but a few days later I can’t remember anything about it except for the key locations and basically Bruce Dern. Other films I can remember half the script but for some reason this films story just slips from my memory.
Bruce Dern usually played villains and crazies so him playing the hero was a bit surprising back then. He was always a fine actor and was great in whatever role he played.
Here he’s a crazy hero, so it still tracks.
@@oaf-77 True.
@@oaf-77
True - but at least it's a comprehensible and quite sympathetic sort of crazy! 🥴
I mustve been about ten when i first saw this nearly 50 years ago. It left a couple of marks on me - the dangers of losing the countryside (what are they eating? Soylent Green?) and the lead character commiting suicide.
I saw this in the theater with my parents in a double feature. This movie first and then Soilent Green!
This was filmed on the actual Valley Forge, a WWII era aircraft carrier that was mothballed in San Diego (IIRC). With just a little dressing up it provided the perfect big ship interiors without the need for expensive sets.
The 3 drones had young amputees inside them as robotics had not advanced enough for realistic looking remote operation. And again, child actors were cheaper than robots then. The 3 kids were tutored on set to keep up with their schooling.
I'm glad you were so supportive of Freeman Lowell and what he must do almost from the very beginning of the movie. The thought that people could be so dismissive of the importance of trees and wildlife due to financial considerations is both sad and unfurtunately very real. This is one of the few movies where the fate of robots makes me cry.
Where I live, tree surgeons turned up to assess the health of the local trees and sadly decided (needed?) to cut some down. I made a big deal about the one ancient tree (which I listed on the Ancient Tree Inventory with the Woodland Trust here in the UK), to make sure they were aware of it's importance. Glad they left that one alone but feel bad that we lost some of the other younger trees.
Your submarine remark made me smile because I always have to pause and make sure I'm not confusing "Silent Running" with "Run Silent, Run Deep."
I forgot the time frame. It was from.2008 to 2010. That was for the images. By 2011 i put the book together as a self project. Like the movie it opened my eyes a bir more and really made me think about the planet.
Another project i did years ago was to make a model if the ship. Is was 38 inches long. I took a picture based on one of the movie angle scenes. It saw like that until this week. I looked a picture of saturn and put it into the model picture. With the lighting i used plus the nasa image, it looks like the model in space near the planet. The design is changed up a bit but the feel of it us there.
I am glad to someone younger seei g this movie in a good way. It is heavy to watch but the message js as strong today it was in 1972. If kids are going to watch it, have parents watch it too. It may be a way get them to talk to their parents about stuff.
I saw this movie as a kid and I cried so bad I didn’t understand why they had to destroy it all.
I hear you about the powers that be mindlessly chopping down trees. They cut a whole bunch near me to do road work, and I don’t even want to drive it anymore. All so sad and ugly.
I remember renting the dvd from Netflix in high school to watch this film, because it was mentioned in a documentary about Star Wars.
π was a great thriller. 90s black and white mind trip of a movie about a perfect mathematical formula to everything on earth.
‘Pi’ was a real weird one. Good but weird. I’m still not sure I understood it all.
‘Primer’ and ‘a scanner darkly’ were also good and strange films
We need more awesome reactors like you for this relevant movie! 🙂
Thank you!
The domes design was used in a tv show called The Starlost
The ending still gets me teary-eyed.
even though I really love "Silent Running", it's one of those films I find hard to re watch due to its gloomy mood.
The other movie that has a similar effect on me is 'Aniara", a very interesting sci-fi swedish film, which I'd suggest you to check out some time.
Cheers Alexa ! 😊
Thumb Up #157! 👍. I just subscribed! Thanks for the bittersweet, digital video recording! 🎬👍🤠🤓😎✌️🖖
Notes: I finished viewing the reaction from, "Blind Wave", to, "Thor: Love and Thunder". Then I wondered if someone finally did a first time watching reáction video to this movie. So I asked, "Google". Yours showed up! I was so happy!
Laura Dern, is proud of this movie, but it is difficult for her to see her father do death scenes.
I have the music soundtrack on LP. I bought it as a, Collector's Item, but I played it anyway. Joan Baez, made the songs she sang, for this movie.
A good cry is better for my eyes, than the artificial tears from a plastic bottle. So I had two in a row.
"Valley Forge", had serendipity in their favor in more ways than one. Not only did they not have to change the name plates inside the ship, but the aircraft carrier was named for the place, General George Washington, spent a lot of time at during his war time. So it has been preserved as a, national park. (The, United States Navy, names some of their ships, after battle victories, not losses.) The other, "American Airlines", spaceships were also named for national parks, some of which are not battlefields.
Umm.... That's all for now. 😺
Thank you, love Blind Wave!
My congratulations, Alexa, on being the first reactor I know of to tackle not only *Zardoz,* *The Omega Man,* and *Soylent Green,* but also this film, an old favorite of mine. It's a sweet-natured film for sensitive souls (which are often found in the most unlikely people), and I certainly hope you shan't be the only one to see it for very long.
And I can only add that, if we ever allow things to reach that point or anywhere near it, I say we'll deserve everything we get. Bloody well.
(And therein lies the fallacy of the democratic instinct. By "we", I mean *I* will deserve everything *I* get.)
Keep going, and God bless you.
🌳🤗
The ship from this movie reminded me of the ship from Space academy, and the one from The Starlost. And a small child I thought they were all the same ship and this was just new show set on it!
I agree, it's a beautiful film that doesn't shy away from the message it's driving home. It speaks on mankind's technological progress, and his pattern of replacing nature with machines (demonstrated by the decision to destroy the forests modules in favor of returning the ship to commercial use). Unfortunately, this is a real problem we face here on Earth today, as corporations wanting to expand are looking to lands currently preserved by the government such as city parks, national parks, national forests, etc. National parklands in particular, are constantly under threat by corporate greed. Governments typically get convinced that, "it's costing more to preserve these lands than to develop them."
Just a couple of years ago, there was a big stink in my local city because a developer moved in and wanted to bulldoze the 3,000 acre city park that consists of forests, creeks, two lakes, and miles of hiking/biking & horse trails. The area had already been partially destroyed back in the late 90s to make way for a huge shopping mall -- a structure that now sits virtually abandoned since the advent of e-commerce. So basically, several hundred acres of forests were destroyed so a real estate company could make some cash for 10 years. The empty parking lots and building will probably sit there for another decade, and the forests/landscape can never been reclaimed/restored. Bravo, mankind. Bravo.
The ultimate irony of this film however, is that the last remaining forest will be forever tended to by a machine; suggesting that even robots are morally superior to humans.
These were the days when filmmakers could make social commentary about the state and attitude of humanity. It wasn't just sci-fi. Political thrillers, dramas, and satires all could look at us as we were, and ask us if this is what we wanted to be.
The "Valley Forge" makes a very brief appearance
as an Easter egg in "Ready Player One".
This movie put Bruce Dern on the map. Thank you for standing up for nature.
6:31 some old guy in the 70's, I think, took this big glass bottle or jar, I mean big, and put a bunch of plants in it...sealed it....decades later, it's STILL going, it's a totally enclosed eco system, the old man NEVER watered it after he sealed it up, so many years ago.
The part of the Lorax will be played by Alexa "Who will cry for the trees? Alexa Lorax will cry for the trees"
Love You Alexa Really admire your reaction !
Nobody Nutsoes like Bruce Dern Nutsoes.
It's worth watching a "making of" vid on Silent Running. The drones are played by multi amputees. Music by Joan Baez. Douglas Trumbull's direction. It was filmed on the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge just before it was scrapped.
I was 11 years and saw this 1n 1973 on NBC tv. It hit me hard and still does.. What is going in this workd today is mirrored in this 1972 movie. The lack of caring for people. It has had an impact on me and did a book on the environment about the world around me.
In a way it saved me. I was the main character of sorts becauseci saw the world different from "what was to be seen" . In a way i am glad i lived the way i did because it made a stronger person in the end. The book i talked about took 2 years to get the images needed and i put it together myself. There is only one copy but this is fine. I wish others to do the same. Explore your world in all of greatness and uglyness as well. Try to see it for what it is from your point of view, not th iinternets view. Get out and see the world. It is a vety big place.
In the words of the song "it's not too late".
I saw this movie in 1971 when I was ten years old. It had a huge impact on me. Watching Soylent Green was bad enough.
Loved your reaction.
Thank you Alexa , The universe 🌌 needs more films like this not a shootem up Lucas's movie . Also more TV series like Gentle Ben , Skippy The Bush Kangaroo , The Beachcombers , Lassie , Even thinking 🤔 something affects the universe 🌌
Just found hour channel. So glad you liked Silent Running. Most reviewers come down hard on Bruce Dern's character. My county here 🇺🇲 is being heavily developed now unfortunately, but 50% is literally US Forest Service territory. So it should be safe permanently from the developer's bulldozers.
I'm going to watch this but I wanted 1st comment to say this film was a strong inspiration for Mystery Science Theater 3K, and it just happens to be one of my favorites. Thanks for this!
You made me 😢, but I enjoyed it.
The end of that movie gets me every time...
You have to love Huey,duey and luey
classic science fiction movie
So glad you saw this...