This is a worthy film in many ways, and it has a good message behind it. It carries more of an emotional impact that most science fiction films. The irony of the drones being better "human beings" than Freeman Lowell's crewmates is exquisite, and their interaction with Lowell when he is alone is fascinating. Adding songs to the film was a nice humanistic touch... I just wish someone other than Joan Baez had been chosen. Douglas Trumbull's decision to film the interiors in the decommissioned aircraft carrier Valley Forge adds an element of realism rarely seen.
My understanding is that in "2001", the original plan was to send the astronauts to Saturn, but Trumbull's special effects team could not create a convincing Saturn with the time they had, so they went for Jupiter. I have heard that showing the world he could "do Saturn" was one motivation for making Silent Running. He did a great job... but...
*** Spoiler starts here ***
The science fiction fan in me has to ask: why were the ark ships in orbit around Saturn to begin with? Sending ships of that size to Saturn would be enormously expensive (trillions of dollars and decades for design/construction/testing and the voyage itself). It would make far more sense to keep them in Earth orbit. This ties in with the reason the forest is dying--it's too far away from the sun. (For a back-to-nature guy, it takes Bruce Dern a very long time to realize this.) But if the ark ships are in Earth orbit, you don't get to show off your Saturn special effects. And you can rotate the crews instead of stranding them two billion+ miles from Earth, which is a surefire recipe to make people crazy.
I am sure my comments strike some folks as unnecessarily picky. But this movie was advertised as science fiction, and the science in a science fiction story has to make sense. (Note the triple appearance of the word "science" in the last sentence.) A good science fiction film, of which there are very few, should have an internally logical story--the special effects should enhance the story, not drive the plot. Trumbull would have been far better off enlisting the aid of his old boss's writing partner, Arthur C. Clarke, who co-created one of the great science fiction films.
Aside from the holes in the story logic, I rated this film highly, because it does pose important questions, and aspires to be something more than the usual space opera.
My understanding is that in "2001", the original plan was to send the astronauts to Saturn, but Trumbull's special effects team could not create a convincing Saturn with the time they had, so they went for Jupiter. I have heard that showing the world he could "do Saturn" was one motivation for making Silent Running. He did a great job... but...
*** Spoiler starts here ***
The science fiction fan in me has to ask: why were the ark ships in orbit around Saturn to begin with? Sending ships of that size to Saturn would be enormously expensive (trillions of dollars and decades for design/construction/testing and the voyage itself). It would make far more sense to keep them in Earth orbit. This ties in with the reason the forest is dying--it's too far away from the sun. (For a back-to-nature guy, it takes Bruce Dern a very long time to realize this.) But if the ark ships are in Earth orbit, you don't get to show off your Saturn special effects. And you can rotate the crews instead of stranding them two billion+ miles from Earth, which is a surefire recipe to make people crazy.
I am sure my comments strike some folks as unnecessarily picky. But this movie was advertised as science fiction, and the science in a science fiction story has to make sense. (Note the triple appearance of the word "science" in the last sentence.) A good science fiction film, of which there are very few, should have an internally logical story--the special effects should enhance the story, not drive the plot. Trumbull would have been far better off enlisting the aid of his old boss's writing partner, Arthur C. Clarke, who co-created one of the great science fiction films.
Aside from the holes in the story logic, I rated this film highly, because it does pose important questions, and aspires to be something more than the usual space opera.