There is a line in Silent Running, a film released 50 years ago this month, that hit me hard when I heard it. Humans are quitting to live a life without plants. Three of the four people present are excited by the news. The other is a botanist named Freeman Lowell. He decided to kill the other three to make sure nature is preserved. I had never seen Silent Running before last week. It was always a movie I'd heard of and recognized an image or two from but it wasn't until the 50 year anniversary that I thought I'd give it a try. In a movie that was released half a century ago, a character blatantly ignores environmental issues. Fifty years ago, if people were interested, something would have been done. Silent Running, an impressively visual film that tries to end on an optimistic, uplifting note but is really much more pessimistic and sad, is pretty much the entire vibe of Disheartening. Four men are working on a spaceship to save plants and animals that are no longer sustainable. When news comes in that the project is being abandoned,Lowell is the only one who can do anything, so he goes rogue, kills the other three, and tries to keep nature alive as long as possible. He develops relationships with the onboard drones, which he calls "Huey, Dewey, and Louie", and grapples with loneliness and boredom, but the consequences of his actions, all of which is crushingly depressing. The way Silent Running constructs the argument about preservation as a battle between selfishness and selflessness is interesting. Government, environment, schools, you name it. Either you care about yourself or others. The way that Trumbull frames that story is very accessible. The nature on the Valley Forge is being preserved by everyone working on it. That is the job. Three of them are fine with the order to blow it up. They have been in space for a long time and want to come home. If that means giving up on a mission that could save the world? That's fine. Even if you don't agree with it, you understand. You would like to be with your family and friends. That is the point. The film shows us why each side does what they do and why three men are willing to destroy the plant life when told to.
Some of the basic story beats in the film don't work. I didn't understand why the preservation project was abandoned. It happens. There is no information given as to why or how the preservation project was launched. It seems like a huge undertaking. The decision to abandon the project would have been better if the movie had more context or a back story.
Silent Running is not all that entertaining. The second act of Bruce Dern's performance has some absolutely goofy scenes of him interacting with the robot. The practical effects, which you would expect from a man who did 2001: A Space Odyssey with Stanley Kubrick, make the film watchable. From the machines running games on the ship, to the ships themselves, and even the robot characters, which are just actors in suits, it's all next level stuff for the time.
The ending is adding to the film's general gloom. After a long time on his own, it looks like he might have to pay the consequences for disobeying orders and killing his crew members. He takes his own life due to his guilt and loneliness when he sends the last biodome off into space. On the other hand, the fact that some plant life will remain is fairly hopeful, and the film on the floating dome as the credits roll a la Close Encounters bolsters that thought. On the other hand, our hero is dead, and who is going to find this dome floating in space besides the humans who destroyed it? Lowell tells a story about putting a message in a bottle and never hearing back. That is what he does with the dome. He sets humanity's future free on hope and a prayer that it will be found by someone who cares. It is a one in a billion shot. To me, this undermined much of the character's purpose.
50 years after the release of Silent Running, nothing has changed. The filmmakers probably never imagined the environment would get worse every day. Douglas Trumbull wanted to avoid Reality becoming a sinister post-credits scene. Life made his sad, slow, beautiful movie that much more poignant and relevant 50 years later.
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