Silent Running

1971 US
Dir: Douglas Trumbull
Str: Bruce Dern

The space SF movies sometimes become very abstract. You may
think of the famous movie 2001 : A Space Odyssey.
It seems that most SF movies whose most scenes take place in the vast outer space are, at the same time, action movies. To tell the truth, I don't like action movies so much with a few exceptions. Furthermore, I don't like such movies whose scenes are mostly limited to the inside of a tiny spaceship or a space base built on the surface of some barren planet. Despite the fact the outer space is supposed to be vast, these movies give me nothing but an impression of claustrophobic confinement. Moreover, as, in the vast outer space, there is essentially nothing but tenuous atmosphere, the movies seem to tend to become very abstract ones. You may remember the very famous SF movie 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968). Although it has been honored with a tremendous amout of highly decorative praises, I still don't like this movie's abstractions so much, and I am really ashamed I have to confess I can't fully understand the real intention of the movie. What is that monolith? What does that scene of the last part mean? Why does the computer Hal rebel abruptly? I am even thinking these abstractions are the inevitable result of the fact the movie handles the outer space that has no concrete and organic entities. On top of that, the use of Richard Strauss's symphonic poem Also Sprach Zarathustra that is allegedly based upon the same name book written by Friedrich Nietzsche is slightly presumptuous, though probably it has nothing to do with Nietzsche's thought, and was used because the music happens to be suitable for expressing the awakening of human beings as Homo sapience. Anyway, for me, there are so many unresolved questions about this movie.
No matter how it sounds contradictory, for the movie whose
scenes take place in the vast outer space, I always feel strong
claustrophobic feeling.
But, it wouldn't be so wrong if I assumed the majority of audience wouldn't like such abstractions so much. The most easiest way of countering this tendency to easily become abstract and of attaining some human touch in this kind of movies is to add the element of power struggle that has long been considered to be one of the most basic elements of human nature. Thus, they tend to become space war movies. As a matter of fact, probably, it would look very strange and improper if someone made a serious drama movie handling the issues such as, say, identity crisis, or senility, whose scenes take place in the outer space. Because, while the outer space is very abstract, such issues are very realistic. But, especially for this kind of space war action movies, I can sense some claustrophobic feeling. I don't know why I feel so. You might even be considering my argument is contradictory, because the outer space is vast, and, therefore it must give us completely opposite feeling to the one of limitation. But, in this point, we ought to be very careful about in what situation we feel vastness. There is an utter difference between absolute vastness in measurement and psychological feeling toward vastness. Though the outer space is vast in terms of absolute vastness in measurement, actually it is confined place psychologically, not only by the fact that, as there is no air in the outer space atmosphere, people must stay in tiny spaceships or space bases, but also by the fact that the vastness of hollow space is exactly the same as very confined space psychologically. For, if a given place was exactly the same as every other place, psychologically there would be no meaning for the mere fact the space is physically vast in distance. Briefly saying, vastness in physical distance is known only after some abstraction process has completed in our mind. On the other hand, direct sense of vastness as a human reality can be only gained from the situation actually human senses can grasp.. Along with the fact there are no concrete objects working as a measurement shown, at least for me, space combat scenes look like the combat of model ships in a small bath tub. Conversely, sometimes there appears such kind of SF movies that utilizes this claustrophobic feeling of the outer space very tactfully. For example, the movie Outland (1981) is one of such. Outland seems to have succeeded in extracting suspense elements from this confined feeling the atmosphere of the outer space can bring us. Anyway, the feeling of confinement is one important element of the movies whose scenes take place in the outer space, even if the reverse seems to be true. If you consider such movies like Apollo 13 (1995), though it is not a SF movie, you will surely understand what I mean.
What is the story like?
At this point, I must say what I've said so far is for explaining how different the movie Silent Running is from those movies. This movie is neither abstract nor claustrophobic despite the fact the whole scene takes place in the inside of a spaceship. I will explaine this later. Firstly, it should be told that, in this movie, there appear only four actors and three robots, and, as the three of the four are killed in relatively early stage, essentially this movie is Bruce Dern's one man show, though the three robots act like humans to spice up the whole picture. Therefore, it's obvious from first that the movie's intention is quite different from usual so-called space opera movies. Anyway, I am going to describe the outline. The movie has Bruce Dern as a crew of a spaceship whose purpose is to preserve forests in dome shaped large structures on account of the fact the earth can't retain forests any more. He is a kind of ecologist. He eats only the foods made from real vegitables he has grown by himself while other crews are eating synthetic foods. He is thinking that preserving the forests at any cost is his definite job while other crews' only hope is to go home as soon as they can. One day, they receive an order stating they should abandon the domes to mobilize the ships for commercial use. All the crews but Bruce Dern are very happy to hear this, for it means they can go home. But Bruce Dern alone can't accept the order. So he rebels. He kills other three crews by trapping them into one of those domes and jettisoning it to control the entire ship by his own. Thereafter he tries to escape from other ships including a commander ship. But, he is finally found and he decides to launch the only remaining dome into the vast outer space expecting someone (or some civilized alian?) might salvage it while he blows up his own mother ship to make it look like there is no dome left. From then on, the dome will drift in the vast outer space until it has been found by some other civilized alian. So comes the title "Silent Running".
Diversity and versatility are very precious elements for sustaining
life forms as well as human society
As you might see, there is no doubt in that the movie has the message concerning ecology. The fact that Joan Baez is singing the title song seems to be reinforcing this aspect. However, as I think ecology is too big a subject to be covered in a movie review, I am going to talk about this movie in different way, though it might relate to ecology after all. So, I would like to start my argument by saying what is represented by those forests that are about to perish is the diversity and the fertility of life forms. For example, rain forests have many forms of living creatures and plants, and, as a whole system, have an capability of nourishing and preserving these life forms. In the very first scene of this movie, a snail and a frog and a forest nourishing these creatures are shown by beautifully shot images. I consider this scene is suggesting the value of the diversity and the fertility of life forms very sensitively. In contrast with this, all crews of the spaceship but Bruce Dern are eating synthetic foods. I presume what is represented by synthetic foods is uniformity and homogeneity, or, in other words, the complete lack of diversity and fertility. In a scene, Bruce Dern says to his colleagues that, on the earth, the temperature is kept the same degree wherever they go, and everything is the same everywhere. There is no doubt in that one of the most prominent problematic aspects of highly controlled society resides in the fact that it tends to place everything into the same state by eliminating every difference arising from intrinsic characteristics of human beings as a living form that is essentially versatile and diversified. In this movie, the order to abandon the domes preserving diversified life forms seems to be well reflecting this characteristic of highly controlled society. And, one another point should be added; that is, the reason why the crews except Bruce Dern never suspect the order and willingly execute it without any doubt is because their way of thinking is also uniformed and there is no room in their mind for allowing for the possibility there might be other way of thinking. In short, even the way of thinking isn't allowed to be diversified. I consider, through these scenes, the movie has succeeded in conveying the notion diversity and versatility are very precious elements for sustaining life forms as well as human society, and, incidentally, as this movie handles living creatures and plants very affectionately as I said before, it is far from being abstract.
Silent Running is extremely beautiful and clear and poetic movie.
Also, Silent Running is an extremely beautiful movie. The images shot and the title song sung by Joan Baez are very transparent and clear. Especially, the image of the last scene where the last remaining dome containing the last forest attended by a robot is drifting toward the vast outer space will surely evokes the feeling of vastness and eternity to viewers' mind. You might think what I am saying contradicts what I said; that is, the hollowness of the vast outer space is the same as very confined space psychologically. But, in this movie's last scene, all the subjective view points are eliminated, for there is only one robot remaining in the dome, hence ironically and beautifully such subjective evaluation like claustrophobic feeling vanishes. Instead, you will surely feel very poetic and profound clearness.

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