06-13-2017, 04:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-13-2017, 04:33 PM by stevebowers.)
I've mentioned my complaints about Silent Running before, I think. The whole concept of putting greenhouses in space to 'preserve' the Earth's natural environment is daft enough, while the Earth is a self-regulating artificial environment at a constant 75 degrees (Farenheit, I presume). In order to feed the (presumably vast) population of the Earth the artificial recycling systems must be biotechnological marvels. But they apparently don't have enough room for a few tiny domes on the outer surface.
But then the premise is made even dafter by sending the Valley Forge and its sister ships to Saturn where the sunlight is about 1% of that on Earth. Then it takes Bruce Dern half the film to find out why the plants are dying. His character is far from sympathetic, by the way - an ecofreak who is prepared to kill.
Even the design of the robots is pretty impractical, although I admire the props immensely. And I have extreme doubts about whether that last remaining dome would survive, in deep space, with a single badly designed robot to look after it. There would be no need to blow these domes up, as the Earth government seemed to be inexplicably keen to do - they could just abandon the domes in space if they wanted to get rid of them.
Of Course Trumbull had never directed a film before, and his movie script went through several iterations - originally the domes were a subplot before the ship encountered aliens, but they never got round to that bit. But he did have some spectacular special effects of Saturn, originally conceived for use in 2001; that's why the ship was out there in the first place, to show off Trumbull's work. Appalling astronomy, appalling ecology, poor robotics, appalling psychology, annoying music.
But then the premise is made even dafter by sending the Valley Forge and its sister ships to Saturn where the sunlight is about 1% of that on Earth. Then it takes Bruce Dern half the film to find out why the plants are dying. His character is far from sympathetic, by the way - an ecofreak who is prepared to kill.
Even the design of the robots is pretty impractical, although I admire the props immensely. And I have extreme doubts about whether that last remaining dome would survive, in deep space, with a single badly designed robot to look after it. There would be no need to blow these domes up, as the Earth government seemed to be inexplicably keen to do - they could just abandon the domes in space if they wanted to get rid of them.
Of Course Trumbull had never directed a film before, and his movie script went through several iterations - originally the domes were a subplot before the ship encountered aliens, but they never got round to that bit. But he did have some spectacular special effects of Saturn, originally conceived for use in 2001; that's why the ship was out there in the first place, to show off Trumbull's work. Appalling astronomy, appalling ecology, poor robotics, appalling psychology, annoying music.