Coles Street Pothole

SILENT RUNNING (1972).
⭐⭐⭐⭐

For some reason, this film was never on my radar, until recently. Wound up buying a DVD rather than rewarding our corporate overlords' stranglehold on culture.

What a melancholy, somber film. Having been alive in the 1960s, I can see where this film comes from—it's an extrapolation of the then-current and now ongoing battle between ecologists and corporations, to a final resolution. It's The Lorax, as a sci-fi film.

#SilentRunning #CSPreview

1/2

Apr 12 at 1:49pmWeb
Show threadColes Street PotholeApr 12

The main character—played by Bruce Dern—is a moody, somewhat delusional loner who cares more about the forests he is tending on their space ark than his fellow crewmates. The movie is really just a character study of this one man, as he struggles against humankind's direction. From the start, you can sense everything is doomed.

Wonderfully fitting for today's sitch. Ebert's review when it came out nails it:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/silent-running-1971

2/2

Show threadZenHeathen 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈Apr 12
@ColesStreetPothole I knew you'd respond to it.
Show threadMichael GemarApr 12
@ColesStreetPothole It’s a really terrific film, from an era where a lot of SF was social commentary. (The service robots are especially inventive.)
Show threadinternetsdairyApr 12
@ColesStreetPothole I've somehow never seen this but it always sounded great. Need to look out for the dvd
Show threadColes Street PotholeApr 12
@internetsdairy
I have two DVDs, but one is for region 2 (long story). If you can play region 2 DVDs, I'll mail it to you, if you want.
Show threadinternetsdairyApr 12
@ColesStreetPothole ah thank you, I'm not sure what regions our player does; I'm sure I'll see it in Cex at some point!
Show threadDave FischerApr 12

@ColesStreetPothole Saw this in the theater in my early teens, and it had a huge impact.

(Check out behind-the-scenes info on how they did the robots. Very surprising.)

Show threadColes Street PotholeApr 12
@davefischer Oh, I'm fully versed on the robot tech. 😁 There are a lot of "The Making of..." extras on the DVD that I'll be checking out, too.