Silent Running, 1972.
Directed by Douglas Trumbull.
Starring Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse Vint.
SYNOPSIS:
Douglas Trumbull’s minor classic Silent Running is on disc again courtesy of Arrow Video, this time in a 4K Ultra HD edition that offers improved picture quality but the same extras as the Blu-ray they released two years ago.
Arrow Video has been doing a great job with cult classics the past several years, bringing to them a treatment worthy of what The Criterion Collection lavishes on big name cinematic classics. These are films that likely would have been relegated to discs with minimal bonus features and a 50/50 chance of being remastered.
Silent Running is one such movie. Released in 1972 to an audience starved of science-fiction movies and influencing a whole generation of filmmakers who were growing up on cinema of that era, Silent Running stars Bruce Dean as Freeman Lowell, an idealistic botanist living aboard a starship with multiple bio domes attached to it.
Those domes host a variety of environments that are the last of their kind, since Earth has become inhospitable to many forms of life. Freeman is assisted in his duties by three robots he names Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and he’s forced to endure the antics of fellow crew members who don’t care much for the gravity of their mission.
When the order comes in to shoot the bio domes into space and return to Earth, Freeman takes matters into his own hands to try to preserve those fragile environments. He soon passes the point of no return and has a major decision to make when another starship heads in his direction to see what’s wrong with his craft.
I previously took a look at Silent Running on Blu-ray two years ago, and this new 4K Ultra HD edition is the same as that one, except for the improved video quality. (I assume it contains the same booklet as before, although I’m not 100% sure about that since Arrow only sent me a pre-production disc for review.)
If you have that Blu-ray, I’m not sure I can really recommend the 4K unless you have a high-end setup that will take advantage of the improved quality. Sure, it definitely looks better, but those improvements are marginal on a mid-range setup. Given the fact that the bonus features are the same, the question comes down to the importance of the remastered 4K image.
Since the extras are the same as the previous release, I’ll start with the items that were new at the time:
• Commentary with film historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw: This track puts Silent Running in a broader context within the science-fiction genre, noting how it’s one of those movies that didn’t fare well at the box office but which found a new life on home video. While it’s not in the same tier as a film like Blade Runner, it’s still a cult classic that was worthy of a new home video edition.
• No Turning Back (14 minutes): Film historian Jeff Bond discusses the film score by Peter Schickele, who is also known by his comedic alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach.
• First Run (14 minutes): Writer and filmmaker Jon Spira discusses the evolution of the script by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, and Steven Bochco, complete with dramatized excerpts from an early draft played over rough storyboards. I admit I probably would have liked that version better, since Freeman Lowell begins his journey as just one of the guys before his conscience gets to him. In the final film, he’s an idealist from the start.
An isolated music score and a behind-the-scenes picture gallery round out the new bonus features. The following items were ported over from previous pre-Arrow editions:
• Commentary with Trumbull and Dern: Recorded for a 2000 DVD release, this track features the director and star sitting together, which inevitably leads to pats on each other’s backs and “Remember filming this?” kind of comments. However, there are moments where the two of them go off-topic and offer a fair amount of information about their careers, with Trumbull giving some insight into his relationship with Stanley Kubrick and Dern tossing in some thoughts on Alfred Hitchcock. There’s also a hair-raising bit where Trumbull discusses his trials and tribulations in the visual effects business, including the time when he almost ended up in bankruptcy because he under-bid his work on a movie.
• The Making of Silent Running (49 minutes): This is the kind of documentary that I didn’t realize was made back then, especially since Silent Running wasn’t exactly touted as a major release at the time. The production actually secured the use of a decommissioned aircraft carrier that was due to be disassembled, so they were able to turn its interior into the inside of a spaceship. That helped them keep costs way down, although the cramped conditions also posed plenty of logistical challenges. This was all shot onset, including the plane hangar that was used for the bio dome interiors, so it’s a great look at how movies were made back then.
• A Conversation With Bruce Dern (11 minutes): The actor talks about his career and how he got involved with Silent Running.
• Douglas Trumbull: Then and Now (5 minutes): The director talks about his career, which only features two directorial efforts, Brainstorm being the other one. If you’re a visual effects person, though, you’ll want to watch this one.
• Silent Running by Douglas Trumbull (30 minutes): This is from 2002, I believe. While it covers some of the same territory as Trumbull’s commentary contributions, it still has some new information to uncover.
A theatrical trailer rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
