I had a look at this film on the Nexflix streaming service on my new LG Blu-ray player because UK film critic Mark Kermode is always going on about how it’s one of his favorite films. On the technical side, while I am rather impressed at how some of the HD streaming titles look projected on a 110″ diagonal screen,
Silent Running was noticeable blurry. I suspect, however, that the quality is probably comparable to the film’s DVD. As for the film itself, it is certainly one that any student of the burgeoning sci-fi era of the 1970’s would want to see. There is a fascination with robotics here, and the slow and clumsy way in which the various machines move about contributes to a level of frustration which actually complements the struggle of our hero, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), the last tree-hugger in an alternate future where life on earth has reached some sort of Star Trek-like utopia, we’re told, despite the complete eradication of any plant life.
We don’t see exactly what this far-fetched planet looks like, because the entirety of the movie is spent inside one of three ships housing enormous greenhouse pods in which “forests” are being cultivated to maintain plant life. For some unknown reason, however, the project is abruptly terminated, and the forest pods are not to be abandoned, but disposed of in exactly the way a fearful 1972 audience would respond: nuke ‘em! This order causes the already intense Lowell to blow his last gasket, and the resulting isolated space meltdown is quietly played out with the element missing from the likes of 2001 and Star Wars: Joan Baez songs. The unapologetically earnest way that Silent Running presents is conservation message creates some unintentionally comedy when viewed some 37 years later, but within the dated exterior is a visually impressive film, both for its time and even now.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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