MovieChat Forums > Silent Running (1972) Discussion > So, let me get this straight...

So, let me get this straight...

posted 9 years ago by nashknight-1
16 replies | jump to latest

1. A top of the line biologist doesn't know that plants need sunlight to survive?? That's elementary school stuff, literally 7yos know that!

2. He kills several of his colleagues and himself so that he can prolong the life on a forest for... several more years? They was no chance he could replant the Earth or any other planet, the space craft was doomed to fail anyhow.

3. He puts the fate of the last remaining forest into the hands of some of the most incompetent robots in existence? It is explicitly shown that they can't do squat, can't plant the tree, can't follow orders, can't even get out of the way of danger. Why didn't he stay on the forest platform??

All this and the films snail pace and lack of, well, anything interesting, make it a very very bad movie. If there were't for some interesting visuals and music it would be total garbage. 3/10

[–] rabksaj 9 years ago

True I agree with you. I was mislead to believe that it was a some real highly intelligent movie for its time but it made no sense other than the plot.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

1. A top of the line biologist doesn't know that plants need sunlight to survive??

The weakest aspect of the script.

... the space craft was doomed to fail anyhow.

No, I think the suggestion at the end is that the dome is now self-sustaining under the maintenance of the remaining drone.

Why didn't he stay on the forest platform??

He says that he can't do it any more. In other words he admits that he wasn't cut out for the life of a complete hermit, but doesn't want to be found out as a murderer.🐭

[–] raf-33 9 years ago

I know people who grow plants without sunlight, and even some that don't require any light. Whoever taught your biology class was a big fat liar who gave you a fraction of the knowledge mine did.

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov

[–] nashknight-1 9 years ago

No need for insults. My point was that (most) plants need sunlight or artificial light instead of sunlight. The whole premise of this movie stands on the idea that the scientist somehow didn't know that.

[–] liscarkat (18410) 5 years ago

"I know people who grow plants without sunlight...Whoever taught your biology class was a big fat liar..."

Trees, and most of the other plants shown in the domes, require sunlight. It wasn't a mushroom mission.

[–] prplayer 8 years ago

agree, especially the killing part was what made it completely ridiculous

so many movies, so little time

[–] gorgsharpy 8 years ago

The killing is totally logic for a doomed and lonely idealist like him. Makes the film a masterpiece.

"You couldn't be much further from the truth" - several

[–] Owlwise (1535) 5 years ago

This, exactly. He does what he feels must be done to preserve the last remnants of the natural world. But he's still a human being & his guilt simply will not go away, even for (in his mind) the most justified of causes. It eats away at him. Dern portrays his dilemma & disintegration with heartbreaking sorrow.

[–] Boromir (10009) 9 months ago

I find it interesting. The film has an environmental message but by intentionally or accidentally, they presented the archetypal character of the utopian and idealist male, who loves nature and animals but hates human kind.

[–] jeff-1076 8 years ago

1. A top of the line biologist doesn't know that plants need sunlight to survive?? That's elementary school stuff, literally 7yos know that!

I saw it as another symptom of how far his mind had deteriorated after the mass murder.

[–] Owlwise (1535) 2 years ago

This, precisely.

[–] sage2112 8 years ago

Are you forgetting the god-awful joan baez stuff? Ugh.

[–] lubin-freddy 8 years ago

I really, really, wanted to like this film, which I'd been waiting years to see.

But for reasons mentioned above, along with so many more, I just couldn't. I don't expect "reality" in science fiction, but I do expect some level of thinking things out. Add to the OP's list, there's the matter of living in one g, instant communications with the other ships, the matter of water for the forests, and too many others to list.

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

[–] jonathanmarklund 8 years ago

1. A top of the line biologist doesn't know that plants need sunlight to survive?

But is he a biologist? as far as we know he is just a deck hand. He is obviously crazy and seems to be having illusions of grandeur.