Both 'eco' films, so let's compare and contrast.
It can't be argued that Avatar has far better special f/x (it was made 30 years later, so it should have) but take away the 3D f/x wow factor and which film has the better story, writing and characters? Avatar or Silent Running?
For me it's Silent Running by a few thousand miles.
Feel free to argue otherwise. :-)
Avatar is a movie that followed a story mold. Beginning, middle, end. Saw it coming. Oh, this is this scene. Now time for this scene. With Silent Running, I was constantly coming up with scenarios as to how the remainder would play out. It kept me guessing, and it wasn't even a movie that necessitated that. The ending of Avatar was WTF. The ending of Silent Running was cold, man.
Silent Running is certainly more thoughtful and moving, hitting a wider range of emotions. The character wasn't perfect, not a square-jawed hero nor pitiful innocent. That being said, I guess I still like Avatar better as a movie. But I'd also prefer Star Wars to 2001. Avatar was ultimate in terms of entertainment, the pinnacle of sci-fi filmmaking [stuff in my head on screen].
I'd say a good comparison would be Wall-E and Silent Running. Robots, eco-message, quiet. 'Cept that everybody wet their pants over Wall-E, and it was only okay as a sci-fi movie. Silent Running is the quiet underdog, in that way an opposite to Avatar. They're both really good. I just wrote three paragraphs... jeez
Avatar wasn't that good, it was ok but still miles ahead of Silent Running.
'Is it not enough to see that a garden is beautiful?' - Douglas Adams.
'Silent Running' had better effects than 'Avatar', as did '2001: A Space Odyssey'. 'Avatar' just has video game CGI affects.
And the story of 'Silent Running' is far stronger.
"Namu-myoho-renge-kyo"
Silent Running had a much more self-important, sickly and tacky storyline than Avatar...and that's saying A LOT!
http://presspoke.blogspot.com
"Silent Running had a much more self-important, sickly and tacky storyline than Avatar...and that's saying A LOT!"
Avatar didn't have a story, just scenes stolen from other sci-fi works.
"Namu-myoho-renge-kyo"
Avatar should be called "Dances with Aliens" with the happy sappy ending.
They won Little Big Horn and killed Cameron's adolescent cartoon version of a military/corporate Custer, so what? Don't you think the bad guys, that is us, will be back with more and finish them off the next time? A phony and unconvincing resolution.
The obvious anti-American tone, exploiting the great worldwide resonance of the foolish and unnecessary U.S. project in Iraq, may well account for its big international revenues.
A vote for Silent Running which at the time I also preferred to the contemporary smash Star Wars.
CB
Good Times, Noodle Salad
Avatar should be called "Dances with Aliens" with the happy sappy ending.
They won Little Big Horn and killed Cameron's adolescent cartoon version of a military/corporate Custer. So what? Don't you think the bad guys, that is, us, will be back with more and finish them off the next time? A phony and unconvincing resolution.
The obvious anti-American tone, exploiting the great worldwide resonance of the foolish and unnecessary U.S. project in Iraq, may well account for much of its big international revenues.
Avatar is infuriating to me it is so badly written that it makes me detest it even though I agree with nearly every point Cameron seems to be trying to make.
A vote for Silent Running.
A comparable tale on earth, no video versions I am aware of, is Asimov's story 2430 A.D. (found in the collection Buy Jupiter). No one dies except the protagonist, nothing gets blown up. After years of social pressure the protagonist yields up the last non-human animal life left on earth which he had been caring for. He elects suicide, as does Lowell Freeman, rather live in a world where every last bit of protein on land is devoted to human tissue in a world of over one trillion people. Unlike Lowell he is unable to preserve any of it, even momentarily, so it is not a sacrifice to save anything, simply an end from which there is no new beginning.
CB
Good Times, Noodle Salad
Can't compare in any sense, an opus like "Silent Running" with c&ap like "avatar".
A better comparison could be avatar - "Final Fantasy" (also much better than jim camoron flick).
-m-O.O-m-
"There's nothing wrong with your mind set. You're just a moron"
No.
Avatar and the blue people and their shimmering tree of life? I have no vested interest in it. I didn't care about these natives nor did I care about the Earthers. The whole thing could have gone up in a ball of thermonuclear fire and I could shrug my shoulders, say "ooh, that's pretty" and move on.
The very fact that I'm visiting this board 38 years after this film's release demonstrates that it has more of a personal investment than "Avatar". As much as it is an 'environmental" film, it incorporates so much in regards to the human condition that I can't help but become invested into the storyline.
The last remaining flora and fauna of Earth being space-bound and threatened with extinction, the obligation of man for it's care and survival, the loneliness of man, the desperation, futility as well as redemption all carry a personal weight where Avatar just played with a trite concept of natives & trees = good and corporate profits= bad.
I think in the year 2048, if I'm still alive, you would be hard-pressed to see me posting on the Avatar board.
I'm holding everyone to a higher standard- a standard much higher than my own
I know your post wasnt for me directly (damn system!) but I hope you're still alive @ 2048 but not to read your "crapatar" posts but to watch what happened with earth's trees. Until then my friend...
:P
"There's nothing wrong with your mind set. You're just a moron"
Indeed, I certainly hope I am sipping (real)lemonade under a (real)shady tree on this planet in 2048. If not, I hope I have taught my children enough to help keep it all going.
I'm holding everyone to a higher standard- a standard much higher than my own
Beautiful! Sure you'll do well. Take care.
shareI really could not compare these two movies.
Although both touch upon environmental issues, they are totally different animals.
Avatar is sugar coated. A nice cutsy romance, good and bad guys that are clearly identifiable and a clear presence of a hero.
Silent Running, on the other hand is totally different. This is a film that is thought provoking.There are no bad guys, yet we know that what they are doing is wrong, we know that what happened because of some catastrophic event was wrong, yet the characters here are raw.
While Avatar is good entertainment, the environmental message is diluted by another issue, that being the force and invasion of a superior society that has no regard for consequences to the environment or the people (i.e. inferior society) living there and how it has happened throughout history. Regards
TO ME, Silent Running is better than Avatar simply based on my personal feeling that I don't have any draw to watch Avatar again, but would love to watch Silent Running many times. I have SR on dvd, but will probably never buy Avatar. And I usually love Cameron's sci-fi movies. It's just a cartoon to me. :(
shareSilent Running is a much more memorable story. Avatar? Meh. Visually a great achievement but the cliched story just doesn't deliver.
Philosophically Silent Running is more honest about delivering a concern for our human use of the environment. Avatar is almost the same message but seems to take far too many cheap shots. Evil bad dudes. Morally perfect aliens (actually Indians right). Kill each other. The good guys win. Yawn. (how old is this plot line?) Actually there really wasn't much you could call a story in a lot of Avatar, more like a series of plot points.
I got nothing out of avatar. computer cartoons don't do it for me when they try to be real. unlike Pixar who never try to be REAL.
Saw Avatar once, and was bored all the way through.
Silent running I will watch over and over because it is more entertaining to me.
Silent Running. And I haven't seen it.
"The only rules that really matter are these:What a man can do,and what a man can't do."-Capt. Jack
I made a thread about this same topic in the FF forum because FF: TSW and Avatar are also similar.
However, as a few other posters brought out this movie is a lot more similar to Wall-E and waaaaay more hard-hitting. Wall-E was like a liberal's cartoon rendition of Avatar (er, cartoonier version) where-as Silent Running didn't take sides it just showed us what was, or what could be.
I like movies like this that stay honest and true to the characters, the plot and the situation. There was no magical alleviation deux ex machina, there was no super power to thwart evil, there was no evil save for that which was contrived by the characters. They simply were.
With that being said, Silent Running is miles ahead of Avatar, or as you said it best...a few thousand miles. I almost got teary-eyed at the end, not for Lowell but for Duey...it did remind me of Wall-E save that Duey was far less self-aware, which made it that much more sad given that he would be saving something no one would live to experience.
I wasn't really very impressed by Avatar, call me strange. It just seemed like a predictable cartoon. I guess partly because I also don't care for 3D (it makes me nauseous). Without the "spectacular 3D" it's just CGI over a contrived plot. *shrug* Just my opinion, not trying to offend anyone.
That said, comparing it to Silent Running is like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, they're both sci fi movies, yes the "we blew it with our natural resources" theme is the same. I really like Silent Running, I always have, but I can't say it's one of the best movies ever; it has its flaws. But I guess I'd have to hand it to SR, because it was ahead of its time.
»«ëÕ|{¥(V)
I can't understand your crazy moon language.
[deleted]
I don't think it is necessarily a great film, but I prefer silent running. While predictability and formula following isn't always a terrible thing, when you do it as much as avatar, it is.
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