Silent Running

I have written before of the recently deceased Michael Cimino and in particular of his multi-flawed magnum opus, Heaven's Gate. But no more of that curio today. Instead we have his first shared screenwriting credit - Silent Running.

This sci-fi parable wears better than other films of similar vintage. In particular I would venture the blasphemous opinion that in its spare manner it is a more staisfying film than the portentous 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sorry.

Silent Running has a cast of only four and three of them are killed off early. Thereafter it is Bruce Dern and a couple of credible drones. It is an early piece of green polemic, but it works. Perhaps the most jarring aspect is the deployment of Joan Baez protest songs. Still, I like it and it only takes up ninety minutes of your life. Cimino obviously thereafter ran away from the mantra of less being more. 7/10.