THE MOVIE

Aboard the space freighter 'Valley Forge', Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) has been preserving the only remaining botanical life (and some animals) from planet earth (forests within bio-domes), which has fallen victim to overpopulation and ecological neglect. Instructed to abandon the project he takes pride in, Lowell rebels, and hijacks the space freighter in order to preserve his forests. After isolating himself from the other humans aboard the Valley Forge, Freeman continues on his journey to save the forests, with only the company of 3 droids to keep him from totally going insane.

If you like your sci-fi to be focused more on the effects than the story, you'll probably find this film boring. But if you like an intelligent story with a good message, then you might find something to like in Silent Running. Directed by Douglas Turnbull (the man behind the visual effects for Kubrick's classic 2001 - who also went on to do the effects for Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Silent Running features some great effects and sets. Made in 1970's - which has gone down as perhaps the greatest era for sci-fi films, the film was unfortunately kept in the shadows of the 2 aforementioned films, plus George Lucas' Star Wars. Perhaps lacking in eye-candy compared to those other 3 films (which by the way all sit within the top 65 of the AFI's list of top 100 films), Silent Running has not been heard of by many people (no-one I know anyway). This does not mean it's not a good film though.

I found Silent Running to be an enjoyable B-grade sci-fi film, one with heart, some decent visuals, and a good performance from Bruce Dern. I can easily recommend this film to more hardcore fans of sci-fi, but passers-by may have less interest. If you like the sound of the film, by all means give it a try, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Presented in a non anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.85:1, Silent Running gets a decent transfer, that only lets down those lucky enough to have a rear-projection widescreen TV or projector. Apart from this loss in resolution, the transfer is decent for a 30-year-old print without any restoration. Colours and black levels are good, and sharpness is not excessive. Constant grain is of course present, but never distracting. Fans should be pleased - but not excited.

Audio:

On the audio side, we only get Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, in both English and German. As the film never demands anything more than what we get, the transfer is quite good. Being a mono track, there is no activity from the surround speakers or sub-woofer. The soundtrack comes across quite clearly, and never distorts. Although there a no flaws in this sound mix whatsoever, I cannot give it a greater score than 2 discs. Compared to Star Wars Episode 1, it deserves 1 - but for what it is, it gets the job done admirably.

THE EXTRAS

A Theatrical Trailer of poor quality (visually and audibly).

SUMMARY

If you're a fan of pre-1980 sci-fi, for the low asking price, Silent Running, with it's warm and intelligent storyline, is a pretty good buy. Presented quite poorly by today's standards, the DVD is all you'd expect, and is sure to make fans of the film happy.