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Forgotten Classic: Silent Running

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Mark Kermode | 16:24 UK time, Tuesday, 5 August 2008

Meet Wall-E's robot ancestors: Huey, Dewey and Louie.

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  • 1. At 5:22pm on 05 Aug 2008, Julius_Strangepork wrote:

    The downside of meeting one heroes is that there's the risk of them not being as good as we hoped they would be.

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  • 2. At 5:32pm on 05 Aug 2008, tallScottishgirl wrote:

    Absolutely love Silent Running and my lip is quivering at the thought of the ending. Who would imagine a little robot with a watering can tending a garden could be so moving?

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  • 3. At 7:11pm on 05 Aug 2008, grundolf wrote:

    WALL-E also reminded me of Miyazaki Hayao's "Laputa, Castle in the Sky", in which Laputa is a floating city long abandoned by its inhabitants, and only a robot remains to look after the gardens and the animals. There are also 'dead' robots lying around being gradually eaten by moss.

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  • 4. At 6:32pm on 08 Aug 2008, Perless wrote:

    Tsk, what a twit she was *g*

    I just picked it up on DVD very cheaply a few weeks ago.

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  • 5. At 10:01pm on 16 Aug 2008, Mr_Duff wrote:

    I have loved this film since seeing it in the early eighties as a child - of course it's suitable for all ages! It has long been one of my all-time favourites.

    It's such a great film, and wonderfully shot, thanks for reminding everyone about it.

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  • 6. At 5:07pm on 21 Aug 2008, Gorbyrev wrote:

    Silent Running - what a haunting movie. I saw it at that time when you saw movies on the TV and started part way through. I think I have seen the ending two or three times yet never seen the whole thing. Had a really similar feel to Logan's Run.

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  • 7. At 9:41pm on 22 Aug 2008, hardpunk wrote:

    Couldn't agree more with Mark and the comments posted here. Silent Running has always struck me as a vastly underrated film that bucked the trend in the 70's with it's socially conscious subject matter and the warmth of its central characters. Love to hear more from Dr Kermode about forgotten classics, how about 12 Angry men? Never mentioned in critics top ten films but to my mind one of the greats.

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  • 8. At 1:57pm on 06 Sep 2008, armchairultra wrote:

    So it's called 'Silent Running'!? I caught this many years ago on late night tv and it really stuck in my head. It seemed perfectly suited to that 11pm sleepy slot, I loved it. But I never found out the name.

    Much the same as 'A matter of life and death'. Saw the first ten minutes many years ago, and never forgot it. It was only while wondering round the NFT the other day that I found it's title.

    Now if you can just tell me the name of that film with the boy, and the house on the hill, and the theme tune. Goes 'bap bap baaapp bop boop booop'. Anyone? No?

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  • 9. At 9:40pm on 11 Sep 2008, righteousGerryC wrote:

    CLASSIC???You've lost your mind!

    Cute little robot though...George Lucas musta been watchin.

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  • 10. At 2:52pm on 15 Sep 2008, Mr_Ichthyosaurus wrote:

    Classic, couldn't agree more.

    Joan's songs were shoehorned in due to her popularity at the time, so I would forgive her memory lapse...it was 35 years or so ago.

    Amazing effects for that time, we tend to forget that with the technical trickery available today.

    @righteousgerryC

    I'm sure he was...

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  • 11. At 01:31am on 28 Feb 2009, dougtrumbull wrote:

    First off, Joan was at the premiere of the film. She did see it. What's more she did the music for free and donated another $5,000,000 to the film to see that it was completed. Trust me, she knows the film quite well. She cried at the ending. She loved the film.

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