Wednesday 16 May 2012

Silent Running (1972) and my damned Soviet childhood :)



Just saw a classic sci-fi movie called Silent Running (1972). Very good emotional, sad and naive movie. Like it a lot. Thankfully its unlikely that situation with forests from this film can happen in real life.

I have no idea why at the end of the movie Lowell took Huey with him on board of Valley Forge before he nukes the ship, leaving Dewey alone in greenhouse drifting into deep space? Yes Huey was damaged but he still able to help Dewey or at least Dewey wont be alone.

PS. Because I spend my childhood in Soviet Union and modern Russia before immigration to Australia five years ago, I missed lots of classical films and serials and now I have a "mission" to watch them all.

PS I am 28 years old, so situation is not hopeless.

9 comments:

  1. Now I have to recommend some things to you, you've got allot of catching up to do! Let me think on it...)

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  2. I thought that exact same thing about Huey lol first he runs the poor little fella over, than decides he gets the death sentence for being damaged. Still a classic though.

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  3. This is one of the best films of all time. Good choice. The robots were amazing for their time and Joan Baez has an amazing voice.

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    1. Robots were great! They were made even before R2D2 and C3P0, because New Hope was made only in 1977

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  4. Not sure of what full range of films you missed out on, or weren't available, but here's some that might fill the gaps:

    2001: a Space Odyssey
    A Boy and his Dog
    Akira
    Army of Darkness
    Bladerunner
    Clash of the Titans
    Dark Star
    Enemy Mine
    Fire and Ice
    Flight of Dragons
    Forbidden Planet
    Jason and the Argonauts
    Kelly's Heroes
    Krull
    Labyrinth
    Logan's Run
    Mad Max
    Outland
    Starcrash
    The Black Cauldron
    The Dark Crystal
    The Day the Earth Stood Still
    The Dirty Dozen
    The Duelists
    The Postman
    The Princess Bride
    The Thing
    Wizards

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    1. THANX FOR LIST! Thankfully I saw saw of them :)

      Movies from list I saw as kid on pirate VHS with terrible dub (hate dubbing):

      Clash of the Titans
      Jason and the Argonauts
      Enemy Mine - saw it on TV long time ago. Great film. Need to rewatch.
      Flight of Dragons - Amazing carton with great music and intro song. Saw with horrible dub eons ago :)
      Krull - love the fantasy/sci-fi setting in this film.
      2001: a Space Odyssey
      The Thing


      Movies from list I saw recently:
      Wizards
      The Day the Earth Stood Still
      The Dark Crystal - thats freaking AWESOME
      Kelly's Heroes
      Mad Max - saw all films week ago

      So its lots to go :)

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    2. Have fun! There's lotso gems out there yet. Those were just the ones I could remember.

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  5. If you like The Dark Crystal you'll love Labyrinth!
    Here's one I subject all my gaming buddies to:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uc_X4jPlx4&feature=relmfu


    It's called Megaforce:The story involves two fictional countries, the peaceful Republic of Sardun and their aggressive neighbor Gamibia. Unable to defend itself from the Gamibia incursion, Sardun sends Major Zara (Persis Khambatta) and General Byrne-White (Edward Mulhare) to ask the help of MegaForce – a secret mercenary army composed of international soldiers of fortune, equipped with advanced weapons and vehicles. The MegaForce leader, Commander Ace Hunter (Barry Bostwick) accepts the peacekeeping mission when he learns his rival, and former military academy friend, Duke Gurerra (Henry Silva) is leading the Gamibia invasion.

    While Hunter composes an elaborate battle plan to destroy Gurerra's forces, Zara tries out to become a member of MegaForce. Although she passes the tests, Hunter's growing feelings of love toward her prevent him from accepting her on for such a dangerous mission.

    Eventually, MegaForce successfully para-drops its attack vehicles into Gamibia and Hunter mounts his sneak attack against Gurerra's forces. Although they manage to destroy his base, Gurerra has set a trap for them at the team's only means of escape – a dry lake bed where the cargo planes will pick them up. Gurerra sends his tanks to secure the lake bed while Hunter comes up with a plan to attack Gurerra from behind by crossing over a mountain range the enemy tanks had turned their backs toward.

    The plan succeeds, and MegaForce manages to break through Gurerra's tanks, but one of MegaForce's cargo planes is damaged in the process. Having to abandon their hi-tech vehicles, (which they program to self-destruct), the team successfully makes it on foot to the last plane, let alone for Hunter. The commander, instead, makes his own dramatic escape on his motorcycle after it deploys airfoils and a rocket motor and catches up with the cargo plane in midair. Although he has lost the battle, Gurerra shows admiration for Hunter's cunning, and he gives his old friend a thumbs up.

    I saw this movie in a theater full of GIs and there were many cat-calls and boos but it is still one of my guilty pleasures...)

    And yes I'm doing the unit in 15mm!

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    1. I will watch all movies from your list this mounth. I have no problem with access to movies :) Thanx again for list.

      I'll start with Megaforce today :)

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