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From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:TRUDEL@RU-BLUE.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Silent Running
Message-ID: <1102@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 23:17:30 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.1102
Posted: Tue Apr  2 23:17:30 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 08:00:24 EST
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Jon Trudel <TRUDEL@RU-BLUE.ARPA>

>.......................If anyone remembers this was a film about
>Spaceships that had been sent into space with a sampling of earths
>plant life to preserve it from the destruction of a war then being
>waged on earth. 
>..... (No Spoiler).....  

The film was indeed Silent Running.  It was made at a time when ecology
was becoming a national/international issue.  The ships were not preserving
the plant life, but rather holding it until the Earth decided what to do
with it.  The Earth's population had grown to such a size that all plant
and animal life had to be removed to make way for the people.  Humans were
in complete control of the environment and its 'resources'.  Bruce Dern
was one of the astronauts assigned to babysit pods which hold the plants and 
animals.  He is the only one who still cares for the flora and fauna, when
the time comes for them to be eliminated...(no spoiler here either)...

I too think this is one of the better SF-Films, albeit with the ecological
motif.  The scientific material was well handled by the production staff, 
which I think was led by Douglass Trumbull.  If you see it in the tv listings,
watch it.  You won't regret it.


					Jonathan D. Trudel

ps- If you look closely, you can see footage of the Silent Running ships 
in Battlestar Galaxitive.  They're the Agro vessels.
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