Directed by:
Douglas TrumbullCinematography:
Charles F. WheelerComposer:
Peter SchickeleVOD (2)
Plots(1)
Botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) has spent eight years aboard the space freighter Valley Forge preserving the only botanical specimens left from Earth under huge geodesic domes. When he receives orders to destroy the project and return home, Lowell rebels and hijacks the freighter, while plunging the craft into the gaseous Rings of Saturn. From that moment on, he has only the trees, the gardens and two Drone robots, Huey and Dewey, to keep him company on his greatest adventure of all. (Shock Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (2)
It might seem like a rather boring film because there isn't much happening here that would be a bit faster-paced. On the other hand, it's important to realize that this film certainly has something to say, and it stars the great Bruce Dern, who demonstrates his mastery. What will enchant you, though, is the captivating effects and well-conceived technology, which are simply outstanding for 1972. It's not 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it will still dazzle in that regard.
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It's surprising that the renowned visual effects specialist Douglas Trumbull (Space Odyssey, the first Star Trek film) chose such an intimate, melancholic and minimalist film that doesn't rely on VFX for his directorial debut. A forgotten sci-fi film about a gardener who tries to save the space greenhouses containing Earth's last greenery, it may strike some as naive environmental agitprop and others as a warning against eco-terrorists, but it’s actually more morally complex. The protagonist cares for Earth's last greenery at great moral and personal cost, but he also upsets the balance of his own ecosystem with his reckless behaviour (when he accidentally knocks down and damages one of the little robots in his rover). Bruce Dern is, for most of the time, the only actor in the film who can pull it off with ease on his own. The eye-catching production design is certainly worth mentioning, and has clearly influenced a number of more recent, better known sci-fi films.
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