STANLEY KUBRICK’S 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) might have the philosophical heft. George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977) might deliver on the action. But when it comes to the troika of films that really defined the golden age of cinematic science- fiction, it’s Douglas Trumbull’s space-age environmental classic Silent Running, sandwiched between the two in 1972, that’s got the soul. And much of that is down to the brilliance of the central performance — Bruce Dern, then in his mid thirties, as Freeman Lowell, a loner botanist of the future who spends his time tending plants in a spaceship’s geodesic domes. We caught up with Dern, now 86, about the movie’s unusual script, how he got the role, and why droids Huey, Dewey and Louie baffled Lucas and Spielberg.
THE SCREENPLAY