Silent Running

This authentic 1970s cult sci-fi classic stars a key figure of the period, patrician hippie Bruce Dern, as an idealistic crew member of a 21st-century space station refusing to destroy the only forest vegetation saved from a defoliated Earth. The screenplay by Deric Washburn and Michael Cimino (later to collaborate on The Deer Hunter) and Steven Bochco (of subsequent Hill Street Blues fame) delivers its ecological message with humour and imagination, and Joan Baez sings the appropriate songs. But this deeply moving, immaculately staged film is essentially the work of Douglas Trumbull, only 28 at the time, a special effects expert who got the assignment after making a major contribution to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unless you count Brainstorm, Natalie Wood's disastrous final film, he didn't direct anything of significance again, though his work on Robert Wise's The Andromeda Strain and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner brought him Oscar nominations, and his technological innovations have made him a legendary figure in the film industry. This excellent DVD and Blu-ray disc features excellent commentaries and interviews.