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Reviews
Silent Running (1972)
When environmentalism was science fiction
I saw this film first on a monochrome TV in the 1970s, when its moral premise - that saving other living beings might be worth more than human lives - appalled my late father. It produced a different effect on me - the first time my father's and my views had diverged significantly - and the doubt cast by the film on seeing human beings as the be-all and end-all of life has remained with ever since. At the time, I was a callow schoolboy; now I am a middle-aged father. So yes, this film has affected my views of life and the environment which sustains us. Whatever its technical and storytelling shortcomings, this is a profound film.
Europa Europa (1990)
A hoot!
Sorry to see the po-faced comments from many reviewers here. Maybe it's true that Americans just don't do irony - how sad! The fact is, this film is black humour, and it's not political or historical documentary. Whether you want or need to chew over the political and sociological messages is up to you, but as absurdism, the film works really well. That's why the dictators' dance scene was included, and the woman shouting "Mein Führer!" when she reaches orgasm - it's SUPPPOSED to make you laugh. This board seems to have far too many oh-so-serious comments about this film, as though the fate of Germans, Central Europeans, Communists, Judaism, teenagers and pretty well everyone else all rested on how a film is realised creatively. Perhaps any further serious comments should be derided, for fear of obscuring the absurdist subtext: that life is bizarre, and survival can demand adopting patent irrationality.