One of the earliest movies I can remember watching, probably because of the heart-wrenching ending with little Dewey alone in space, watering the flowers in the garden, was Silent Running. I'm not going to admit to how long I sobbed after watching that.
Apart from it being a pioneering movie about environmental apocalypse and the people involved going on to create other great SciFi movies, and the robots being the inspiration for R2D2 in StarWars ... it reminds me of growing up.
It's now a 50 year old movie. But back I thought the little robot was real. Up there. On his own. Faithfully looking after the last remaining flowers. He was the last one left of 3 robots.
Now I know it was just a movie, I know it was 3 double amputees who played the robots by walking on their hands. It seems less magical.
I grew up.
It reminds me that I grew up because I once believed a silly thing. I thought it was real, but it wasn't.
Part of me wishes it was real, that little Dewey is still up there with his watering can, taking care of his garden, but happy. But you can never go back and there's no point yearning for simpler times.
Now I'm an adult and I get to think about adult stuff, inflation and taxes, bills and all the fun things no one likes to think about. A fantasy world where you'll always be that kid, free of worry is an appealing fantasy, but that's all it is.
None of the WTS stories ever came close to the emotional power of that movie. That stuff was way easier to leave behind and forget about.
