Most critics like Silent Running a good deal, and the praise gathers in the same three places. Douglas Trumbull’s effects and lived-in spaceship interiors are singled out repeatedly, with several reviewers noting how much he manages on a small budget. Bruce Dern’s performance is the second constant, described as committed, subtle or twitchy depending on the writer. The third is the ecological message itself: the reviews treat it as a quiet, humane counterweight to 2001, and the later ones find it more relevant as the decades pass, not less. The drones come in for particular affection.
The reservations are minor and scattered. One review finds the early scene-setting awkward; another thinks the soundtrack has dated badly. The spread is narrow, with one exception: Variety, writing at release, argues that Dern is miscast and that the casting undermines the drama, a view no later critic shares.