Plants in Films!

Harry Brown. 2010. A recent release starring Michael Caine and directed by Daniel Barber is a fictional account of geriatric vigilante action against a street gang set on a London housing estate. Brown, the protagonist (played by Caine) takes on a gang who have killed his only friend. He visits a pair of local drug dealers to buy a gun to realise his revenge but the encounter is volatile and twisty.

It ends in a violent confrontation with Brown murdering both dealers. The final execution shot is taken amongst cannabis plants in their hydroponic garden. Brown ends the scene by burning the plants.

Little Shop of Horrors originally directed by Roger Cormen in 1960 and remade in 1986 by Frank Oz. A comedy film about a florist’s assistant Seymour, played by Rick Moranis in the 80’s version, who cultivates a plant (Audrey) that feeds on human blood and flesh. The original, which was was shot over two days on a budget of only $30,000 on a borrowed set, gained a cult following as a B movie perhaps in part because of a cameo appearance by the young Jack Nicholson which was featured rather more prominently than was appropriate on the promotional material! In the later version Audrey is voiced by Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. Audrey demands to be fed with Seymour's blood leading to the film’s most hysterical musical number.

Silent Running 1972 directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Bruce Dern. The film is set in a future in which all plant life on earth has ended. The remaining specimens are preserved much in the manner of Noah’s Ark in enormous geodesic domes attached to a series of space freighters orbiting Saturn. Dern plays the resident botanist/ecologist who is charged with the preservation of the forests for their eventual return to earth accompanied by three robots called, Hughie, Louie and Dewey. The film depicts the disintegration and loneliness of Dern’s character ‘Lowell’ as the forest dies. His last act is to jettison the forest to safety before detonating his ship and ending his own life. What is so remarkable is the almost exact correlation between the domes on the spaceship and those of the Eden Project in Cornwall. It's almost as if... Actually I can't bear to say it!