<Silent Running

Tom said: "Good special effects, an unbelievably ridiculous premise, and a plot with holes in it you could pilot an Imperial Cruiser through.... I liked it."

I did too (surprised?) - so much that I even bought the soundtrack album and played it to death, in spite of the fact that it included the worst song Joan Baez ever lent her voice to. The score was by Peter Schickele, a.k.a. "P.D.Q. Bach". If you click on the link to IMDB, you'll see that one of the writers was Steven Bochco, multiple-Emmy winner for Hill Street Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue, etc.

Besides the ship models (Trumbell's specialty, as anyone who's ever seen 2001, Battlestar Galactica or Close Encounters will testify), there wasn't much in the way of special effects, even using 1972 criteria. Maybe the coolest thing about the movie was the drones: there were live actors in each one! Double amputees, walking on their hands.

I don't think Bruce Dern ever quite finished playing "Lowell Freeman" - every role I've seen him in since has had that same glazed look of fanaticism.