Soylent Green

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Barnabas Collins, Apr 17, 2007.

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  1. Barnabas Collins

    Barnabas Collins Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NH
    I watched this film (1973) for the first time last night. I needed to see something to take my mind off the Virginia tragedy as well as the crummy weather we've been having recently. BAD IDEA!

    I really enjoyed it and it holds up incredibly well for a sci fi film nearly 35 years old. But it also disturbed me. Not least of all seeing Edward G Robinson being euthanised and knowing that he died just days after these scenes were being filmed was really haunting. The 2022 population of NYC, the treatment of women, the questions of life and death, the things we'd do to eat a real strawberry...man I just wanted to crawl into a cave. :cry: On the other hand, Soylent Green is brimming with ideas and it was refreshing to see a sci fi film that didn't really on special effects or hammy acting. Powerful stuff, I just wish I'd been in the right frame of mind for it.
     
  2. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Hey, this is Tuesday :D
     
    Simon A likes this.
  3. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    It's neat to see cinema tackle speculative fiction in an earnest fashion. Have you seen Children Of Men yet?
     
  4. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Funny you should mention that film. I was actually munchin' on some Soylent Green last night while watching Westworld... ;)

    Children Of Men was quite a ride actually. I never would have imagined seeing Michael Caine say: Pull my finger...
     
  5. JohnG

    JohnG PROG now in Dolby ATMOS!

    Location:
    Long Island NY
    I'm surprised it hasn't been remade. Interesting ideas in that movie.

    "Soylent Green is people!"
     
  6. I remember as a kid, 'Soylent Green' both fascinated, and scared the hell out of me.

    One thing that sticks out in my mind about the movie, was seeing the video game upright machine that I think was called 'Space Chase', or 'Space Race' in the movie.

    The bowling alley up the street from me had one, and they were the coolest things I had ever seen up to that point. I was a pinball wizard at the time, and that was the first video game released commercially in a stand alone cabinet, if I recall correctly.
     
  7. proufo

    proufo Forum Resident

    Call me shallow but other than Heston and EGR, the biggest lasting impression I have from this movie is the strawberry jam scene.

    I always think of that scene whenever I eat jam directly from the jar. And get a kick out of it.
     
  8. music4life

    music4life Senior Member

    Location:
    South Elgin, IL
    I watched it last year for the first time in probably 25 tears. The whole time I kept thinking of Phil Hartman impersonating Charlton Heston on SNL, and yelling, "People...Soylant Green is made out of people!..." :laugh:
     
    Trapper J likes this.
  9. Mike

    Mike New Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    How weird. Westworld, Soylent Green and the 70's Invasion of the Body Snatchers were the 3 flicks that I added to my Netflix que because I hadn't seen them since I was a kid and wanted to check them out again. I thought Westworld stunk. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was OK - I loved that one as a kid. Oh yeah, I also added Andromeda Strain. I will probably get to Soylent Green in the next month or so.
     
  10. audiodrome

    audiodrome Senior Member

    Location:
    North Of Boston
    Those very cool "future seen through the eyes of the late '60s/early '70s" set designs have always stuck in my mind.
     
  11. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    Very entertaining movie. Get the Omega Man as well.
     
    white wolf likes this.
  12. vconsumer

    vconsumer Unapologetically 70s

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Arriving tomorrow via Netflix :)
     
  13. Eli

    Eli Party Coordinator

    Location:
    Isle of Lucy
    I just watched the earlier "version" of Omega Man, Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth, and thought it was surprisingly good. Both are based on the novel I Am Legend, which is coming this fall to a theater near you in its third film adapation, starring Will Smith.
     
    GuildX700 likes this.
  14. vconsumer

    vconsumer Unapologetically 70s

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Which one? The b/w or color?
     
  15. Eli

    Eli Party Coordinator

    Location:
    Isle of Lucy
    He said the '70s one in the first sentence of the paragraph. I like both versions, and also Westworld.
     
  16. pigmode

    pigmode Active Member

    Location:
    HNL
    I seem to remember CH wearing a silly looking neckerchief...
     
  17. Jeff H.

    Jeff H. Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern, OR

    I was thinking exactly the same thing!:laugh:
     
  18. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    All three versions (Hell, there may be more...) of "Invasion of the body snatchers" are good. I think the 70's version has Donald Sutherland, and I am thinking it was the one I thought was best. The most recent is still pretty decent, but has a bit more modern "invaders" and poorer acting.
     
  19. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    Will Smith? :sigh:
     
  20. DOUBTINGTHOMAS29

    DOUBTINGTHOMAS29 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I really hope they leave this movie alone. I'm so sick of directors remaking films. When I saw Grindhouse the other night people were groaning out loud and laughing during the trailer for Halloween. Why on earth Rob Zombie is remaking that movie is beyond me.
     
  21. Barnabas Collins

    Barnabas Collins Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NH
    Omega Man and Children of Men are going into the Queue. Thanks.

    I watched the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers about a year ago. I hadn't seen it since I was 8 years old at a drive in theater with my parents on a double bill with Coma. The very last scene scared the hell out of me when I was a kid (if you saw it, you know what I'm talking about!). It was fun to see it again. No masterpiece, but very entertaining.
     
  22. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Westworld, Soylent Green and Phase IV are the three "Pre-Star Wars" 70's movies that really scared the living daylights out of me as a kid. Oddly enough, I was also exposed to regular reruns of The Love War (dubbed in French) and to me, even if it's a TV-Movie, it fitted the bill. Planet Of The Apes, Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, Fantastic Voyage, Robinson Crusoe On Mars and Marooned are the 60's Sci-Fi flicks that also captivated me in the 70's (the original War Of The Worlds really spooked me as well).

    Add to that the television series Space 1999, U.F.O., Star Trek and Star Maidens, and this will give you and idea of what Sci-Fi stuff I was raised on before Star Wars and its rip-offs (Battlestar Galactica and others).

    I am a huge movie fan and I have a soft spot for the 70's movies which, for the most part, never had a happy ending. I still have fun watching these and it does bring me back to those pre-CGI times when things were much simpler, more real and less superficial. Science Fiction was about good writing and no matter how big (or small) the budget or good or bad the acting was, they managed to spark one's imagination.

    Great thread! :righton:


    That's true! They should make a special edition of the DVD in which you can choose between the Heston or Hartman ending... :D
     
  23. Eli

    Eli Party Coordinator

    Location:
    Isle of Lucy
    I know, I know. Rumor has it that there have been major changes to the story, too. At one point I heard it was no longer going to be about vampires. :confused:
     
  24. filper

    filper Forum Resident

    A 'furnished' apartment. :)
     
  25. Spitfire

    Spitfire Senior Member

    Location:
    Pacific Northwest
    Speaking of good 70s Sci Fi movies I caught The Andromeda Strain on one of the HD channels last week.
     
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