Soylent Green

So...Soylent Green, Space Food Sticks and a bag of Army field rations walk into a bar...




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Swing Out Sister - Precious Words

 

I haven't watched that movie in years. Maybe time for a reboot.

 

I have a huge stash of strawberry jam saved up so I can be rich when the real soylent Green era arrives.

 

I just re-watched it, after what, more than 40 years? Aside from the cheesy production values, half-hearted acting by most (Edward G. Robinson was a marvel), and what I remembered as a feature length movie built around a single punchline, it was still disturbing: Granted, the issues of planetary waste, a hot topic in the early 70's, have been beaten to death, but that dystopian future, the all controlling government, the grovelling mobs, and the general sense of hopelessness (except for the privileged few) may even be more true today than when this movie was made. I would have been far more critical of this movie's quality (or lack thereof) at the time. Now, it is a period piece, like 1984, of a predicted future that has turned out to be worse in some ways than we imagined. But, I'm basically an optimist.

 

Indeed...the worst is yet to come!

 

yes, I recently watched my DVD...still freaky...yes it is time.

 

I saw it at the drive-in in El Paso, with "Night Of The Lepus" as the second feature. Killer rabbits!!

 

Didn't Jimmy Carter have a problem with those?

 

I really enjoyed this unique and interesting movie. I have seen many expensive Science Fiction movies with tons more special effects and explosions that didn't have half the impact of this movie. Charlton Heston did some cool movies in the early 70s.

It was a very thought provoking movie.

Scott

 

I like these three sci-fi movies. For me, Heston's standout performance is in Will Penny.

 

the same goes for me but, I like him in Planet Of The Apes best...

 

I read the Harry Harrison book Make Room Make Room a couple of years ago. Its a good little sci-fi noir thriller. No hint of cannibalism though. Has an interesting foreword that really sums up current times and times to come.

Worth digging out. I picked my 1969 copy up in second hand book store on Vancouver Island. It was a UK edition so it had travelled some way. Well I took it all the way back again.

 

There`s an old episode of the Simpsons, Homer says-Mmmm Soilent Green!

 

Kind of a fitting, if not eerie for his last 101 count movie for one of my favorite actors, Edward G Robinson.

Heston plays his role well, and I've always liked Joseph Cotton too, sadly his role is quite short.

Robinson is fantastic in his role. Chuck Connors is almost cardboard and does not fit his role well IMO.

The story line is reasonably strong and keeps one interested as things move along fairly well.

WIKI: "The 20th century's industrialization has left the world permanently overcrowded, polluted and stagnant by the turn of the 21st century. In 2022, with 40 million people in New York City alone, housing is dilapidated and overcrowded; homeless people fill the streets; about half are unemployed, the few "lucky" ones with jobs are barely scraping by, and food and working technology is scarce. Most of the population survives on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, whose newest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer advertised to contain "high-energy plankton" from the world's oceans, more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors "Red" and "Yellow," but in short supply."


I've always dug this since it came out. The blu ray looks wonderful, sound is clean and crisp, at 97 minutes it does not drag on, pace and plot move along well. There's also some cute babes, called "furniture".

What's that??? ding ding, ding. I hear my pizza is done.

 

My daughter's an environmental scientist and she commented that there are elements of this that are eerily accurate others, not so much but it's an example of a exceptional dystopian thriller.

 

You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher! You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is

Spoiler

a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and, in his final film, Edward G. Robinson.

 

Got my stash well hidden.

 

I've reread that one a couple times since I first picked it up years ago. Great book...

 

If you liked Planet Of The Apes and Omega Man (which I did), then you had to see Soylent Green just to complete the Heston Sci Fi
Triumvirate.

As I had read and loved Harry Harrison's Make Room Make Room, I perhaps unfairly gave Green some lower marks for deviating from the book, especially at the end, but overall, I did like it for what it was and in fact, liked it enough to buy a my own DVD copy.

The interplay between Heston and Robinson for Sol's farewell scene was well written, well acted, and very touching in my opinion. Thorn's look of wide eyed amazement at the wondrous beauty of a world that he will never know was very effective acting by Heston.

That 5 minute scene totally makes the movie for me.

 

Time for a triple feature of Soylent Green, The Omega Man, and A Boy and His Dog!!!!

 

Or Fahrenheit 451, Rollerball, and Logan's Run!

 

Being younger, and loving snl, I always think Heston is doing Hartman lol

 

I thought THE OMEGA MAN was a much better movie.