Subject: Retrospective: Soylent Green (1973)

From: Dragan Antulov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 00:46:11 -0000

SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2001

Science fiction as a genre was often belittled as "escapist"
by cultural establishment. However, judging by the way
science fiction appeared in late 1960s and early 1970s, that
genre was anything but escapist. Instead of allowing viewers
to indulge themselves in optimistic visions of another
worlds and thus forget depressing reality, Hollywood science
fiction films of pre-Lucas era often did quite the opposite
- visions of the future were such that the turbulent and
often bleak 1970s reality looked good in comparison.
Interestingly enough, many of such films not only withstood
the test time but also became indisputable classics of the
genre. One of such films is SOYLENT GREEN, directed in 1973
by Richard Fleischer.

The plot of the film is based on the novel MAKE ROOM! MAKE
ROOM! by Harry Harrison and set in New York in the year 2022
AD As a result of decades of industrial pollution,
greenhouse effect caused constant heatwave and mass
extinction of plants and animals. Humans, on the other hand,
continue to grow in numbers and New York has population of
40 million - mostly utterly impoverished people forced to
sleep in crammed stairways and dependant on synthetic food
called "Soylent". Tiny minority of rich and powerful people,
on the other hand, can afford such luxuries as running
water, strawberries and "furniture" in the form of sex
slaves that come with such luxurious apartments. William R.
Simonson (played by Joseph Cotton), one of directors of
Soylent Corporation, belongs to such privileged group until
he is killed in his apartment, presumably by a burglar.
Murder investigation is conducted by Thorn (played by
Charlton Heston), police detective who lives in a tiny
apartment with his research assistant a.k.a. "Book" Sol Roth
(played by Edward G. Robinson), an old man who entertains
him with the stories about the time when the Earth used to
be green. Unlike his superiors who want to wrap up the case
quickly, Thorn decides to investigate further, convinced
that Simonson was the target of well-planned assassination.
His decision is partially motivated by the desire to indulge
himself, at least temporarily, in the privileged lifestyle
and also because he is attracted to Shirl (played by Leigh
Taylor-Young), Simonson's "furniture". When Thorn's
investigation begins to bring results and draws him closer
to the reason behind Simonson's murder, policeman himself
becomes the target of assassins.

Today, in a world of CGI and rapidly changing technology, we
are quite accustomed to the fact that science fiction films
might start looking dated only a year or two after the
initial release. SOYLENT GREEN was made almost three decades
ago, yet it seems like a movie that could be made today. The
only reason to treat SOYLENT GREEN as "dated" is in the fact
that the bleak future depicted in it becomes less certain
with each passing year. By the year 2022 Earth and its
population might indeed be in worse shape than they were in
1973, yet the pollution, global warming, overpopulation and
other apocalyptic trends didn't materialise in dimensions
sufficient to justify bleak visions of the film. So, Harry
Harrison (who wasn't exactly happy with the film),
screenwriter Stanley R. Greenberg and director Fleischer got
it wrong. But that doesn't mean that they failed to create
convincing and powerful vision of the future that even might
become reality at some date later than indicated in the
film.

Like many other dystopic science fiction films of 1970s and
early 1980s, SOYLENT GREEN doesn't create futuristic
atmosphere by presenting technology that doesn't exist in
present, but relies instead on the lack of present-day
technology that should indicate lower standards of living
and decay of civilisation. In SOYLENT GREEN industrial,
technological and cultural decay is presented in convincing
fashion, through the details of people's every day life.
Increased heat and humidity in the air through simple but
effective camera techniques in outdoors scenes. Lack of
trees means that there are no new books, and energy shortage
mandates that only trucks can be used for transport instead
of private-owned cars. Lack of living space means the lack
of privacy and the lack of respect for individuals - when
they die, they are disposed of instead of being buried, and
all their belongings, concubines included, are about to be
plundered without any question asked. In overpopulated
society human life is cheap, and gun battles on overcrowded
streets are bound to result with innocent people being
killed by stray bullets. Those who can't deal with pressures
of everyday life are publicly encouraged to end it through
euthanasia. All this is presented without any semblance of
moralistic outrage, and some viewers can come to the
conclusion that moralistic relativism is the only way a
society can function under those conditions.

Because of this, otherwise great script loses much of its
intended impact in the end. When the great secret is
revealed at the end, protagonist's last words (the most
quoted element of the film) are not directed to the people
of 2022, but to the audience of 1973. His warning, however,
is going to miss the mark in the context of his film. The
outrage he is hoping to create simply won't happen in the
impoverished world of 2022, which has lowered its moral
standards to almost sub-human levels. Yet, the film makes a
nice contrast between savage amorality of the world and
humanism of the protagonist, indicated in memorable scenes
of interaction with people he loves - his "book" and his new
girlfriend.

Protagonist was played by Charlton Heston, one of greatest
actors of American cinema. Same as in PLANET OF THE APES and
OMEGA MAN - two other science fiction classics of the period
- Heston brings humane dimension to the otherwise alien or
reprehensible world through the character of tragic hero.
His performance was, however, overshadowed by another acting
giant - Edward G. Robinson. His character, which had to put
the dark future world in the context of our present day,
gave extra humanism to the film through the strength of
Robinson's performance. Said performance, and especially the
final scene, becomes even more powerful when we know that
the role of Sol was Robinson's final appearance on the film.
Other actors did solid job - Chuck Connors was good as
villain, and Leigh Taylor-Young was more than pretty face.
Fleischer directed this film with great skill, showing his
abilities both in dramatic and action scenes. Unfortunately,
original musical score by Fred Myrow is not as good as this
film should deserve, but this is compensated with the good
use of Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven in some very
powerful scenes.

All in all, SOYLENT GREEN truly deserved its reputation of
science fiction classic. As a science fiction film that
relies more on viewers' intelligence than special effects,
it represents something that is sorely missed in today's
Hollywood. And we should only hope that its reputation
wouldn't be diminished with uninspired remake like it had
happened with many other great movies from that era.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

Review written on August 3rd 2001

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
E-mail: [email-masked]
http://www.film.purger.com - 
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian

==========
X-RAMR-ID: 29014
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 241796
X-RT-TitleID: 1019489
X-RT-AuthorID: 1307
X-RT-RatingText: 8/10