Cinema of Apocalypse: Soylent Green

Starring:  Charlton Heston

Running Time:  97 minutes

Release Date:  May 9, 1973

Yes, indeed, it’s the year 2022 and the world is suffering from global warming, overpopulation, an abundance of poverty, few crops, and few animals in existence.  The only people who can afford such luxuries are–you guessed it–the rich.  Everyone else is forced to eat soy products produced by the mega-corporation Soylent Corporation.  Soylent Green is its newest product (proceeding Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow), produced from plankton.

Charlton Heston stars as the antihero, semi-dirty cop Robert Thorn who finds himself investigating the murder of one of Soylent Corporation’s highest executives.  Thorn’s suspicions begin early on, when he realizes that the victim William R. Simonson doesn’t seem to have struggled during the encounter.  However, over-worked and underpaid, Detective Thorn helps himself to many of the dead man’s amenities–including the “furniture girl,” a young prostitute who is included with the apartment and must remain after her patron’s death.  Heston does well as a man who has nothing to live for, but nothing to die for either.  Hence, at times the audience finds his behavior completely understandable, and at other times he can be crude and violent.  His dedication to the case is strengthened by erratic and suspicious treatment he receives from those somehow connected to the Soylent Corporation.

Who is behind Mr. Simonson’s death–and what does that have to do with Soylent’s products?

This movie displays great foresight into what would be nearly our present.  Of course, its predictions are a little too soon and it neglects any major technological advancements.  Not attempting to give the movie too much credit, but I am assuming that this is because their economy wouldn’t be able to profit from an influx of technology no one could afford.  Where there is technology, it is huge and clunky–usually gray or brown in hue.  I’m assuming this is due to budget constraints.

Another of the movie’s faults?  It looks like the 70’s version of the future.  The hairstyles and clothing are nearly the same as they would have been when the movie was in production.  Many science fiction films are guilty of this, yet it never ceases to frustrate me.

Check out the following trailer:

Essentially, Soylent Green is a very American cowboy-structured film meant to be a warning to the inevitable environmental factors that could possibly lead to humanity’s demise.  Less than one percent of the Earth’s species are documented and studied.  And in the next thirty to forty years, a great deal (possibly 40%) of species will be extinct due to drastic environmental change.