Soylent Green

(1973)
Many many more people know the single quotable line from this film which also, sadly, ruins the entire secret than have seen it; I numbered among them, until I decided to remedy that omission. I have a fondness for late 60s/early 70s dystopian future movies, regardless of how bad they are (and most of them really, really stink); part of my enjoyment stems from seeing how people of that time projected their fears and worries onto the future, and part of it comes, I must confess, from trying to think how the same stories could be told better. I would start by not casting Charlton Heston. As great as he was in Planet of the Apes (and the Salkind Musketeer films), I think Chuck went to the well once or twice too often in this genre. Here hes about average playing a hard-ass detective named Thorn, who gets called in on a murder investigation and uncovers a far darker secret well, if you know the famous quote, you know exactly what, but still, its fun to watch how he arrives to the final conclusion. Actually its more accurate to say some of it is fun. Thorn is aided by Sol (Edward G. Robinson, in his final performance), an old researcher who remembers what the world was like before its resources were depleted and everything had gone to hell. The scenes between Heston and Robinson are uniformly excellent; probably the best scene in the movie is the two men sharing a simple dinner cobbled together from food Thorn has appropriated from the rich murder victim. Theres also a long and ultimately pointless subplot involving a furniture girl, Shirl (Leigh TaylorYoung), who comes with the luxury apartment the rich man is murdered in. Partly shes there to show how the haves live in this world of predominantly have-nots, but while she gets a great deal of screen time, nothing between her and Heston ever amounts to anything, so we waste about half the film on scenes with no substance. Theres also an amusing and unbelievable scene where Heston tosses Chuck Connors around, which mainly gives the viewer the feeling that Connors had to swallow a whole lot of his pride. There are a lot of really good ideas in this movie the terrible pollution, the overcrowding, the loss of natural resources, the greenhouse effect, all dangers that we will (not might, will) face probably sooner than later but theyre never really expounded upon, as we waste too much time with Heston and the girl, and an absolutely ridiculous sequence where Thorn infiltrates the super-secret maximum security food processing center at the center of the vast conspiracy by hiding in the back of a garbage truck. I was intrigued by how many of the symptoms that plague the world now and will become much more acute shortly --- maybe even by the year 2022, when the movie is set but disappointed how they sort of lurk in the background. The one truly terrifying scene, much more for implication than execution, is where Thorn and the riot cops have to break up a food riot and bright orange trucks simply scoop people up like garbage and drop them in the back of the trucks. I wouldnt say that were close to that kind of police state, but were not

as far away in many respects as wed like to think. Just wait and see what happens in the southwest when the water starts running out. Taken solely as a film, its not really worth your while to check out Soylent Green. Maybe, maybe for Robinson, whos really very good, but everyone else isnt, and Heston just feels miscast most of the movie. The ideas behind the movie are worth looking into, so as food for thought Id recommend it, but if youre not into the whole dystopian idea, you could skip this one and not miss much. Just like when I watched Logans Run recently, I kept mulling over who Id like to see in a remake, as you could certainly do a pretty good one now. The material deserves it, even if this particular version of it doesnt. February 1, 2013