I’ve often been fascinated by the science-fiction movies of the 1970s. They often had a bleakness that very few other sci-fi/horror movies from any other era would’ve alienated so many viewers they’d be forgotten. Even Alien itself with its somewhat heroic ending still ends on a downer as Ellen Ripley, lone survivor is left stranded in space. And we’d later found out that she stays that way for 57 years. Maybe it was the Fall of Saigon and the Watergate Scandal along with the energy crisis that made us think that the future wasn’t too bright.
But the movies also had an odd look to them that made them seem more futuristic even though the fashion just screamed 1970s. I take the scene in Westworld where Richard Benjamin is walking through a long corridor where the main control room is and it just doesn’t look normal. Maybe directors knew they had to be more creative with limited budgets before Star Wars emerged in 1977 and studios were willing to throw millions at anything science-fiction.
Soylent Green is another one of those dystopia movies like Logan’s Run, The Omega Man and Rollerball that portrayed a distant future that is bleak and rather unsettling with their images of a future. And of course, it stars Charleston Heston who by this time was an old hat with these roles following the first two Planet of the Apes movies and Omega. Chuck was pushing 50 when he made this movie which combines the elements of science-fiction, horror, police procedural and social commentary into one casserole dish that never leaves the right taste in your mouth.
Part of the problem is that the plot really is just boring if you don’t already know the twist going in. SPOILER ALERT!! Corporations are feeding dead bodies procressed into green food chips called Soylent Green. There’s the famous ending of a wounded Chuck Heston telling his boss, Chief Hatcher (Brock Peters) “Soylent Green is people!” It’s right up there with Chuck beating his fists on the sand at the end of the first Apes screaming “Damn you all to Hell!” upon seeing the Statue of Liberty.
It’s 2022 and the ocean life has been mostly depleted including the plankton the Soylent Corporation has claimed are using to make the foods which are rationed as well as water. New York City has become overpopulated at 40 million with people literally sleeping on steps and sidewalks. The Earth’s population has increased to 20 billion and wealth inequality has made it that the wealthy and elite living in heavily guarded high-rises and indulge in things like hot showers with shampoos and soaps and eat meats and fruits which are scarce.
The irony of this like a lot of dystopia movies is that if NYC had a mass population of 40 million (instead of the 8.33 million it really had in 2022), a few armed guards at buildings wouldn’t stop everyone from storming and taking over. And that’s the problem. The movie never does present a realistic view of a dystopia even though it forgoes all the futuristic change mistakes that most movies make. My guess was when you’re dealing with a smaller budget, you can always make things look worse. Most scenes that take place in the apartment buildings looka porn orgy before the dirty scenes happen. And there’s supposed to be greenhouse gases that are making everyone on the outside sicker because there’s a year-round heat wave.
Soylent executive William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotton) is murdered in his high-rise pad supposedly by the corporation and NYPD Robert Thorn (Heston) is brought in to investigate. But the story goes nowhere. Mainly because we know that Simonson’s bodyguard, Tab Fielding (Chuck Connors), is also in cohoots with the corporation. So, it really isn’t until the movie’s third act in which Thorn’s friend and roommate Solomon Roth (Edward G. Robinson) uncovers what Simonson already knew that the movie becomes more exciting.
Even though there’s less than 50 years between when the movie is set and when it was released, you never do feel that society would’ve collapsed so much while increasing in such a population. And Chuck looks like he’s almost 50 but acts like he’s never enjoyed the pleasures of soap or meat. I get the feeling that Thorn was supposed to be closer to 30 than 50. Aside from a disturbing scene where protestors are “scooped” up into dumptrucks possibly to be processed as Soylent Green, the first hour of the movie moves at a snail’s pace with a lot of the scenes never playing out perfectly.
Director Richard Fleischer already had a huge resume when he started this movie including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Dolitte and would make the controversial Mandingo after this. There’s a lot of ideas that never work out well. One bodyguard even if it is the Rifleman wouldn’t be able to protect an executive from the masses. How does Simosnson get back and forth to work? In a city that has 40 million people of which 90-95 are living in poverty or near that level, it should be the absolutely last place a small fraction of the wealthy would live.
Also, many of the young women are considered concubines to the elites. This has more of a social commentary on how women will be subservient as long as it means living in the higher society. Yet, Fleischer and screenwriter Stanley R. Greenburg don’t examine this as thorougly as they should have. But there’s no way a police department as big as NYPD which here looks like it’s struggling since Thorn has to do double-duty as riot control would ever be able to maintain like this under the conditions There’s something about curfews but it all seems to be based on the notion that someone would still abide by the rules when all seems lost. Things have already fallen apart at this moment.
Yet all this is somewhat forgiveable for the final half-hour or so in which Roth goes to a facility called “Home” to have an assisted suicide. Everything about this seems strangely odd but relatively normal for those who work at the facility. And it’s odd how people are treated on the outside but a technician (Dick Van Patten) kindly leads Roth into a room where where is a panoramic screen shows footage of nature as orange lighting shines through. The commentary about how bad we’re treated in life but the royal treatment we receive close or in death is a contrast. Who still pulls off to the side of the road when you see a funeral procession even if the departed was an awful person?
But we soon learn that Roth and many others are bascially no more than food substances to be consumed. Corporations see us as consumers and then we’re the consumed. The death scene of Roth is memorable because Robinson was dying from terminal bladder cancer at the time he filmed his scenes. Reports indicate that Chuck was really crying because he was upset that Robinson was going to be gone very soon. Robinson later died on Jan. 26, 1973 at 79.
But the creepiness of the facility as technicians roll Roth’s bodies out and others as they are loaded into converted garbage trucks makes you wonder what exactly is being done at the process plant. What part is being discarded? Is any? Surely, they’re not grinding up the sheets they cover up the bodies. It’s a haunting scene but it’s not one we took many notes on because we’ ve continued to destroy the world’s environment in the 50 years since. They only think we’ve managed to control is the population as many Millennials, Gen Xers and even Gen Zers have said they have no intentions of having children or just one child.
It makes you wonder instead of rationing foods and water, they ought to be passing out condoms. It reminds me of a Richard Pryor joke “We fuck just to keep our minds off eating.” Even the parents in A Quiet Place were dumb enough to have unprotected sex. Considering the size of many people, I’m guessing what we’re seeing only happened in the previous 15 years. The book Make Room! Make Room! used as the basis was published in 1966 and set in 1999.
Cannibalism always seemes to be the last act of a desparate society or situation. If you look at the story of Uruguayan rugby team that had to resort to cannibalism while standed in the Andes or the tall tales of the Donner Party (which historians say wasn’t that widespread as people thought), it seems horrific. But we raise chickens, beef and pork among others only for mass consumption. Soylent Green looks at the fear that we’re no longer the apex predators and corporations with the assistance of the government are willing to chew us up and spit us out, literally.
While the “corporations are bad” theme is something that was a joke on Family Guy, it’s a frightening foreshadowing of the Reaganeighties as chicken, beef and pork were all injected with antibiotics. Even McDonalds cheated us on the milkshakes by using a mix that didn’t contain real ice cream because it wasn’t cost-efficient to keep the ice creams in the freezers. I remember Andy Rooney once did a 60 Minutes segment commentary on the “ingredients” in foods. It makes you wonder what exactly were we eating all those years before “organic” became more popular.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 