Soylent Green
| Soylent Green | |
|---|---|
| File:Soylent Green cover.jpg | |
| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Written by | Harry Harrison |
| Produced by | Walter Seltzer, Russel Thacher |
| Starring | Charlton Heston |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release dates | May 9, 1973 |
Running time | 97 min |
| Language | English |
Soylent Green is a classic 1973 science fiction movie starring Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Joseph Cotten and Chuck Connors. It is credited as being based on the 1966 science fiction novella about overpopulation by Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!, but maintains only a loose structure of that work, and diverges into its own plot points and ideas.
The most common use of the term Soylent Green today is in reference to the fictional food product which is at the center of the film's plot.
Movie
The movie, set in the year 2022, depicts a future dystopia, a Malthusian catastrophe that takes place because humanity has failed to pursue sustainable development and has not halted population growth. Global warming, air and water pollution have produced a year-round heatwave. Food and fuel resources are scarce, housing is dilapidated and overcrowded, and widespread government-sponsored euthanasia is encouraged as a means of reducing overpopulation. Charlton Heston plays Robert Thorn, a New York City police detective, investigating the suspicious murder of William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten), a former member of the board of the Soylent Corporation. Thorn's roommate is Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), a onetime college professor who is an elderly police researcher.
In the movie, meat, bread, cheese, fruit and vegetables are scarce and extremely expensive, and the government dispenses rations of synthetic food substances made by the Soylent Corporation: Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, and the newest product, Soylent Green, the most popular version. As the name suggests, "Soylent" is derived from soybeans and lentils.
However, during his investigation of the Simonson murder, Thorn uncovers a strange conspiracy, which will be revealed if he sees what goes on behind closed doors at the euthanasia centers. When an elderly and dispirited Sol opts for euthanasia, Thorn forces his way in to the euthansia center at gunpoint and makes two shocking discoveries. First, he sees motion pictures of the unspoiled Earth of former times, which are shown only to those about to be euthanized. Thorn is startled to see how beautiful the Earth was before it sank to its current state.
Second, when Thorn follows the disposal of Sol's corpse, he discovers that Soylent Green includes the recycled bodies of people who have used government-sponsored euthanasia centers, as well as those killed by the government in an attempt to keep knowledge of this form of cannibalism from the populace, and not from plankton as advertised, real plankton being scarce.
Thorn's anguished cry of "Soylent Green is people!" -- his last line in the movie as he is being carried off in a stretcher, holding up a bloody hand -- has become an iconic catch phrase and is frequently referenced/parodied in many other works. Reasons for this extensive use in popular entertainment are difficult to pin down to a single explanation. Some "blame" has been pointed to the film's trailer, which indirectly revealed Soylent Green's main ingredient by using quick cuts of body bags being carried across a conveyor belt over spoken narration: "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" The resulting spoiled surprise may have contributed to popular culture's tendency to refer to the movie (see Cultural impact below).
Trivia
- The original 1966 novella Make Room! Make Room! is set in the year 1999, with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing social disorder as the next millennium approaches. It mentions soylent steaks, but makes no reference to "soylent green" or to the ideas of euthanasia and cannibalism which form the basic theme of the movie. The book's title was not used for the movie since it could have confused audiences into thinking it was a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy.
- When Sol is "going home" the background score on the film is Beethoven's Symphony #6. The same musical piece was used in the Nazi propaganda film Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Führer grants the Jews a city). The film was an attempt by the Nazi regime to portray the Jewish ghettos as happy suburban communities.
- This is the last movie filmed by Edward G. Robinson, who died on January 26, 1973, two weeks after he had finished filming.
- A character is briefly seen operating a Computer Space arcade game (an Asteroids-like game), marking the movie as one of the first to show the emerging pop cultural phenomenon of video games.
- In the scene where Sol ‘goes home’, Charlton Heston's character is too late to stop it and we see him cry as Sol dies. His tears were real, as Heston was the only one who knew that Edward G. Robinson was dying of terminal cancer. Soylent Green was to be his last movie.
Cultural impact
The film has since entered into the realm of popular culture for a variety of reasons, most notably Charlton Heston's melodramatic performance of the film's penultimate line, "Soylent Green is people!", and Phil Hartman's Saturday Night Live reenactment of said performance. Many television series, movies, and video games have parodied the final scene of the film, especially when dealing with topics of cannibalism. Such use has become so extensive that it has become a staple of parody, used not in specific reference to the film but rather as a self-reflexive allusion to its wide use in popular entertainment. The "horrifying secret of Soylent Green", in itself, has become a popular example of a twist ending that is already known by the public at large, even those who have not seen the film (see also Planet of the Apes and The Empire Strikes Back).
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