Soylent Green

Soylent Green

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Movie Reviews of Soylent Green

Movie Review: This is right...
Summary: 5 Stars

The world of Soylent Green is one that is staring into the abyss of complete ecological meltdown; population overcrowding has reached almost catastrophic proportions, the air is thick with pollutants, the soil has been poisoned, and the seas are dying. The rich and the powerful enjoy lives of splendid isolation in walled and guarded communities, where every need is catered for, up to and including the provision of "Furniture" girls, provided by the community managers. The majority of the human race exists in abject poverty, living in endless slums, queuing for hours for water and food, the very basics for survival. Standing astride this cesspool of a world is the monolithic Soylent Corporation, provider of synthetic food products to the masses.

Charlton Heston plays "Detective Robert Thorn," assigned to investigate the murder of businessman "William R Simonson," in the Chelsea Towers development. Thorn is aided by his "Book," - a kind of all-encompassing researcher, there seem to be no computers in this desolate world - "Sol Roth," played, in his 101st, and final film performance, by Edward G Robinson.

The more Thorn investigates, the more he comes to realize what we already know, that this is no ordinary murder, although an attempt was made to make it seem that way. It was Simonson who told his killer that his own death was necessary, and Thorn soon discovers, with the help of Roth, that Simonson was not only rich and powerful - he'd have to be to live in a place like Chelsea Towers - he was one of the elite, a board member of the Soylent Corporation itself.

What follows is a fairly straightforward police investigation as Thorn starts to pull the various pieces of the puzzle together, and we look on as he moves between two worlds that couldn't be further apart, the endless luxury and hedonism of the Chelsea Towers, and the grinding poverty and desolation of the streets. He marvels at the soap, and constant hot running water in the murdered mans apartment, at the booze and the food that the huddled masses, for the most part, can't even imagine.

There's a touching scene - improvised by the actors incidentally - between Thorn and Roth, where they eat a meal of beef stew washed down with brandy, all of it plundered by Thorn in his visits to the Chelsea Towers. And it is the father/son relationship between the two men that is the emotional core of the film. Thorn is all square-jawed practicality, getting on with the job, taking a few extras where he can, Roth is an intellectual, always kvetching about the world, and reminiscing about the past... "How did we come to this?" he cries, breaking down as they finish their meal. And it is Roth who discovers the terrible secret the Soylent Corporation dare not reveal, the threatened exposure of which was the reason for Simonson's execution.

This secret is an unbearable weight on Roth, something so horrifying that he, literally, can't live with it; he leaves Thorn a note, telling him that he has decided to "Go Home," the euphemism for state sponsored euthanasia. In a scene that still packs an emotional punch after all these years, Roth drinks a slow poison and lies on a raised bed in a sealed chamber. For the last 20 minutes of his life he can listen to the music of his choice, "light classical," but more importantly, surrounded by a 360 degree screen, he is allowed to watch images of the Earth as it was, when he was a boy, before Man destroyed it.

A distraught Thorn races to the facility and forces a guard to open a window in the chamber as Roth slowly slips away. The look of wonderment on his face, as he sees for the first time all the things that Roth had told him about the world when he was a child, is superb. This is a very moving scene, and an excellent performance by Heston, an actor often criticized for his performances when people really seem to be attacking the man and his politics! With his dying breath Roth shares his dreadful discovery with Thorn, which ultimately leads to the films horrifying, downbeat climax, and a memorable freeze-frame.

Soylent Green is dated to be sure, but it pulls no punches in its depiction of a world teetering on the brink of extinction. The performances of Heston and Robinson are excellent, they complement each other perfectly, and for lovers of hard-edged Science Fiction, or eco-thrillers, I would recommend this without reservation.