Soylent Green Review

Despite the 70's feel, 'Soylent Green' holds up well for today's adult audience. Not for the faint of heart, this film is gritty and disturbing.

Life is miserable in the year 2022. Food, fuel, and water are scarce and it is unbearably hot because of the greenhouse effect. Pollution has destroyed the earth's crops and most animals but there are plenty of people left. New York city has 400,000,000 people in it and more than half of them are unemployed. There's not enough food, water, or housing to go around. A yellow smog coats the filthy city. The government encourages and sponsors widespread euthanasia to try and control the overpopulation. Natural foods have become a luxury that only the elite can afford. The rest of the population eat synthetic food produced by the Soylent Corporation.

Even those supplies are severely limited and rationed by the government. Riots on Ration Day are common and people are willing to kill to secure them. Only the strong survive and most of the population live like rats in tenement slums, just trying to stay alive.

The elite however, live far differently. While they don't have quality foods, they do have large apartments with running water, natural foods and air conditioning. When the rich director of the Soylent Corporation is murdered, Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) is sent to investigate.

As Detective Thorn learns more about Soylent and the elite world in which it's director lived, we see Thorn's desolate world through the eyes of Sol, his friend and mentor. Sol (Edward G. Robinson) is educated and literate (unlike most of the population, including the much younger, Detective Thorn. In 2022, education is a luxury that only the elite can afford.) Sol remembers what life used to be like when he was young and Detective Thorn can barely grasp the concept of ample food, trees, lakes, and freedom because he's never known anything but the horror of his era.

What Detective Thorn discovers about the Soylent Corporation is disturbing and adults should watch the film first to determine whether they believe 'Soylent Green' is appropriate for their children to view.