Soylent Green Review

“It’s not so bad.” Thorn
“Tasteless, odorless crud!” Sol

This is a classic sci-fi movie from the 1970s that still holds its mystique today.

Set in New York City in the year 2022, Soylent Green is a scary look at Earth’s possible future. Forty million people populate New York City which sits under a perpetual heat wave with greenish smog, a curfew, armed men guarding tenement stairwells.

Charlton Heston, as Detective Thorn, NYPD, is assigned to investigate the murder of one of the Directors of the Soylent Corporation, the leading food supplier of the world. Their name is a combination of two major food sources, Soy and Lentil. A further source has been cultivated by farming the seas; ocean plankton, which has been used to make the popular product Soylent Green, little green wafers about the size of a soda cracker.

Thorn finds the murdered director, played by Joseph Cotten (in an excellent though brief appearance), had just been to confession, for the first time in many years. This little tidbit of information supplies the link that helps Thorn break the case, although what he finds leaves him devastated, both physically and spiritually.

The Soylent factories are like government arsenals, super secret and guarded. No one gets in or out. The populace is so dependent upon Soylent’s output that riots occur frequently if there is any interruption of the food supply.

Helping Thorn tie all the loose ends together is his "Book", Sol, played by Edward G. Robinson, one of our greatest actors, in his last screen appearance. Robinson adds a level of poignancy to the production that has seldom been equaled on the silver screen. In an age of chaos, Sol is a link with the past, sort of a living database of facts that Thorn can use for research. Without electricity, even a computer is useless. The carping between Thorn and Sol is like an old married couple and is a key element of the movie's appeal.

From super secret Soylent Corporation reports found in the murdered man’s home, Sol learns that the oceans have been dying, there is no plankton. The true main ingredient of Soylent Green is tied to the production of the euthanasia centers, eerily prescient of the assisted suicide philosophy seen today. If you think of Dr. Kevorkian and news of European nations which have national policies of helping their citizens commit suicide you will agree how timless this production still is.

Sol is so devastated by his discovery that he decides to "go home"; to die in a euthanasia center. Thorn attends Sol’s ceremony and learns the secret about the oceans. He follows the shrouded body to the processing center where it is loaded on a garbage truck and transported to the secret Soylent factory. There he sees for himself the process that produces the little green wafers everybody has come to depend on for their daily sustenance.

The climax is thrilling as Thorn is involved in an old-fashioned gun battle with hit men sent by Soylent. You’ll have to watch the end yourself, because I’m not spoiling it for you!

The Warner Bros DVD contains a nice copy of the 97-minute color movie in 2.35:1 theatrical aspect. The director was Richard Fleischer and the special features include a full length director’s commentary with comments by Leigh Taylor-Young which are a gold mine for fans of this movie, and a documentary on the making of Soylent Green; a documentary on the 101 films of Edward G. Robinson; and a few other tidbits.

Soylent Green, although produced before dazzling special effects were the norm in Hollywood sci-fi movies, wears well due to the solid performances of Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, and supporting actors Brock Peters as the Detective Lieutenant; Chuck Connors as the Bodyguard; and Leigh Tayor-Young as the Furniture Girl (women were owned in those times) in a captivating and harrowingly believable story.