Charlton Heston, you must pick roles specifically based on the memorable ending lines. After leaving such an impact on cinema as Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Heston returns to another dystopian envisioning of earth, a world with just as dark a secret as the Planet of the Apes. While Soylent Green may not be the widely famed classic Planet of the Apes is, I don't think anyone who watches it will ever forget the ending.
Set in the year 2022, Thorn (Heston) is a detective working the streets of New York. However due to overpopulation and Greenhouse Effect leading to disastrous climate change, natural resources are scarce, and the world transformed into a horribly divided class based dystopian society. Thorn lives with his partner Sol, in the slums of New York, amongst the masses of the poor and destitute; where the lower class survive on welfare and food stuffs processed from plankton. While Sol reflects on the days of his youth when food was plenty, books were written, and the world was beautiful, Detective Thorn knows nothing beyond a life of eating the processed food rations of the Soylent Industry and living amongst the millions packed into New York city, living on any piece of space they can find and surviving one week to the next. Just remember "Tuesday is Soylent Green Day."
While the impoverished lower class may be left to live off of the likes of Soylent red, yellow, and the new and improved green; the rich live a life of luxury and decadence, eating fresh vegetables and meat, and inhabiting lavish apartments complete with "furniture" (a concubine). When William R. Simpson is murdered in his apartment, Thorn is sent to investigate, where he will uncover more than a simple robbery and eventually learn the disturbing secret ingredient of Soylent Green.
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| That's Sol, not an ape. |
The movie is a very interesting mix of the police procedural and science fiction genres, as we learn more and more about the future as Thorn's investigation progresses. The investigation itself isn't anything too original, it is just that through it we learn all about what life is like in 2022, from both sides of the massive class divide. The poor etch out a life eating Soylent, and sleep packed onto stairways and in churches. There is almost no memory of fresh food, or life before things were in the state they are then. One of the best scenes is when Thorn is investigating the scene of the crime, where he helps himself to a towel, running water, a bar of soap, a bottle of brandy, some vegetables and a piece of meat like he just found a million dollars.
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| Street cleaners are just as big an inconvenience in the year 2022. |
I'm rather divided on whether or not I would call Soylent Green a B-movie. While the sci-fi concepts and some of the acting and lines seem like they would fit the requirements, the movie isn't overly cheesy, nor does it have a tongue in cheek or over the top attitude. The movie's world is rather believable, if the ending might get a little insane. There is no doubt that Soylent Green is a cult classic however, because once you know it's secret, you realized that it is a pop culture reference that pops up rather regularly. Thorn last line is ranked as #77 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes which is only 9 places below another of his lines from Planet of the Apes.
While Soylent Green may be a decent film is does fall into the shadow of many other dystopian movies that are much more popular than it. Let's face it, that whole sub-genre spits out more success than most, probably because half are based on classic novels and tend to be well funded. However, I'd say Soylent Green fits right in the best of them, right along with the likes of Death Race 2000, They Live, and Brazil.
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| All we needed was a scene with a Soylent Green Nazi. |
If you haven't seen Soylent Green, I suggest it, although try to know the absolute least about it before you start because the less you know the more you will enjoy it. Particularly the ending, which once you know it, the movie is pretty much a waste of time. That might be overkill, but just like knowing the ending of the Planet of the Apes, all the surprise is gone. Just know: Soylent Green is .............!!!!
Link:
Soylent Green IMDb
Thannks great blog
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