Soylent Green (1973)

You won't be disappointed!

Just what I expected

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Soylent Green is one of several 'far out' films made in the early-to-mid 1970s, like Omega Man, The Terminal Man, Westworld, Zardoz etc. The concept of this story is a terrific one: an overpopulated earth and a highly civilised society copes with food shortage and civil unrest and resorst to drastic measures. It is a peculiar film, much to its credit, but it suffers from not giving us enough scale for what it promises: a future world with enormous difficulties. Not enough is given over to a sense of space and imaginable futursitic locations, and so instead we have a standard detective story of an archetypal cop, drab fistfights, occasional shootouts, and small apartment melodrama. Heston's frame and acting presence does provides good distraction though, as does the regrettably brief support from Edward G Robinson. Some scenes are sublime too, especially the music and visual montage sequence at the 'departure' lounge. The art direction detail seems a bit dated now, in the same way as A Clockwork Orange, but the matte special effects of New York skyline are good. All in all, it is a striking sci-fi adventure.

I saw this in 1973 and listed it in my list of movies that I had seen and could not find. A very pleasant surprise that it was just shown on the Comet Network. One of Charleton Heston's best but certainly not his last best. A lot of people dismiss the work of this fine actor simply because his politics were not what they would call politically correct.I really think we would all be better off if our celebrities would keep their politics to themselves unless they wish to run for office. This is certainly not a forum to discuss politics just like it is probably never a good idea to discuss politics in the work place today. We all have the right to our opinions and should respect the opinions of others and should not crowd those with whom we may disagree.As for this fine movie, after 44 years, it still holds up well. I have read in places that there is an effort to remake it and that would be interesting. I certainly think it would be a good project for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Charleton Heston part since a lot of physical "grunt work" is not required. It was certainly a fine farewell performance part for Edward G. Robinson. Rest in peace all of you. Well done.

(Flash Review)This movie was clunky. The story and dialog just didn't flow or engage with the viewer very well. For a futuristic world, the set building crew weren't very imaginative aside from the dump trucks that scooped up people which was more funny than creepy. The plot my help to explain the last comment. The world is running out of food for people so a company makes what looks like backsplash square tiles as sustenance called Soylent Green. On top of that there is a class divide. Rich live in lavish apartments with such luxuries as ice cubes while the poor live in stairwells or wherever they can eating their rationed Soylent Green. The plot objective is for a detective to investigate an incident involving corruption or conspiracy revolving around Soylent Green. Not as quirky charming as anticipated for a moderately notable 70's Sci-Fi movie.

I've never seen Charleton Heston in a bad movie; until now. Everything about this film was bad: the acting, the sets, the dialogue, the story. It is supposedly set in the future (2022 I believe), however there is no indication of anything that someone in 1973 might expect in the future. There are no computers, nothing to give it a futuristic flair. There are also no plants, animals, food, etc. We have destroyed our planet and now people are forced to eat crackers called Soylent Orange, Soylent Yellow, etc. with is made from ocean plankton. Or is it? Water is limited and only the rich have showers and food. A jar of strawberry jam is $150.The sets were especially bad, didn't even begin to look real and even Heston was just awful as the policeman Thorne who doesn't seem to be much better than a common thief. He is investigating the murder of some rich guy named Simonson who was murdered and he takes a lot of stuff away with him after perusing the murder scene. While there he meets & beds the "furniture", a young woman named Shirl who apparently goes with the apartment and who will most likely stay with the next rich person to get the apartment after the Simonson's murder if the new tenant likes her. People want to shut Thorne up and they are willing to go to any lengths to do so. I'm assuming most of you know what Soylent Green is but I won't spoil it for you in the remote chance you don't know.I can't believe Charleton Heston actually agreed to star in this bomb.