What is the secret of Soylent Green?
Of course most of us know the answer to the question that forms the centre of this sci-fi classic but what I discovered on re-watching this film a couple of nights back was a multitude of ideas and images that I had not remembered from the last viewing (almost a decade ago).
The first surprise is the opening credits which consist of a montage of photos tracking the expansion of population and industry. Moving from pioneer times right up to the modern era (early 70’s) the sequence perfectly captures the virus like sprawl of the modern world over the Earth.
Just as impressive is the world in which the story takes place. From the cramped derelicts and junkyards inhabited by the uneducated and impoverished masses to the spacious apartments of the corporate elite (complete with female ‘furniture’ and arcade machines) Soylent Green presents a picture of a wholly unequal and dieing world.
Beyond the settings the film is full of memorable scenes and ideas. The explained murder of Simonson (Joseph Cotten), the industrial crowd control methods and the murder attempt during the food riots, Detective Thorn’s (Charlton Heston) routine and officially condoned looting of crime scenes are just a few of the situations that fill out the morals and codes of this world. Then there are the scenes at the ‘Exchange’ between the elderly police researchers who seem to be the only people intent on preserving knowledge (a slightly less severe version of Fahrenheit 451’s ‘living books’) and the touching departure of Thorn’s own researcher Sol (Edward G. Robinson in his final performance).
With all this richness it is a joy to see that the best scenes in the film are the intimate moments during which Thorn and Sol enjoy the items acquired during the central investigation. The smell of scented soap is a luxury and the taste of meat provokes joy and regret as the younger man experiences it for the first time and his older companion looks back to a time when it wasn’t an impossible rarity. When you think of Heston it’s usually the squared jawed prophet coming down the mountain with the Tablets or the booming cynical laugh of The Omega Man and The Planet Of The Apes but for it’s the understated bliss on show here that marks him out as one of the greats.
Add to this colour blind casting, that chilling revelation and a theme that gets more prescient as time goes by and you have not only a cinema classic but a sci-fi masterpiece.
Good review. Neat to see a movie from so long ago that was talking about the same issues that we’re dealing with today.
And, this comic was a pretty funny reference to the movie.