Soylent Green [DVD] [1973]

A great film. Would recommend

Thought provoking and way ahead of its time. I remember my sister as a teenager seeing this film when it was first released, and then excitedly telling the family about the film's vision of the future.Although the film now looks dated (it was after all made 34 years ago) it is I feel probably the most realistic in its forecast of the future for mankind when compared to other late 1960's and early 1970's films, such as `2001: A Space Odyssey' and `Logan's Run'.The underlying theme of the film is that the world's population has increased to such a level that there is simply not enough food to feed everyone, and that what food production there is has been irreversibly damaged by pollution. So a synthetic `miracle' food has been developed and the masses told its raw material is harvested from plankton. It is against this backdrop that the main character - Thorn - investigates the murder of a senior executive of the corporation (Soylent) manufacturing the food.It is another aspect or dimension of the film that has had the most impact with me: the film is set against a backdrop of a heat wave. The main characters are portrayed as sweating and damp from the heat. The streets are filled with masses of people all trying to find food and stay cool. The primary character (Thorn, played by Charlton Heston) shares an apartment with Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson). During a discussion one morning Roth starts to rant about the how world he knew as a child and a young man has been destroyed by pollution and that the constant 90-degree heat wave is the result of greenhouse gas omissions! How prescient for 1973 (the year the film was made). As far as I am aware the greenhouse effect and the warming of the Earth's climate due to carbon emissions was little known about at that time - if known about at all.To get just an inkling of what our world could be like in the not-so-distant future see this film. It's an old saying but "the science fiction of today is the science fact of tomorrow", and `Soylent Green' gives a clear warning and advance `taster' of what we can expect from our future. How many more times can we be told we all have to do something about climate change now to prevent it becoming irreversible. See this film to see an artistic though potentially realistic view of what's ahead if we don't!

Hard not to watch this now and see a picture of the world we increasingly live in. Once high fantasy apoc drama is now something more of a prophetic warning of our world. A gripping narrative that moves along swiftly. Time has shown some of its language and effects to have aged poorly but past that remains a good story.

This is not a film you will find on mainstream TV. It was made in the 70's and it's kind of predicted the future. Where not at the end of the film yet in real life, but it could go that way. That's probably why it's not shown or screened!! Watch it!!

good

I remember watching this years ago and it was just as good. The story is so relevant for today's world how we are depleting the earth's resources, the powerful/privileged who don't adhere to the rules and can abuse the system/laws so they don't suffer/starve. My young daughter was shocked at the discovery at the end but understood the theme/story. I absolutely love sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian world films, novels etc and would name this as one of my favourites.

I bought this film as i love the premise of a lot of the older films. Original and well written. Learn from this hollywood instead of rehashing films . This is a classic!

This film enjoys almost cult status now - for general reviews check out comments by others who can describe the story better than I can. For me it was memorable back in the 1970s for the sweaty hunkiness of the then-middle-aged Charlton Heston - he of the Biblical epics, chariot races etc... And Edward G. Robinson - then at the end of his career. The thing that stands out is the vision that the 1970s had of the 21st century. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so grimy and far from the "Me Too" culture that's come in. In this film near-naked women slink around draping themselves over angry, impatient men and are regarded as a form of relaxation and entertainment - having no more function than a piece of furniture - to be passed on to the next elite tenant who gets the luxury podule apartment. The whole thing is completely bonkers in an utterly 70s way; but it also has a curious innocence too. Worth watching for the "moment in time" it came from.