Soylent Green [1973] Charlton Heston

Soylent Green (1973)



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/




Soylent Green is a 1973 dystopian science fiction movie depicting a future in which overpopulation leads to depleted resources, which in turn leads to widespread unemployment and poverty. Real fruit, vegetables, and meat are rare, commodities are expensive, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" wafers.



The film overlays the science fiction and police procedural genres as it depicts the efforts of New York City police detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) and elderly police researcher Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson) to investigate the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman named William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten). Thorn and Roth uncover clues which suggest that it is more than simply a bungled burglary.



The film, which is loosely based upon the 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison, won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film in 1973.





Charlton Heston ... Thorn

Leigh Taylor-Young ... Shirl

Chuck Connors ... Tab

Joseph Cotten ... Simonson

Brock Peters ... Hatcher

Paula Kelly ... Martha

Edward G. Robinson ... Sol Roth

Stephen Young ... Gilbert

Mike Henry ... Kulozik

Lincoln Kilpatrick ... The Priest

Roy Jenson ... Donovan

Leonard Stone ... Charles

Whit Bissell ... Santini

Celia Lovsky ... The Exchange Leader

Dick Van Patten ... Usher #1







Film production

The screenplay was based on the 1966 Harrison novel Make Room! Make Room!, which is set in the year 1999 with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing poverty, food shortages, and social disorder as the next millennium approaches. While the book refers to "soylent steaks", it makes no reference to "Soylent Green", the processed food rations depicted in the film. The book's title was not used for the movie since it might have confused audiences into thinking it was a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy.



The director Richard Fleischer, who began by shooting film noir thrillers after World War II, learned to do special effects in the 1950s and 1960s when he did a number of Science Fiction films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Fantastic Voyage (1966). In the years before and after Soylent Green, Fleischer did films centering on famous serial killers and capital punishment (1968's The Boston Strangler and 1971's 10 Rillington Place) and the controversial and provocative Che Guevara biopic Che! (1969).



This was the 101st and last movie in which Edward G. Robinson appeared. He died from cancer twelve days after the shooting was done, on January 26, 1973. Heston was the only member of the crew that Robinson told (just before filming the scene of Robinson's character's death).



Robinson had previously worked with Heston in The Ten Commandments (1956). The female lead character, Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young), is briefly seen playing a Computer Space arcade game, an early depiction of continual video game pop culture obsession.





Music

In the film, after the aged Roth learns the truth about Soylent Green, he decides he can no longer deal with the world, and states that he is "going home". By this, he means that he is going to sign up for government-assisted suicide. When Roth arrives at the clinic, he is asked to select a lighting scheme and a type of music for the death chamber. Roth selects orange-hued lights and "light Classical" music. When he goes to the death chamber, a selection of Classical music plays through speakers and films are projected on large screens.



The "going home" score in this part of the film was conducted by Gerald Fried and consists of the main themes from Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique") by Tchaikovsky; Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral") by Beethoven; "Morning Mood" and "Åse's Death" from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg. As the music plays, scenes of majestic natural beauty are projected on film screens: "deer in woods, trees and leaves, sunsets beside the sea, birds flying overhead, rolling streams, mountains, fish and coral, sheep and horses, and lots and lots of flowers — from daffodils to dogwoods". Amidst the music and the scenes of nature, Roth remembers the world as it once was. Yet, he cannot peacefully take his last breath as he is pained by the beauty lost and cannot stand the awfulness of the real world. Roth struggles to tell Thorn about the secret of "soylent green," urging him to "prove it" before taking his dying breath.





Thematic analysis

In the film, police detective Thorn is a "prophet of doom" who learns of the "most horrifying results" of the overpopulation and environmental disaster. In addition to being a prophet, "Thorn is a pioneer, a tragic hero willing to speak up and resist homogenizing forces as an individual." In the film's depiction of corporate corruption and police complicity in the cover-up, Thorn's "morality transcends all those around him" as he becomes the "sole voice of reason" as he "stands alone". After Thorn learns of the use of human bodies to make food, his main concern is with the future implications: that the Soylent food company will eventually "raise humans like cattle." After Thorn is shot by Soylent Corporation gunmen, he appears to be mortally wounded, and so his warnings about the horrors he witnessed in the Soylent plant "seem to be his last", making him a classic "tragic hero."



In the film, Thorn's assistant Roth "serves as the reminder of better times." The aged researcher, a former professor, tells Thorn about the past, when "'real' food was plentiful and the natural environment thrived." Real food is a symbol of the past; as a result, when Thorn investigates the murder of Simonson, a Soylent board of directors member, Thorn takes "lettuce, tomatoes, apples, celery, onions, and even beef" from the wealthy man's luxury apartment. These rare and expensive luxuries were out of reach for all but the most powerful members of the society. When Thorn shows Roth the red filet of beef, Roth weeps at his realization of how much society has lost due to pollution and overpopulation. Now that most humans subsist on processed ration wafers, when Roth sees the "real" food, he asks “How did we come to this?”



After Roth discovers that Soylent wafers are made from human flesh, and decides to end the horror by signing up for government-assisted suicide, he is shown a montage of beautiful natural images in the death chamber: flowers, deer, mountains, and rivers. When Thorn rushes to the active, voluntary euthanasia clinic to try to stop Roth, he is too late to save his friend, but he is able to share Roth's final moments. In Roth's last minutes alive, "Thorn shares Sol’s nostalgic moment" as Sol asks “Can you see it?” and “Isn’t it beautiful?”, which helps Thorn to realize "what he and the rest of the world has lost."





Critical response

SciFi.com film reviewer Tamara Hladik calls the film a “basic, cautionary tale of what could become of humanity physically and spiritually" if humans do not take care of the planet. She points out that “[t]here is little in this film that has not been seen” in other films, such as the film's depiction of “faceless, oppressive crowds; sheep mentality; the corrosion of the soul, of imagination, [and] of collective memory.” While she notes that the director has a "tendency...to overuse Charlton Heston” in scenes depicting this beleaguered, futuristic dystopia, she admits that the film “often succeeds despite [the missteps of] its director".



Hladik argues that the “most powerful moments do not belong to Heston['s]" police detective character Thorn, whom she calls a “dubious, ambiguous hero”. Instead, she calls Robinson’s characterization of the aged police researcher Sol Roth the “most moving passages” which give the film “conscience and soul.” She acknowledges that the film has “imagery [that] is powerful and haunting”, such as the scenes in which riot control vehicles scoop up protesters with metal shovels, as if they were garbage. Her overall impression is that “the profundity of humanity's transformation [in the film] is dealt with in less than a masterful manner.”





If you think the world is going to the dogs, then Soylent Green (1973) will confirm your worst fears. Based on Harry Harrison's classic science fiction novel, Make Room! Make Room!, Soylent Green is an apocalyptic vision of the future set in the year 2020. Pollution, overpopulation, and a chaotic social order have turned New York City into a giant roach trap for humans. But that's not the worst part. Wait till you see what they're serving for lunch! Synthetic wafers made out of plankton. Or is it some other top-secret ingredient that the government refuses to reveal?



Although Soylent Green remains one of the most popular science fiction films of the seventies (it won the much coveted Nebula Award), it did take several liberties with Harry Harrison's original novel, resulting in some major disagreements between the author and MGM, the studio that made the film. In the book, Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies, edited by Danny Peary, Harry Harrison discusses the mutilation of his novel in the following excerpt:



"As is standard Hollywood practice, the author of the book upon which this film is based was treated shabbily. All the usual tricks were used: a dummy company was set up to disguise the fact that it was really MGM buying the film rights; a contract was drawn up to prevent the author from having any control over the screenplay - and, of course, creative bookkeeping made certain none of the film's profits reached the author....Although forbidden by contract to make any changes in the script, I nevertheless pointed out a number of inaccuracies and mistakes I discovered....I propagandized everyone in sight, from grips to actors, by giving them copies of the original book. When Charlton Heston got his, he called across the set to the director (Richard Fleischer), 'Hey, Dick, why aren't you using this title instead of the crappy Soylent Green?' The answer, which Fleischer perhaps did not know, was the decision made in high places that my title might be associated with a long-dead TV series named 'Make Room for Daddy.' Moral: When you throw away a good title, you always get a bad one....The idiotic cannibal-crackers (not in the book) and the 'big' revelation that they are made from corpses will have been twigged by the audience early on. This, and the murder and chase sequences, the 'furniture' girls (not in the book) are not what the film is about - and are completely irrelevant. The film, like the book, shows what the world will be like if we continue in our insane manner to pollute and overpopulate Spaceship Earth. This is the 'message' of film and book. Both of them deliver this message in a manner unique to science fiction: The technique of background-as-foreground....Am I pleased with the film? I would say fifty percent. The message of the book has been delivered. It was an exciting experience to see a major film produced by a major studio. It was a humbling experience to meet Edward G. Robinson. A great actor and a great human being. He alone knew that he had terminal cancer when he made the film. He must have chosen to make one more film rather than sit quietly at home and await death. He died before the film was released and it is a tribute to the hard-nosed film executives that they did try to cut out the suicide-parlor scene before the film was released. But it is such an integral part of the film that it could not be done."



Since Soylent Green takes place in the near future where overpopulation has become mankind's curse, much of the set design was created to mimic New York City's extreme space problems in the 21st century. A certain aesthetic was designed to make every nook and cranny of the New York City streets look filled in with something, whether it is garbage, vehicles or people. Indeed, some of the "sets" are people themselves. Younger women are referred to as "furniture" and placed in apartments for men of privilege while people that can actually read are referred to as "books." The euthanasia death chamber was conceived as a sort of super IMAX movie theater where previously "forbidden" images such as forests, water, or mountains flash before the occupants' eyes in their dying moments.



In a career that spanned five decades, the art director of Soylent Green, Edward C. Carfagno, created many unique movie sets in his time, mostly for MGM. Carfagno earned Academy Awards for Best Art Direction for his work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), and Ben-Hur (1959), while earning nominations for many more. He worked on an additional twenty-five films, many for actor-director Clint Eastwood, before his death in 1996.



And now for a quick bit of trivia about the director of Soylent Green - Richard Fleischer. Did you know he was the son of the famous animator Max Fleischer, the man who created Betty Boop and Koko the Clown? Do you know he also directed such fantasy and sci-fi favorites as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Dr. Dolittle (1967), Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Red Sonja (1985)? Among his many movies, however, Soylent Green appears to be the popular cult favorite, and people still love to quote that unforgettable line from the film, "Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!"



Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA

1975 Won Golden Scroll Best Science Fiction Film





Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival

1974 Won Grand Prize Richard Fleischer



Hugo Awards

1974 Nominated Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation



Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

1974 Won Nebula Award Best Dramatic Presentation Stanley R. Greenberg (screenplay) Harry Harrison (novel)



SOUNDTRACK



"Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op.74: 'Pathetique': I. Adagio - Allegro non Troppo"

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky



"Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op.68: 'Pastoral': I. Allegro ma non Troppo"

Ludwig van Beethoven



"Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46: I. 'Morning'"

Edvard Grieg



"Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46: II. 'Aase Death'"

Edvard Grieg