Film Reviews: Soylent Green

A classic movie that I only just got round to watching.   I really enjoyed this one.   For a start it's got Charlton Heston in it (yum yum).  It's a 70s sci-fi film with a difference.   A lot of sci-fi films from the 70s look unbelievably dated (with the obvious exception of Star Wars, which is still BRILLIANT!), but this one doesn't, mostly owing to the fact that it didn't try to look to look "futuristic" in the first place.   It's about a dectective called Thorn (Heston) who is investigating the murder of a high-ranking official in the Soylent company, which makes processed food from sea algae, which feeds the majority of the population.   The chain of events leads him to a Soylent processing factory where he sees human remains being processed into Soylent Green.   The rumours are true; the oceans are dead and have stopped supporting algae.   The discovery is too much for Thorn's assistant, an old man who remembers what the world used to be like.   He goes to a special clinic to die, and is played music and videos of how the world used to be before it got so hot.   He dies happy.   The film still works today because it's still chilling to watch, as people sleep on the streets and in the stairwells and queue up for water and Soylent Green.   It's poignant in today's world of global warming fears, strained resources and rapid population growth.   Seeing people get excited about luxuries such as a stick of celery and a tomato and air conditioning reminds us of how much we take for granted and what we could lose.   It also, shockingly, has young and beautiful girls in it who are referred to as "furniture" (they come with the key) for rich men.   Horrible.   A good and thought-provoking classic movie, but not exactly a feel-good film.