Soylent Green Movie Review: A Dystopian Tale of Food and Humanity

From Dystopian Dreams to Dinner Tables: Unpacking the Shocking Truth of 'Soylent Green'

Imagine this: New York City, 2022. Not the tech-hub we know. Instead, a smog-filled city suffering under overpopulation and environmental disaster. Pleasant, right? This is the grim future shown in the 1973 film, Soylent Green. They truly meant "future shock."

Basing on Harry Harrison's 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room!, Soylent Green throws us into pollution and overpopulation. The wealth gap is so severe that it feels like a character itself. Earth? Let’s say it’s had a rough century. Picture ecological collapse and societal breakdown.

In this charming future, many survive on processed food rations from the Soylent Corporation. Think Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. They claim to be "high-energy vegetable concentrates." Sounds nutritious? Maybe, in an apocalyptic way. But it's the new one, Soylent Green, causing the buzz. The Soylent Corp. shouts that it’s made from oceanic plankton and has extra goodness. Healthy and sustainable! What could go wrong?

Enter our tired hero, Detective Frank Thorn, played by Charlton Heston. Thorn battles smog and crowds while investigating a murder. As he digs deeper, he discovers a truth so horrifying it makes food rations seem appealing. That "nutritious" Soylent Green wafer? It isn’t plankton-powered at all. Prepare for a shocking revelation: Soylent Green is made from processed human remains. Yes, people.

Detective Thorn's investigation leads him to Roth, a brainy "book" at the Supreme Exchange. It functions like a library for those who remember things before the internet. Roth studies Soylent's oceanographic reports and wishes he could unsee the truth. Then there’s Chief Hatcher, to whom Thorn delivers the well-known, horrified line: "It's people! Soylent Green is made out of people!” You can feel the existential dread through the screen.

The film is not just a gruesome mystery; it serves a platter of bleak themes with existential dread. Overpopulation? Check. Resource depletion? Double-check. Environmental destruction? Absolutely check. Soylent Green paints a dire picture of run-amok corporate control, where megacorporations have more power than governments, and social inequality is everywhere. Let's not forget the cherry on this dystopian sundae: cannibalism. The film offers cannibalism not as horror but as a disturbingly logical solution to food shortages. Bon appétit?

While Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! highlighted overpopulation issues, Soylent Green introduced the *human* ingredient. This twist cemented the film’s place in pop culture and birthed the quote, "Soylent Green is people!" Heston didn’t just deliver a line; he issued a horrified warning while being carted away, bound to a stretcher.

The phrase "Soylent Green" has slipped into slang, becoming shorthand for anything fundamentally unfair or liberty-trampling. Think about it – that parking ticket? Soylent Green. The unexpected bill? Definitely Soylent Green. That feeling when your favorite streaming service raises its prices again? Pure, unfiltered Soylent Green.

Interestingly, 1973's Soylent Green chose 2022 as its dystopian year. And as The Washington Post pointed out, the film hit quite close to home. Not exactly cannibalism (thankfully), but worries about environmental decline and resource scarcity? All too real. As Mashable noted, while 2022 was not exactly Soylent Green year, it was a good time to consider our planet's future.

Speaking of Soylent, the name has taken on a life of its own. It’s not just a movie plot anymore. "Soylent" is also a real brand of meal replacement products now. Life imitating dystopian fiction, or vice versa? The real Soylent hasn’t (to our knowledge) used questionable protein sources, but it has faced drama. The "Soylent controversy" involved recalls and sales halts in 2016 due to some unpleasant gastrointestinal effects reported by consumers. Sometimes meal replacements can backfire.

Beyond the Soylent wafers and human protein, Soylent Green features dark satirical details portraying societal decay. Citizens wear masks against toxic air – prescient, aren’t they? "Scoops" serve as modified garbage trucks for riot control – both efficient and terrifying. Wealthy elite treat some women like property, calling them "furniture." Humanity suffers devaluation. Even a spoon with strawberry jam becomes a symbol of luxury—a clue in Thorn's case showing the gap between haves and have-nots.

If you seek more Soylent-themed entertainment (and who doesn’t?), get ready. A sequel called Soylent Yellow, a 2023 film, exists. If that's not enough, a remake of Soylent Green is set for December 2024 starring Josh Brolin. In a world facing climate change and resource issues, the idea of a Soylent Green reboot isn’t just fiction; it’s timely. Should we all start questioning "What’s *really* in our food?" Just in case.