Soylent Green

Screened on Arrow Films bluray

It's 49 years in the future. New York City's population has exploded to 40M. The entire planet is "on fire" from global warming. Food is scarce and only for the elites. For everyone else, they get Soylent Green (or if you're a REAL loser, you get Soylent Yellow or Soylent Red). On the surface, they're nutritious soybean wafers, but the reality is far more sinister, and far more vile (no offense to soy).

Not totally sure why it took me so long to finally see this film, even when I knew, like most people, what those wafers were exactly and intrigued me even more to see it. Maybe it was Charlton Heston. Not usually a fan of him, but I thought he was actually quite good in the role here. Whatever it was that kept me from it, I now understand why, which is this was far more underwhelming than I expected. I was hoping for more commentary and insight into the theory of this film, but sadly this is a lot more surface level than it should have been.

As a film, it leaves much to be desired. But the message of the film, played out via this particular story, is actually far more prescient and important today than it was in 1973. For that reason, I do recommend it. But if you're expecting something profoundly prophetic, that's not what you get here. The basic film treatment - sure, no question. But will it have you thinking, and questioning your own choices and contribution to the dystopian future vision predicted in Soylent Green? It ain't happening here.