Review of Soylent Green (1973) by Angel R — 07 Sep 2010

In a weird moment of synchronicity I managed to watch this, by accident, directly after watching a documentary about global warming. Poetic viewing aside, Iâ??d been meaning to revisit this for some time.

A part of Hestonâ??s pretty decent trilogy of social commentary films of the 70s (along with Planet Of The Apes & The Omega Man), Soylent Green is perhaps most famous for itâ??s twist. In case you havenâ??t seen it, I wont give anything away, although the movie poster eventually does, I will say this, Soylent Green is not made up of hommus and sun-dried tomatoes despite what youâ??ve been told.

Heston is a particularly interesting Hollywood icon, he is incredibly wooden but perhaps its in that same masculine style which defined Wayne or Eastwood. Also, its worth noting Hestonâ??s real life leaning to right-wing politics, especially due to the very left-wing approaches of the Apes/Omega/Soylent trilogy.

There is plenty to love about Soylent Green, it has 70s sexiness and some particular humorous camp moments. Aside from that, there are moments of brilliance and its commentary on population growth and food supply is particularly relevant.

Messages aside, if you are okay with dodgy fist fights, hard-to-believe blood stains and the occasional bad moment of actingâ?¦this is a cinema classic you must digestâ?¦wink.