Soylent Green

Watching a movie for the first time while knowing its big twist turns that viewing on its ear. On the one hand, you know the ending, so all you have is the build-up; it becomes “how we get there” instead of “where are we going”, which can be a little disheartening. But on the other hand, knowing the ending frees the movie from being all about the ending. There’s a lot of movies where the shocking twist IS the movie, and once you know it, you see how shallow or basic the movie really is. Soylent Green mostly manages to be the latter, thanks to one thing: its fantastic world-building. Soylent Green’s 2022 is amazingly well presented; thanks to the collapse of the ecosystem, resources of all kinds from real food to soap to clean or hot water are scarce. Well to do men live in buildings where the apartments come with permanent live-in companions (derisively called “furniture”) that are little more than chattel, but also seem not to be bothered with it, since it allows them access to things the common person doesn’t have (meat, running water, showers, etc). The local sports arena has been converted into a suicide clinic, where you pick your mood lighting, your favorite music, and get to watch a nature documentary in your final moments. The police are mostly ineffectual and their biggest role seems to be serving as riot control, and even our lead is kind of a scumbag, as he robs the location of the murder he’s investigating. And, of course, the Soylent products, wafers of varying colors that are nutrient/food replacements. It’s a fascinating world, and it’s all established very well in the company 90ish minute runtime. The mystery at the center of the movie, however, isn’t exactly the deepest or most engrossing. An executive who knows the secret of Soylent Green and is horrified by it is murdered in his home in what is supposed to look like a robbery gone wrong. Makes sense the people who don’t want the secret getting out want him eliminated, right? But they have him crow-barred to death, and no robbery is staged. And considering the bad guys know he also told the secret to a priest during confession, you’d think they’d go the next step and kill the priest. Nope. So the big cover-up amounts to throwing a blanket over a couch and hoping nobody notices. Yeah, Charlton Heston runs into obstacles like his boss being bought off to close the case, or the obvious henchman for the conspiracy being as obvious as a purple elephant, but it feels very stock and easily surmountable. Plus … let’s be real here. In a world where the air is green, the ingredients for beef stew for two costs almost $300, a cop can burglarize the murder site and nobody cares, women are literally part of the furniture for the upper class, walk-in suicide  clinics exist, and riot squads use garbage trucks with front loader scoops to disperse crowds, why is “converting dead bodies into food rations” so horrifying? The murder victim willingly doesn’t fight back, and after Heston’s researcher friend finds out about it, he’s so stricken, he kills himself. How did it not occur to anybody this happens? Don’t get me wrong, it’s disgusting and terrible, but in the context of this world, it fits. It feels like something that would happen. Maybe even a necessary evil. So yeah, I’m not in love with the mystery here. It works, but, stripped of its sci-fi trappings, it’s boilerplate (cop who doesn’t play by the rules, resistant C-O, conspiracy that goes all the way to the top). But on the other hand, the movie’s runtime means it doesn’t get dragged out either. There’s no fat here. It’s a lean movie that moves at a good pace, the acting is fine, and the world sucks you in. It’s easier to overlook the sins when the movie gives you little reason or time to dwell on them.