Welcome to the first article of a new feature I call "I've never..." The idea of this feature is to talk about films, bands, food etc that I've never tried, watched, listened to. The reasoning behind this is that I recently turned 30 years old and realised there's a lot I have never done. I will give you my opinion and take on all off the new things I'm experiencing and as always I encourage all of you to let me know what you think about this and all of the other articles I am writing by leaving a comment at the bottom of the page or by following me on social media by following the links at the right hand side of the page.
As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post the first "I've never.." is about "Soylent Green" which is a 1973 science fiction film based on the novel "Make Room, Make Room" written by Harry Harrison. The film stars Charlton Heston as "Detective Frank Thorn" who has been tasked with investigating a murder of a wealthy business man and executive of the mysterious "Soylent Corporation" in New York 2022. The world is suffering from over crowding, famine and the effects of green house gasses and the ocean dying. What begins as a simple murder investigation becomes an increasingly dangerous path to discovery of a horrifying truth as to where the new and plentiful food substance "Soylent" is really coming from.
As with most people of my age bracket I was made aware of "Soylent Green" by numerous mentions over the years in "The Simpsons" I was always curious to see the film as the only thing I really knew about it was that Charlton Heston was in it and that SPOILERS Soylent is made from people. "Soylent Green" was one of a few science fiction films that Charlton Heston made. I really enjoyed him in "Planet Of The Apes" as well as "Omega Man" and had high hopes for "Soylent Green" I did enjoy it however, as with most science fiction films of this era I felt the build to the 3rd act was a lot better than the final reveal. I watched eagerly as the plot unfolded over an hour and twenty minutes only to have roughly 10 minutes to adjust to the horrifying finale before the credits rolled and there was no real ends being tied up or finding out what happened after this discovery was made. I also took issue with the lack of character development. I would have liked to know more about the police chief and why he acted non plussed after the big reveal, did he know all along? Was he on "Soylent" pay roll? What would happen now that a lot more people know the horrible truth behind "Soylent Green"?
I did have a few other issues with "Soylent Green" the first of which being that Charlton Heston is incredibly unlikeable throughout the film with only the fleeting moments of joy he shared with his roommate "Sol" showing Thorn as more than a misogynistic, hard boiled cop. Speaking of mysoginism I felt that, as with a lot of science fiction films of this era, women are mistreated and there is an air of mysoginism and chauvinism throughout. In "Soylent Green" this is almost slapped in the viewers faces as women are referred to as "Furniture" and subservient throughout. There were other little annoyances with "Soylent Green" Charlton Heston was often quite vocal about his love of guns and generally being a bit of a gun nut (See "Bowling For Colombine") despite this and the fact that he is a trained police officer he is a terrible shot. In fact all of the cops and assassins throughout the film are all terrible shots even at close range. Secondly I just want to know why everyone is so sweaty? I get it the viewer has to know that green house gasses have made the world warmer but, if it was that bad and water was as short as it is people would show the effects of dehydration more, maybe thats why Heston is just that unlikeable all the time? I also don't understand his police uniform? Why in the future would police officers stop wearing police blue and look like a cross between a pimp and an old timey train conductor?
Overall I did enjoy "Soylent Green" enough that I would recommend it to other people but, I would suggest a few other science fiction films of the era that are slightly better:
1. Westworld
2. Logan's Run
3. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Thanks for reading and as always I would encourage you to comment below or follow me on social media. Please help my blog by sharing links and retweeting and reposting as much as possible
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