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Miserissima
Guest
I enjoy dystopia movies and have a soft spot for Shouldn’t Green as well as Logan’s Run…those eye the Saturday afternoon movies back when there were only five TV Stations 
You’ll enjoy it from a Catholic perspective, especially when the characters start to ask, “this can’t be all there us, really?”
You’ll enjoy it from a Catholic perspective, especially when the characters start to ask, “this can’t be all there us, really?”
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DaveBj
Guest
I saw it a long time ago. It does deal with those topics. Here’s an informative article, which you may want to skip if you don’t like spoilers:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
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commenter
Guest
I like the movie. It is based on a novel by Harry Harrison, with a different title. The novel is pretty philosophical, reflecting on how church norms are part of the reason for supposed inaction population control. In one scene (which I find hilarious) Harrison uses his “hooker with a heart” character to express ideas about the Natural Law, which Catholicism bases its opposition to contraception on. Harrison then refutes that philosophy. I cannot imagine that conversation taking place.
Most of that is not in the movie, just a general reflection of the tragic results of overpopulation, a little intrigue, and adventure. I like almost anything with Heston in it. If you want to see him in another dystopia movie check out the Omega Man, which has biblical allusions.
Heston was a Protestant Christian, and upheld many values in Hollywood long after those values had faded. Someone with his values would find it much harder to rise to the top in any part of the media today.
Enjoy Soylent Green!
Most of that is not in the movie, just a general reflection of the tragic results of overpopulation, a little intrigue, and adventure. I like almost anything with Heston in it. If you want to see him in another dystopia movie check out the Omega Man, which has biblical allusions.
Heston was a Protestant Christian, and upheld many values in Hollywood long after those values had faded. Someone with his values would find it much harder to rise to the top in any part of the media today.
Enjoy Soylent Green!
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Deus_tecum
Guest
I read the book. It’s worthwhile to read or see the movie if you want to see what could happen under liberal control.
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LegoGE1947
Guest
I saw it at a theater when it was a new movie in the early 70s. I did not appreciate it like I would now 40 years later. It seemed at the time pretty “science fiction”. Amazing how real it could be in these days!
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Kamaduck
Guest
It was OK. Not the most thought-provoking SF movie ever, but perfectly serviceable, and it does deal with euthanasia and population control. You’ll probably get something out of it, but GATTACA was more to my liking in terms of thought-provoking SF. (Of course, Soylent Green is much older, so it’s maybe unfair to compare the two.)
I mostly watched it so I could get the context behind a line that my mom kept quoting, but the line is a spoiler, so I won’t share it now.
Deus tecum:
What do you mean by that? I doubt it was “liberal control” that led to the borderline ridiculous levels of overpopulation witnessed in the movie. I mean, the solution to that is repulsive, but so are the living conditions without it. Overpopulation is a completely legitimate concern in Soylent Green’s world. But maybe the political structure is discussed more in the book, I don’t know.
I think the dystopian future we would head towards under “liberal control” would be a different kind of repulsive- maybe more like Brave New World, if I had to pick one.
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maltmom
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I saw it in the late 70’s. I was 18. Like you I saw it as good science fiction. The same with Logan’s Run. At 54, I can now see both with different eyes. I can see a time, maybe in my lifetime where both could take place.I saw it at a theater when it was a new movie in the early 70s. I did not appreciate it like I would now 40 years later. It seemed at the time pretty “science fiction”. Amazing how real it could be in these days!
In the movie Logan’s Run, I believe the age where you “vaporized” was 30. I can see a time when at 60 you were no longer considered a useful human and put to sleep. Where if I remember correctly in Soylent Green euthanasia was an option the person made themselves. We are already seeing that taking place.
Lord have mercy on us.
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Kamaduck
Guest
But in Soylent Green they were impossibly overcrowded. I don’t think we could get to that point any time soon, not with the current attitudes toward contraception and abortion.
Could we see large-scale voluntary euthanasia in the near future? Maybe, probably not. If we did, the societal forces behind it would be very different than in Soylent Green.
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Pax2u
Guest
DH and I saw it in the theater when it first came out…so it’s been over 40 years, but we thought it was a good movie. And sadly, some of the ideas it portrayed re: euthanasia are not too far-fetched anymore. Now I’m curious how it’s held up over the years…think I’ll add it to our Netflix list.
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AussieTrish
Guest
Yes, years ago, and it’s a haunting film.
We still occasionally reference it.
We still occasionally reference it.
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Gordon_Sims
Guest
Soylent Green is a great movie. Years ago I was talking with a group of friends. They were all movie nuts, particularly into sci-fi, and they were the type who had seen just about everything. Someone mentioned Soylent Green and I yelled Charleton Heston’s famous line from toward the end, never thinking that any of these could have possibly not seen it or any of the things that spoofed it over the years. Turns out, I completely ruined it for the one guy who not only hadn’t seen it, but who had just bought the DVD and was planning on watching it that weekend.
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maltmom
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Ooooops, you must have felt horrible. I would have thought everyone had seen it as well.
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Pax2u
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Aw, poor Gordon Sims!! Oh well, it wasn’t like you did it on purpose!!!
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LegoGE1947
Guest
There was one episode of The Twilight Zone that featured Burgess Merideth as an older man, a librarian, living in a totalitarian environment. They accused him of being “obsolete” and sentenced him to die. But they gave him the choice of where and how he would die. He chose to die in his apartment on a certain day and time. His judge wanted to see him die “begging and pleading for his life” so on the appointed day and time, the judge showed up at the old man’s home. But the old man had chosen to die of a bomb exploding in his apartment while sitting in his easy chair reading his Bible. But it turned out that the JUDGE begged and pleaded for life because the old man had rigged the door to his apartment to lock them both in until the bomb exploded!
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Deus_tecum
Guest
It was OK. Not the most thought-provoking SF movie ever, but perfectly serviceable, and it does deal with euthanasia and population control. You’ll probably get something out of it, but GATTACA was more to my liking in terms of thought-provoking SF. (Of course, Soylent Green is much older, so it’s maybe unfair to compare the two.)
I mostly watched it so I could get the context behind a line that my mom kept quoting, but the line is a spoiler, so I won’t share it now.
What do you mean by that? I doubt it was “liberal control” that led to the borderline ridiculous levels of overpopulation witnessed in the movie. I mean, the solution to that is repulsive, but so are the living conditions without it. Overpopulation is a completely legitimate concern in Soylent Green’s world. But maybe the political structure is discussed more in the book, I don’t know.
I think the dystopian future we would head towards under “liberal control” would be a different kind of repulsive- maybe more like Brave New World, if I had to pick one.
Which political group in the US tosses morality out the window when deciding life and death factors? Which group favors abortion on demand. Which group favors euthanasia? Which group favors larger govt with greater control over people?
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CarolNoel
Guest
Don’t forget what they do with the bodies after they die
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Arizona_Mike
Guest
Edward G. Robinson’s final scene with Heston, which was the last scene he filmed, is very touching, even with the horror of what is going on. Robinson was dying of cancer in real life, and Heston has said he was aware of this and the tears were real.
Some other lesser known SF films that address Catholic concerns over abortion and euthanasia are “Z.P.G.” (an overpopulated, polluted world in which children are forbidden and are aborted by the state - Oliver Reed defies the state to secretly have a real child with his wife) and “THE LAST CHILD” (1971) - originally a made for TV movie but available on DVD - in which a couple in a bleak, ovepopulated America (and where people over 65 are forbidden medical care) whose first child died in infancy fight against a U.S. bureaucracy that requires any second child to be aborted (much like the People’s Republic of China does now). The wife becomes pregnant and they have to flee to Canada to avoid a forced abortion, while government forces (led by Ed Asner) pursue them. Try making a made-for-TV film like that nowadays…
Some other lesser known SF films that address Catholic concerns over abortion and euthanasia are “Z.P.G.” (an overpopulated, polluted world in which children are forbidden and are aborted by the state - Oliver Reed defies the state to secretly have a real child with his wife) and “THE LAST CHILD” (1971) - originally a made for TV movie but available on DVD - in which a couple in a bleak, ovepopulated America (and where people over 65 are forbidden medical care) whose first child died in infancy fight against a U.S. bureaucracy that requires any second child to be aborted (much like the People’s Republic of China does now). The wife becomes pregnant and they have to flee to Canada to avoid a forced abortion, while government forces (led by Ed Asner) pursue them. Try making a made-for-TV film like that nowadays…
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Kamaduck
Guest
The same group that’s already concerned about overpopulation. “Liberal control” would never allow things to get to that point; they would push contraception until almost nobody was being born, which is why I brought up Brave New World (in which sex is used only for pleasure, new people are created in labs, and familial relationships are regarded as repulsive). I’m not disputing that certain liberal ideals could lead to some form of dystopia if unopposed, but they wouldn’t create the setting of Soylent Green, because not enough people would be born.
I mean, unless there were a resurgence of people having lots and lots of children for a couple generations, and once the earth was depleted of resources and people were filling every nook and cranny of its surface, then a new liberal government stepped in and decided to correct the problem by way of euthanasia. That would make more sense, but first we would need to see the massive population spike, and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
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gam197
Guest
Even before they die as they scope trouble makers up with bucket loaders!Don’t forget what they do with the bodies after they die
Gheesh… where have I heard of this before, maybe in Marxist nations or Fascist nations where million are slaughtered or disappear.
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