"Soylent Green," anyone?

[CaptFun]

PRO’s (possible spoiler alert, read at your own risk) -

Interesting Sci-Fi. A good warning against:

• Too powerful a government (or police force).
• Euthanasia (portrayed as a “good thing”).
• Runaway pollution that goes unchecked.
• Corruption at such a high level (of government or business or both) that even the “higher ups” aren’t safe … and even the “almost higher ups” don’t know what is REALLY going on.
• Objectification of sex (women as “furniture”!).
• Made me appreciate some of the simple things that were unavailable in that world. Like JAM!

CON’s

• Bad Prophecies against “overpopulation”. A friend I saw this with was part of a left political group called ZPG (zero population growth) that believed that by the year 2000 each person on earth would have just a square yard or so to himself/herself … and that the film’s device that it was wall to wall people between New York City and Philadelphia … would be true! :doh2:
• Made euthanasia seem patriotic and nice (not everyone would take its depiction as a warning … some might say “we should DO that!”
• The final warning that makes it a sort of horror film … warns against a lesser evil than others that are accepted in this strange future.
• The “hero” … (played by Charlton Heston) is one of the least admirable anti-heroes ever.
• It is of course “evil corporations” at the bottom of the evil … althou-ough - isn’t it actually the evil government too?

As a Catholic young adult when this came out … it was very challenging.

I must admit, the horror world of the movie made me appreciate the plenty I had around me. But there was an undercurrent of politics to the movie (possibly due to its exploitation by some groups) that implied that big families (like mine) were bad. Artificial birth control (unto sterilization even … though this was NOT a solution posed by or in the movie) was not only “good” but (posed as) " … the only responsible thing to do* …"

• • not to the level of abstinance of course.

All that said, I’d see this again**. Well made movie … even if “too over the top” to take seriously at times.

*** - Even if only to see if Charlton Heston said "…My GOD!" again somewhere in the flick. *

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ94X5zFDnbcHzKazXocWHdS-SbY2EjV1ic45fHFdudtm0Sy2frpg

Iconic scene: Grown people being scooped up for disposal in garbage trucks by the bunch. Contextual fact: The release of the film in 1973 coincided with the Roe vs. Wade decision by the Supreme Court that made abortion legal in all 50 states.

 

[ricmat]

I was recently reminded of the main theme of the movie (the incineration of aborted children’s bodies to heat hospitals in the UK.) The “greens” seem to like that too.

 

[Maxirad]

I’ve seen Soylent Green. I can’t say that I didn’t get a kick out of Charlton Heston’s delivery of a certain line during the movie’s final scene! A certain Halloween episode of The Simpsons had a segment which spoofed Soylent Green.

 

[DoGodsBidding]

I’ve seen Soylent Green. I can’t say that I didn’t get a kick out of Charlton Heston’s delivery of a certain line during the movie’s final scene! A certain Halloween episode of The Simpsons had a segment which spoofed Soylent Green.

It’s a classic line, delivered in the classic Charlton Heston style. It’s the first thing I think of whenever I hear the movie title.

DGB

 

[tomarin]

I thought it was an awesome movie - I never regarded it as pro-euthanasia since that aspect of life like everything else in this future vision of the world is so horribly nightmarish. I suppose given that it’s based on a Harry Harrison story or novel it could be regarded as a “cautionary tale” about using up all of our resources but since 1970’s-era warnings about overpopulation have all proven to be ridiculously exaggerated I don’t see the film as particularly dangerous, perhaps more a product of its times.

Almost all science fiction writers have some kind of disaffection with Christianity; I think it’s implicit in the genre.

 

[John_Lazarus]

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.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

For any of you who may not have seen certain films…highlight the below:

Rosebud was his sled!
Darth is Luke and Leia’s father!
Old Yeller gets shot!
The Planet of the Apes is Future Earth!
Danny and Sandy get back together!

You were warned…