Revisiting the 1973 Charlton Heston-led science fiction film

Released: 1973 Run time: 97 mins. Director: Richard Fleischer Rated: PG

Starring: Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly, Edward G. Robinson

The year is 2022. It is pandemonium! In the state of New York the population is a whopping 40,000,000. Food shortages and poverty a direct effect of overpopulation. But thank God for Soylent Green Tuesdays! (The actual census for New York at the end of 2020: 20,215,751)

[Spoiler-filled, be warned]

Richard Fleischer’s (Red Sonja) 1973 Soylent Green is loosely based on the 1966 Science Fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by writer Harry Harrison. Set in 1999, it addresses the fears of overpopulation, poverty, deviance and socio-economical classes. Although the theme and plot is somewhat similar, the item of which the film is named after is a dramatic change.

In Soylent Green, Charlton Heston (Planet of the apes) plays detective Thorn, an underpaid officer of the law, lucky to be one of the few that actually has his own lodgings (the stairs in his building are literally littered with people sleeping as he comes and goes). He is one none-closed case from losing his job, as he tells his friend/roommate/employee Sol Roth (Robinson, The Ten Commandments), and older gentleman whose job is to comb through records and books to help him get information to solve his cases.

A new case comes to him through the form of an assassination of an upper class man named William R. Simonson (Cotton, Heaven’s Gate). A young man named Gilbert (Young, Charlie Bartlett) is approached by State Security Chief Donovan (Jenson, Chinatown) to do the deed. When Gilbert arrives, Simonson indicates that he was expecting this eventually. Gilbert gives Simonson a message that he was that he was told to rehearse and proceeds to bludgeon him with some sort of meat hook.

Detective Thorn is assigned to the murder and meets Simonsons bodyguard Fielding (Connors, Terror Squad) and his live-in mistress Shirl (Taylor-Young, Slackers), whom he disgustingly refers to as part of the furniture. In 2022, it seems that luxury apartments come with young woman, as part of the furnishings. Thorn proceeds to drool over all of the amenities that come with an apartment, and with being wealthy: air conditioning, running water from faucets, food, furniture, bourbon.

We see what law enforcement is in 2022 as well, with Thorn helping himself to whatever is in the apartment of the deceased. When sanitation arrives (not a coroner) they take the body and the lead worker reminds Thorn to give his “cut”. When Fielding asks Thorn about the estate, for Shirl, he tells her to file a claim in 30 days. I presume this is the cut that was asked of Thorn. His superior, Chief Hatcher ( Peters, Star Trek IV and VI), discusses his cut as well.

Thorn gifts Sol two Soylent Oceanographic Report logs that he took from the Simonson home. Sol replies that no one has seen any of these reports for years. They also enjoy the fruit, vegetables, bourbon and other food that he “rescued”.

Thorn believes that the murder was not a robbery gone wrong, but that it was an inside job orchestrated by the bodyguard Fielding. He trails fielding to another apartment where he finds Martha (Kelly, Andromeda Strain), who is Fielding’s girlfriend. She is seen sitting in her apartment eating strawberry jam from a jar with a spoon when Thorn bangs on the door.

She hides the jam, but forgets to hide the spoon, which after he creepily interrogates her, Thorn takes as well. Later, when Thorn has Sol taste the spoon, Sol exclaims that it is strawberry and is $150 a jar.

Thorn begins some type of relationship, which begins with an unspoken sexual proposition while her friends, other “furniture” from the apartment complex, are in the other room.

But let us not forget the film title. Soylent Green is a processed food, to help with the food shortage. It is said to be a “high energy plankton, gathered from the oceans of the world”. The Governor of New York, Santini (Bissell, The Magnificent Seven), has stated that Tuesday will be “Soylent Green Day”, when it will be distributed to the masses.

Thorn continues to investigate Simonsons’ murder and begins to get close, prompting him to be targeted. Sol comes to the realization at the book exchange with the help of others that Soylent Green is created from the dead. They discuss that they need evidence before bringing it to the world authorities.

Sol, in a fit of depression and hopelessness, chooses to be euthanized. Thorn finds this out when he is told that Sol decided to “go Home”. Sols last message to Thorn is the horrific truth he stumbled upon, telling Thorn to find evidence. When Sol and dozens of others are loaded into the sanitation trucks, Thorn follows them back to the Soylent Green manufacturing facility and tracks the production from start to finish, revealing that the dead are processed into what has been sold as plankton to the world.

Thorn is discovered at the plant and narrowly escapes, only to be hunted by the Governors hired men and wounded. As he is found by his fellow officers in a church shelter after killing his final assailant, Fielding, he tells Chief Hatcher that he has evidence plankton has almost completely been depleted from the ocean and that “Soylent Green is People!” in Charlton Heston’s trademark wail.

Soylent Green attempts to be a social commentary on what could be, with overpopulation, the Green House effect, leading to the fall of civility, the social structure, etc. It fails. I suggest reading Make Room! Make Room!. This movie has earned a place in scifi pop culture, but the 1970’s were a different time had it’s own social issues that it was dealing with, and it bleeds through the screen. A flawed film, but worthy of a viewing. Available on HBO MAX.

In Retrospective ★★1/2 stars