Soylent Green ***** (1973, Charlton Heston, Edward G Robinson, Joseph Cotten, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly) – Classic Movie Review 4,041

The exciting, intelligent 1973 American dystopian sci-fi thriller film Soylent Green stars Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G Robinson in his final film role.

Charlton Heston, Edward G Robinson, Joseph Cotten, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Brock Peters and Paula Kelly head the strong cast for director Richard Fleischer’s exciting, intelligent and well-crafted 1973 dystopian sci-fi movie Soylent Green.

Its futuristic story is set five decades on in a broken-down, overpopulated, food-short 21st-century New York City (it’s 2022), where mass murder is linked with a government-organised new process for producing food. Heston gets a key career role as Detective Robert Thorn, who has to investigate the death of William R Simonson (Cotten), one of the bosses of the sinister Soylent conglomerate. The plot thus combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. 

Soylent Green is powerfully directed by Fleischer from screen-writer Stanley R Greenberg’s crisp adaptation of Harry Harrison’s 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room!, which was set in the year 1999. It is a loose version of the book, which disappointed the author, as Harry Harrison had no creative control over the film, was contractually denied control over the screenplay, was not told that MGM was buying the film rights, and afterwards had a mixed opinion about the film.

He recalled: ‘Murder and chase sequences and the ‘furniture’ girls are not what the film is about – and are completely irrelevant. Am I pleased with the film? I would say 50 per cent.’

Hey, even his title had been changed, and to something that didn’t come from him. His book mentions soylent steaks (made from soy and lentil) but not Soylent Green, the processed food rations of the film. 

Among the film’s series of involving actors playing intriguing characters, Robinson is very touching in his final role as Solomon ‘Sol’ Roth, an old research man, living with Heston’s Detective Thorn, and who is able to recall all data from the past.

It was Robinson’s 101st and final film, completed 84 days before his death of bladder cancer on January 26, 1973. Heston recalled: ‘He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill. The last scene he played, which he knew was the last day’s acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him.’

The death scene score is conducted by Gerald Fried and consists of the main themes from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 6 (Pathétique), Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 (Pastoral) by Ludwig van and Grieg’s Peer Gynt (Morning Mood and Åse’s Death). 

Also in the cast are Stephen Young, Mike Henry, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Roy Jenson, Leonard Stone, Whit Bissell, Celia Lovsky, Jane Dulo, Dick Van Patten, Tim Herbert, John Dennis, Jan Bradley and Carlos Romero.

Charles Braverman created the opening sequence, showing America becoming more crowded in archive photographs set to music. 

A custom cabinet unit of the early space combat arcade video game Computer Space (1971) is used, apparently the first appearance of a video game in a film.

Harry Harrison may understandably have had mixed opinions about the film, but other people had definite opinions, negatively, quite unfathomably. Gene Siskel called it ‘a silly detective yarn, full of juvenile Hollywood images. Wait ’til you see the giant snow shovel scoop the police use to round up rowdies. You may never stop laughing.’ Penelope Gilliatt wrote in The New Yorker: ‘This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn’t a brain in its beanbag.’

Soylent Green is directed by Richard Fleischer, runs 98 minutes, is produced and released by MGM, is written by Stanley R Greenberg, based on the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, is shot in Metrocolor and widescreen by Richard H Kline, is produced by Walter Seltzer and Russell Thatcher, is scored by Fred Myrow, and is designed by Edward C Carfagno.

Release date: 19 April 1973 (US).

In 2018, a remake is in development.

Richard H Kline, twice Oscar-nominated cinematographer.

Richard H Kline, Oscar-nominated cinematographer for both Camelot (1967) and King Kong (1976), died on 7 August 2018, aged 91.

The cast

The cast are Charlton Heston as Robert Thorn, Leigh Taylor-Young as Shirl, Chuck Connors as Tab Fielding, Brock Peters as Chief Hatcher, Paula Kelly as Martha Fielding, Edward G Robinson as Solomon Roth, Stephen Young as Gilbert, Joseph Cotten as William R Simonson, Mike Henry as Kulozik, Lincoln Kilpatrick as The Priest, Roy Jenson as Donovan, Leonard Stone as Charles, Whit Bissell as Governor Henry C Santini, Jane Dulo as Mrs Santini, Celia Lovsky as the Exchange Leader, Dick Van Patten as Euthanasia Center Usher, Tim Herbert, John Dennis, Jan Bradley and Carlos Romero.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,041

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert