Sluggish best describes "Fantastic Voyage" director Richard Fleischer's "Soylent Green," a polished, but dystopian melodrama that combines a science-fiction premise with a police procedural murder-mystery adapted from the Harry Harrison novel "Make Room! Make Room!" Charlton Heston stars as Frank Thorn, a grubby but conscientious New York City Police detective, who hasn't had a hot shower in years. He never dons a uniform, so he looks more like an undercover cop. He shares a claustrophobic apartment with an elderly man Solomon "Sol" Roth (Edward G. Robinson of "Little Caesar") who serves as his 'book.' Meaning, in a metropolis laden with smog, overpopulation, and borderline energy resources, there aren't many who remember how to read, but Roth can, and he provides Thorn with all the information that he needs about his suspects. Incidentally, this was Robinson's farewell performance. Furthermore, sources say he passed away ten days later from cancer after shooting wrapped. "Soylent Green" takes place in the Big Apple in the year 2020, when civilization has disintegrated into a nightmare for all except the affluent wealthy. They reside in luxurious high-rise apartments, dine on the finest food and drink, while the less fortunate wither away beneath them in the streets, and survive minimally on a green wafer called Soylent. Soylent amounts to the fast food of the future, and it is manufactured from sea plankton. Being an NYPD carries few special privileges, so Thorn takes advantage of it while he can. When he investigates the murder that occurs early in the action, with a high-ranking official of the Soylent Corporation, William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotton of "Citizen Kane") waiting to die willingly at the hands of his assailant, Thorn appropriates Simonson's 'furniture girl' Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young of "The Big Bounce") for some quick, consensual sex, spruced up with some rare bourbon. Thorn wears the same apparel throughout "Soylent Green" and uniform seems to be the order of the day for everybody else except the wealthy. Initially, Thorn suspected both Simonson's bodyguard, Tab Fielding (Chuck Connors of "The Rifleman"), and Simonson's 'furniture' gal Shirl were the killers. Later, he confronts Gilbert (Stephen Young of "The Thin Red Line") in a crowd during a shoot-out, but he never proves that the latter killed Simonson. The brutality of Gilbert's murder of Simonson is tastefully staged so we never see Gilbert's blows connect with Simonson. We see Gilbert swing the instrument that kills Simonson but nothing more. The willingness of Simonson to submit to his death is haunting in itself. In a brief role that amounts to a cameo, Joseph Cotton is simply brilliant. The way that Simonson allows himself to die is similar but more painful to Roth's assisted suicide death toward the end of the film. Roth has simply given up on living and wants to bid life goodbye. Unfortunately, Fleischer never generates adequate momentum and "Soylent Green" grinds along and then ends surprisingly short at 97-minutes. The garbage collection trucks that have been equipped with scoops to scoop-up rioter is interesting, and there is a stupefying horror at the appearance of euthanasia centers that administer narcotic potions, put customers onto a dais where they watch on wrap-around screens the beauty of the world before the ecological catastrophe afflicted Earth. Not-surprisingly, there is little humor in this grim film. The ending qualifies this movie as a message picture, and ultimately food for thought. Poignant but predictable, "Soylent Green" qualifies as an above-average, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi epic. This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film was nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation category, and it received 'the Golden Scroll' Award from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, in 1974.
Review of Soylent Green
