Soylent Green - Grim Future

There are some movies which are not grand or mega in scale, they are not sleek and tacky, yet they deliver such potent and timeless truths that the grand sets do not matter, the characters too do not matter, we are not taken aback by the smooth direction or sharp editing. What hits us hard is the sheer quality of the script and the meaning it contains. Two such movies i remember are “ Lorenzo's Oil” , the fight of Lorenzo's parents against ALD, and “Its a Wonderful Life”. Soylent Green is third such film.

The film is set in the year 2022. Considering that it was made in 1973, and seems pretty low budget, there do not seem to be any great innovations and advancements in science and technology that one would expect. In any case, the life on earth is struggling with malnutrition due to population explosion. The people live on a rationed food item called Soyent Green made by the Soylent Corporation whose top honcho Mr. Simpson gets murdered and that kicks start the story. Though this film is actually based on the dangers of population explosion, it can it easily replaced with the current theme of green house of effect and the whole film would still make sense, maybe better sense. The dangers of climate change seem to be even greater danger than just population explosion. In that sense, the the truth told in the film is timeless. There are some great scenes on the perceived luxuries, most of which we take for granted today –

1. Licking of strawberry jelly worth $150

2. Eating all those vegetables for supper

3. The joy of a clean hot water bath

4. The perfume from a cake of soap

5. The joy of wine

6. Joy of watching nature and wild life on film !

There are some glimpses of what future might hold. Practise of euthanasia is one thing. That too with your choice of music !

But what makes this movie stand apart from other such films is the ending. Its shocking nonetheless but on hind sight is only seems most logical. The film is supposed to be science fiction, but reading all the scary predictions in the media, the events in the film could become a reality in a short time.

This is definitely one of the most powerful films I have seen.