MovieFreak.com - Soylent Green DVD Review

Charlton Heston portrays Thorn, a detective prowling the dark streets of a polluted, overpopulated Big Apple gone rotten in 2022. He's trailing a murderer, and the trail leads to a stunning discovery. Vividly realized, Soylent Green's world gains its power not just from its social effects but from its heart—a human dimension magnified by the performance of legendary Edward G. Robinson in his moving screen farewell.

Soylent Green presents a very grim future. The world’s population is at a record high, with some 10 million people living in New York City alone; occupying and crowding open lots, possibly parking lots, sleeping inside crowded houses and churches; really wherever space is available.

In the film, a single company controls the world’s food supply, creating a huge monopoly. The most prominent product is Soylent Green, made of plankton and other minerals, but when the company sees its supply reduced due to forces of nature, big problems arise. First, a murder mystery develops in a high-rise apartment and a hard-nosed, slick detective arrives to investigate. Also, when the people find out Soylent Green will not be distributed as usual on Tuesdays, riots erupt and chaos ensues. Detective Thorn’s investigation begins to take shape, and against the orders of his superior, he makes a horrifying discovery, with the help of his old “book” pal Sol (Edward G. Robinson), that could shake up the entire world.

Director Richard Fleischer does the best he can with this material. He and the set designers create an awesome vision of the future, with some inventive and great-looking set pieces. Second, Fleischer gets believable performances out of the actors, especially from Heston and Robinson, who also share some good chemistry. There’s also a love interest for Heston here, portrayed by a gorgeous Leigh Taylor-Young, although their romance feels a bit forced.

Moreover, the script moves pretty quickly into the first 20 or so minutes, but then it slows down and lingers around until it is time for the 10-minute climax and Heston’s memorable exodus, "You've got to warn everyone and tell them!" Before this, Heston’s character walks the grounds of Soylent’s production factories, a scene that goes on a little too long and in the process kind of downplays the element of importance (he witnesses the actual making of Soylent Green). And before the factories, Heston shares a great scene with Edward G. Robinson, one that produces tears, emotions, and realization. Soylent Green is full of good moments, but it also lacks something.

When Soylent Green ends, one is left with an empty feeling. I don’t know if I missed a crucial subplot or if there is just not enough stuff happening. The film includes a subplot or two, maybe three, but ultimately not enough to make the story feel whole and complete. Soylent Green addresses some interesting issues, such as overpopulation, effects of global warming, and social order (the rich, the poor, and the ugly; hehe), among a few more.

However, the script is not designed to solve these issues, and I didn’t expect it to. However, the film seems to be missing something, and I don’t really know what it is. Perhaps the original novel this film is based on includes this missing piece of story or information, though I don’t know because I haven’t read the novel. I actually stopped writing for a few minutes to think of the film’s concept, and I realized that the concept is not very well defined. What is Soylent Green really about? What is the central core of the story? Well, as I said earlier, something is lacking to make the story complete. [Forgive me if I don’t feel like answering my own questions.] The film is an interesting production, as it looks quite inventive, perhaps even revolutionary for its time.

Moreover, Soylent Green isn’t really shocking, even though it might have been three decades ago. Because the story is lacking something, it’s hard for me to form an opinion either good or bad. I guess I’m kind of in the middle, though more on the positive side. Perhaps I’m in this position because not all science fiction films care to explain themselves. Still, Soylent Green remains an interesting film with some good production values, but it’s not as good as others may claim—according to me—and lacks additional, important ingredients.

Warner Bros. presents Soylent Green in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Well, either Richard Fleischer shot the exterior street scenes in piss-poor, washed out, and blemished quality intentionally, or some parts of this transfer are simply awful. I’m leaning more towards the artistic decision, although the effect doesn’t impress me. I admit it adds some kind of atmosphere to the conditions portrayed in the film, such as crazy hot weather and humid/dirty air, but come on! The exterior scenes look awful.

On the other hand, the lighting and colors during interior scenes, such as the grand apartment inhabited by Shirl, are fine and accurate. Scenes inside the church suffer from heavy grain, but that’s because there is a lot of darkness. Dirt and lines show up on the print, as does mosquito noise during the exteriors. The print quality appears to be much more accurate and balanced considering the film is 30 years old, and previous presentations on VHS probably looked far worse.

So, the transfer here is not too bad, even though signs of old age plague the print. Dark tones and black levels are very much inconsistent. The overall video presentation of Soylent Green is accurate and balanced in most parts, but exterior scenes look bad.

Warner Bros. presents Soylent Green in English Dolby Digital Mono. Hey, this track is not so bad. Dialog is clear and easy to understand. The sound effects are prominent when they need to be, and the music score by Fred Myrow is very fitting, coming across very nicely. The front speakers put out the sound with some strength and considering the age of the film the soundtrack doesn’t sound too bad. You can also choose to view the film in French Dolby Digital Mono.

Commentary by Director Richard Fleischer and Leigh Taylor-Young – Not much is revealed here that is ultimately interesting or worthwhile, although Taylor-Young reminiscences about her first day acting opposite Heston; she was quite nervous, and who wouldn’t be, especially while filming a show scene. It appears she’s making a lot more of the film that it actually is, though I guess that is her right. Fleischer, on the other hand, comments a little bit about the acting and production. He confirms Edward G. Robinson was completely deaf during the making of the film and discusses how the actor proceeded with his performance, speaking lines timed during rehearsals. Yeah, so at the end of the day there’s not a lot of interesting stuff happening on this track. Fans should check it out, but anyone else doesn’t really need to.

A Look at the World of Soylent Green (~9 mins) – A vintage documentary this is not, so don’t trust the advertisement on the back of the DVD. However, there is some on-set footage available in this featurette, taking place with Richard Fleischer shooting the riot scenes and directing the crowd of extras. There are no interviews here, which is kind of disappointing. There are clips of the film, but the quality is crap, and the narration is quite cheesy, not to mention overly dramatic. This featurette is unexciting, but nice to have nevertheless.

MGM's Tribute to Edward G. Robinson's 101st Film (~5 mins) – Here’s something nice and sweet, a tribute to Mr. Robinson. MGM’s party celebrates his 101st film, and Charlton Heston reads some words of congratulations and praise from the podium. Later Robinson gets up himself, and cuts a large cake at an even later time. The video quality here is kind of poor, with a line present throughout, but it’s pretty cool to see this rare footage.

Next up is a text-based feature entitled “Charlton Heston Sci-Fi Movies Essay.” You can browse through screens of text and learn a little more about Heston and his films, as if one doesn’t already know; kind of useless. Also included is the film’s Theatrical Trailer.

You can select to view the film with optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. The DVD’s menus are interactive, but not animated. The 97-minute feature is organized into twenty-nine chapters.

Soylent Green is a divided film. Production value, acting, and science fiction—good. Complete story concept, pace—not so good. The video is kind of poor in some spots, but pretty decent most of the time, while audio quality is fine considering the film’s age. A fair amount of extras make this DVD something special, since Warner Home Video could’ve easily released this in a bare-bones edition. Rent Soylent Green if you’re in for some 70s sci-fi.

THE MOVIE	5
THE VIDEO	5
THE AUDIO	5
THE EXTRAS	5
OVERALL (not an average)	5