Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Soylent Green Blu-ray Movie Review

"Ya gotta tell 'em! You tell everybody! Listen to me, Hatcher... you've gotta tell 'em!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 29, 2011

If there's a more disjointed future dystopian cautionary tale than Soylent Green, I have yet to see it. For all of its farflung, startlingly timely visions of an overpopulated world in the throes of climate change, food scarcity and global crisis, director Richard Fleischer's 2022 is firmly, oft-times bizarrely grounded in 1973. For all the poignant scenes it features between actors Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson (who died just days after the shoot wrapped), it falters nearly every time Heston's detective sets foot outside of his elder roommate's apartment. For all the cult notoriety it's earned, its "shocking" third-act revelation will come as little surprise to anyone paying the least bit of attention. Yet somehow, in spite of its most antiquated flourishes and terribly telegraphed twist ending, Soylent Green resonates more today than it did thirty-eight years ago. Does that make Soylent Green a classic? Not exactly. A classic curiosity? Most definitely.

Mmm. Tasty.

If your spoiler sense is tingling, it should be. Soylent Green's final grim gotcha has never been shrouded in secrecy. Its original theatrical trailer all but reveals its darkest secrets to anyone who comes near, everything from Saturday Night Live to Futurama has divulged Heston's last lines in their entirety, and it's tough to find anyone who isn't familiar with the grisly punchline of Fleischer and screenwriter Stanley Greenberg's unsettling dystopian setup. But as the old adage goes, it's the journey, not the destination, that matters. That journey -- loosely based on Harry Harrison's 1966 novel, "Make Room! Make Room!" -- begins with a complex cover-up, specifically one that involves the murder of William Simonson (Joseph Cotten), a wealthy man with ties to the world's leading producer of mass-consumption food materials, the Soylent Corporation. Soylent manufactures small, edible wafers responsible for feeding the untold billions of people lining the streets of major cities across the globe, and the company's international power and influence is unrivaled. Suffice it to say, the good ol' Soylent Corporation doesn't take kindly to threats to its organization. But when a New York City detective named Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) begins poking his nose into Simonson's death, he finds himself at odds with a faceless entity hellbent on protecting its greatest trade secret.

As he tugs at the edge of the Soylent curtain, Thorn receives guidance and counsel from his roommate, researcher and closest friend, Solomon Roth (Edward G. Robinson). Sol loves nothing more than to spin too-good-to-be-true tales of a time in which food was fresh and plentiful, the air was pure, and the springs and falls were crisp and cool. No droughts or famines, no smeared-sky sunsets, no sweltering year-long summers, no Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow or, the corporation's latest and most coveted product, the protein-rich Soylent Green. In fact, Sol shares the few opportunities he has to reacquaint himself with the taste of an apple, a head of lettuce or a spoonful of expensive strawberry jam with Thorn, introducing the skeptical detective to the long-forgotten treats of a bygone age. And its in these intimate moments between Thorn and Sol that Soylent Green finds its its voice, its muscle and, to a greater extent, its emotional punch. Heston sets aside his character's cocksure, clenched-jaw, open-shirt machismo, if only temporarily, and forges an meaningful relationship with Robinson that makes their passing scenes -- not to mention Robinson's final scene of the film and his fifty-seven-year career -- all the more captivating. I found myself relishing their brief heart-to-hearts, patiently waiting for Thorn to run into another dead-end in his hookers-n-high-rollers investigation just so he could turn to Sol for more advice.

Soylent's cover-up -- ahem... cover-ups -- and the company's inability to stash their most heinous dirty deeds in anything more secure than a poorly guarded factory seem positively quaint in the age of high-speed internet access and high-security facilities, but it's forgivable considering Fleischer and Greenberg couldn't have possibly envisioned the state of the 21st Century. (No matter how eerily prescient some of their predictions turn out to be. Greenhouse effect, anyone?) Still, between Fred Myrow's schizophrenic score, Fleischer's penchant for mildewed melodrama and streaks of '70s spectacle, Greenberg's strangely asexual "furniture" and misogynistic protagonist, and the stilted, slinky, ever-shifting tone of the whole, unruly narrative, it's difficult to find a foothold. Every time an anchor point presents itself, Fleischer suddenly hurtles in the opposite direction. Whenever the film settles into a groove, the director shakes things up, occasionally without reason and to the detriment of plot and character development. And the filmmakers' most compelling ideas and powerful, uniquely moving scenes -- Sol's clinic visit chief among them -- are sometimes undermined by what comes before and what comes soon after. Soylent Green is a dated oddity but, for once, a film's age works for it rather than against it. It doesn't make it better, not in any traditional sense, but it does make Greenberg's stark vision of a future derailed by gross overpopulation, devastating global warming, public riots, oppressive agencies and frightening food shortages more bewitching than it could have easily been.

Soylent Green Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

While it puts plenty of distance between itself and its DVD counterpart, Warner's decidedly decent 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer isn't the prettiest presentation in the studio's catalog collection. Heavy shadows, trampled black levels, mildly inconsistent skintones, and brief surges of noise and slight artifacting... the Blu-ray edition of Soylent Green isn't perfect by any means. Thankfully, many of its issues are source related and only a small handful could have been improved with a tighter overhaul. Richard Kline's dystopian palette is strong and pleasing on the whole, the image is teeming with sufficiently sharp edges and intermittently revealing textures, and the film's grainfield and the filmmakers' artistic intentions are intact. There also aren't any serious encode anomalies to report, other than the aforementioned artifacts (which appear at random and in infrequent bursts). Significant macroblocking, banding, aliasing, ringing, and smearing aren't factors, and notable print damage is nowhere to be found. All told, cinephiles will be happy to down the nutrient-rich wafer resting in Warner's outstretched palm.

Soylent Green Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Soylent Green's DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix isn't going to leave the masses begging for more, but it will satiate purists' appetites for faithful single-channel sonics. No, Fleischer's futurescape doesn't spread round the listener. No, his riot-dispersing machinery isn't bolstered by any LFE heft. And no, you shouldn't expect anything more than a front-and-center experience. That said, the results are fairly crisp, clean and proficient, dialogue is reasonably clear and intelligible, effects are typically bright and buoyant, and Fred Myrow's score thrives amidst an already overcrowded soundscape. Intoxicating? Hardly. Serviceable? Quite so. Warner's mono mix isn't going to move discs, but it clings to Fleischer's intentions and delivers as much as can be expected.

Soylent Green Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Soylent Green doesn't offer anything new, but fans of the early '70s chintz classic will find it includes all of the semi-decent special features that appear on the film's standard DVD release.

• Audio Commentary: Director Richard Fleischer and actress Leigh Taylor-Young crawl their way through this initially dry, occasionally satisfying commentary. Fleischer all but narrates the film, tossing in just enough Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson anecdotes to keep diligent diehards listening. By contrast, Taylor-Young is more thoughtful, engaging and, for lack of a better word, animated, making the most of the opportunity. Unfortunately, frequent stretches of silence dampen the conversation.
• A Look at the World of Soylent Green (SD, 10 minutes): This lethargic vintage featurette focuses on Fleischer's futurescape without really digging into the production or its more memorable set pieces. It also lays out 80% of the movie for all to see, so steer clear if you have yet to watch the feature film.
• MGM's Tribute to Edward G. Robinson's 101st Film (SD, 5 minutes): Heston introduces (and raises a glass to) Edward G. Robinson, who then takes the stage himself to thank everyone for their good will.
• Theatrical Trailer (SD, 3 minutes): "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" This theatrical trailer is all too willing to reveal it, along with every other twist, turn and death the film has in store.

Soylent Green Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Soylent Green offers a particularly peculiar but at-times eerily prescient vision of a future gone mad. Heston and Edwards lend the film strength -- even when Fleischer actively undermines its power -- and its central ideas are fascinating enough to help newcomers push through to the bitter, largely predictable end. Warner's Blu-ray release has its own share of shortcomings, but its fairly faithful AV presentation and passable supplemental package increase its appeal, especially considering Soylent Green's price point. While not for everyone, future dystopian junkies and curious filmfans should afford Fleischer's off-kilter sci-fi genre pic some consideration.