Part
ecological nightmare, part police procedural and part cautionary tale, SOYLENT
GREEN ($20) is one of the most relevant science fiction movies of the
1970s. Adapted from Harry Harrison’s novel Make Room! Make Room!,
SOYLENT GREEN paints a bleak portrait of the future, depicting a
world blighted by pollution and rampant overpopulation. In the year 2022,
there are forty million people cramped into New York City. There are few
luxuries for even the wealthy, and there is little enough food to feed the
huddled masses living in every square inch of available real estate.
Because of the heavily polluted environment, real food, such as fresh
fruit and vegetables are a rarity, and most have to subsist on tasteless
wafers cultivated from plankton- such as Soylent Green.
The
plot of SOYLENT GREEN revolves around the investigation that
follows the murder of William Simonson (Joseph Cotton), a board member of
the Soylent Corporation. The sole murder investigator is Detective Robert
Thorn (Charlton Heston), who is aided by Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), an
elderly scholar that gathers all ancillary information pertinent to the
case. Although, the crime has the earmarks of a burglary gone wrong, Thorn
suspects the murder was only staged to appear that way. During the course
of his investigation, Thorn manages to step on some rather important toes,
and as he gets closer to the truth about Simonson’s and the Soylent
Corporation, he finds himself a walking target. The cast of SOYLENT
GREEN also features Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Brock Peters,
Paula Kelly, Leonard Stone, Whit Bissell, Celia Lovsky and Dick Van
Patten.
Warner
Home Video has made SOYLENT GREEN available on DVD in a very fine
looking 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. I was pleasantly surprised by this transfer,
which is not only good looking, but also easily bests all preceding video
and broadcast versions of the film. The image is rather sharp and pretty
nicely defined. Some of the photography is heavily filtered, and as such,
has a softer appearance than the main body of the film. Colors appear
fairly vibrant, although the color scheme of the film is locked into that
less than appealing seventies look. Flesh tones are rendered pretty well
and there is no evidence of chroma noise or smearing. Blacks are accurate,
whites are solid and contrast is good. Shadow detail is more than decent,
which is pretty much on par for the era. The film element used for the
transfer displays some minor blemishes, as well as a bit of a noticeable
grain structure, but neither is distracting.
SOYLENT
GREEN comes with a rather solid Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack.
Fidelity is rather good for a thirty-year-old track, with the classical
music segments that underscore a key sequence of the film sounding quite
pleasant when given some amplification. Additionally, the film’s sound
effects come across in a rather convincing manner- perhaps not up to today’s
fully digital standards, but effective nonetheless. Dialogue is crisply
rendered, with excellent intelligibility. Almost all traces of background
hiss and surface noise have been removed during the mastering process,
leaving a consistently clean sounding track. A French language track is
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a couple of
extras. Director Richard Fleischer and actress Leigh Taylor-Young are on
hand to provide a running audio commentary. The track isn’t as
technically detailed as one might like, but fans will get some enjoyment
out of Fleischer and Taylor-Young’s recollections. MGM’s Tribute
To Edward G. Robinson’s 101st Film is a vintage five-minute
featurette to celebrate Robinson’s work on SOYLENT GREEN, which
was also his final film. A Look At The World Of Soylent Green
is another featurette from the time of the film’s production, which
includes movie clips and a glimpse behind-the-scenes. Charlton
Heston Sci-Fi Legend is a brief text essay concerned with the
actor’s genre film appearances. A cast & crew listing, plus
theatrical trailer close out the extras.
With
its ecologically relevant message, SOYLENT GREEN is certainly one
of the most intriguing science fiction films of the 1970s. Warner has done
a fine job with the DVD offering both a good looking and sounding
presentation that will more than please fans. If you are a genre buff, or
a Heston or Robinson fan, you will definitely want to pick up the SOYLENT
GREEN DVD.
Part
ecological nightmare, part police procedural and part cautionary tale, SOYLENT
GREEN ($20) is one of the most relevant science fiction movies of the
1970s. Adapted from Harry Harrison’s novel Make Room! Make Room!,
SOYLENT GREEN paints a bleak portrait of the future, depicting a
world blighted by pollution and rampant overpopulation. In the year 2022,
there are forty million people cramped into New York City. There are few
luxuries for even the wealthy, and there is little enough food to feed the
huddled masses living in every square inch of available real estate.
Because of the heavily polluted environment, real food, such as fresh
fruit and vegetables are a rarity, and most have to subsist on tasteless
wafers cultivated from plankton- such as Soylent Green.
The
plot of SOYLENT GREEN revolves around the investigation that
follows the murder of William Simonson (Joseph Cotton), a board member of
the Soylent Corporation. The sole murder investigator is Detective Robert
Thorn (Charlton Heston), who is aided by Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), an
elderly scholar that gathers all ancillary information pertinent to the
case. Although, the crime has the earmarks of a burglary gone wrong, Thorn
suspects the murder was only staged to appear that way. During the course
of his investigation, Thorn manages to step on some rather important toes,
and as he gets closer to the truth about Simonson’s and the Soylent
Corporation, he finds himself a walking target. The cast of SOYLENT
GREEN also features Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Brock Peters,
Paula Kelly, Leonard Stone, Whit Bissell, Celia Lovsky and Dick Van
Patten.
Warner
Home Video has made SOYLENT GREEN available on DVD in a very fine
looking 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. I was pleasantly surprised by this transfer,
which is not only good looking, but also easily bests all preceding video
and broadcast versions of the film. The image is rather sharp and pretty
nicely defined. Some of the photography is heavily filtered, and as such,
has a softer appearance than the main body of the film. Colors appear
fairly vibrant, although the color scheme of the film is locked into that
less than appealing seventies look. Flesh tones are rendered pretty well
and there is no evidence of chroma noise or smearing. Blacks are accurate,
whites are solid and contrast is good. Shadow detail is more than decent,
which is pretty much on par for the era. The film element used for the
transfer displays some minor blemishes, as well as a bit of a noticeable
grain structure, but neither is distracting.
SOYLENT
GREEN comes with a rather solid Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack.
Fidelity is rather good for a thirty-year-old track, with the classical
music segments that underscore a key sequence of the film sounding quite
pleasant when given some amplification. Additionally, the film’s sound
effects come across in a rather convincing manner- perhaps not up to today’s
fully digital standards, but effective nonetheless. Dialogue is crisply
rendered, with excellent intelligibility. Almost all traces of background
hiss and surface noise have been removed during the mastering process,
leaving a consistently clean sounding track. A French language track is
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a couple of
extras. Director Richard Fleischer and actress Leigh Taylor-Young are on
hand to provide a running audio commentary. The track isn’t as
technically detailed as one might like, but fans will get some enjoyment
out of Fleischer and Taylor-Young’s recollections. MGM’s Tribute
To Edward G. Robinson’s 101st Film is a vintage five-minute
featurette to celebrate Robinson’s work on SOYLENT GREEN, which
was also his final film. A Look At The World Of Soylent Green
is another featurette from the time of the film’s production, which
includes movie clips and a glimpse behind-the-scenes. Charlton
Heston Sci-Fi Legend is a brief text essay concerned with the
actor’s genre film appearances. A cast & crew listing, plus
theatrical trailer close out the extras.
With
its ecologically relevant message, SOYLENT GREEN is certainly one
of the most intriguing science fiction films of the 1970s. Warner has done
a fine job with the DVD offering both a good looking and sounding
presentation that will more than please fans. If you are a genre buff, or
a Heston or Robinson fan, you will definitely want to pick up the SOYLENT
GREEN DVD.
