Soylent Green is ...

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Soylent Green is .... soy beans!!!

Good with french fries

"You've got to tell everybody!" What a film. It's been a few years since I last saw it ...

(peripheral spoiler reference):
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

I've just had the thought, that its the logical successor to the pod people in the original INVASION of the BODY SNATCHERS.

Anyway, its almost the last film on my sci-fi want list, having got FAHRENHEIT 451 recently ...

Soylent Green is a good Hollywood Sci-fi B-movie, but a very bad adaptation of Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!"

I found this extraordinarily moving as a child - here's hoping it still stands up.

once you know the 'shock' ending, does the film still have any appeal?
i like Chuck Heston, and i like 70's era movies, but i'm hesitating on it since i already know the ending.

does it offer anything else of interest?

I knew the ending when I first saw it all those years ago, and was still engrossed and moved to tears. It's a great, sorely underappreciated film.

just read an interview with Richard Fleisher and learned that he was the director for this one, Dr Doolittle and 20000 Leagues.

Fantastic read as well

Does anyone remember that SNL skit from the early 90s with Phil Hartman as Charlton Heston where there were a bunch of Soylent products? Pretty funny stuff. I think John Goodman was the host of that episode.

...my favorite breakfast cereal?

available for a limited time only! Not available in all states nor anyone under the age of 18 years

In the book, Soylent green is soy and lentils. Thus the name.

Britton:

SOYLENT WHITE...

I remember, though I don't think we should admit we watch SNL in public...

Does anyone remember the parody that South Park did Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Do you actually treat every film that you have seen before this way? Since you already know the ending that it is not worthy of being seen again. If so, you must not own many videos. I'll re-watch any film that I like no matter if it has a surprise ending or not.

ok, Jeff
i finally have a reply for you

some films come across to me as little more than 90 minutes of cliched padding until they get to their 'shocking' revelation that inevitably dilutes with time and pop culture references.
don't ask for a title, but i know i've felt this sensation before.

Phil Hartman 'spoiled' the secret of Soylent Green for me years ago, so i was never all that hot to check it out.
but i did pick it up 2 yrs ago.
however i decided that this was one of the movies i would watch while i was in between projectors.
i figured no matter what i ended up with, i would still greatly appreciate it after watching a bunch of scope movies on a 20" set again.

anyways, i found the film fairly interesting, and while i fidgeted a bit towards the end, there were a bunch of elements to it i found fairly engrossing.

but i thought one viewing was probably enough, so a couple months later i sold it off looking to make shelf space.

but the damndest thing happened and i found parts of the film sticking with- not the 'big secret' parts, but the little details- the scene where they sit down to eat real food, 'furniture', Edward G's wonderfully warm performance... the more i thought about the movie, the more i felt i was way too hasty in getting rid of it

so i bought it again.
i can't tell you how happy i was when the Columbia House enrollment package came in.
there were about 6 other films in there, but for some reason, seeing this snapper again made me positively giddy.

but for some reason it sat on the shelf for more than a year and 1/2 until last night when, for no rhyme or reason, i just reached for it.

and while i was hoping this would be the case, i was still surprised just how much i enjoyed it a second time- even more than the first for me- and no fidgeting this time!
there are a couple cheesy bits (the scoops are entirely impractical), but on the whole this may now be one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever.
after so much cgi overload these days, all the honest human interaction of this was a breath of fresh air.
i was also way impressed with the transfer.
i can't say it strongly enough, but this is one of the best looking scope movies i have in my collection-
no question about it- and the fact that its over 30 years old is just astounding.
Warner did a hell of a job with this one

so to answer my own question from 2 yrs ago,
YES. there is a hell of a lot more to this film than just the 'secret'.
watching movies like this, reminds me of why i spend so much time and money on this hobby.

Paul, it took you 2 years to come up with the perfect response and you still needed to edit your post 5 times?

I got into an argument with my biology teacher about this film. He insisted that it was called Solvent Green, even after I explained that "Soylent" was a contraction of soy beans and lentils. Yet another example of the failings of our public school system...

As for the movie, I thought it was merely okay. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it as a blind buy, but it's worth checking out especially if you're interested in '70s sci-fi films.

I agree. You can know the end of some films and yet still revisit them to enjoy other details. In the case of SOYLENT GREEN, it's the moving moments between Heston and Robinson, and Robinson's final scene which is always heartbreaking.

Well, because of this thread I now had to got out and buy this film. Will be watching it tonight for the first time. Can't wait. For some reason, I never had a desire to see it until I read this thread. It also got me to track down a copy of the widescreen only version of The Omega Man on eBay, which appears to be really scarce now that the flipper version has replaced it, which has none of the extras.