Soylent Green
Soylent Green is a 1973 American ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on the 1966 science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. The story follows a murder investigation in a dystopian future of dying oceans and year-round humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty, and overpopulation. In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.
Plot
By 2022, the cumulative effects of overpopulation, global warming, and pollution have caused ecocide, leading to severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing, bringing human civilization to the brink of collapse. New York City has a population of 40 million, and only the elite can afford spacious apartments, clean water, and natural food in walled-off communities patrolled by armed guards. Their homes are fortified, with moats, security systems, and bodyguards for their tenants. Usually, they include concubines (who are referred to as "furniture" and have no human rights and are passed from one apartment owner to the next). The majority poor live in squalor, haul water from communal spigots, and eat highly processed food wafers made by the Soylent Corporation — a large food processing firm. Their mainstay products, Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow, are a staple food, and the latest product, a new, more nutritious and flavorful wafer derived from plankton, Soylent Green, is introduced to the populace.
Awards
More details
author | Harry Harrison Stanley R. Greenberg |
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award | Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film |
contentLocation | New York City |
director | Richard Fleischer |
editor | Samuel E. Beetley |
genre | drama science fiction thriller |
keywords | ambush assisted suicide attack church college professor commanding officer concubinage concubine crush ecocide elite food global warming horrify house human overpopulation human rights kill lose murder nypd overpopulation plankton pollution security system strike water wound |
musicBy | Fred Myrow |
producer | Russell Thacher Walter Seltzer |
publisher | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
theme | climate change dystopian neo-noir police procedural science fiction thriller the future |