Soylent Green

There are many great arguments as to why remakes should be avoided, but there can be as many good reasons for remaking certain films. Sure, most remakes are of films that have reached a near classic status, begging the question as to why bother toying with it at all. But then you have a film like Soylent Green, a "classic" sci-fi tale featuring Charlton Heston. While I respected many aspects of this dystopic film, there are so many areas ripe for improvement, I think an updated version is almost necessary.

The story is limited by its insistence to follow a murder mystery plot that doesn't really matter. We have no need for it, as its only purpose is seemingly meant to lead to the uncovering of what the Soylent Green product is. That should be the mystery, but instead we are stuck with Heston's cop character interrogating people we don't really care for, and having a relationship with a prostitute that comes completely out of left field. And the film is disjointed, which I blame mostly on the terrible directing by Richard Fleischer. There are bits and pieces of a great story here, certain images, characters, ideas, but none of these are capitalized on, leaving audiences with an incomplete experience.

Sol (Edward G. Robinson), Heston's aging partner, is one of the better parts of the film. As a character, he is the heart, the one that keeps interest generated and the link to what we know we love, yet often take for granted. Then there is the dystopic vision of the future, where over-population and crowding has drained resources and space. How the government deals with the problems was captivating, yet we saw so little of this world. Finally, you have the signature twist ending, and an extremely famous one at that. Soylent Green, revealed to be (spoiler warning for the 36-year old movie) people, as a food product fed to the world, is iconic and shocking. The rest of the movie should be as shocking, the focus pinpointed on uncovering the secret and not some random guys death.

So, remake or not, Soylent Green was an interesting watch. Not only for its classic status, but for the promise this frightening world had to shock the audience into fear of what their very future held. It should not be dismissed, and hasn't, just because of its failures. There are more to films than simple "love it or leave it" critiques. Soylent Green has more to it than meets the eye.

Genre - Sci-Fi (2.5)

Screenplay (2)
Acting (3)
Production (3)
Directing (2)