Well, after almost 50 years, the equalization date for one of the most revered cult-classic sci-fi films is finally here.
Released in 1973, this film shows an unrelentingly bleak picture of America, and the world in 2022. The world is massively overpopulated with food and housing shortages everywhere. New York City is an overcrowded Hellhole with a population of 40 million. The rich live in isolated sections of the city and pay exorbitant prices for food and lodging. Along with the chronic food shortages and massive pollution, there is year-round high humidity due to greenhouse gas effects. There are no trees left except those being kept in climate-controlled labs. The oceans are dying. There appear to have been massive extinctions of mammals, birds, and fish.
To help feed the population, the government has created a new type of foodstuff called Soylent with variations like Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, etc. One particular tasty and nutritious variation of this wafer, Soylent Green, has recently been added, but it is much harder to find that the tasteless variations and is always in short supply. When it runs out, huge riots break out, leading to the bringing out of the "Scoops", which are huge crowd-control bulldozer-like vehicles that can scoop up dozens of people at once and brutally suppress the food shortage riots.
Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston), investigating the assassination of a high ranking official within the Soylent Corporation, eventually finds out the truth about the true origins of Soylent Green and is determined to prove his revelations to the public. But officials within the Soylent Corporation are determined to do anything to stop him and a large part of the film is devoted to him escaping his pursuers.
The movie was made during the "population bomb" era of the early 1970s, in which many sociologists predicted that the world population would double by the year 2000. When I first saw this movie in 1981, it truly terrified me, for its unrelenting bleak vision of the near future. It was entertaining but seemed so far-fetched and preposterous. And indeed, as the equalization date drew closer, with a prosperous 1990s and crime way down in NYC by 2000, it would become even more so.
Indeed, like many futuristic movies, many of the themes and portrayals of Soylent Green never came to pass. The actual world population rate increases between the 1970s and 2020s never came near those predicted rates, primarily due to the huge decreases of birthrates among women in many countries across the world over the past 50 years. In fact, in much of the developed world, birth rates have fallen so low that populations are barely increasing or even actually declining. New York itself of course, never even got close to 40 million.
And even though the film takes place in 2022, there are lots of old 1950s and 1960s cars around and most of the characters sport 1970s attire and hair styles.
Despite the premise though, it suddenly does not seem so far-fetched after all. The film did get a quite few of things right and touches on some themes that are very topical today. It has some timely references in the age of Covid-19. There are reference to supply chain disruptions as a result of the short supply of foodstuffs. There is massive anarchy everywhere - in this film due to overpopulation - but in reality due to the Pandemic, social unrest, brutal oppression by hardline regimes, crumbling infrastructure, climate migration by the millions due to droughts and floods, etc. There are references to massive levels of income inequality because the rich live in isolated sections of the city in heavily guarded luxury fortresses. There are not-so-subtle references to climate change in regard to the constant relentless heat and humidity due to greenhouse gases. All of these things are happening right now, albeit on a smaller, yet ever increasing scale.
Though New York did not reach 40 million people by 2022 and indeed may have lost many thousands over the past two years, this films portrayal of massive civic decay across the world suddenly seems eerily on-target. And as Edward G Robinson's character film states early in the film that "People were always rotten" is right on the mark.
Released in 1973, this film shows an unrelentingly bleak picture of America, and the world in 2022. The world is massively overpopulated with food and housing shortages everywhere. New York City is an overcrowded Hellhole with a population of 40 million. The rich live in isolated sections of the city and pay exorbitant prices for food and lodging. Along with the chronic food shortages and massive pollution, there is year-round high humidity due to greenhouse gas effects. There are no trees left except those being kept in climate-controlled labs. The oceans are dying. There appear to have been massive extinctions of mammals, birds, and fish.
To help feed the population, the government has created a new type of foodstuff called Soylent with variations like Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, etc. One particular tasty and nutritious variation of this wafer, Soylent Green, has recently been added, but it is much harder to find that the tasteless variations and is always in short supply. When it runs out, huge riots break out, leading to the bringing out of the "Scoops", which are huge crowd-control bulldozer-like vehicles that can scoop up dozens of people at once and brutally suppress the food shortage riots.
Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston), investigating the assassination of a high ranking official within the Soylent Corporation, eventually finds out the truth about the true origins of Soylent Green and is determined to prove his revelations to the public. But officials within the Soylent Corporation are determined to do anything to stop him and a large part of the film is devoted to him escaping his pursuers.
The movie was made during the "population bomb" era of the early 1970s, in which many sociologists predicted that the world population would double by the year 2000. When I first saw this movie in 1981, it truly terrified me, for its unrelenting bleak vision of the near future. It was entertaining but seemed so far-fetched and preposterous. And indeed, as the equalization date drew closer, with a prosperous 1990s and crime way down in NYC by 2000, it would become even more so.
Indeed, like many futuristic movies, many of the themes and portrayals of Soylent Green never came to pass. The actual world population rate increases between the 1970s and 2020s never came near those predicted rates, primarily due to the huge decreases of birthrates among women in many countries across the world over the past 50 years. In fact, in much of the developed world, birth rates have fallen so low that populations are barely increasing or even actually declining. New York itself of course, never even got close to 40 million.
And even though the film takes place in 2022, there are lots of old 1950s and 1960s cars around and most of the characters sport 1970s attire and hair styles.
Despite the premise though, it suddenly does not seem so far-fetched after all. The film did get a quite few of things right and touches on some themes that are very topical today. It has some timely references in the age of Covid-19. There are reference to supply chain disruptions as a result of the short supply of foodstuffs. There is massive anarchy everywhere - in this film due to overpopulation - but in reality due to the Pandemic, social unrest, brutal oppression by hardline regimes, crumbling infrastructure, climate migration by the millions due to droughts and floods, etc. There are references to massive levels of income inequality because the rich live in isolated sections of the city in heavily guarded luxury fortresses. There are not-so-subtle references to climate change in regard to the constant relentless heat and humidity due to greenhouse gases. All of these things are happening right now, albeit on a smaller, yet ever increasing scale.
Though New York did not reach 40 million people by 2022 and indeed may have lost many thousands over the past two years, this films portrayal of massive civic decay across the world suddenly seems eerily on-target. And as Edward G Robinson's character film states early in the film that "People were always rotten" is right on the mark.