Five decades after "Soylent Green" was released, the dystopian science-fiction film appears to have fulfilled an eerie prophecy.
Starring Charlton Heston, who in his later years served as the president of the National Rifle Association, "Soylent Green" is set in 2022— a time when the natural world is ravaged by pollution and overpopulation, resources are scarce, and climate change has brought about a suffocating heat. The familiarity of the plotline is unnerving.
The film is loosely based on a 1966 novel by Harry Harrison — "Make Room! Make Room!" — and is written by Stanley Greenberg and directed by Richard Fleischer, according to The Economist.
Heston portrays Robert Thorn, a New York police detective who's investigating a murder at a plutocrat's apartment in a fortress-like complex. It's here that he encounters luxurious items such as soap, apples, and air conditioning.
As The Economist notes, the film is "remarkably unfuturistic" in that there are no spaceships or hi-tech laser guns. Instead, people go about their daily lives in a "dingy brown metropolis." And while in the real world, city life may be far nicer, certain aspects of the film are not too far off from reality.
"The enmeshing of politics and big business, the separation of rich and poor, and the clashes between the masses and the heavily armed riot police," The Economist notes. "The relentless, sticky heat may be familiar to modern viewers, too."
What makes the film somewhat more disturbing is the complacency of the population. The citizens are resigned to the current situation, not daring to think that nature may one day recover.
Nobody stands up to challenge the corrupt system; instead, people go about their daily life, accepting the way things are.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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