Richard Fleischer's 1973 film Soylent Green had been in my to-watch list for a long time. Mostly because of the references to this film made in my favourite cartoon series like Futurama and The Simpsons and also the New Orleans metal band named Soilent Green. This is the same Richard Fleischer who went on to make the less-than-good Conan the Destroyer and the incredibly flaccid Red Sonja in the 80s but he had a very steady stint earlier in his career with popular films like 20,000 leagues under the sea in the 50s to Doctor Dolittle and the cult sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage to 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora!. And yes, the same Richard Fleischer whose father was the legendary animator Max Fleischer (Popeye the Sailor, Gulliver's Travels, Superman series etc.,). 

This film, an adaptation of the 1966 novel "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison is set in the year 2022, a dystopian society completely overpopulated, with the city of NY alone clocking 40,000,000 people and half of them unemployed. Resources have completely dried up. There isn't much fuel, there are only old cars that are used as shelter by the homeless and there's no electricity so the population pedals the dynamo to light up the bulb at their homes. Green house effect and whatnot, it's much hotter outside and there's even a yellow smog during day.

Real food is accessible to only the elite at extremely expensive prices. A jar of strawberry jam for $150. The food that the population eats is supplied by this company called Soylent, their tofu-like products called Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow and the newly introduced Soylent Green.

Most of the living generation hasn't experienced anything that we are experiencing right now. The living comforts, the excellent food, the nature, the resources etc., and not even hot water for bath.

Thorn played by Charlton Heston (Ten Commandments, Airport 1975, Planet of the Apes, Ben-Hur)  is a police detective working on the case of the murder of one of Soylent's board members. The rest of the film basically has him doing the detective work, hanging out with the dead man's hot furniture as he calls her (a hot woman usually is an optional feature when you rent/buy a house) and his warm interactions with the main supporting character, Sol played excellently by Edward Robinson in his last role just months before passing on, an old man with a lot of nostalgia and wisdom who helps him out with the investigation.

Sol's scenes drive the film more than anyone else as far as I'm concerned. The film also uses the concept of euthanasia to put a tab on this population explosion where old people volunteer to see a 20 minute big screen video, a series of shots of the erstwhile beautiful planet earth with the individual's choice of music and the room lit in his/her favourite colour too. This <spoiler>Sol's euthanasia process being the centrepiece of the film</spoiler> eventually leads to the climax and the final resolution of this Malthusian horror of a story. This film is recommended for anyone into sci-fi but it could've been much better with a more rounded script, more literate and definitely more convincing sci-fi and if it didn't waste too much screen time on the very 70s love angle with Thorn and that 'furniture'. Also, I wonder if they gave alternative fuel a shot.

I'd have loved to have given this a higher rating but I'm settling for a good 3.