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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. Loosely based on the 1966
science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1925-2012), the
film
combines police procedural and science fiction genres, the
investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman and a dystopian
future of dying oceans and year-round humidity, due to the greenhouse
effect, resulting in pollution, poverty, overpopulation, euthanasia and
depleted resources.[2] In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best
Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction
Film.【Critical response】The film was released April 19, 1973 and met
with mixed reactions from critics.[8] Time called it "intermittently
interesting", noting that "Heston forsak[es] his granite stoicism for
once" and asserting the film "will be most remembered for the last
appearance of Edward G. Robinson.... In a rueful irony, his death
scene, in which he is hygienically dispatched with the help of piped-in
light classical music and movies of rich fields flashed before him on a
towering screen, is the best in the film".[9] New York Times critic A.
H. Weiler wrote "Soylent Green projects essentially simple, muscular
melodrama a good deal more effectively than it does the potential of
man's seemingly witless destruction of the Earth's resources"; Weiler
concludes "Richard Fleischer's direction stresses action, not nuances
of meaning or characterization. Mr. Robinson is pitiably natural as the
realistic, sensitive oldster facing the futility of living in dying
surroundings. But Mr. Heston is simply a rough cop chasing standard bad
guys. Their 21st-century New York occasionally is frightening but it is
rarely convincingly real".[8] Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out
of four, calling it "a good, solid science-fiction movie, and a little
more".[10] Gene Siskel gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four
and called it "a silly detective yarn, full of juvenile Hollywood
images. Wait 'til you see the giant snow shovel scoop the police use to
round up rowdies. You may never stop laughing".[11] Arthur D. Murphy of
Variety wrote, "The somewhat plausible and proximate horrors in the
story of 'Soylent Green' carry the Russell Thacher-Walter Seltzer
production over its awkward spots to the status of a good futuristic
exploitation film".[12] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times
called it "a clever, rough, modestly budgeted but imaginative
work".[13] Penelope Gilliatt of The New Yorker was negative, writing,
"This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn't a brain in its
beanbag. Where is democracy? Where is the popular vote? Where is
women's lib? Where are the uprising poor, who would have suspected what
was happening in a moment?"[14] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an
approval rating of 72% rating, based on 39 reviews, with an average
rating of 6.10/10.[15] A German film encyclopedia notes "If you want,
you can see a thrilling crime thriller in this film. By means of
brutally resonant scenes, however, the director makes clear a far
deeper truth [...] Soylent Green must thus be understood as a metaphor.
It is the radical image of the self-consuming madness of capitalist
mode of production. The necessary consequences of the reification of
'human material' to the point of self-destruction are forcefully
brought home to the viewer".[16]
※人間がいっぱい / ハリイ・ハリスン著 ; 浅倉久志訳, 早川書房 , 1971.4. - (ハヤカワ・SF・シリーズ ; 3269) |
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Make Room! Make Room!
is set in an overpopulated New York City in 1999 (33 years after the
time of writing). 30-year-old Police Detective Andy Rusch lives in half
a room, sharing it with Sol, a retired engineer who has adapted a
bicycle to generate power for an old television set and a refrigerator.
When Andy lines up for their continually reducing water ration, he
witnesses a public speech by the "Eldsters", older people forcibly
retired from work. A riot breaks out after a nearby food shop has a
surprise sale on "soylent" (soy and lentil) steaks. The shop is looted
by the mob. Billy Chung, an 18-year-old Tawainese-American, grabs a box
of steaks. He eats some of them and sells the rest to raise enough
money to land a job as a Western Union messenger boy. His first
delivery takes him into a fortified apartment block, complete with the
rare luxuries of air conditioning and running water for showers. He
delivers his message to a rich racketeer named "Big Mike" O'Brien and
sees Shirl, Mike's 23-year-old live-in mistress. Billy leaves the
apartment, but fixes it so he can get back into the building later. He
breaks into Mike's place, but when Mike catches him in the act, Billy
accidentally kills him and flees, empty-handed.
A piece of evidence may connect an out-of-town crime boss who may be
trying to expand into New York City, a threat to Mike's associates.
They see to it that Andy keeps working on the case, in addition to his
regular duties.
During his investigation, he becomes enamored of Shirl. He ensures that
she is permitted to stay in the apartment until the end of the month.
During this month, they enjoy the luxuries. Afterwards Shirl moves in
with Andy. Shirl soon becomes disappointed with how little time the
overworked Andy has for her. She eventually sleeps with a wealthy man
she meets at a party.
To evade capture, Billy leaves the city, eventually breaking into the
abandoned Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he comes to live with Peter, who is
eagerly awaiting the new millennium as the end of the world. Soon they
are attacked and displaced by a trio. They find a new home in a car.
Months after the murder, Billy decides to visit his family, believing
the police have lost interest in him.
Meanwhile, Sol decides he can no longer remain passive in the face of
humanity's overpopulation crisis. He joins a march to protest the
overturning of a legislative bill that supports population control. Sol
is injured in a riot and catches pneumonia. A few days after his death,
an obnoxious family takes over his living quarters, making Shirl and
Andy's life much more miserable than before.
Andy stumbles upon Billy Chung, cornering him in his family's home.
When Billy moves to attack Andy with a knife, he stumbles, and Andy
accidentally shoots and kills him. The gangsters have lost interest by
this point, but his superiors disavow Andy's actions, and he is
temporarily demoted to ordinary patrolman. When he returns to his
quarters, he finds Shirl has left him.
Andy is on patrol in Times Square on New Year's Eve, where he spots
Shirl among rich party-goers. As the clock strikes midnight, Andy
encounters Peter, who is distraught that the world has not ended and
asks how life can continue as it is. The story concludes with the Times
Square screen announcing that "Census says United States had biggest
year ever, end-of-the-century, 344 million citizens."
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