Soylent Green 4K 1973 Ultra HD 2160p

A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent police officer who stumbles upon the truth.

User Review

Director Richard Fleischer was an incredibly prolific and versatile filmmaker. His filmography includes such titles as "Doctor Dolittle" (1967), "The Vikings" starring Kirk Douglas, the genre masterpiece "Tora! Tora! Thora!", the "Amityville Horror" trickquel, as well as "Conan the Destroyer" and the much-maligned "Red Sonja". However, in 1973, he directed what is perhaps the most extraordinary film of his entire career—the science-fiction film "Soylent Green".

‘Green Soylent’ is an adaptation of Harry Harrison’s novel ‘Make Way! Make Way!’. It is the only film adaptation of his work, despite the author’s popularity. The film takes place in a relatively distant future: the year 2022. Society has long since been deprived of a middle class: there are only fabulously wealthy people and the hopelessly poor. The rich, of course, can afford anything (real strawberries at $150 a glass, meat, and vegetables). The poor have to make do exclusively with artificial products. The most popular product, due to its low cost, is Soylent. These are multicolored nutritional tablets of unknown origin. A new green Soylent hits the market, and almost simultaneously, the wealthy and influential William Simonson is murdered. The investigation is taken on by the poor but honest and intelligent detective Robert Thorn, played by the unforgettable Charlton Heston. And in the course of this investigation, Thorne stumbles upon a clue that will lead him to unravel the mystery of a terrifying and ruthless conspiracy against humanity.

Fleischer chose a rather unique way of depicting the future. Essentially, nothing has changed by 2022: technology isn’t advancing, culture is nonexistent, and a person’s greatest joy is a piece of real beef, a bottle of real bourbon, a bar of soap, and a terrycloth towel. Thorn, though he’s an honest cop, doesn’t hesitate to take a few items from the deceased’s apartment—after all, they’re of no use to the corpse anyway. Thorn is a poor cop, but he has an apartment that he shares with his elderly partner, Sol. Many are forced to live in a church, where they’re taken in by the compassionate priest Paul, while some have to spend the night on the stairs. Corporate powers, led by Governor Santini—who’s been re-elected yet again—are feeding people their Soylent. What on earth do they make it out of?

The film is generally low-budget, and many scenes are puzzling, to say the least. Here’s Thorn arriving at the crime scene, here he’s questioning the furniture saleswoman and Simonson’s bodyguard, here he’s gathered a tidy haul of food and a few of civilization’s comforts... And here are Thorn and Sol sitting at home, eating. For 10 minutes, they chew, nod at each other, smile, and moan with pleasure, overacting and grimacing to the backdrop of idyllic music. The casting was a complete disaster. Those who act well completely break character, the rest act poorly, and the only truly interesting actor, Heston, is frankly just going through the motions.

The film’s color scheme is also puzzling. All the interior scenes have natural, warm tones, while the exterior scenes are “painted” in an acid-green hue. It’s as if you’re looking at the world through green-tinted glasses.

Overall, the film’s humanistic pathos is diluted by the crime-driven plot, creating a somewhat bizarre hybrid of *Three Days of the Condor* and *Logan’s Run*. At the same time, the plot itself isn’t really fleshed out: neither the conspirators’ motivations nor their connections nor the actual path by which Thorn tracks them down remain clear. There are a few climactic scenes that somewhat tie the film’s episodes together, but the details are left for the viewer to fill in.

The ambiguous ending leaves you completely stumped. Everything falls into place, all the cards are on the table, every character has met their entirely logical fate... So what? What was the point? And how will it all end up?

Strictly speaking, one cannot deny the importance of *Soylent Green* to world cinema. It’s a classic that has changed a great deal in the realm of modern science fiction film. But at the same time, it’s also outright trash—dragging on, slapdash, and poorly written. It leaves a feeling of incompleteness, as if it weren’t a finished film but merely a rough cut that has yet to become a complete work of art.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (89.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 1.0
#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0
#French: Dolby Digital 1.0
#German: Dolby Digital 1.0
#Spanish: Dolby Digital 1.0

Info Subtitles