Soylent Green Is Damn Dirty Apes!

[vovat]

I've actually been having a bit of a social life recently, which is unusual for me, unless Tumblr and Twitter count. On Saturday, after work and a nap, I met bethje at Suzanne's party, and we hung around there for a while. On Monday, we watched Soylent Green, which isn't particularly social but still deserves a mention. I don't necessarily feel like I've gained anything by watching it, though. Everyone who has even the slightest sliver of cultural literacy already knows the big reveal, and it actually kind of seems LESS shocking in the actual context of the movie. The people we saw being made into food were already dead, many of them through voluntary euthanasia. That doesn't make cannibalism okay, of course, but it's hardly raising people like cattle, as Charlton Heston suggests will happen. Really, when the main problem in the world is overpopulation and there's hardly any food, breeding humans for meat is the LAST thing you'd want to do, right? I noticed that the movie also incorporated global warming into its dystopian future, and I have to wonder if that came back to haunt Heston when he was a shill for the Republican Party. He DID have Alzheimer's at that point, though, didn't he? I think the most fun we had in watching it was pointing out all the stuff they got wrong about the twenty-first century, and comparing it to other visions of the future. (Hey, if we had functioning space stations in a movie set in the year 2001, and this was in 2022, couldn't they just send the extra people there?) Also, I had to note the gay subtext between Heston and Edward G. Robinson's characters. I mean, they were constantly saying they loved each other, and it was after Heston had sex with a woman that Robinson decided to go in for physician-assisted suicide.

Today (well, Tuesday, if that still counts as today), I drove up to New York City to see Darius Whiteplume and his wife, who are visiting from North Carolina. We went out for pizza and then for coffee (although I had a Snapple lemonade, since I don't drink coffee). I think we got along pretty well, which is always a relief for me. I wish Beth had been able to come up with me, but she was busy, and is planning on going up there for a Monkees show on Thursday anyway. (That evening, by the way, I'm going to be working.) Anyway, I probably would have stayed up there longer, but Theresa needed to take a nap, and I couldn't think of anything to do on my own. I probably would have gone to Books of Wonder if they'd been open, but they weren't. Businesses in New York have some crazy hours, yo. I probably should have seen if therealtavie and Gina were around. As it was, I spent more time in transit than I actually did in the city. I feel it was worth it, but I'm sure it could have worked out even better if I'd planned things out in more detail. I'm back at home now (I really don't blog from anywhere else these days, so that pretty much goes without saying), and dreading another evening of work tomorrow. At least I have some time before it starts, I guess. Work gets in the way of everything, doesn't it?

So, is anyone else from my vaguely defined circle of online friends going to be around anytime soon? I think I could get to like this hanging out stuff.

Comments

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Monkees?

THE Monkees?

breeding humans for meat is the LAST thing you'd want to do, right?

[chhinnamasta.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're having fun.

Yeah, I think Heston's Alzheimer's must explain his half-baked cannibalistic vision of the future. Or, perhaps he was eating people, contracted CJD, and that inspired this vision.

It's a big existential scream.

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update on your life, btw.

Okay, I'm a fan of Chuck Heston from way back, so, although I disgree with his Republicanism, I still have a positive opinion of him, because he was sincere in his political beliefs, just not cognizant of the fact that most celebrities with political opinions should keep their dang mouths shut. He was a big dumb chunk of man-meat, after all, and while you don't need brains to be an actor, it really helps if you go into politics.

In re Soylent Green - Chuck was in his 40's when it was made, and died of Alzheimer's in his 80's, so I would guess he was in his right mind at that point, even if he had gone Republican by then. ;) And Harry Harrison wrote the story, if not the screenplay.

Vovat, can I suggest you might be reading the meaning of "Soylent Green is people!" wrong? It's not that it's so shocking that they are recycling the populace, the point is Thorn's horror as he grasps The Big Picture, realizes that the situation, as dire as it it, is more dire than anyone suspects. Humankind is going to starve to death, period. The food supply is dying out, and we are using up the last uptapped resource as we recycle human bodies for food.

The entire movie is about loss, about the winding down of the life of an individual, of the human race, of the planet? What he's shouting about is the loss of everything - hope, life, nature and finally human dignity. It's a big existential scream. Because they aren't reprocessing human flesh to fill some perverse desire to become cannibals, but for the very practical reason that it is the last maneuever before the entire system collapses. Fwiw.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Yessss.

Re: It's a big existential scream.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty dignified to die in a bed while listening to Vivaldi and Beethoven and watching nature scenes on a big screen. ;)

I kid, I kid. I appreciate that viewpoint, and it makes me respect the movie that much more. I took film classes in my college years 1.0. (Like that gives me any clout. [It does not.])

[bethje.livejournal.com]

You're cheerful? Wut

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

The thing that disappointed me the most about Soylent Green was how underwhelming it is when he actually does the "Soylent Green is people" bit. I thought he was going to be running around yelling it!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!

Re: It's a big existential scream.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I agree (and oh, if only today's celebrities could *all* keep their mouths shut!) I can't begin to tell you how powerful that moment was at the end of the movie, when seen on the big screen in the context of the times, before it became a pop culture quote. The book was better, as it usually is, but the movie was great.

Re: It's a big existential waltz

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

If you have to go, that's not so bad, I agree.

Question: for some reason, I had put Strauss in there. An Der Schönen Blauen Donau/Blue Danube. Did my brain add that in gratuitously? I haven't seen it in years.

Re: It's a big existential robbery

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

I feel a bit cheated, too, in that Heston and all those dumb-@ssed sci fi movies were my private property when I caught them as a kid on a local tv station. It was a like a nerd handshake - if you say, "Soylent Green is people," and the other person gets it, you knew something about that person's tastes and proclivities. Not any more.

The jig was up when the computer techie guy on Chris Carter's Millennium in, oh, 1998, made the hero use that phrase as his voice id to get into his computer. I remember laughing, then my eyes narrowing as the penny dropped - tv writers had pilfered from nerd culture, as they always do, and ruined it. Same with Star Trek, in my opinion.

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

If you had never heard the phrase and had no expectations of the ending of the movie, you'd have enjoyed the movie better, I bet. I watched it with no preconceptions, and ozma is right - his horror and hopelessness as he's yelling it out are more effective if you haven't had the entire plot and climax given to you in advance.

Re: It's a big existential robbery

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Same here -- I thought I was the only person in the world who'd ever seen some of those old SF movies and TV shows, and even after I learned otherwise there didn't seem to be many of us.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Re: breeding humans for meat is the LAST thing you'd want to do, right?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Eh, there's usually bad with the good, and vice versa. You know how it is.

Re: It's a big existential waltz

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I can't remember "Blue Danube" being used in Soylent Green, but it was quite prominent in 2001.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I was at the time, anyway.