Posted on 01/01/2022 10:51:32 PM PST by Houserino
In 2022, Earth is overpopulated and totally polluted; the natural resources have been exhausted and the nourishment of the population is provided by Soylent Industries, a company that makes a food consisting of plankton from the oceans.
(Excerpt) Read more at imdb.com ...
I have said many times over the years that it is not the end of “Soylent Green” that is prophetic, but rather the beginning. In the beginning the character played by Charlton Heston is flying in a helicopter over a city filled with masses of starving rioters in the streets.
In his autobiography, written in 1971, Capra expressed his feelings about the shifting film industry:
The winds of change blew through the dream factories of make-believe, tore at its crinoline tatters ... The hedonists, the homosexuals, the hemophiliac bleeding hearts, the God-haters, the quick-buck artists who substituted shock for talent, all cried: "Shake 'em! Rattle 'em! God is dead. Long live pleasure! Nudity? Yea! Wife-swapping? Yea! Liberate the world from prudery. Emancipate our films from morality!" ... Kill for thrill—shock! Shock! To hell with the good in man, Dredge up his evil—shock! Shock!
Your memory is playing tricks with you. There are, of course, "long" establishing shots of overpopulated NYC, but no helicopters, and CH doesn't fly in one.
Regards,
Soylent Green - The left’s New Green Deal. Tastes like Wuhan carry-out!!
That was peak SNL for sure. Phil Hartman, RIP.
The novel was set in 1999. There was no soylent green. No scoops. Just a "vastly over-populated" USA of over 300 million. (About what we have now.)
Still, it was a good novel. Depressing, but memorable.
An old man, one of those Times Square prophets, predicts the Biblical apocalypse in 2000. The novel ends after New Year's Eve, no apocalypse. The old man is distraught, because he can't comprehend the world going on for another 1,000 years "Like this?!"
The novel ends with the detective protagonist wandering off into the grimy crowd in Time Square, resigned to his crummy life.
Frank Capra loved America. Hollywood today hates America.
The book “To Serve Man” .... it’s a cook book!
The death scene with Edward G. Robinson was actually real. He had cancer at the time and died shortly after filming it.
Years ago I walked through Amsterdam at 2 am with trash all over and drunks on the plazas and benches. At 5 am with just a hint of sunlight was walking them again to the train station.
Everything was clean and glittering with water from the sanitation trucks. It was really spooky and reminded me of the movie.
Thank you for telling me that, Nateman. I've viewed the movie countless times, discussed it in film classes, read countless fanzine articles about the movie, read Heston's autobiography, watched numerous interviews, behind-the-scene documentaries, etc., so of course I already knew that - as would any other half-way literate cinéaste who grew up in the 70s. But I appreciate your reminding me.
Regards,
*Not "actually real." He was acting. He did not commit suicide, nor was his body then processed into chartreuse wheat thins.
The Duke there are scenes in Omega Man of Charlton Heston flying over NYC in a helicopter. You might be mixing the movies in your head. I do that kind of thing all the time. But hey, at least I still know where the bathroom is.
I think you are referring to Ahnold Swarzenneger’s “Running Man’ movie ...
He is thinking of The Omega Man which starred Heston.
A take-off of the old sci-fi classic, I Am Legend.
He died because Opie sucked the life out of the scene at the end.
Regards,
The SciFi Channel is running through the marathon archives of Rod Serlings, "The Twilight Zone",
and last night, at midnight, was the episode of "To Serve Man..".
How timely .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.