Just Saw An Old Movie Today - Soylent Green

[DocDrako]

Today I watched "Soylent Green" for the first time. I'm a Heston fan and had never seen it. I was smiling alot throughout the movie. I really liked it. Maybe it was the Panavision or maybe it was just because it was made in the 70's. But I really liked the movie. I knew the big secret all the way through, but I still enjoyed it.

I don't know why old movies look "better" to me than modern ones. Are the cameras used then and now so different? Why do old movies look so much better to me? They seem more "real" if you know what I mean. Sure today they have awesome effects and extra sharp detail, but I still like the look of an old movie better. Why is that?

Is it the color process? The cameras? I wish I knew. Does anyone else feel the same way? I would just call it nostalgia, but I don't think it is. I'm always nostalgic. This is like a new sensation. Am I going InSaNe? Am I turning into my dad? What's up?

[Thundarr]

I'm with you 100000% Doc. It's the angles, the hues of color, hell just the times I guess. Just look at the scene in Planet of the Apes when they first 'reveal' the gorilla soldiers...that ZOOM on his face in the cornfield scene..GREAT stuff! And that GROWL from the woods...scared me to death as a kid. I think also that actors CARED more about the craft then, it's all so plastic and hollow now...HollyWood is ruled by 20 year olds, and most of which are carbon-copied slop aimed at 15 year olds. I wont even get into the 'Bruckheimer' syndrome...you know the ones...cost a billion dollars to make, HIGH on idiotic 'effects', LOW on plot and story....BOOM BANG...(Nick Cage)..POW...MACHINE GUN FIRE...BAR SCENE...****...KA-BOOOOM....ALIEN INVADERS... lol

Just my two cents man. BTW...wasn't the supper scene with Thorne and Sol pure gold? And when Sol goes to "go home"....gets me to this day, I can't watch the music montage and the nature scenes...Mr. Robinson was a genius craftsman...g r e a t stuff.

Joe

[Megotu]

**** are bad?

[Thundarr]

.................. Nope, they sure ain't! My POINT was though that....

...Ehhh, why bother...

Yeah, **** are HORRIBLE!! Upon seeing them in ANY film I SPRING UP and leave the room right away!!



Joe

[lepage]

Yeah SG is a good one! Its right up there with Omega man. My favorite scene in that film is when they had thier big "feast" of what little "real" food Heston managed to snag and how it was a huge banquet to them.

[Thundarr]

Who IS that actress in Soylent anyhow? She is GORGEOUS to me. Her eyes, her figure, her voice and mannerisms... I think that her and Linda Harrison as Nova were my first big 'love interests' as a kid, lol.

Speaking of the Omega Man, thats just about my favorite film i think..or damned close to it. "It's been a l o n g time since I have had a patient" "Well doctor, you certainly haven't lost any of your bedside manner" ....great stuff. The banter between Heston and Mrs. Cash is very cool and well written. My girl got me the DVD for my birthday, it's SO much more crisp and clear!

I have a question about another of my favorites, Flash Gordon 1979. If that film wasn't released until 1980, why does the Mego Ming look JUST LIKE Max Von Sydow?? Wasn't the Mego line YEARS before the film?

Joe

[ABMAC]

I havn't had the pleasure of reading Harry Harrison's original "Make room! Make room!" novel yet, has anyone here read the book and seen the film?

The book is much more intelligent than the movie. Soylent in the book is made from a mixture of soy and lentils.

[HardyGirl]

It's been many years since I've seen this movie, and I've seen it only once. I guess I'll have to pull it out again.

As far as older movies, I know just what you mean. We've all gotten so used to the way films are done now, same /w TV shows. I think maybe b/c there were different techniques in film developing, and producers relied a lot more on imagination than special effects.. I tend to watch classic TV that newer channels are showing. It's a comfort thing. Reminds me of happier years.

[garagesale]

why does the Mego Ming look JUST LIKE Max Von Sydow?? Joe

For the same reason Max von Sydow looks exactly like Charles Middleton.

JamesD

[palitoy]

Agreed on Soylent Green being a great movie, I really love the visuals. There is something about 70's movies, the pacing, the scope that I just eat up.

Especially early 70's Fox and Warner Brothers releases for some reason.

[shellhead]

I fear that the changeover from quality Science Fiction to dumbed down fantasy came as a result of STAR WARS's popularity. Film producers started to move from the most sophisticated thought provoking format to the simplest method of grasping a mass audience. A form of social evolution, bearing in mind that humans are less evolved than chimps (more changes in DNA from divergence point than us).

Great point Rob! Up untill Starwars , the Science part of sci-fi was actually becoming more state of the art,: Apes,logan ,soylent,1999,ufo, bionics,etc.
After StarWars there was a huge glut of low budget, hastily produced knok-offs and the trend kind of stuk till everything was mired in this mismash called science-fantasy...where anything can be science as long as it takes place in a different galaxy.

[thunderbolt]

Great movie, I wish it would have had better merchandising and we would have gotten Soylent Chips!!!!

[spock5]

Great Movie

~~~~I really loved that movie,makes you wonder whats in the crackers they out out today.Especially the Organic ones!
Ken

[palitoy]

The "world famine" theme was done a few times in the seventies, Soylent Green is the most popular but there is also a UK take called "No Blade of Grass" which deals with a virus and famine as a family tries to escape a diseased London.

The Canadian made "Deadly Harvest" deals with climate change (the earth is getting colder!). The "eery" scenes of a closed restaurants and grocery stores were obviously done on a Sunday in Toronto, as the Lord's day act barred many places from being open.

Peter Fonda made the rarely seen "Idaho Transfer" as his follow up to Easy Rider. It's about time travellers stuck in an eco disaster in the future. From what I've heard and read it's very dreary and depressing. The ending is apparently unsettling.

[ABMAC]

The movie's portrayal of world famine and the collapse of the food distribution infrastructure should've been scary enough to make people wonder about the ecology and its chances of standing up to the abuse it was getting at the time. Soylent Green's contrived "twist ending" replaced the real threat of ecological disaster with the threat of breaking a cultural taboo.