Soylent Green (Limited Edition)
4.5 | 12,986 ratings
Price: 49.95
Last update: 05-07-2026
Product details
- MPAA rating : PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Product Dimensions : 6.73 x 5.31 x 0.51 inches; 3.88 ounces
- Director : Richard Fleischer
- Media Format : 4K
- Run time : 1 hour and 37 minutes
- Release date : July 28, 2026
- Actors : Brock Peters, Charlton Heston, Chuck Connors, Dick Van Patten
- Studio : Arrow Video
- ASIN : B0GYG7JTGP
- Best Sellers Rank:#1,076 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- Science Fiction Blu-ray Discs
- Customer Reviews:4.54.5 out of 5 stars(12,992)
Top reviews from the United States
- R. CaldwellOldie but goodie!Classic!
- A ChristyTimeless, Frightening and Thought ProvokingThis is one of my favorite movies and one that has a deceptively complex morality question deep inside the sometimes kitschy ideas of the future as seen through an early 1970s lens. A whole generation of people have been born and grown to maturity who haven't seen it and I sure hope the large number of reviews and continued sales on Amazon will introduce them to this great movie.
First off, this is one of the "Holy Triad" of Charlton Heston's sci-fi films. The other two are Planet of the Apes and Omega Man, of course. Both very worth a see as well. Also shining in this movie are Edward G. Robinson in his final film appearance (and it is a poignant and beautiful role for him) and Joseph Cotton in a brief but pivotal role.
The story centers on a murder that Thorn (a cop played by Heston) investigates in a near future New York City where over-population and increasing environmental damage have nearly destroyed the modern way of life. Thorn's "Book" named Sol (a type of research assistant) played by Robinson uses some loot that Thorn found at the scene of the murder to open up clues to a conspiracy that is so dark and far reaching that it will shake the world if it comes out. What follows is the exciting, tragic and heartbreaking search for the truth.
Some of the most important parts of the movie are those that are least talked about. If you think about these almost subliminally disturbing aspects of the film, one can be left with a new and very strange take on morality in difficult situations.
One: The question of furniture. In this future, the very wealthy live in apartments that we might see as middle class today and have access to things like real meat (though not great quality) and actual fruits and vegetables (also not great but real). They also have humans included with the furniture and actually call them such. In this case, it is Shirl, a pretty girl whose function is obvious and like a good couch, meant to be comfortable and unobtrusive for the owner of the apartment. For most of us the thought is totally appalling, but is it really? In a world where most won't live to adulthood and death is likely to be drawn out and horrible, furniture live lives of relative security for at least as long as they are young and pretty. Interesting question.
Two: Death and Suicide. In this future, the living are too numerous and it can't be sustained. The plankton that fed such a populous as the world dustbowled have now also died out in the super heated future. In response to this, the government sponsors beautiful places where anyone can go to "go home". It is nothing short of an assisted suicide/euthenasia clinic. It is also one of the only places of peace and beauty left for anyone. When Sol finds out what he does during his research and goes to one he has one of the most beautifully filmed and realized death scenes in movie history. It is perhaps even moreso since Mr. Robinson never had another film appearance before his own death. Thorn finds him and tries to stop him, but it is too late and in seeing how this plays out for those who go there to die, one can almost see the positive morality of such a place in such dire world circumstances. It is, after all, the choice of the person who goes there...no one elses.
Three: Ultimate Recycling. SPOILERS HERE. Most people know the line..."It's made of People!!". Not all of them know that it is from this movie, which is amusing. In the final scene of the movie we see Thorn trying to get the word out that Soylent Green...once made of plankton for protein...is actually made of the people who go to die at the euthenasia centers. We also see that no one is listening. While our initial reactions as this is discovered during the course of the film is one of disgust, it does beg the question...why? The world is too full of humans and there is no longer the resources to bury them all as they leave this world. What do you do with them? In this future, they break them down into slurry...just the basic proteins...and make a type of cracker out of them. When we consider that the FDA has an allowable amount of contamination for food that is human in nature, it changes the metric some. Is it, in reality, any different than the wonderful crops that come in the years after a battle happens on a field? It's equally appalling and thought provoking.
Four: Environment and humanity. One of the most interesting responses I've seen to this movie happens in the first couple of minutes. A montage of scenes depicts real life progress and the pollution that it brought. Most often I hear a comment about how realistic that looks for a 1970s movie. What most are surprised to hear is that almost all of them are real images of real life. How shocking that is to people born after the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Younger generations have no idea that LA used to be so smog choked that people died or that swimming in a natural body of water could easily kill you or give you cancer quickly. While I'm generally against too much intervention by government I'm often surprised that anyone could ever assert with a straight face that people in business to make money will police themselves and won't intentionally harm the environment. I remember the time before the government forced companies to stop spewing filth into the air and water. Those images of what our country looked like are worth seeing the movie for all by themselves. They are eye-opening.
Overall, there is a great deal of 1970s fashion and style that many today will find laughable and there is always that wrongness that happens when trying to imagine a near future (like the video games), but the movie itself is sound and entertaining. It is also dark and mature in nature. It's an excellent film that will appeal to those who like sci-fi, dystopian movies or classics of the age. - KortA Charleton Heston ClassicWhat is Soylent Green? Watch the movie and find out. But chances are you already know, given how long this film has been around. It portraits a dark and gritty dystopian overpopulated future America, in 2022! Resources are scarce and food is the biggest commodity. It is fun to see how they thought the future would look and the technology obviously didn't keep up with the way things are now. Performances are engaging as is the story, though it isn't very PC by today's standards (which is one of its charms). This film is worth a first watch, or a re-watch.
~ Kort - Fryzilla: King of the MonstersEat Your Soylent GreensSOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! Oops, probably should've put a spoiler warning for the ending to a movie that's been constantly referenced in pop culture for decades. Anyway I've been meaning to give this sci-fi classic a watch for some time now, and what better time to do so than in 2026...ok it's because so far there's not a lot of movies coming out this year that I'm interested in ok. The acting is good with Charlton Heston's performance being the highlight of it all, the man's faced intelligent apes and radioactive mutants, and now he's going up against an all-powerful food corporation in a dystopian future. Hey remember back in 2022 when overpopulation and pollution made the world an unsustainable trash heap and we had to start eating manufactured foodstuffs made out of humans... good times. The movie does a good job showing how vastly different the class system is between the rich and the poor in this universe; the poor living in buildings so overcrowded that people actually have to sleep in hallways and staircases and have barely anything to eat, while the rich live in swanky hotels with live-in prostitutes called Furniture. There's not very much in action in this film since it's more of a mystery story, but the visuals and cinematography is really nice, although the green hazing effect used for the outside marketplace is very distracting and poorly done. The assisted suicide scene, which I didn't know was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons, is beautifully haunting and sad. My main problem with the movie is that by the end I feel like there's a lot of plot threads left unresolved and not knowing if Thorn's (Heston's character) discovery about Soylent Green's secret actually effects anything. Also the pacing can drag at some points, especially near the third half. Also also I was disappointed that they never show the full process of how Soylent Green is made, I thought they would show bodies being ground up or something. Overall Soylent Green is a good movie and deserves its place in film history, but I just wish that there was a bit more than what we were given.