… Year 2022… who want to survive

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Movie
German title … Year 2022… who want to survive
Original title Soylent Green
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1973
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Richard Fleischer
script Stanley R. Greenberg
production Walter Seltzer ,
Russell Thacher
music Fred Myrow
camera Richard H. Kline
cut Samuel E. Beetley
occupation
synchronization

... year 2022 ... who want to survive (Original title: Soylent Green ) is an American science fiction film from 1973 directed by Richard Fleischer . Charlton Heston plays a 2022 New York cop who uncovered an outrageous secret. For Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973), who took over the role of Solomon ("Sol") Roth, it would be his last film role.

The possible consequences of excessive use of finite resources, environmental pollution and overpopulation are addressed in a future scenario. The film was released a year after the report The Limits to Growth of the Club of Rome and is one of the first Ökodystopien . The template was provided by the book New York 1999 by Harry Harrison .

action

The year is 2022. New York City has 40 million people. There is a lack of water, food and housing. Only a few politicians and wealthy citizens can afford clean water and natural food at exorbitant prices. The dwellings of the wealthy usually include concubines (“property” belonging to the inventory) who serve the tenant as slaves. In the midst of this chaos, the police officer Robert Thorn and his older roommate Sol Roth lead a bleak existence. Roth still knows the world with animals and real food: vegetables and meat instead of “Soylent Red” and “Soylent Yellow”. Roth researches for Thorn as a so-called "police book". Her dreary life is loosened up solely by the things that Thorn repeatedly lets go from the homes of rich people.

Thorn is ordered to investigate the murder of the wealthy and influential William R. Simonson. He quickly discovers that this was the victim of a targeted murder. Meanwhile, Sol learns that Simonson worked for the Soylent company.

This company - the name is a combination of Soy ( soy ) and Lent (il) ( lentil ) - controls the food supply of half the world and sells the artificially produced foods "Soylent Red" and "Soylent Yellow". The latest product is the much tastier and more nutritious “Soylent Green”, a concentrate in the form of green, square tablets that is said to be made from plankton and is selling extremely well. As a result of delivery bottlenecks on “Soylent Green Day” Tuesday, the hungry masses regularly riot. The police countered this with heavy shovel loaders and containers; the demonstrators are brutally removed from the streets.

With the help of the concubine Shirl, with whom Thorn starts an affair, the investigation leads the dead Simonson to a priest. The murdered man had recently confessed to him and thus let him in on a secret. When asked, the priest can only give hints of a “cruel truth”. Shortly afterwards the priest is also murdered. On the governor's orders , Thorn is informally instructed to stop the investigation. But Thorn refuses to take on the resulting responsibility and continues the investigation. An attack was carried out on him on a “Soylent Green Day”, but the assassin missed him and was killed himself.

Sol brings the two volumes of oceanographic reports that Thorn took from Simonson's apartment after his death to the information center (the Exchange) for investigation. There he gets from the "police books" who are present here, the confirmation of the (still unspoken) truth he discovered, but for which the final proof is still missing. Sol no longer wants to live after his discovery, Thorn writes a message and goes to the public killing facility to be "put to sleep".

Thorn finds her and hurries after him. The dying Sol can tell everything shortly before his death and asks him to prove it and bring it to light with the help of the information center. Thorn then follows the removal of the body bags there to the garbage disposal plant. After breaking into the machinery used to dispose of the corpses, he discovers that the facility at the other end outputs "Soylent Green". This is evidence that the product is made from human flesh and that Simonson was murdered by the company because he knew this and was feared he would talk about it. He is noticed but is able to escape, seriously injured. When he is being treated by emergency doctors, Thorn makes Chief Hatcher's promise to tell the truth and initiate legal proceedings against the company. On the way to the hospital, Thorn shouts the cruel truth to the people around him: “Soylent Green is human flesh!” (“Soylent Green is people!”).

synchronization

The German synchronization of… the year 2022… who want to survive.

role actor Dubbing voice
Detective Robert Thorn Charlton Heston Heinz Petruo
Sol Roth Edward G. Robinson Konrad Wagner
Shirl Leigh Taylor-Young Eva-Maria Werth
Fielding tab Chuck Connors Jochen Schröder
William R. Simonson Joseph Cotten Eric Vaessen
Chief Hatcher Brock Peters Joachim Nottke
Martha Phillips Paula Kelly
Gilbert Stephen Young
Mr. Kulozik Mike Henry Claus Jurichs
Father Paul Lincoln Kilpatrick Edgar Ott
Mr. Donovan Roy Jenson Wolfgang Völz
Charles Leonard Stone Klaus Miedel
Governor Santini Whit Bissell Dietrich Frauboes
Doorkeeper 1 Dick Van Patten Gerd Duwner

Reviews

“Science fiction film that tells its story in the manner of an exciting criminal case. One of the earliest ecological thrillers. "

“If you want, you can see an exciting crime thriller in this film. However, by means of brutally echoing scenes, the director clarifies a far deeper truth [...] Soylent-Green must therefore be understood as a metaphor. It is the radical picture of the self-consuming madness of the capitalist mode of production. The necessary consequences of the reification of 'human material' through to self-destruction are impressively demonstrated to the viewer. "

- Lexicon of British and American feature films in the television programs of the Federal Republic of Germany 1954 to 1985

Literary template

In the novel New York 1999 by Harry Harrison , published in 1966, a dubious super-rich man is murdered by chance in a burglary. A police officer then learns about the world of the super-rich in the course of his investigation. These not only afford concubines, but also real meat. The plot for the mass processing of people into food to supply the entire population does not exist in the book. However, it contains comparable descriptions of the catastrophic and extremely unjust living conditions. The novel ends with a resigned policeman.

The novelist was not satisfied with the film. He said that the introduction of general cannibalism into history would boulevardize it and lower the level. His main goal, however, was to show how perverse the world of the super-rich would be in the future.

reception

There are allusions to the film and its notion of an industrially manufactured food made from human flesh in numerous films, computer games and in pop music.

  • Soilent Grün was the name of a Berlin punk band founded in 1980. It is considered the predecessor volume of the doctors . The track Soylent Green from the music project Wumpscut became a hit on the black scene in 1993 . It contains some samples from the German dubbed version ("Soylent green is human flesh!"). The Sludge band Soilent Green also plays on the film (even if the title rather marijuana associate). The song Bondage People on the album Bodega Bohemia by the band Camouflage tells the story of the film. The first album by the metal band Pandea by Mario Le Mole and others deals with the film.
  • Several episodes of the television series Futurama ("Soylent-Cola" and "Soylent Green" as the main ingredient in the "Cooking Duel") and The Simpsons contain parodic allusions to Soylent Green . In the television series Millennium , Frank Black's PC uses the password “Soylent Green is people”. Also in the television series On worse and forever (original title Unhappily Ever After ) the phrase “Soylent Green is human flesh!” Is used by the son Ross.
  • In the computer game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge , you can hear the civilians say “Soylent Green for Yuri” in the second mission of the Allied campaign. Yuri uses the civilians in this mission to extract resources from them.
  • In the film Cloud Atlas and its novel , one of the six episodes culminates in the exclamation “Soylent Green is human flesh”.
  • The American Film Institute chose the film quote “Soylent Green is human flesh” (“Soylent Green is people!”) As number 77 of the best film quotes in American films.
  • In the Playstation 1 game Xenogears from 1998 there is an approximately 3 minute sequence on a space station called the “Soylent System”. There the main character gets to see in a manufacturing facility how “Soylent Green” is made from human flesh. (The game was only released in the USA and Japan)

Premieres

  • USA April 19th 1973
  • Austria in May 1974
  • Germany 23 May 1974

Awards

  • 1973: Nebula Award for best dramatic presentation
  • 1974: Grand Prix of the Festival International du Film Fantastique d'Avoriaz
  • 1974: Nominated for the Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation category
  • 1975: Saturn Award in the category of best science fiction film

Trivia

  • Due to cancer, Edward G. Robinson was almost deaf while filming. This will be his last film. He died on January 26, 1973, two weeks after filming ended.
  • Problems such as overfishing of the world's oceans and global warming through the use of fossil fuels are already discussed in the film.
  • Parallax Corporation sells crackers under the name “Soylent Green” , which are similar in shape and color to the food shown in the film.
  • The American software designer Rob Rhinehart launched a nutritional powder called “ Soylent ” in early 2014 .

literature

  • Maren Jacobson: Soylent Green. In: Filmstellen VSETH & VSU (Hrsg.): Science Fiction. - Andrzej Wajda . Documentation. Association of Students at the University of VSU, Zurich 1990, pp. 142–146 (with filmography).
  • Moritz Emmelmann: Religion in Soylent Green. In: Sonja Georgi, Kathleen Loock (Eds.): Of Body Snatchers and Cyberpunks. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941875-91-3 .
  • Jörn Piontek: "There was a world once, you punk": Visual Subversion in Fleischer's Soylent Green. In: Sonja Georgi, Kathleen Loock (Eds.): Of Body Snatchers and Cyberpunks. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941875-91-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. … year 2022… who want to survive. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on April 11, 2019 .
  2. … year 2022… who want to survive. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ Lexicon of British and American feature films in the television programs of the Federal Republic of Germany 1954–1985 . tape 2 . Spiess, Berlin, p. 642 .
  4. Rocktimes.de: Rocktimes - CD-Review / Pandea - Soylent Green, accessed on November 27, 2011.
  5. Soylent Green at buysoylentgreen.com. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
  6. Leander Steinkopf: What reason chokes down everything. In: FAZ , January 14, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.