HAPPY 50TH, SOYLENT GREEN

It's been fifty years since the film adaptation of Harry Harrison's speculative novel, Make Room! Make Room!, hit theaters. Soylent Green, as the movie came to be called, has since earned a legion of fans, who acknowledge its prophetic message. 

Indeed, not all of Soylent Green has come to fruition, but its "secret" still lingers as a frightful possibility and is the grim novelty for which the fable is best known.

Directed by Richard (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) Fleischer and adapted by Stanley (The Missiles of October) Greenberg, the movie flaunts an all-star cast: Charlton Heston, Edgar G. Robinson (in his last role), Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotton, Lee Taylor-Young, Dick Van Patton, Brock Peters, Whit Bissell, Mike Henry and Paula Kelly. Each character (whether big or small) stands out, in particular Heston's inquisitive Robert Thorn and Robinson's sorrowful Sol Roth, from whose eyes and hearts we experience the dystopic nightmare. 

Soylent Green has haunted me for decades and for good reason. Its allegorical scope and troubling warning are inescapable.

Watch Soylent Green on its landmark anniversary and pay heed!