Battle for the Planet of the Apes

The fifth, and final, installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise hit theaters in June of 1973. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (BPA) is considered by many, even fans of the series, to be the weakest of the five films. Roddy McDowell stars again as Caesar. Natalie Trundy stars as his chimp wife, Lisa. Claude Aikins stars as the gorilla general Aldo. BPA is a proper sequel, in that it picks up the story where Movie 4, Conquest, left off. 20th Century Fox felt the Apes phenomenon had run its course, so produced one more sequel to wrap up what became a confusing story arc. But, Fox was not completely through with Apes.

Quick Plot Synopsis
North America, 2670 A.D. The Lawgiver (John Houston) reads, in psuedo-biblical wording, a recap of the third and fourth movies. He then tells movie five's story as flashback. The war implied at the end of Movie 4, Conquest, has left most apes and humans dead. The cities are bombed out radioactive ruins. Some 12 (or 27?) years afterward, a dozen or so humans live in relative peace among the apes. Caesar is their leader. Aldo, leader of the gorilla faction foments trouble, disliking the humans. MacDonald (brother of the character in Movie 4) says Aldo hates everyone who isn't a gorilla. Mac also tells Caesar that he can hear and see his parents, via tapes in the city archives, and learn what the future holds (since they came from the future). Caesar, Mac and the wise orangutan, Virgil (Paul Williams) set out for the Forbidden City. They find it, and make their way underground to find the old city archives. Their movements are watched, however, by the remnant of humans who stayed in the city. These people wear hood-caps and have facial blemishes from the radiation. Their governor, Kolp (Severn Darden, reprising his Kolp character from Movie 4.) thinks the three are advance scouts for an attack by the apes. He orders them captured, but the three elude capture. He orders them killed, but they escape the city. Back in Ape City, Caesar calls a general council to say they must prepare for possible attack by the city humans. Aldo makes trouble about all humans. He and his gorilla faction walk out. Later, Caesar's young son, Cornelius, goes out at night searching for his lost pet squirrel. Cornelius comes upon a secret meeting of the gorillas, plotting the overthrow of Caesar. They see Cornelius in the tree. Aldo hacks the branch Cornelius is hanging onto. Cornelius falls, badly injured. A human doctor lady tends to him, but it doesn't look good. Meanwhile, Kolp has a ragtag army formed. They set out in a few jeeps, old cars and a school bus to attack Ape City. The attack comes. A long protracted gun battle plays out. Cornelius dies of his injuries. Caesar orders everyone to fall back. The mutants ride in triumphant. Kolp sees Caesar and threatens to kill him. All the not-really-dead apes jump up and overwhelm the mutants. Kolp and a few others escape in the school bus. Aldo and his gorillas ambush them and kill them all. Back in Ape City, there is a showdown between Aldo and Caesar. It comes out that Aldo cut the branch that caused Cornelius's death. The crowd chants at him. "Ape shall never kill ape." Aldo climbs a tree to escape. Caesar follows. They struggle in the branches. Aldo falls to his death. Jungle justice is served. Everyone agrees to live in peace and harmony. Kumbaya. End flashback, the Lawgiver finishes his history tale to a mixed class of ape and human children. Behind them is a stature of Caesar. Zoom in to see that the statue sheds a tear. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
McDowall does a creditable job with the Caesar character. Paul Williams does rather well as Virgil. The story / plot, on its own, better than fourth-sequels tend to be.

Cultural Connection
The Apes series began, in '68, as an allegory on racism, via species-ism. Movies 2 through 5 shifted the theme to anti-militarism. The general anti-war drumbeat, so common in the late-Vietnam era, made anti-war films an easy sell. The villain in BPA is not really the mutants in the city, but the two characters, Aldo and Kolp, who maniacally push for war. The message in BPA is: If we could just get rid of the bad (warrior) people, life would be all flowers and hearts.

Notes
Alternate Timeline -- Move 3, Escape introduced the complexity of alternate timelines. The writers in BPA try to explain it in an easily missed small scene with the Virgil character. He talks of time travel and a situation wherein a performer dislikes a recording of some music he played, so travels back in time to not make that performance. In the Apes series, there are two timelines. The first is Taylor's. He travels to HIS future to see that apes have "evolved" slowly over hundreds of years, to eventually take over Earth. Movie 2 Beneath has timeline 1 earth's destruction. With Movie 3, Escape, a second timeline begins when future apes enter the past. New timeline. Apes don't evolve slowly, but start with Cornelius and Zira. The Alpha-Omega bomb existed before Taylor left, but in timeline 2, it is not used. Hundreds of years of conflict between man and ape does not happen. Instead, everyone lives in peace. That's how the writers wrapped up the series. They all lived happily ever after.

Important Deletions -- For some reason, Fox decided to cut two rather important scenes from the final theatrical release. The first deleted scene has Kolp showing Alma (France Nuyen) the Alpha-Omega missile and how to launch it. This scene comes just before Kolp leads his mutant minions on the attack of Ape City. He wanted her to fire it, if he signaled that the Apes were winning. The second deleted scene came near the end. Alma hasn't heard from Kolp, so feels she must launch the missile. Mendez talks her out of it. Give peace a chance, etc. The first deleted scene is important because it made a link to Movie 2, Beneath. The second deleted scene is important as it mirrors the peaceful resolution in Ape City. Once the mean-old-militarists (Kolp and Aldo) were dead, everyone else could smile again.

Sophomorism -- The husband and wife writing team of John and Joyce Corrington adapted Matthison's "I Am Legend" into The Omega Man ('71) with an undercurrent of biblical themes. In BPA, they seem to have pandered to sophomoric atheists. The Corringtons have the Virgil character repeat two popular "arguments" against Christianity. At one point he mocks the humans' religious idea of a happy afterlife. "If that were so, we'd all commit suicide so we could enjoy it." (ergo, since no one does, that proves no one believes it's true.) The second comes when he asks "how a benevolent god can allow a branch to break and cause the death of an innocent child." The question is left unanswered, as if it were unanswerable. The Problem of Evil is complex and too nuanced for reduction to sophomore levels.

Headed For Prime Time -- The look and feel of BPA is that of a made-for-TV movie. While BPA was not a pilot, Fox Television did launch a Planet of the Apes series in in 1974. It, too, starred Roddy McDowall as the lead "chimpanzee", though renamed Galen and unrelated to Cornelius or Caesar. The basic premise is a recast of Movie 1, but with Galen and the two astronauts as fugitives sharing adventures as they flee (ala, The Fugitive). The series only ran for one season, but sets of episodes were reworked into several made-for-TV movies, just like old Zombies of the Stratosphere serial of '52 was pieced together to make a Satan's Satellites movie in '58.

Never Enough? -- Film critics rejoiced that the Apes series was finally ended, The public seemed to have achieved Ape-saturation too, as the TV series only ran one season. But, satiety fades. In 2001, Tim Burton did a remake of the '68 original (though with less subtlety). In 2011, Rupert Wyatt started a new story line in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Caesar becomes sentient from genetic meddling (not hundreds of years of 'evolution' or future genes in the past). A sequel in this new story line is said to be in the works. Maybe people really can't get enough of Planet of the Apes.

Bottom line? BPA is not an especially good film. Yet, for a threadbare fourth sequel, it is better than one might expect. The sci-fi part present only by inference from the prior films in the series. The low budget makes itself apparent. Fans of the prior films can enjoy a concluding chapter. Viewers less keen on the earlier Apes will find only more of the same.

Idaho Transfer

In the early 70s, popular themes included: dystopia, government conspiracies, the righteousness of youth, environmentalism and (as mentioned a couple posts ago, mathusian doom. Idaho Transfer (IT) has all of them. IT is an obscure film that had only a limited theatrical release. A group of teens time-travel to after some devastating ecological disaster, to see if the earth can be repopulated. It's the second of only three films directed by Peter Fonda (of early fame for writing, starring, producing Easy Rider in 1969). The story and screenplay are by Thomas Matthiesen. The cast are mostly unkowns, save for Keith Carridine who plays a minor role.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. George Braden has a secret project going on up in the wilderness of Idaho. Originally, it was on matter transporting, but they discovered time travel as well. Also, they discovered that some disaster befalls mankind in the nearer future. Braden is sending teams of college-age men and women 56 years into the future to find out what and why. They study the flora and fauna and report back to 1973. George's daughter Isa is one of the young scientists. His other daughter Karen joins the team. Isa shows Karen how to operate the transfer machine. Apparently, some event called the Echo Crisis devastated the earth and nearly wiped out mankind. George's young time travelers are trying to figure out what future-Idaho is like. The vague plan is, if the future is habitable, to send a colonizing group to reestablish mankind on the Earth. Isa falls and is badly hurt. Karen transfers her back, but there's deeper trouble. Bureaucrats plan to order the project shut down. Just before that, however, a dozen or so of the youngsters manage to transfer to 2029 with backpacks of survival gear. They get to the future, but the transfer machine's power fails. They're stuck in 2029. The project's doctor transfers too, but apparently, anyone over 20 suffers kidney damage in the transfer. He eventually goes off alone to die. Karen has some off-camera trysts and eventually thinks she's pregnant. Ronald and others break the news to her that they're all sterile. Their kidney survive the transfer, but not their reproductive powers. No babies, no future of mankind. They set out to on a 500 mile hike to Portland. Karen becomes despondent and returns alone to the original transfer camp in the Craters of the Moon, lava fields. She is attacked by Leslie, one of the group who did not leave. Karen takes shelter in the transfer machine. Leslie rants outside that everyone (1973 folks) "used everything up." The power lights come on. Karen transfers back to 1973 in only her panties. A startled technician see her and alerts guards. Karen locks the door and resets the machine to a further date in the future. She transfers. No one is left at the lava field station. Karen wanders alone, hopeless and exhausted. Eventually, she is picked up off the ground by a future man. He puts her in the trunk of his future car. Karen screams. The girl in the back seat wonders aloud what they (the future people) will do for fuel with all of the "other" people have been used up. Text-on-screen: Esto Perpetua. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Actually, it's rather depressing, so it's not "fun" in the usual senses. It is very thoughtful and well done as far as conveying the intent of bleakness and doom.

Cultural Connection
The Roots of Malaise: President Jimmy Carter was criticized for his famous/infamous "Malaise" speech, given in July 1979. In it, he said, “The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.” Carter spoke of America's cultural malaise -- a lack of hope for the future, rampant consumerism and self-absorption. The energy crisis did not cause the malaise. The roots of malaise can be seen in early 70s sci-fi. America was convncing itself that the environment would crash and we were all doomed to death and dystopia. Little wonder that "eat, drink and be merry" (buy and consume stuff) ruled the day. America had ben putting itself into a funk for over ten years. Perhaps the trumpets of Global Warming Doom should take note. Instead of spurring action, they may only create another malaise.

Notes
King Mathus -- As mentioned before, the Cold War's ever-impending nuclear doom created a lot of fear in people. The threat of nukes faded after the Cuban Missile Crisis, but that much fear did not subside quickly. Thus, the preachers of environmental doom found a receptive audience. All that fear needed something to be afraid of. Thomas Malthus wrote in the early 1800s about impending collapse (famine, starvation, death) as population would outstrip resources. It was an old message that had a habit of not happening. Despite its poor track record, It found a ripe audience in the late 60s and early 70s. It took 150 years, but eventually Malthus was king.

Soylent 2: Energy Source -- The surprise twist ending is much akin to Soylent Green ('73), except that in the future, people will be a fuel source instead of a food source. The girl in the backseat pretty much says the world will become Soylent 2 when she asks what they'll do when the supply of 'them' is used up. "We'll use each other then, won't we?" The parents don't answer. They already knew. This just hammers home the malthusian angst. We are consuming all our finite resources. When they're used up, we'll turn on ourselves. This is driven home by the final text: Esto Perpetua, latin for "It is (or, let it be) perpetual." I.e., mankind will not learn, but keep on over-consuming. This is also the state motto for Idaho.

Youth Rules -- A common enough theme in early 70s movies is that the "world" of the "old" will suddenly crumble and fall away. The young (alone) shall inherit the earth. This was the premise in Wild in the Streets ('68), Gas-s-s ('70), and Glen and Randa ('71).  This last one was also an indie film picturing teens as inheritors of a bleak ruined earth and in the northwest too!

Get Naked -- A curious bit of exploitation by Fonda, was that time travel required the young women to take their pants off and straddle the time machine. This was explained (somewhat) as having to do with metal (rivets in the jeans?). But, rather than select pants with no metal, they keep them, but strip down to their panties (or less!) whenever they transfer. There seems to be no plot necessity for this. Instead, it seems it's just there for exploitation -- a half-baked reason to get some teen girls naked.

Symbols -- Fonda was having a go at artistic directing. There were many, but a few were quite blatant. Shortly after the teens realize that they're trapped in 2029, Karen plucks up a young flower, roots and all. Get it? They're young flowers uprooted. Then there was the pointless brain-teaser puzzle (some interlocked metal rings) that Karen played with, but could not solve. She asked Ronald if he knew how to solve it. He said no. Get it? Their future is a puzzle they cannot solve? There are several others. Fonda was having an artistic go at it.

Bottom line? IT is a very depressing film. The lead character survives all her ordeals, only to end up as fuel for some guy's futuristic Caprice. As with most time-travel films, there are some points to muse over. The acting is modest, since most were young amateurs. The directing is mediocre, but the mood is quite effective. People who dislike depressing-ending films, should skip IT. Fans of the foreboding 70s will find gloom galore, government conspiracies and confirmation that mankind will consume itself into a desolate doom. If you want to know WHY American was in malaise in the 70s. Watch this film.

Invasion of the Bee Girls

Nicholas Meyer (writer) and Denis Sanders (director) created cheap sexploitation film for the summer drive-in market. Invasion of the Bee Girls (IBG) was almost excluded from this study of old sci-fi movies, since its primary mission is gratuitous boobs and butts. Yet, despite the producers' obvious low-brow intentions, they almost (perhaps unintentionally) made some interesting sci-fi moments. Almost. The "Girls" don't turn into bees (as Wasp Woman did), nor do they wear black and yellow striped swimwear (as in the poster). They become bee-babe hybrids. IBG is not a family-friendly film, but has managed to develop a cult following.

Quick Plot Synopsis
(Kept brief by consolidating intercut story threads) Men in the small town of Peckham, CA are dying of heart attacks, apparently while having sex. Since one of them is a scientist working on military projects, a federal agent, Neil Agar (William Smith), is dispatched. More men die the same way, though some are just random nobodies. The local sheriff has no clue. Agar has no clue, but looks for clues aided by Julie Zorn (Victoria Vetri). They slowly discover that the head of the research lab, was studying genetics, and bees. He is away in europe. The acting director, Dr. Susan Harris (Anitra Ford) is suspiciously sultry and wears sunglasses all the time. Any man who appears to threaten the Bee Girls secret is killed -- usually by luring them into sex. The widows of the dead scientists are lured into a secret lab by Harris. There, they are turned into Bee Girls via some nuclear ray orgasmitron thingy, a body cast of marshmallow fluff, and a lot of bees. (No, it makes no sense, but that's "science" for you.) Thus genetically altered, the widows are dowdy no longer, but become hot babes with big black contact lenses to suggest compound eyes. They all wear big sunglasses and short skirts. Harris's "hive" of queen bees adds members and protects itself. Agar tells Julia, Stan and Aldo his theory that Harris has become genetically part bee and is making more queen bees. They kill men with sex. Stan scoffs and leaves, but his wife (normally cold) is suddenly hot to trot. He sees her bee eyes and knows Agar was right. Stan kills his killer bee wife just in time. Julie constructs a gizmo that will bleep if a bee-person is around. It bleeps at a funeral for Herb, at which all the bee babes attend. Harris, seeing Julia as a threat, lures her to the secret lab. They begin the naked bee-ificaiton on her, first with the blue-light orgasmatron. Agar comes running to help. He barges in and shoots the machine. He rescues naked Julia. The room fills with smoke and sparks. For some reason, all the bee girls die. When all has calmed down, Agar tosses Julia on a bed. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The soft porn aspect is somewhat annoying if one is after sci-fi. But the ruthless "colony" of mutants has some intriguing qualities. There is a sort of Stepford Wives quality to them, though in reverse.

Cultural Connection
Sexploitation films were not new, nor was soft porn. What was a rather early-70s phenomenon, was the obtuse-government-lab-gone-wrong trope. The government and military were popular as villains. The remote small town becomes a symbolic stand-in for America, ala Andromeda Strain. Beneath the low-brow pandering in IBG, lurks more of the 70s angst about government, the military, and science going wrong. Soft porn AND government conspiracy. Surely, a winning combination.

Notes
Lesbo-Feminist Angst -- There is a subtext in Meyer's story that suggests a fear of feminist lesbians taking over society. Harris and her bee girls don't "need" men (the way men want to be needed). They have their orgasmitron in the lab, but seem to auto-stimulate anyhow. There is the one woman-on-woman kiss when Harris "awakens" Mrs. Kline from the bee-ification process. They appear (at the funeral) as a socially bonded little group (in low-cut black dresses). There is the symbolism that they cannot reproduce via sex (despite being very sexy), so must recruit (abduct) new members. Agar, the man's man, rescues Julia and saves her for proper male-initiated hetero. One wonders if Meyer intended these messages, or just gave unconscious vent to his fears (and fetishes).

Amazons -- In some ways, Harris's "hive" of bee girls has affinities to a long-standing trope in film (and sci-fi in particular) -- the Colony of Lost Women. Sometimes, they're simply "lost" women (handily all in their 20s, svelt and pretty) as in Bowanga, Bowanga (aka Wild Women, '51), Fire Maidens of Outer Space ('58) and Queen of Outer Space ('58) -- a bevy of prime beauties, eager for some red-blooded men to "take" them. Often enough, though, in this trope the women are attractive, but also a threat (to men). Catwomen of the Moon ('53), Mesa of Lost Women ('53), and, say, Planet of the Invading Women ('67) show this. Harris and her bee girls are such a hostile colony. They are attractive. The hormonally imprudent men slobber for them. Yet, the babes are deadly to men. Therein seems to lurk a quiet cautionary tale for men. Look before you leap, or as the line from the old hymn said: "I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name."

Drone Death -- A biology fact that may have influenced Meyer's story, is that the male honey bee (the drone), does die after mating with the queen. It is not so much that the queen bee kills the drone as it is that sex for male bees is a one-time-thing. Just as female honey bees die after they sting (because their stinger parts rip out), drones' "parts" rip off after they've done their duty. They fly off and die. It's not the queen's fault. It's just how the drones are built.

Safe Sex -- Another curious subtext, whether intended or not, is the cautionary tale in parable, about unsafe sex. The local doctor tries to lecture about STDs, but is ridiculed by the crowd. There is the overt message. The parable form has all the men who throw morality to the wind (and seek out extramarital sex) die. Learn from their mistakes. The sheriff wisely declines Mrs.Kline's advances (she's in bee-mode at this point), so he lives.  Once Agar destroys the bee-maker device and kills all the Bee Girls, it's safe for sex again! He tosses Julia on a bed. Yay! Sex is saved again!  They must have worried about this in the 70s.

Alternate Title -- IBG was re-released on DVD with the title Graveyard Tramps. This suggests a zombie flick. It is still IBG. The re-releasers drew their title from the one graveyard scene in which all of the bee women attend Herb's funeral. They're tramps in that they eagerly seduce men, though with malice instead of "love.".

Bottom line? IBG is a very low budget, trashy soft porn aimed at a very low-brow audience. It's primary raison d'etre is to show boobs and butts. One should not plan to watch IBG while one's mother, boss or pastor may see you. The notes above may make it sound as if IBG is a more serious film than it is. There are plot holes aplenty and what little science is offered is insipid blather. The only reason IBG is included here, is for the interesting notion of an accidental mutant goes about duplicating "her kind" -- rather like the Pod People. IBG has its cult fans, but has only a little sci-fi lost amid the soft porn.

Sci-fi on the Op-Ed Page

Below is an Op-Ed by Jonah Goldberg. It ran on May 3rd. I include it here because it is quite salient to the mood of many early 70s sci-fi -- that (nasty old) mankind is using up Earth's resources and dooming ourselves to dystopia. As you'll see, the spirit of doom survived the 70s and lives on. But, is Goldberg correct in his assessment of what sci-fi "is supposed to be"?

Enough with the Malthusian science fiction
by Jonah Goldberg

IN THE NEW sci-fi movie “Oblivion,” Earth’s most precious resource is Tom Cruise. But running a close second (spoiler alert) is water. Aliens want it. All of it.

This is old hat, science fiction-wise. In “The War of the Worlds,” H.G. Wells had Martians coming to Earth to quench their thirst. The extraterrestrial lizards (cleverly disguised as human catalog models) in the 1980s TV series “V” came here to steal our water too — though they wanted it in part to wash down the meal they intended to make of us. In the more recent “Battle: Los Angeles,” pillaging Earth’s oceans was the only motivation we’re given for why aliens were laying waste to humanity.

The first problem with this plot device is that it’s pretty dumb. Hydrogen and oxygen are two of the most common elements in the universe. An alien race is savvy enough to master interstellar travel but too clueless to combine two Hs with one O to form H2O? C’mon.

At least in “Mars Needs Women,” the precious resource in question — Earth girls — by definition can be found only here, just as “real” Champagne must come from the region that bears its name. And though I have no doubt that Earth women really are the best, the logic of evolution suggests that compatibility issues for aliens would be a hurdle not even Match.com could overcome.

In “To Serve Man,” the famous “Twilight Zone” episode, the motivation was far more plausible: They wanted to eat us (“To Serve Man” — it’s a cookbook!). And who knows — maybe we’re delicious.

One rule of thumb in sci-fi is that the aliens are really us too. They reflect a good trait in humanity — think E.T., Spock or Mork — or a bad one. That’s why writers recycle ancient human motives — the desire to plunder, colonize, rape, enslave — as the motives of futuristic aliens.

That’s all fine. But science fiction is also supposed to raise ambitions for what humans can accomplish. And in that, Hollywood is failing.

For a while now, filmmakers have been churning out fare — like the horrendous remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” — based on the Malthusian assumption that resources are finite and if we keep going the way we are, the Earth will be “used up” (to borrow a phrase from the opening monologue of the canceled cult sensation “Firefly”). Either that or we’ll be invaded by aliens who appreciate our stuff more than we do.

The pessimism is infectious. Physicist and sci-fi nerd Stephen Hawking recently argued that maybe we should hide from aliens lest they rob us blind. When Newt Gingrich proposed a base on the moon, everyone guffawed as if such an optimistic ambition was absurd. The obsession with “peak oil” and the need to embrace “renewables” because we’re running out of fossil fuels is another symptom of our malaise. Fracking and other breakthroughs demonstrate that, at least so far, whatever energy scarcity we’ve had has been imposed by policy, not nature.

Which gets us back to outer space. In our neighborhood alone, there are thousands of asteroids with enormous riches — in gold, platinum, rare earth metals, etc. Planetary Resources Inc., an asteroid mining firm started last year by director James Cameron (ironic given the politics of his film “Avatar”) and some Microsoft and Google billionaires, has its sights on several rocks worth anywhere from hundreds of billions to tens of trillions of dollars. And these are just the chunks scattered around our orbital backyard and near enough to exploit with existing technology. There are also plenty of balls of ice out there that might be convertible into fuel for further space exploration.

Thomas Malthus and his intellectual descendants saw humans as voracious consumers of finite resources, like a “virus” devouring its host, as Agent Smith says in “The Matrix.” But humans are better understood as creators who’ve consistently solved the problems of scarcity by inventing or discovering new paths to abundance. As the late anti-Malthusian hero Julian Simon said, human imagination is the ultimate resource.

Unfortunately, that resource is dismayingly scarce these days, in Washington and Hollywood.

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Soylent Green

This is the big sci-fi film of 1973 and one of the major landmark films of the 70s. Soylent Green (SG) is a quintessential 70s sci-fi, with its blend of environment messages, dystopia, overpopulation themes and counter-culture suspicion of big corporations. It stars Charlton Heston as Detective Thorn and Edward G. Robinson, in his last film. Other famous actors in supporting roles include: Joseph Cotton, Whit Bissell, Chuck Connors and Dick van Patten (in a very minor role). The mood is very dystopic -- so popular in the early 70s.

Quick Plot Synopsis
In the year 2022, the earth is over crowded and resources depleated. A wealthy man named Simonson (Cotton) is assassinated in his luxury apartment. He expected it. Detective Thorn investigates and has a hunch it was not a robbery gone bad, but murder. Thorn suspects the bodyguard (Conners) is somehow in on it. He concludes that the young and voluptuous Shirl (Simonson's leased-babe) is just voluptuous. Thorn also knows he's onto something because he's being followed. Thorn lifted a couple books (and fresh food) from Simonson's apartment too. Thorn's old roommate Sol (Robinson) puzzles over the oceanographic reports. Various leads provide only tantalizing small pieces of the puzzle. Simonson was on the board of directors of Soylent Industries to make most of the world's synthetic food. Governor Santini was also his partner. A priest herd Simonson's last confession, and is found dead. Tab, the boddyguard, is in on it and out to get Thorn. The simpleton assassin who killed Simonson is also after Thorn. Sol and his circle of elderly book readers have deduced the truth. It is too horrible for Sol to bear, so he checks in to a euthanasia clinic to end it all. In his last moments, he whispers to Thorn the truth. Thorn follows Sol's body on trash trucks to a Disposal Plant, but it turns out they don't dispose of the bodies, but melt them down and make Soylent Green out of them. Thorn is discovered, but escapes. Tab finds him and almost kills him before Thorn kills Tab. As the wounded Thorn is taken out of the crowded poor-house (a church), he shouts that "Soylent Green is people!" Freeze frame. Roll credits. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Truth be told, SG is kind of a depressing film. Nothing gets better. The interesting part is all the layers of prophesying about the doom awaiting mankind. Greenberg's screenplay and Fleischer's directing give a powerful dystopic image of our future.

Cultural Connection
One of the significant things about SG, is that it manages to be a pupu platter of so many popular 70s activist issues without letting any one of them hijack the story into a maudlin polemic. Within SG, viewers will find: income inequality, oppression of women, global warming, environmental crash, evil corporations, evil politicians, police corruption and euthanasia. (More on those below.) These issues would remain hot button issues for the political-left for decades afterward. Many would get their own cause-celebre films, but SG managed to have almost all of them

Notes
Based on the Book -- Stanley Greenberg's screenplay is only loosely based on a 1966 novel by Harry Harrison, entitled "Make Room! Make Room!". The two are quite different stories, but have several elements in common. Overpopulation and poverty are there, but no cannibalism. The book has "soylent steaks" but they're veggieburger made of soy and lentils. Greenberg's story really stands on its own.

Rich v Poor -- The contrast between rich and poor is old in sci-fi. Metropolis (1927) featured the two worlds of the rich elite and the poor workers. The poor are shown sleeping on tenement stairways and in abandoned cars. The rich are shown with clean, spacious apartments. The poor wait in long lines for a half a kilo of synthetic food. The rich have an underground market for real vegetables and meat. The aspiring middle class, typified by Tab's apartment, is just a little bit less shabby, somewhat private, and since he's in cohoots with "the man," he's rich enough to buy $150 strawberry jam. Viewers are subtly encouraged to pity the poor and despise the rich.

Overpopulation -- This had become a more mainstream issue in the late '60s with Paul Ehrlich's book, "The Population Bomb." This trope showed up in several other films already. Z.P.G. was the more blatant of them. Ehrlich, and his disciples, gloomily predicted terrible doom within a decade, In '68, doom would come in the mid-70s. His doom never came. In fact, the opening text in SG announces that by 2022, the earth has 7 billion inhabitants, so in the movie, there's nowhere to put them and they sleep on the stairs and in parking lots, etc. But, the earth reached 7 billion in March of 2012 -- 10 years ahead of SG's dire prediction. Yet, social order has not collapsed into dystopia.

Global Warming -- This issue doesn't get much screen time, but it's there. Watch for allusions to it always being hot. When Shirl suggests turning on the air conditioner, she enthuses that they can make it snow (indoors), like the snow of the before-times. In 2022, it is always hot.

Police Corruption -- Even though Thorn is a dedicated cop and essentially on the side of law and order, it is apparently routine for cops to skim some graft wherever they go. While checking out the crime scene, Thorn takes some food, demands whisky, etc. He takes soap and towels and books for Sol. Later, he takes advantage of Shirl's furniture status. All part of the system. Viewers are expected to be shocked at the immoral cops.

Women as Property -- Shirl, and many others, are property. Thorn calls them "furniture." They come with the apartment, for use by the renter. All of the apartments in the building (run by Charles) have their own female furniture. They are so accustomed to being servile property that Thorn only has to suggest a bit of casual graft on his part includes sex with Shirl. She goes along with it, answering his questions, as if it were of no more import than peeling an orange.Even Tab, the aspiring middle-class man, has his own 'kept' woman' -- Martha. She flirts with Thorn, as if her only real reason to exist is to please a man -- any man. Viewers are expected to be shocked at seeing women as commodities.

Euthanasia -- An erie part of the screenplay is that old people are encouraged to commit suicide for the betterment of mankind. There is a large, clean facility call "Home" which checks in the elderly as if at a hotel. They get to pick their favorite colors, music and images. They lay on a raised bed, sip the poison, the lie back and enjoy the widescreen-surround-sound show for their last comfortable 20 minutes. All quite routine.

Corrupt Power -- The crux of the movie, is that the (evil) corporate and political establishment have lied about making Soylent Green out of plankton. The truth is that mankind polluted the oceans and killed the plankton too. On top of that, they figured out a way to recycle dead people to make food. Thorn rightly warns people that this means the (evil) authorities' next step is to regard the poor as livestock to be tended and harvested.

Riot Control -- In an era of war protests, the intervention of The Scoops is a chilling visual. Trash trucks with front-end loader scoops drive into the mass of protesters. The trucks scoop up a load of people and dump them in their boxes. The masses have been devalued to the point of being rubbish which must be cleared away. Viewers are expected to horrified at what lengths The Man will go to.

Appropriate End -- As a footnote, SG was Edward G. Robinson's last film. While SG was filming, he was dying of cancer. This lends some real and unintended poignancy to his final scene in the euthanasia chamber. His last few feet of film, are him acting out his own death. He died a couple weeks after filming was done.

Bottom line? SG is one of those must-see films -- even for those who aren't sci-fi fans. It is a powerful story and much more of a social commentary than a monsters-and-aliens film. Heston and Robinson provide good performances. Director Richard Fleischer provides compelling visuals. Screenwriter Stanley Greenberg provides a deep story with many layers of subtext. SG is not only worth watching, it's worth watching several times to explore it's many minor threads.