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Soylent Green and The Omega Man on DVD

Omega Man

Here’s a couple of minor science fiction classics starring one of the liberals’ favorite punching bags, the great Charlton Heston.

Neither of these flicks are particularly upbeat (in fact, they’re both downright downers in their portrayals of pessimistic futures), but at least The Omega Man ends on a hopeful note. Both films are based on novels by acclaimed science fiction authors, though that doesn’t necessarily mean excrement to a tree when it comes to translating prose into the visual medium. Omega Man comes from Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend,” while Soylent Green was spawned by Harry Harrison’s “Make Room! Make Room!”

The Omega Man sees Robert Neville (Heston), who was once a scientist working on a cure for the biological warfare horrors upon which the human race was working. Alas, he does find a cure, but only in time to inject it into himself as the human race and human society is decimated by the same horror.

Now we find Neville the last man on earth, kind of. He’s the last normal human, but there are plenty of other humans around - Morlock-like mutants who hide from the light and only come out at night. They’re basically a society of religious-like zealots who believe the plague was punishment for Man’s sins and that they are the inheritors of the world, but must eschew the technology and society they think brought about the destruction.

Their leader, Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) leads them on a crusade to rid the Earth of the remaining humans, which in this case amounts to Neville. For his part, Neville goes out by day but at night lives in a self-contained, armored apartment where he fights off attacks by the mutants.

Then one day, (Surprise, Surprise!) Neville discovers he isn’t alone; there’s another small pocket of normal humanity led by Lisa (Rosalind Cash) and Dutch (Paul Koslo), the latter of whom was pursuing a medical career when the end came. This comes in handy as Neville still knows how to make the antidote to the plague - which can also cure mutants of their condition and restore them to “normal” humanity, and he can use an assistant/student.

The plan is to start a new human colony in the sticks, where the mutants can’t get at them, but the mutants aren’t going to have anything do to that. After all, they’re the inheritors of the Earth and if they can go back to their old forms that would be a repudiation of their new society and a re-embracing of all the hated things that they now believe.

Anyway, we also get a romance between Neville and Lisa (an interracial romance - oooooh! This was undoubtedly pushing the envelope when Omega Man came out, but it’s so irrelevant now it’s almost laughable), which gives us hope for a new Adam and Eve-type situation.

Except that fate still has a few surprises up her sleeve.

The movie’s enjoyable enough, though it’s preachy and heavy handed, but sci-fi fans didn’t have a lot of quality flicks from which to choose during the 1970’s and this is arguably one of the better ones.

The cast is good. Heston is always great and, as always, commands the screen.

The DVD is very good, too. The picture, which is presented in anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible), looks terrific for the most part. There are a few grainy scenes, but overall the picture is sharp and clean and colorful. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and unremarkable.

Extras include an all-new introduction by cast members Eric Laneuville (who plays a kid who begins to succumb to the plague) and Paul Koslo as well as co-writer Joyce H. Corrington. There’s also a promotional featurette (“The Last man Alive”) and a quick text essay on Mr. Heston’s science fiction flicks - the latter of which, unfortunately, is really a waste of binary data. There’s also the trailer.

Soylent Green

Soylent Green is arguably the more entertaining of the two movies.

There are plenty of normal people here, in New York City of 2022 - too many, in fact. The world is severely overpopulated, to the point where throngs of homeless people are sleeping in stairwells and resources are so scarce that only the really wealthy (who are always evil, right?) can afford stuff like real whiskey and meat.

The Big Food, distributed by a Big Food Cartel, is something called Soylent and while we don’t know what’s in it it’s obviously something as artificial as the crap the “food police” are trying to foist on people today. The newest one is turning out to be the most popular: Soylent Green. It’s munchy!

Heston plays NYPD Detective Robert Thorne, who’s trying to solve a murder and a subsequent cover up that threatens to blow open some very closely held secrets.

Times are tough, and even a good cop like Thorne isn’t above “taking inventory” from a crime scene. Where Columbo will scoop up a cigarette butt and place it carefully into a plastic bag to keep as evidence, Thorne will scoop up a bottle of hootch or a slab of beef and take it home with him to share with his elderly curmudgeonly roommate Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson).

Roth remembers better times, when it wasn’t always oppressively crowded and hot and poverty wasn’t so rampant, and he’s sick and tired of the bad times in which he lives. He’s ready to die and, fortunately, this future society makes that easy and relatively pleasant.

As Thorne’s investigation continues, he gets closer and closer to the secret that’s being guarded so closely - supporting cast is also first rate. Leigh Taylor-Young is wonderful as Shirl, a piece of furniture who’s basically a prostitute who lives in the luxury apartment and gets passed from tenant to tenant, if subsequent tenants find her desirable.

Thorne finds her desirable, and vice versa, and this provides the love interest in Soylent Green, even though he can’t afford the apartment for which she’s part of the decor.

Part cautionary tale (environuts will love it!) and part detective story, Soylent Green is another one of those weak overall but still enjoyable sci-fi flicks that fans will love to own. And the DVD does the movie justice.

The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible, and the picture quality is very good indeed, with a sharp image and good color. Audio, the usual Dolby Digital mono, is fine considering the source.

Extras include a running commentary by Leigh Taylor-Young and director Richard Fleischer. We have lots of time for Mr. Fleischer, who has helmed such classics as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Doctor Doolittle, Conan the Destroyer, etc.

You also get a vintage promotional feature “The World of Soylent Green,” MGM’s tribute to Edward G. Robinson’s 101st film (now that’s entertainment!), and the same lame Heston Sci-Fi movies essay found on Omega Man. There’s also the trailer.

Neither of these flicks reach the standard of the truly great science fiction films, but they’re both enjoyable, worth seeing and worth owning if you’re a fan of serious science fiction movies.

The Omega Man, from Warner Home Video,
98 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash
Produced by Walter Seltzer
Written by John William and Joyce H. Corrington, Directed by Boris Sagal

Soylent Green, from Warner Home Video
97 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Edward G. Robinson
Produced by Walter Seltzer and Russell Thacher
Written by Stanley R. Greenberg, Directed by Richard Fleischer

 

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