Editing Soylent Green (section)

==Production==
[[File:Harry Harrison in Moscow.jpg|left|thumb|[[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]], whose 1966 novel ''[[Make Room! Make Room!]]'' was adapted into ''Soylent Green'', had no creative control over the film and was of mixed opinion on the final product.]]
The screenplay was based on [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]]'s novel ''[[Make Room! Make Room!]]'' (1966), which was set in the year 1999 with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing poverty, [[Food security|food shortages]], and [[social disorder]]. Harrison was contractually denied control over the screenplay and was not told during negotiations that [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] was buying the film rights.<ref name="tcm"/> He discussed the adaptation in ''Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies'' (1984), noting the "murder and chase sequences [and] the 'furniture' girls are not what the film is about{{snd}} and are completely irrelevant" and answered his own question, "Am I pleased with the film? I would say 50 percent."<ref name="tcm">{{cite web |last=Stafford |first=Jeff |title=Soylent Green |url= https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/406/ |publisher= [[Turner Classic Movies]] |date=July 28, 2003|access-date=June 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Peary|editor-first=Danny |editor-link=Danny Peary|title= Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies |url=https://archive.org/details/omnisscreenfligh00pear |year=1984|place=Garden City, NY|publisher= Doubleday|isbn=0-385-19202-9}}</ref>

While the book refers to "soylent steaks" (made from [[soy]] and [[lentil]]), it makes no reference to "Soylent Green", the processed [[Food ration bar|food rations]] depicted in the film. The book's title was not used for the movie on grounds that it might have confused audiences into thinking it was a big-screen version of ''[[The Danny Thomas Show|Make Room for Daddy]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Harrison|first=Harry | url=http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/hh/soycann.htm |title=A Cannibalised Novel Becomes ''Soylent Green'' |publisher=[[Ireland On-Line]] |work=Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies| year= 1984 |access-date=September 7, 2009}}</ref>

This was the 101st and final film in which [[Edward G. Robinson]] appeared; he died of [[bladder cancer]] on January 26, 1973, two months after the completion of filming. In his book ''The Actor's Life: Journal 1956–1976'', Heston wrote, "He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill. He never missed an hour of work, nor was late to a call. He never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life. I'm still haunted, though, by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture, which he knew was the last day's acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Actor's Life: Journal 1956–1976|page=395|last=Heston |first=Charlton|authorlink=Charlton Heston|editor-last=Alpert|editor-first=Hollis |editor-link=Hollis Alpert|publisher=E. P. Dutton|year=1978|isbn=0-525-05030-2}}</ref> Robinson had previously worked with Heston in ''[[The Ten Commandments (1956 film)|The Ten Commandments]]'' (1956) and the make-up tests for ''[[Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes]]'' (1968).

The film's opening sequence, depicting America becoming more crowded with a series of archive photographs set to music, was created by filmmaker [[Charles Braverman]]. The "going home" score in Roth's death scene was conducted by [[Gerald Fried]] and consists of the main themes from [[Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)|Symphony No.&nbsp;6]] ("Pathétique") by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No.&nbsp;6]] ("Pastoral") by [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] and [[Peer Gynt (Grieg)|Peer Gynt]] ("[[Morning Mood]]" and "Åse's Death") by [[Edvard Grieg]]. A custom cabinet unit of the early arcade game ''[[Computer Space]]'' was used in ''Soylent Green'' and is considered the first appearance of a [[video game]] in a film.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Marty|last1=Goldberg|first2=Curt|last2=Vendel|year=2012|title=Atari Inc: Business Is Fun|publisher=Syzygy Press|page=45|isbn=978-0-9855974-0-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3FwGMtRafrAC&pg=PA45|access-date=May 16, 2018}}</ref>