Editing Soylent Green (section)

==Critical response==
[[File:Edward G. Robinson at the New York premiere of The Ten Commandments.jpg|thumb|[[Edward G. Robinson]] was praised by critics for his performance in ''Soylent Green'', which he completed filming 84 days before his death.]]
The film was released on April 19, 1973, and met with mixed reactions from critics.<ref name="nytreview"/> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' called it "intermittently interesting", noting that "Heston forsak[es] his granite [[stoicism]] for once" and asserting the film "will be most remembered for the last appearance of Edward G. Robinson.... In a rueful irony, his death scene, in which he is hygienically dispatched with the help of piped-in light classical music and movies of rich fields flashed before him on a towering screen, is the best in the film."<ref>{{cite magazine| url= http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907127,00.html | title= Cinema: Quick Cuts| date= April 30, 1973| magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] |volume=101|issue=18 |access-date=June 12, 2011}}</ref> ''[[New York Times]]'' critic [[A. H. Weiler]] wrote, "''Soylent Green'' projects essentially simple, muscular [[melodrama]] a good deal more effectively than it does the potential of man's seemingly witless destruction of the Earth's resources"; Weiler concludes "Richard Fleischer's direction stresses action, not nuances of meaning or characterization. Mr. Robinson is pitiably natural as the realistic, sensitive oldster facing the futility of living in dying surroundings. But Mr. Heston is simply a rough cop chasing standard bad guys. Their 21st-century New York occasionally is frightening but it is rarely convincingly real."<ref name="nytreview">{{cite news |last=Weiler |first=A. H. |date=April 20, 1973 |title=Screen: 'Soylent Green' |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/20/archives/screen-soylent-green.html |access-date=June 12, 2011 |authorlink=A. H. Weiler}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "a good, solid science-fiction movie, and a little more".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/soylent-green-1973 |title=Soylent Green |last=Ebert |first=Roger |authorlink=Roger Ebert |date=April 27, 1973 |website=[[RogerEbert.com]] |access-date=December 10, 2018 }}</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a silly detective yarn, full of juvenile Hollywood images. Wait 'til you see the giant snow shovel scoop the police use to round up rowdies. You may never stop laughing."<ref>{{cite news|last=Siskel|first=Gene |authorlink=Gene Siskel |date=May 1, 1973 |title=Scorpio & Soylent |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=Section 2, p. 5|no-pp=yes}}</ref> Arthur D. Murphy of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote, "The somewhat plausible and proximate horrors in the story of 'Soylent Green' carry the Russell Thacher-Walter Seltzer production over its awkward spots to the status of a good futuristic [[exploitation film]]."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Murphy|first=Arthur D.|date=April 18, 1973|title=Soylent Green |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=22}}</ref> [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called it "a clever, rough, modestly budgeted but imaginative work".<ref>{{cite news|last=Champlin|first=Charles|authorlink=Charles Champlin|date=April 18, 1973|title=Grim Future in 'Soylent Green'|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|page=Part IV, p. 1|no-pp=yes}}</ref> [[Penelope Gilliatt]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' was negative, writing, "This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn't a brain in its beanbag. Where is [[democracy]]? Where is the [[election|popular vote]]? Where is [[Women's liberation movement|women's lib]]? Where are the [[uprising]] poor, who would have suspected what was happening in a moment?"<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Gilliatt|first=Penelope |authorlink=Penelope Gilliatt|date=April 28, 1973 |title=The Current Cinema: Hungry? |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|page=131|url=http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1973-04-28#folio=131|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 71%, based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The site's consensus states: "While admittedly melodramatic and uneven in spots, ''Soylent Green'' ultimately succeeds with its dark, plausible vision of a dystopian future."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/soylent_green/ |title=Soylent Green (1973) |website= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date= June 9, 2024 }}</ref>