‘Soylent Green’ Warned Us About Twenty-Twenty-Two

My preview of this year came during summer 1973 when one of mom’s drive-in movie adventures ended with showing of “Soylent Green”, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson—both pictured, respectively, in the first screenshot. Mama would have been 32 years old, with four kids piled into an overly spacious, blue Chrysler Plymouth that by today’s gas-guzzling standards was more akin to a boat on four wheels.

I got to thinking about the film a few months back, seeing as how its dystopian future is 2022, when there is supposed to be environmental devastation, famine, overpopulation, riots, war, and wide gulf of wealth and poverty separating the elite class from everyone else. Hold on, does that not describe the year to date?

Climate Change whiners claim the world is doomed to become a hot house (think Venus) and that the clock runs down to environmental armageddon on Jan. 1, 2030. There is threat of famine from the war between Russia and Ukraine, which by the day involves more countries. Riots are simmering in famine-stricken areas of the Middle East and near boiling in the United States following yesterday’s unprecedented Supreme Court leak that has Pro-Choice agitators promising to burn down everything if Roe vs Wade is overturned. Then there is the wealth gap that made some people filthy rich during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 pandemic, while most of the rest struggle with rising inflation, soaring food and gasoline prices, and unprecedented costs to buy or rent a place to live. As for overpopulation, have you been to densely-packed Los Angeles or New York lately? In the City of Angels, cherubs don’t wear wings but are earthbound bodies piled into huge homeless encampments.

Wow, maybe “Soylent Green” is more prescient than I initially thought, except for  the foodstuff itself. Things aren’t that bad yet. But, hey, it’s only early May. There is plenty of Twenty-Twenty-Two left to fill in the gaps.

Every few weeks, I search to see if the movie is streaming somewhere. Best option was to purchase or rent. That is until last night’s looking around. HBO Max now offers “Soylent Green” free to subscribers like me, and I am watching all 97 minutes of the dirty dystopian 2022 grit soon as this missive posts.