They Live was always the go to conspiracy theorist movie. Not only was it widely misinterpreted by the influencers of its era, it was just simply a helluva lot of fun. The misinterpreted commentary may seem extremely relevant to the world now, a review of the elite, rich and powerful doing whatever they want. They, the aliens, seem like a good stand in for the elite class. And it’s up to the downtrodden lead by Roddy Piper in the perfect casting job to end it. But it’s actually about rampant, unchecked consumerism and unsustainable economics. I’ll leave you to Google it and find out the details if you’re interested.
Stepping back in to memory lane, I cut my teeth on monster movies that although not forbidden to me, let’s just say it was discouraged. Although color TV existed early in my youth a lot of the content was still black and white. Between that and regular church attendance I could out that humans love to tell stories. Culturally, if your society doesn’t have a back story rooted in fiction you don’t have a society. Then the problem becomes what happens when governments try to create stories that are fictitious, but insist that they are truth. A lot of people would prefer to ignore the nuttier government stories and just enjoy touching some grass and escaping to books, TV and the movie theater. Permissible stories because of the love/hate relationship between film industries and books vs. actual censorship by government. The culture of entertainment media consumption combined with the spending of money and driving the economy. And although some of the censorship is direct government involvement, the more fun variation is some moral outrage. Oh no! Another movie from those commies in Hollywood about witches! Save the children from the demons and witches!
Soylent Green was not censored. That deal was sealed by the presence of future NRA darling Charlton Heston being cast in the lead role. Heston was solid as an actor and sexy. Something necessary to put butts in theater seats long before Blockbuster Video and later streaming services. And if you wanted someone who wasn’t busy making biblical related films like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments to play lead in a social commentary sci fi film, Heston was at the top of the list. The Omega Man, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green. Based on thoughtful novels and converted the naughty material to palatable screen time that lesser minds could easily misinterpret as action movies. Perfect material to advise against younger viewers watching. Wait until you grow up a little more.
Soylent Green the movie is different from the book. The movie idea of people basically turning to cannibalism to eat is missing from the novel. A fun, well done surprise reveal that remains iconic as it should. The novel focuses on the topics of resource scarcity, government and corporate control (or lack thereof) societal dystopia. Themes still in the movie, although to sanitize it and make it more audience friendly by turning it into a detective story action thriller. Themes from a movie made over 50 years ago. That’s enough for two solid generations to grow up and be raised. Themes that are not outdated but still relevant now, maybe more relevant. A movie like the book that’s literally set in 2022. A book written in 1966 as a thought provoking cautionary tale that shows we really haven’t made much progress. We’ve seen this movie before, and it does not end well.
As related countless times here, the modern conspiracy theorist, the type relying on fake evidence like gematria, they didn’t say much about Soylent Green. They Live was newer and fresher. Better practical and visual effects. Sexier. Heston was too old for a believable lead role. Better suited for outrage porn to modern generations, then heaven forbid actually do some real research and dig into societal problems that existed for forever. Resource scarcity, overpopulation, pollution, global warming are real things. It doesn’t matter if the movie is about the Ten Commandments or people eating crackers made from ground up other human beings. The scientific reality still exists.
Those dear old black and white movies, even like Frankenstein and how freaking old that book is. A cautionary tale of rapid technological progress vs. scared societal reaction. You don’t need to reach a point where the villagers are actually getting out the pitchforks and torches to rid themselves of the scapegoated monster. Just the thought that this is what is on people’s minds is terrifying enough. The breaking out the pitchforks level is a whole new level of crazy and disruptive society members you really don’t want to reach. Where we’re at now is plenty disruptive enough, thank you very much. And an education with something like gematria, beyond telling some comforting biblical gematria stories, an education focusing on scamming, greed and taking resources away from others really doesn’t help. It would be nice to have some adults in the room to intelligently talk about the squandering of fossil fuels, water and mineral resources on things like cryptocurrency and data centers at a time like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment