Soylent Green
Posted by Skrud at Friday, November 9th 2007 at 7:18pm
I was lucky that the first time I watched Soylent Green, I was about 9 years old and I had a TV in my room. (During the 1993 Stanley Cup final game, the babysitter told me I had to go to my room to bed. She never told me that I had to leave the TV in the basement. So I carried it upstairs to my room – where it stayed – and I watched the final minutes of the Habs’ most recent Stanley Cup victory. But I digress…)
I used to stay up late watching the random movies they show on CBC immediately before they sign off. I remember seeing the entry for Soylent Green in the TV guide and the fact that it was classified as “Sci-Fi” and figured I’d watch it. The first time I saw it (it turns out, Soylent Green is a common CBC late night movie) I thought it was ridiculous and lame. Nothing happened during the entire movie, until “Soylent Green is people!!!”. It didn’t really have much of a point.
The reason I say I’m lucky, is that when I later started watching comedies, many of them parodied and referenced the famous line. If I had seen the parodies before watching Soylent Green, there’s no way I could have appreciated the comedy as much. I would’ve heard the joke, watched the movie, thought “this movie is lame”, and then the joke would forever be in my mind as this back-ported kind of reference. Seeing the movie in my youth let me appreciate the humour.
I wonder how people who haven’t seen the original Star Wars trilogy get through life. Pretty much every popular form of comedy references Star Wars at one point or another. Do they just not get the jokes? Or is it that they’re so used to hearing the Star Wars references that they’ve pretty much pieced together the entire trilogy in their minds? If these people were to watch Star Wars now, could they get any enjoyment out of it? Would the jokes be funnier after having seen Star Wars?
Seriously. Everyone should see Star Wars. At least once. (And Soylent Green, too.)
I’m worried about when I have kids. I basically have to completely isolate them from all forms of media until they’re old enough to watch Empire and understand it before the mainstream media ruins the surprise for them.
I should develop some form of media-deprivation chamber.
Pretty good point you’re raising here.