Genre-Bending Soylent Green

As more stories are told in films, more and more often the lines between genres can become blurred. An early example of this is Soylent Green (1973).

Soylent Green, like much of the 70’s, is hard to categorize. The easiest category to place it into would have to be the science fiction genre; if only based on the fact that it takes place in the future and the majority of the plot is rooted deep in science. Another category that it can be placed into would be the fantasy genre; a little harder to rationalize but as Sanders states “the cannibal denouement…is pure fantasy” (Sanders 327). 

Both these points are valid and arguable, but there is a third genre it could be placed in, namely ‘science fantasy’. Now, this may seem like a cop-out, but it is a valid cop-out.

In order to understand this cop-out, there must first be a definition of the two genres. Firstly fantasy is a genre that “violates the conventional norms of possibility” (Malmgren 260). The term fantasy evokes Lord of the Rings-esque images of dragons, wizards, short-guys and flaming eyes. 

Well, where does that leave Soylent Green? Well, as Sanders argues the simple idea of cannibalism does in fact violate these conventional norms, thusly placing this into the fantasy genre.        

But this is not the end of the story, because Soylent Green can also be placed very comfortably into the science fiction genre, a genre that “dictate[s] that the author thereafter adhere to the laws of nature and the laws inherent to the scientific method” (Malmgren 260). 

Soylent Green does in fact adhere to these laws. The film showed many examples of this: the highly processed, highly nutritious, highly efficient, food stuffs to feed a population growing out of control, or how the beginning of the film showed how the scientific advances supposed to make life easier, in fact caused the death of the beauty of the planet. Based on these ideas, Soylent Green can be placed quiet squarely into the science fiction genre.

But where does this leave Soylent Green? It would seem very little has been answered here in respect to the question of which genre to place the film. Have a little faith. For as stated earlier, this film should not be placed in either genre but instead placed into a mash up of the two genres. Genre lines are often blurred and fudged, and Soylent Green is a perfect example of this.

This film has examples of both science fiction and fantasy, which in a sense is contradictory of itself as fantasy films are allowed, if not required, to violate all that science fiction stands for. If a fantasy film wants to introduce a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe, it simply does it. There’s no explanation needed as there is in a science fiction movie (Malmgren 261). 

So based on this, a few conclusions about Soylent Green can be drawn. The film does provide an explanation for the need for the processed food stuffs, as the population was exploding out of control, but the cannibalism, argued by Sanders, is “pure fantasy”, therefore has no, and needs no, explanation.

This leads us to the science fantasy genre, which has the orderly, explainable universe of a science fiction film, but like a fantasy film it contains “at least one violation of the laws that we derive from the current state of science” (261). So by this definition Soylent Green fits perfectly into this definition. The majority of the film is well explained by science but it throws a profound curve with the cannibalism aspect.

               

 The idea and definition of genres are very complicated and often times get blurred and mashed together in all sorts of ways. Some of these can be very strange but others can work so well that they could one day be their own genre. One example of this is the idea of ‘science fantasy’ and a good example of a film that will represent this genre in the future is Soylent Green.   

  

          Work Cited

       1. Malmgren, Carl D. "Towards A Definition Of Science Fantasy." Science Fiction Studies 15.3             (1988): 259-281. Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text. Web. 13 May 2012.

      

      2. Sanders, John. The Film Genre Book. Leighton Buzzard: Auteur, 2009. Print.