If you have yet to see it, we'll start with a spoiler: 1973's Soylent Green is people. "It's people!" This sci-fi touched on ecological issues while Earth Day was still wet behind the ears. Pollution, global warming, dying oceans and overpopulation have turned the earth from a big blue marble into a living hell, where the lack of food has caused the Soylent Corporation to make plankton a taste treat. But those dying oceans have stopped giving forth with the plankton, and that green food has to come from somewhere.
Charlton Heston plays a cop who, in the course of investigating a murder, discovers what the poor people are eating. Soylent Green also features Edward G. Robinson's last credited appearance in a movie.
Some say Champagne pairs well with anything, but expecting it to elevate Soylent Green may be asking too much. However, let's get a sparkler from a lower shelf to go with this film. Portugal's Vinho Verde region produces what is called "green wine," but that’s a reference to its young age. The effervescent white should go nicely with a plankton salad, especially if you’re a "people person."
Things to Come, from 1936, was written by H.G. Wells - who had a way with envisioning the future. This vision looks at the span of time from 1940 - barely the future at that time - to 2036 - a century down the road. In Wells' story, world war drags on for decades as civilization crumbles, only to find rebirth after guys in fantastic flying machines arrive to save humanity from itself. There's even a moon shot, which almost doesn't happen when the Luddites decide to stand in the way of what they consider to be unnecessary progress. Damned Luddites, anyway.
Nearly a dozen different cuts of Things To Come were made, of varying lengths, ranging from a little over an hour to two hours. The movie did okay with critics and paying customers back in the '30s, but it has evolved into what is considered by many to be a masterpiece of science fiction.
Santa Barbara County's Future Perfect Wine certainly has the market cornered on optimism, especially with the experts saying that climate change presents a bleak future for California wine. Future Perfect has a 2021 Sauvignon Blanc which they call a "breakfast wine." That’s right - in the future we'll have wine for breakfast, in case you aren't already doing that.
Canada's 1983 entry into the world of body horror, Videodrome, is David Cronenberg's vision of a future of mind control by television. The chief suit of a Toronto TV station happens upon snuff films on a satellite signal. Being a broadcast executive, he naturally figures that this is the future wave of his medium and he begins to rebroadcast the shows. The situation gets political pretty fast, as the suit delves deeper and deeper into a real-life battle for the minds of the viewers. Videodrome is a trippy, creepy whiff of the future from 1983 - a future which, like things in a rear-view mirror, may be closer than they appear.
Certainly films that feature the torture and killing of human beings fall into the category of deadly sin. So, let's grab a 7 Deadly Zins for Videodrome. Lodi Zinfandel has not been associated with eternal damnation since the 1970s, but we'll make an exception for this Cronenberg cult classic.
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