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Soylent Green (1973)
Soylent Green (1973) poster
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Soylent Green (1973)

Science Fiction, Crime, Mystery • 1h 37m

Director: Richard Fleischer

Letterboxd
IMDbThe Movie Database (TMDB)

Best English-friendly & audio release

Updated 2 months ago

Best video release


Additional info

1992 MGM LaserDisc [ML102574] includes isolated score

UHD tiers

Solid
Arrow

About the film

In the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green.

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Part of Is this Perfect?

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Director: Jean Vigo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray with much better encoding than the Gaumont Blu-ray with the same 4K restoration see caps

Criterion Blu-ray uses an older restoration

Director: Robert Bresson

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton & Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Director: Otakar Vávra

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review

Best Audio:

Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD

Audio Notes:

Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.

Director: Basil Dearden

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

(Indicator 4K Blu-ray, based on review)

Director: Robert Rossen

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Director: Anthony Mann

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2008 Universal DVD mono

Audio Notes:

The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin. 

Additional Info:

The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.

Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Imprint AU 4K is world UHD debut and encoded by FiM. Part of the The Cinema Of Powell & Pressburger - Collection Two set.

Director: Charles Crichton

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Basil Dearden

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion

More from Richard Fleischer

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Director: Richard Fleischer

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has solid encode but controversial colors by Hiventy

Director: Richard Fleischer

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Richard Fleischer

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Richard Fleischer

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

More from Arrow

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Director: Peter Jackson

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow US/UK 4K Blu-ray or Turbine Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Both will look identical in motion but the Turbine looks marginally better due to a higher bitrate allocation by each cut being given its own disc, whereas Arrow had FiM seamlessly branch the two onto one. However, Arrow has both cuts in Open Matte (on Blu-Ray) and corrected the opening Universal logo's aspect ratio. https://slow.pics/c/McvVcYDG

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

Director: Rob Reiner

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · instagram.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.

Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here. 

The 4K master has a shot at the very end of the movie (on James Caan's face) that looks incredibly soft and not good at all. This was visible on the DCP as well so it might just be a source issue rather than being the fault of Kino, Capelight or Arrow.

Director: Rob Reiner

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026

Video Notes:

Like many of Capelight's other releases, the 4K Blu-ray is low-passed but still looks good.

Best Audio:

30th Anniversary Shout! Factory BD has the original stereo mix

Director: Michael Anderson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

Director: Brian De Palma

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1993 Universal LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Carlito’s Way was released theatrically in both Dolby Stereo and DTS. The 2.0 on the Arrow UHD is the original stereo mix, unknown if the 5.1 mix on the  Arrow disc is the original DTS mix.

Director: Tony Scott

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Director: Michael Mann

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · thedigitalbits.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT

Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.

Best Audio:

5.1/5.0 mix (essentially a 4-track mix in 5.1 and 5.0 containers respectively)-Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24. 

2.0 mix- Arrow 4K Blu-ray (original stereo)

Additional Info:

Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras 

Criterion has FEL Dolby Vision, Arrow has MEL

Arrow Limited Edition includes the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray from an older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.

Director: John Boorman

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: highdefdiscnews.com (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Audio Notes:

(Arrow 4K Blu-ray's mono seems to be out of sync, suggested by comparisons. Issue is TBC officially)

Best Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded, see caps

Additional Info:

Arrow LE will have an exclusive 3rd disc which will not be on the standard edition

Director: Fred Dekker

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber

Director: Lewis Teague

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

> disappointing US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray / R1 Lionsgate DVD sounds best and has the original mono and the R1 Lionsgate DVD has a Dolby Stereo remix

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· last reviewed 2 months ago

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