Crisis of Liberalism: "Soylent Green" and "Chinatown"

In "Genre Transformations and the Failure of Liberalism", by Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner, films of the seventies can be seen as a sort of barometer for the social and political attitudes of the time. Ryan and Kellner describe the general attitude by saying "Previously respected institutions like government and business were cast in a negative light, and the crisis of confidence gave rise to a confidence of criticism. Indeed, it was what conservatives later …

…Chinatown and Soylent Green are films about corrupt governments and corporations with grand conspiracies, typical of films in the seventies made from the liberal view point. They contribute to the "failure of liberalism" though by only being pessimistic views of the world, and never providing answers for what to do. Both films have terrible endings, making it feel as though nothing has changed or ever will change when it comes to the powerful and controlling.