The Ωmega Man (1971) Directed by Boris Sagal. Starring Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe and Rosiland Cash. Based on the Richard Matheson's novel I am Legend.
When I first was introduced to The Omega Man I was but a young lad just coming off my first brush with movie legend Charlton Heston whom I was familiar from The Planet of the Apes franchise. Let's face it Chuck was cool. He was the super uberhuman who parted the Red Sea, faced down an army of apes, rode Roman chariots to victory and warned us that Soylent Green was made from people.
The Omega Man, (Directed by Boris Sagal, Father of Katey Sagal AKA Peg Bundy) serves as one of my all time favourite post apocalyptic films. The tone of the opening sets up the entire film as we see Heston's character Robert Neville casually cruising up and down the abandoned streets of downtown L.A. all the while listening to the theme of A Summer Place. As he stops to turn the corner he lays a barrage of bullets into a nearby building that clearly has a dark figure moving in it. Most likely a mutated human being, a scavenger... or perhaps a Jehovah's witness.
Based loosely on the Richard Matheson's novel I am Legend the movie is the second film adaptation of this work. The first was titled The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and is also a favourite of mine. Then of course there's the Will Smith version... and the less said about that one the better.
The plot revolves around the destruction of the civilized world thanks to chemical warfare instigated by a conflict between the Russians and the Chinese. Colonel Robert Neville (our hero) develops an experimental vaccine to the poisonous bacilli but only has enough to test it on himself, making him effectively the last non-mutated human being on Earth. And if anyone has to represent humanity then who better than Moses the guy who fought a thousand apes?
Neville lives in a lavish L.A. penthouse. During the day, he roams through the vacant city picking up supplies, confiscating cars from withdrawn dealerships and occasionally killing the odd goon who happens to cross his path. (Neville also takes in some cinema watching a private screening of the movie Woodstock, clearly showing that the world ended in 1973). At night, he fends off a horde of savage book burning mutants who call themselves The Family.
Anthony Zerbe plays the Leader of The Family named Matthias, formerly Johnathan Matthias, News anchor turned cult leader. Once just a man looking to clean up the city from all the dead, suddenly a mutated soul with a mission to bury and burn all things progressive and technologically conceived.
Matthias and Neville make perfect foils as two juxtapositioned ideals facing off against each other. Neville harbours all that humanity was, in art science and progress. All this stored in his apartment protected by floodlights, surveillance equipment, guns and cars. Matthias on the other hand feels that all these things are aberrant representations of a dead society that has destroyed itself and must be erased. It's seems rather symbolic that science is considered evil by the group that cannot see in the light, while the man who cannot see in the dark tries to find a cure to prevent further destruction from these medieval Luddites.
The one thing that I love about this movie is the way that Neville is portrayed. Heston shows him as a lone man in a tower with all the comforts technology and firearms can provide, a man who reigns death on the lowly grubs who dare disturb his peace. Often I envisioned my life as something like this. Oh the dream...
As a kid I loved the idea of just taking what I wanted and not worrying about how to pay for it, going around hunting mutated creeps and making them meet their maker, getting the girl and having a life free of the drudgeries of work and taxes. Of course in real life if such a thing did happen and I found myself in that situation I'd probably volunteer to save the family some trouble and set myself on fire after my last bullet had left the chamber... and probably not hitting anything or anyone...
Still one can dream.
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| Robert Neville: Doctor, colonel, scientist... mutant killer!!! |
The Omega Man, (Directed by Boris Sagal, Father of Katey Sagal AKA Peg Bundy) serves as one of my all time favourite post apocalyptic films. The tone of the opening sets up the entire film as we see Heston's character Robert Neville casually cruising up and down the abandoned streets of downtown L.A. all the while listening to the theme of A Summer Place. As he stops to turn the corner he lays a barrage of bullets into a nearby building that clearly has a dark figure moving in it. Most likely a mutated human being, a scavenger... or perhaps a Jehovah's witness.
Based loosely on the Richard Matheson's novel I am Legend the movie is the second film adaptation of this work. The first was titled The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and is also a favourite of mine. Then of course there's the Will Smith version... and the less said about that one the better.
The plot revolves around the destruction of the civilized world thanks to chemical warfare instigated by a conflict between the Russians and the Chinese. Colonel Robert Neville (our hero) develops an experimental vaccine to the poisonous bacilli but only has enough to test it on himself, making him effectively the last non-mutated human being on Earth. And if anyone has to represent humanity then who better than Moses the guy who fought a thousand apes?
 |
| Their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em, they really are a screee-am, they are The Family... |
Anthony Zerbe plays the Leader of The Family named Matthias, formerly Johnathan Matthias, News anchor turned cult leader. Once just a man looking to clean up the city from all the dead, suddenly a mutated soul with a mission to bury and burn all things progressive and technologically conceived.
 |
| Anthony Zerbe as Mattias. |
The one thing that I love about this movie is the way that Neville is portrayed. Heston shows him as a lone man in a tower with all the comforts technology and firearms can provide, a man who reigns death on the lowly grubs who dare disturb his peace. Often I envisioned my life as something like this. Oh the dream...
As a kid I loved the idea of just taking what I wanted and not worrying about how to pay for it, going around hunting mutated creeps and making them meet their maker, getting the girl and having a life free of the drudgeries of work and taxes. Of course in real life if such a thing did happen and I found myself in that situation I'd probably volunteer to save the family some trouble and set myself on fire after my last bullet had left the chamber... and probably not hitting anything or anyone...
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