The Omega Man (1971)

26Jul08

The Omega Man IMDB Link

Directed By: Boris Sagal

Written By: John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash

What do Vincent Price, Charlton Heston and Will Smith have in common? They all played Robert Neville in different film versions of Richard Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend”. It’s also no coincidence that none of these actors are known for their subtly but rather their eccentric personalities. Why does it matter? Well you basically need to watch this one guy on the verge of insanity for 2 plus hours fighting zombies or vampires or mutants and a boring actor like Hugh Grant can’t possibly carry it.

I love these post apocalyptic movies because they get my brain flowing. I sit there wondering how I would handle being the last man alive better, what things I would do, shit like that. Sometimes because of this, I secretly want to be the last man alive. The film posses all types of questions. You watch Robert Neville have access to everything, able to do anything and have no responsibilities. As this idea of complete freedom starts to convince you that it wouldn’t be so bad  nightfall occurs and all the “oh shit” stuff comes out.

But even the nighttime reminds us that we are all just animals and that this weird society we’ve created around ourselves has almost devalued a lot of things. Some guy that’s mowing your lawn could have been a god damn Gladiator or famous gun slinger if he was born in another era. Watching The Omega Man brings all of that out and more. Maybe it’s just my nerdy sense of ways but if given the option to watch a drama involving a standard love triangle in high school or watching the last man alive battling who knows what to survive, I don’t even think it’s an option, I go with the high school drama. I mean who does she pick Joey or Jimmy?

Seriously though, The Omega Man has it’s own twist on the story as all 3 versions do. In this version of the universe, chemical warfare ensued and all that’s left are these infected mutant type things. They have pale skin, fucked up eyes and yes, can talk. What’s great about watching movies later is you can see that their decisions were clearly made on the ideas of their time. Is technology really helping mankind? This Cold War thing can’t end good, can it? How can we have Charlton Heston shirtless for an hour? These are all things that were subconsciously being thought when creating The Omega Man and what they succeed in doing is creating a memorable, fucking awesome post apocalyptic movie and the best version out of the 3.

If I was forced to boil down the one trait that makes Heston so awesome it’s his ability to say “My God” with such fervor. Try and say it as good as he can, I dare you. I think he lets out 3 “My God”‘’s in The Omega Man and each time is great. Heston rolls around carrying a machine gun killing the mutants during the day, talking to himself, sniping mutants from his fortress and keeping himself from going insane. The film has a lot of empty city shots to really accentuate his alienation and they are always good. The first shot of this however was a corny zoom out/fade. In fact, a lot of this film is very corny and campy. For the first half-hour it turned me off because I wanted to see a dead serious “Twilight Zone” type movie about the last man alive but then I just gave into the camp and it was great. The biggest example of sort of out of placery is the music which is almost classical funk. It’s seriously one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard but curiously the music doesn’t really match a lot of the sequences but it works overall.

While part of me really loves great execution, a greater part of me loves just straight up ideas. I love that they made a movie with Heston toting a gun, making Eve a black power chick, shooting up mutants, living as the last man alive and trying to save humanity. That’s just awesome and it can’t be rationalized. Either you love that shit or you don’t.

Filed under: Action, Classic/Old, Science Fiction   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: I am legend, movie review, The Last man alive, The Omega Man