The Omega Man (1971)

 

The project of reviewing old magazine before giving them away continues with Diabolique Magazine Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2013 The Holiday Issue. Always packed with great writing this issue focuses on Apocalyptic Cinema and Literature, so if this is a subject you are interested in and want to receive this issue when I finish with it, let me know and it could be yours. The first article in this issue is written by James Gacey focusing on the three films made from Richard Matheson's story I Am Legend, and analysis of the original story. I am Legend is the tale of  the last uninfected  man on earth struggling to continue even though beset on all sides by vampires, the infected surviving populous. A story of loneliness and despair but with a streak of determination to hold on it has been adapted three times to film. Matheson had a hand in writing the script for the first film Night Creatures which he was going to make with Hammer Studios but when the British censors read it they said they would not allow it's release, Hammer sold the rights to producer Samual Z. Arkoff who got William F. Leicester to rewrite Matheson's script which he was not pleased with so used a psuedonym, Logan Swanson as his credit. The resulting film The Last Man on Earth (1964) is a really fine film and I recommend anyone reading this to check it out. The loneliness, isolation and the bit of hope the story conveys is sort of written out of the script and it focuses more on the internal emotional struggles af the main character Dr Robert Morgan played wonderfully by Vincent Price. The second adaptation and the one I chose to watch is the 1971 Charlton Heston film The Omega Man. The bleak shots of a deserted Los Angeles are excellent at conveying the end of the world as we know it. Heston a problematic human being in real life plays the alpha male in this survivor film that strays from the original story. There are no vampires here, after biological warfare the "others" in this film are the infected "The Family" lead by a charismatic former news anchor Mattais (Anthony Zerbe). This vealed reference to Charles Manson is of its time, and combined with a scene of Neville watching the movie Woodstock portrays the films position that the counter cultures of on Display at that concert was later corrupted by the likes of Manson. Seeing the way humanity lived and what it wrought civilasation the Family rejects the learning and technology of the past. Albino looking members with a harsh sensitivity to light they are determined to end Heston's Neville life as he represents the clinging onto the old society. The film also has an interracial kiss and an early example of an implied interracial sex scene. Costar Rosalind Cash as Lisa appears to hook up with Neville after they found each other in the city.  

Heston back in those days was a civil rights advocate before his racist gene was activated later in his priveliged white man life. He is an amazing example of how wrong a man can go. He went from an advocate for civil right to saying this in a 1997 speech. (So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is "Hispanic Pride" or "Black Pride" a good thing, while "White Pride" conjures shaven heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated by many as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I'll tell you why: Cultural warfare!" In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled "Winning the Cultural War", Heston said, "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys—subjects bound to the British crown."-wikipedia) 

Neville thinks he is going to be the savior of the world by developing a serum to cure the desease. A bit of a God complex he works at it using his own blood and the antbodies he has from an experimental innoculation he got early in the film. Then testing the serum on Lisa's brother Richie (Eric Laneuville). Much like the original story things don't go as planned with the Family increasing the severity of their attempts to kill him Neville has to sacrifice himself to get his serum to a group of young adults and children hold up in the California hills. The death scene in this film is so over the top with Hesten's Neville dying in the pose of Jesus on the cross. Ugh! Still this is not a bad film it just carries the weight of it's lead actor as he transformed later in life.