The Omega Man
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| The Omega Man | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Boris Sagal |
| Produced by | Walter Seltzer |
| Written by | Richard Matheson (novel I Am Legend) John William Corrington Joyce H. Corrington |
| Starring | Charlton Heston Anthony Zerbe Paul Koslo Rosalind Cash |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | August 1 1971 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Omega Man (1971) directed by Boris Sagal, is a science fiction film, featuring Charlton Heston, based on the novel I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson. The 98-minute screenplay is by John William and Joyce Corrington, and it was filmed in Technicolor with monoaural sound. This story first was filmed as The Last Man on Earth (1964) featuring Vincent Price. A third adaptation of the novel is I Am Legend featuring Will Smith, released 14 December 2007.
[edit] Plot
The story occurs in 1977, two years after biological warfare between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union killed most of the human population (shown in flashback). U.S. Army Colonel Robert Neville, M.D. — then a military scientist — vaccinated himself with experimental vaccine 93-B71 for the plague disease; it rendered him immune.
In Los Angeles, several hundred biologically resistant albinos "The Family" survived the plague, yet it deranged them to violent, nocturnal, photosensitive mutants, and has provoked their psychoses and delusions of grandeur. Despite being resistant, members of The Family are dying, perhaps because the plague is mutating.
The Family's leader is Jonathan Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) — a popular Los Angeles television news anchorman — whom the plague has transformed to a rhetoric-speaking psychotic. He and The Family believe that science, not humanity's flaws, caused the war and their biologic damnation. Socially, The Family became Luddites, and use medieval imagery and technology — black robes, torches, bows, arrows, and catapults. They see Dr. Neville as science's last symbol and a "user of the wheel" — and so must die.
Col. Neville, M.D., is a military officer, a hardened, realistic man living atop a fortified apartment building equipped with an arsenal (Smith & Wesson M76 submachine gun, infrared sight-equipped Browning Automatic Rifle, satchel charges). By day, he scavenges for supplies while searching for The Family’s nest among the deserted city's buildings. At night, he barricades himself in his penthouse apartment while The Family burn books and other cultural artifacts. Neville illuminates his building and its environs with searchlights to deter The Family's raids to kill him; in turn, Neville would like to kill The Family.
One day, the Family capture Neville in a wine cellar. On being found a guilty heretic after a summary trial, he is condemned to an auto da fe and nearly burned alive at the stake in the centre of Dodger Stadium. He is rescued by a woman he'd earlier seen while on patrol. The woman is part of a group of normal survivors also immune to the plague; although infected, their youth has given them some resistance to the disease, maintaining them at a pre-albino stage. Nevertheless, given enough time, they may succumb to The Family’s stage. Neville is amazed and gratified to find that some of the survivors include very young children, and has a brief relationship with an older member of the group, Lisa (Rosalind Cash). Later, one of the young children, Jill, asks Neville if he is God.
Neville realizes that even if it were possible to duplicate the original vaccine, it would take years to salvage humanity. However, he believes it may be possible to extend his immunity to the disease by creating a simpler serum derived from his blood. If the serum works, Neville and Lisa plan to leave the ravaged city and with the rest of the survivors start a new life in the wilderness, leaving Matthias and The Family to die on their own.
Neville is successful in creating the serum and administers it to Lisa's teenage brother Richie (Eric Laneuville) who is on the verge of the advanced mutant stage of the plague. Once cured, the idealistic and naive Richie goes to The Family to try to convince them to take the serum as well. Matthias refuses to believe that Neville would try to help and accuses Richie of being sent by Neville and has him murdered. Neville later finds a note Richie left about going to talk to the Family, and discovers Richie strung up where The Family left him. Neville, caught outside after dark, is stalled in his attempts to reach home but manages to fight off the Family.
During this, Lisa unexpectedly changes into a nocturnal and betrays Neville and gives the Family access to Neville's bunker-apartment. Returning home, Neville is confronted by Matthias, who then forces Neville to watch his home be destroyed by The Family. He manages to break free and once outside, he turns and raises his sub-machine gun in an attempt to kill Matthias (who is looking down from the balcony). His weapon jams and he is impaled by a spear thrown by Matthias. The final scene shows the human survivors departing in a Land Rover after the dying Neville gives them a flask of blood serum, presumably with which to restore humanity.
[edit] Production notes
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Several Los Angeles building landmarks can be seen in their construction phases, notably the ARCO Towers and Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Courts Building in Downtown LA.
- Filming was disrupted by the Sylmar earthquake of 1971.
- There is a brief excerpt of Country Joe and the Fish as well as Arlo Guthrie performing at Woodstock, as Neville enjoys his solitary viewing of the film of the same name.
- Ω (omega) is the final letter in the Greek alphabet. The letter would also figure prominently in another Heston film, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where he fights a race of advanced apes, this time he confronts a mutant race of surviving humans that worship a "Doomsday" bomb recognized by the Alpha and Omega painted on its casing.
- In contrast to the original novel, the antagonists of the movie are not blood-thirsty vampires, but are mutated, light-sensitive beings who wish to destroy Neville for the technological dangers he represents.
- The movie was released less than four months after the conviction of Charles Manson and the term 'family' had attained a certain ominous connotation and association with the Tate-LaBianca murders.
[edit] External links
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