ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Enjoyable remake of Vincent Price's 1969 The Last Man on Earth, both of which were based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.

The Omega Man casts Charlton Heston as a tough, determined man trying to survive in a post-holocaust world populated only by himself and the few people who survived a plague caused by biological war fare. Most of the survivors have been transformed into nocturnal zombie-faced zealots who all share one mad obsession: the destruction of books, machinery, and everything else connected with the pre-war world.

They also want to destroy Heston, and he wages an on-going battle with them as he explores the near-deserted city in which he maintains his fortified townhouse residence, scavenging for supplies and tracking down the nocturnal plague-victims' hiding places while they are helpless during the daylight hours.



Eventually he discovers a group of normal, non-zombie survivors, and together they work to develop a cure for the plague.





Heston's character isn't just an efficient survival machine, killing anything that threatens him. Instead, he's a sensitive, intelligent man who demonstrates great imagination when it comes to battling his own loneliness.

In one scene he is shown watching "Woodstock", just for the crowd scenes. In his residence, he sets up TV cameras and monitors to literally keep himself company. He plays chess with a bust of Napoleon.



This, perhaps, is the most interesting aspect of the film; an incredibly competent and admirable man, maintaining both his dignity and his sanity under savage conditions. The Omega Man is a lean and well-constructed drama, skillfully directed by Boris Sagal, from a script by John William and Joyce H. Corrington.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Couldn't find a download of the movie, but here's the original trailer.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rick]

I was a huge fan of the novel (novella?) before any of the movie versions were made. So it's probably no surprise that none of the 3 movie versions came close to satisfying me.

Vincent Price and Charlton Heston were both all wrong for Robert Neville, in entirely different ways. And none of the three have captured the nail-biting terror of the book.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH was closest to the original, but awfully cheap, badly cast, and, in some respects, unforgivably silly. This film also included some of the best scenes from the novel and managed to botch them utterly.

I AM LEGEND...I actually thought, for about twenty minutes or so, that this mega-blockbuster might finally be the one to at least get the essence of the thing right. Then those cyber-critters appeared. There has been worse CGI in many other movies, but no CG effect ever has been so single-handedly destructive to a movie as these goofy cartoons were to this one.

THE OMEGA MAN... I left this for last because I don't even know where to start. It's pretty close to a disaster. It manages to aggressively alter all that's compelling in the story, substituting nothing but silliness. Despicable.

I've never understood this. I assume it's just ego on the part of the moviemakers thinking they know how to make the story better.

But the thing is, I AM LEGEND really doesn't even need a script. The movie is right there on the page. Just hand out copies of the paperback and film it as closely as you can.

The whole subject makes me hot under the collar.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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I'll confess, Rick, that I liked The Omega Man when I saw in 1972 at a beautiful little drive-in theater in Atlanta with my bride of three months, a lovely girl of 19. I was 24 and in love, God help me. She had seen the movie when it first came out, and she had some very interesting observations about it to share with her young husband.

Fox example, she loved the way poor lonely Heston would watch Woodstock just to see crowds of people.

I had a wonderful evening, all cuddled up with my honey, watching Moses battle zombies.

A few years later I was a student in an art school, learning to paint, and I had a devastating crush on a gorgeous girl in my class.

(Yes . . . I was divorced by this time . . . )

One of our fellow students was a fine photographer, and he took a roll of slides of the girl for me to use in one of my first paintings. Here's four of the pictures he took.





Late one night a few weeks later, I was working on the portrait of her, and one of the networks was showing The Omega Man. During the movie I worked on the painting, which I later gave to her. It looks like this.

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And because I was so damned pleased with that early effort using oil paint and canvas, I developed brand new "fond memories" of the movie I was watching while painting the girl I was so crazy about.

However, without those associations I seriously doubt I would have ever been all that crazy about The Omega Man. Ain't love funny?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Looking at these pictures, Bud, I can well understand how you developed a huge crush on this beautiful lady.

And you probably were not the only guy in class who did.

Great painting, do you still paint?

[Brent Gair]

[Custer]

I wonder what she thought of the Police Academy sequels...?

Anyway, back, slightly, on track, here's a scan of the cover of my copy of the original novel that formed the basis of The Omega Man, by Richard Matheson - one of his many contributions to movies and television. I see the dedication is "To Henry Kuttner, with my grateful thanks for his help and encouragement on this book." This 1964 paperback is pretty slim, by modern novel standards, ending on page 122 - the first six pages, before Chapter One begins, are not numbered. The first publication was a decade earlier, at 25 cents.

[Bud Brewster]

[Custer]

Yes, there is a similarity about the eyes, and cheeks.

Bud? Oh heck, I think he's fainted again. Somebody fetch a bucket of water...

[johnnybear]

I read the book while recovering from a thyroid operation in hospital sixteen years ago and I loved it! The Omega Man is one of those films that makes you jump and you're rooting for Heston to get back home before the white faced psychos get him! Will Smith's version was good but I'm no fan of CGI! I haven't seen Vincent Price's Robert Morgan version just yet but...
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Purist would tell you, JB, that the 1971 movie is an insult to the book, and the Vincent Price version is much truer to the source.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, my reasons for liking it are all wrapped up in emotional associations with various romances when I was young and foolish.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[johnnybear]

All of my romances have been disasters, Bud!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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"Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Unless you have to pay alimony . . .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[johnnybear]

That is a possibility looming on the horizon right now! And if it does happen I'll be offski for sure!
JB