The Omega Man
This cheeseball bit of 70s sci-fi, adapted from Richard Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend,” makes the 2007 version look, well, legendary by comparison. Charlton Heston stars as Dr. Robert Neville, the only man immune from a virus that has wiped out most of the human race and left the survivors … a bit under the weather. Seriously, these baddies are not as fearsome as the pedestrian-CGI zombie-vampires in the Will Smith version. With their pallid skin, glassy eyes, deliberate movements and sensitivity to light, they look like they’re suffering from bad hangovers. They can still speak and function well enough, though — they just need a mild attitude adjustment. Blaming technology for the destruction of society, they band together in a Luddite-style cult. Since they abhor firearms, it’s pretty easy for Neville to just shoot them whenever he feels like it. He schleps around deserted Los Angeles with a submachine gun that he fires at the slightest provocation, cracking wise all the while. (There are some impressive early street sequences, although most of the movie was shot on backlots.)
Released in 1971 and set somewhere around ‘76 or ‘77, “The Omega Man” is a product of its time — sometimes awkwardly, sometimes hilariously. Director Boris Sagal appears preoccupied with getting Heston’s sweaty, hairy chest onscreen as often as possible. Neville tries to maintain a swinging-bachelor lifestyle — he lives in a tricked-out pad, drinks Scotch and gets dressed up for dinner (when he’s not shirtless). If he had fresh ingredients, he’d be cooking from the Playboy Gourmet. Mankind’s destruction is blamed on our enemies at the time, Russia and China, who go to war against each other before unleashing biological weapons on the rest of the world. The clothes are awful, and the lounge-lizard musical score undercuts the rare moments of seriousness or tension. Sagal shows little skill at staging action — the disorganized and easily discouraged baddies, who call themselves “The Family,” pop up out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly.
I’ve heard it said that none of the three versions of “I Am Legend” (there was also “The Last Man on Earth” in the 50s, starring Vincent Price) really nails the ending, and SPOILER the conclusion of “The Omega Man” is remarkably overreaching and unimpressive, with Neville becoming a Christ figure.
There is one impressively forward-thinking element, though — an interracial romance between Heston and Rosalind Cash, who wears her hair in a Black Power afro. There’s even some tasteful nudity after they make love — and they joke about birth control. Cash is charming, modern and down-to-earth — and somehow she ignites a spark in that dinosaur Heston. When even a negligible genre picture like “The Omega Man” takes that kind of risk, it makes you appreciate what a fertile time for movies the early 70s were.