Retro Post-Apocalypse: The Omega Man

Charlton Heston is The Omega Man

The Omega Man (1971) is the second film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic post-apocalyptic novel, I Am Legend. The book tells the story of Robert Morgan, who survives a plague that has killed much of the world’s population, and turned the rest into vampire-like creatures. The story follows Morgan’s efforts to survive while battling the vampires, as he seeks to discover what caused the plague in the first place. The book was first filmed in 1964 as The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price. The Omega Man is a different take on the novel’s premise. Charlton Heston stars as Robert Neville, here reimagined as an army scientist who has survived a plague caused by the use of biological weapons in a war between China and Russia. The disease resulting from this deadly conflict has decimated most of the world’s population. Neville survives by injecting himself with an experimental serum. Living in a fortified apartment in Los Angeles, Neville regularly battles a group called The Family, humans who survived the plague, and have been transformed into albino mutants. The Family is led by a former TV newsman named Matthias, who feels science and technology was the downfall of mankind and wants to return the world to a simpler, pre-industrial time.

Neville drives around the deserted city and hunts down the mutants, attempting to eliminate them all. While scrounging for supplies one day, he runs into a woman in a department store. She runs away when he spots her. He later learns that her name is Lisa, and she's part of a small group of human survivors that include her brother Richie, a former medical student named Dutch, and several young children. Richie is suffering from the early stages of the disease, and Neville uses his own blood to cure him via a transfusion, which in effect makes Richie immune to the virus as well. Neville and the group prepare to leave the city and live in peace in the country. But Matthias and The Family have other plans for our heroes. Can this small group of humans survive against the cult-like zeal of Matthias and The Family?  Will Neville and Lisa’s burgeoning romance have a happy ending? How many of the mutants will the gun-toting Neville mow down with his automatic weapons before the movie is over? You’ll have to watch to find out!

The Omega Man has very little to do with Richard Matheson’s book. I’m a big fan of the novel, and Matheson’s work in general, but I've always enjoyed the movie. The Omega Man used to turn up regularly on TV when I was a kid, and I watched it many times. You’ve got Charlton Heston in another sci-fi film, portraying the same kind of world-weary, cynical character he played in Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green. What's not to like? Heston is quite good in the early part of the film, having (one-sided) conversations with a bust of Caesar in his apartment, and driving around the deserted city in some effectively eerie sequences. And you haven't lived until you've seen Heston sit in a movie theater and run the film Woodstock, while talking along with the film’s dialogue! He also gets to utter some prototypical action hero one-liners throughout the movie. The Omega Man moves along at a brisk pace, thanks to director Boris Sagal, and it's well lensed by noted cinematographer Russell Metty. The screenplay for the movie was written by the husband and wife team of John William and Joyce H. Carrington, who also wrote Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The moody score is by Ron Grainer, who also composed the theme music for the Patrick McGoohan television series The Prisoner, as well as Dr. Who.

The supporting cast is excellent. Rosalind Cash plays Lisa, and she's very cool as a pre-cursor to the tough African American heroines of the mid 1970s that were played by the likes of Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson. She even gets an inter-racial love scene with Heston. The film also features Paul Koslo and Eric Lanueville, who will no doubt be familiar to fans of 1970s movies and television series. But the actor who walks away with the movie is veteran character actor Anthony Zerbe, who plays Matthias. His menacing vocal delivery and commanding presence dominate every scene he's in, and he's a perfect foil for Heston's laconic hero. Heston and Zerbe previously appeared together in the western Will Penny. Matheson’s novel was later adapted as the big-budget Will Smith film I Am Legend and a low budget copycat movie called I Am Omega, but neither of those films are as much fun as The Omega Man, which is a big favorite of director Tim Burton and comedian Dana Gould, among others. If you're in the right frame of mind, The Omega Man is a perfect choice to feature as part of your "end of the world" movie marathon. Follow this link to take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUkU18MrBzU.