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The Omega Man [1972]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s--the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavour, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap.

Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilisation that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine--but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. --Grant Balfour

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

With its opening long shots of a car driving through the canyons of empty streets stirring up clouds of waste paper, Charlton Heston's 1971 film The Omega Man is an interesting precursor of more recent last-person-on-earth films such as 28 Days Later. Heston is surprisingly good at conveying the terror of being completely on your own, with sanity that wanders into long conversations with the inanimate. Rather less good are the film's antagonists, victims of bacterial warfare left as albino psychotics determined to destroy Heston as a representative of the old dead world of science and technology and a small group of the infected, but not yet changed, who live virtuous pastoral lives in the hills. The film's racial politics are interestingly dated: the heroine, Lisa, is black and has some wince-worthy moments of blaxploitation movie chic; the moment when she changes is nonetheless chilling for being eminently predictable. Loosely based on Richard Matheson's classic genre novel I Am Legend, perhaps the best thing about the film is that it comes from an era when science-fiction blockbusters could be relentlessly downbeat.

On the DVD: The Omega Mancomes to disc with some interesting special features. There's a television "making of" that was shown at the time, as well as the trailer and an interesting short retrospective documentary containing interviews with the surviving screenwriter Joyce Corrington and a couple of the younger actors. The anamorphic widescreen picture is fine, as is the digitally remastered mono sound. --Roz Kaveney

Editorial
Special Features

Introduction by screenwriter Joyce H. Carrington, Paul Koslo ("Dutch") and Eric Laneuville ("Richie")
The Last Man Alive: The Omega Man
Charlton Heston: Science Fiction Legend
Theatrical trailers

Ratio: 2.40:1 (16x9)
Sound: Mono

Editorial
Synopsis

In the aftermath of a bacteriological war, the future of mankind hangs in the balance. Only a chosen few have survived the mutating effects of germ warfare unharmed. A small enclave of healthy, stalwart resistors has formed a camp where, for the moment, they live peacefully. The other human survivors are terribly disfigured mutants referred to as the "Family" who walk the earth at night in search of prey. Charlton Heston plays the last man alive in this chilling classic, gathering supplies by day from a deserted Los Angeles whose streets are strewn with the post-apocalyptic flotsam of the super-funky '70s. Based on Richard Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND made before as THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) with Vincent Price.

A pleasant surprise...
Review date: 2008-06-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

I remember watching this film as a teenager and it certainly has stuck in my mind over the years. It was with a little trepidation that I rented it - would I be disappointed? I was pleasantly surprised to find, that despite the awful soundtrack, the Omega Man was just as I remembered it.
A thought provoking, science fiction thriller with, for once, a great ending. Watch it now!

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Reviews


Fantastic thriller but a bit dated
Review date: 2008-03-11 Rating: 6 out of 10



This is a great film, from the brilliant and creepy first scenes I was drawn straight in to the peculiar experience of the last man alive. I felt that after the beginning when the bad guys are revealed and made more human some of the tension went out of the film but there are enough good scenes after that to keep you interested and all through there is a brilliant suggestion of what it's like to live in an empty world and some investigation of the effects it might have on you. I noticed that in the extras Charlton Heston looked particularly happy when he was playing with the gun props for some reason.

Not keen
Review date: 2008-01-10 Rating: 4 out of 10

I don't know what I was expecting from this film but I didn't quite get it I'm afraid....maybe it's because I've read the book and was thinking of the book too much whilst watching the film.
I found myself watching the time on my dvd player tbh....wanted to like it but wasn't keen unfortunately.

Early 70s pre-cursor to 28 Days Later
Review date: 2007-12-30 Rating: 4 out of 10

Interest may be re-kindled in this 70s apocalyptic sci-fi because of the new film based on the same book, I Am Legend.

Weapons of mass destruction have destroyed the civilised world, now home to Charlton Heston, last remnant of humanity, and 'The Family', a band of beings mutated by germ warfare, now on a mission "to erase history from the time that machines and weapons threatened more than they offered".

Though I hadn't even heard of this film until I saw it for sale, I hoped it would be good. However, I wasn't impressed by the frankly daft Family and was left largely unmoved by the aging Heston doing the same 'cynical' routine that he does in the first half of Planet of the Apes. 28 Days Later is a better, modern version of the same theme.

An interesting cult classic
Review date: 2007-10-23 Rating: 6 out of 10

I saw this film as a teenager and it wasn't until years later that I read 'I Am Legend', the source novel. The film is not particularly faithful to the original material. It feels a bit too Hollywood-ised and too much of its time (the book feels timeless but the film feels stuck in the 1970s). It seems to have been treated as a star vehicle for an ageing star, and an excuse for an easy-going action/horror flick for the masses, which is not what I think the story is about.

However, that said, it's a bit like the "28 Days Later" of its time, especially in the opening section when Heston is driving round the eerie totally deserted city. The production values are reasonable and it has some good moments as well as an interesting lead performance. I think it's not till the final act that the film starts to unravel, and it doesn't have the impact on its audience that 'I Am Legend' has on the reader. I would still recommend watching it, even for fans of 'I Am Legend', if only out of morbid curiosity.

I am waiting with baited breath to see what Hollywood manages to do with 'I Am Legend' second time around...

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Eric Laneuville
Rosalind Cash
Anthony Zerbe
Paul Koslo
Charlton Heston

Creators:
Charlton Heston (Primary Contributor)
Anthony Zerbe (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900112109
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2003-09-29
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 94 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1971-08-01
Language: English (Original Language)

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