The Omega Man

I read I Am Legend a little late; it has been reckoned by some as the single most important vampire novel after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Richard Matheson's novella is chilling in its portrait of the conflict a lone man faces after the world is swept by a plague; not only do the blood-sucking humans now wish to kill him, but every day is a battle with his own conscience as he searches for a cure to the virus and tries to overcome the desire to end it all.

Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend (2007) drew upon that aspect of loneliness, of a single man alone against the world. But in my view some of the charm of the book was lost as he transferred the setting from the West Coast to urban New York and turned the vampires into little more than mindless creatures. Will Smith's performance as Robert Neville was admirable, but not remarkable.

The Omega Man is the attempt of a different decade to put I Am Legend on the screen. Charlton Heston stars as Robert Neville, but here Boris Sagal has stayed more closely to the plot of the novel, in some aspects; we get a glimpse of the organisation and intention of the vampires (even if bloodsucking is not really mentioned at all; perhaps that's for the best, avoiding the standard vampire tropes that seem to abound); Neville's isolation is similarly emphasised, and more than once we see his inability to relate to others after his long silence has left him talking to himself and playing games with himself. The drinking is there too and the empty rage at his impotence.

The plot does differ from the novella; in exactly the same way as the later film, the film-makers have decided a love interest is necessary. Certainly, there is an interest in the book; but that interest is central to the plot and continues a strong message about the risk of love. In both films, the love interest only serves to further the bravery of Neville but also tie him down. There's no risk involved to himself except by the sacrifices he chooses to make for a woman.

Cinematographically, The Omega Man is beautifully realised. The desolation and ruinous husks of buildings that surround Heston as he runs around hunting the vampires are striking and intensify that sense of loneliness. The score is also a highlight, as it sets the tone perfectly. A key shift as Neville enters a darkened building and the hairs stood up on the back of neck in anticipation for discovering one of the 'Family'. Heston's performance is strong as well.

But it's badly structured plot and poor performances from the rest of the cast that let the film down. The dialogue between Heston and the love interest Lisa (Rosalind Cash) is stilted and the children he finds are wooden at best. It's entirely frustrating because the dynamism and anticipation that has been built earlier in the film falls flat. There is no sense of a climax. In fact, because the plot has been transposed somewhat, what should be a final set-piece occurs half-way through the film, entirely robbing the ending of anything with as near as brutal as the original's final moments. It's not that this is a poor adaptation of a book; it's not. It's that in making an adaptation some choices and some performances let the side down too much for it to be entirely enjoyable.

***

1971

Charlton Heston, Rosalind Cash, Anthony Zerbe

dir. Boris Sagal