Was the Family in the''omega Man'' Inspired by the Manson Family
Betwixt the late 1960s and early 1970s, a slew of post-apocalyptic, dystopian scientific discipline fiction movies appeared in pic theatres…and it seemed like every other i of them starred Charlton Heston.
There were Heston's two "Planet of the Apes" movies (the 1968 original and its 1970 sequel, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"), and an adaptation of Harry Harrison'due south "Make Room! Make Room!" known as"Soylent Green" in 1973. "Soylent Green" was an uncomfortablyauthentic forecasting of current world dilemmas such equally overpopulation, climatic change and resource depletion. The future, according to these Heston flicks, was looking mighty crappy indeed…
Tucked in the middle was a less-than-faithful (but non entirely without merit) adaptation of Richard Matheson's archetype vampire novel, "I Am Legend" chosen "The Omega Human being" (1971).
The novel.
Richard Matheson'south 1954 novel "I Am Legend" is right upwardly there with the classic vampire works of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, yet information technology was radically different from well-nigh vampire lore at that point. "I Am Legend" approaches vampirism much in the aforementioned, businesslike way that Andy Weir'due south "The Martian" tackled day-to-day life trying to survive on a hostile planet.
The book is ground goose egg for the electric current, ongoing pop-culture obsession with post-apocalypse zombie films and 'terminal-man-on-earth' scenarios (LMOEs, equally "Zombie Survival Guide"/"World War Z" author Max Brooks casually refers to them).
"I Am Legend" is an ballsy study in loneliness, madness and ultimately the obsolescence of a human being who considers himself the last bastion of human civilization after a mysterious plague turns most of humanity into day-slumbering, nocturnal vampires. It analyzes the classic tropes of vampirism (mirrors, garlics and fifty-fifty crucifixes) using the scientific method. The novel's protagonist, Robert Neville, uses those tools of civilization that he clings to (microscopes, the local library, etc) to try to ward off the inevitable collapse of human being sapiens (and other life forms, includingdogs). His struggle ultimately proves futile when he is finally captured past the vampires. During his capture, he comes to understand that he is now seen as a destructive element to their emergent guild. As he dies, he realizes that this new, fascistic vampire lodge fears him equally much as he hates and despises them. He has lived long enough to see himself executed every bit their greatest threat. He is fable.
"I Am Fable" is the granddaddy of everything from "Dark of the Living Dead" to "The Walking Dead."
It truly is legend.
The pic.
1971'due south "The Omega Man" is the 2d attempt of three (then far) to film this classic horror novel. Directed by Boris Sagal (old "Star Trek" managing director and father of "Futurama" costar Katey Sagal), the movie is written by the husband & married woman screenwriting team of John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington ("Battle for the Planet of the Apes").
Some of the wide-strokes are familiar; Doctor Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) is now a bright old United states military pathologist trained in bio-weaponry (a departure from the book's cocky-educated everyman) who now lives lonely is a (and then) near-future world of 1975 Los Angeles (the same locale and year set in the 1954 book). Several years earlier, a biological war broke out between the world's superpowers and well-nigh of the homo race was instantly killed. Neville hurriedly injected a hypo full of a test antidote into himself just before the world was scratched. He survived. And he now lives alone in a desolate Los Angeles of an alternate 1975… well, almost lonely.
During the day, Neville plays 8-rail tapes in his car stereo (an lift music version of Percy Faith's "A Summer Place") and drives recklessly through the deserted streets. He also partakes in stalking and indiscriminately shooting slumbering, nocturnal albinoid mutants (a major departure from the book'due south vampires). Neville has fortified his L.A. penthouse home with all sorts of defenses, including barbed wire, locked-off elevators and multiple automobile guns with giant infrared scopes.
One day, while enjoying yet some other, already-memorized showing of the"Woodstock" concert picture in an empty theatre, Neville gets careless and loses track of time. He rushes home just afterwards the lord's day sets, and arrives just in time to fight off angry, torch-wielding albinos in his garage as he hurriedly locks off all access points to his penthouse.
Neville then hunkers downward for the night, where he tries to drown out the constant, noisy barrage of angry mutants below. The mutants want to try him for crimes against 'the family.' The family unit clearly reflecting Charles Manson-similar cultism, which was very relevant in 1971 (and would exist throughout the 1970s with Reverend Jim Jones in 1978, and other tragic examples).
Leading the charge against Neville is the head of the mutants, former Boob tube newscaster-turned-savior "Matthias" (Anthony Zerbe) and his impetuous lieutenant "Brother Zachary" (Lincoln Kilpatrick). Zachary conspicuously reflecting the youth militant movements of the time, such as Symbionese Liberation Army or the Black Panthers. To farther hammer that point is Zachary'south line to Matthias about Neville'due south living it up in a "honkey paradise," while he and the family are living similar "grubs." A cutting indictment of racial and social inequality that is all-too relevant today.
Since the plague has rendered all of the mutants the same shade of gray with colorless low-cal-sensitive eyes, racism inside the family unit is now a moot point. They see Neville as an obsolete monster, clinging to 'the old ways' that led to the terminate of their world. These mutants are less vampiric and more similar an regular army of angryLuddites. They encounter Neville'south employ of tools and machines as a threat to their new lifestyle (much as Charles Manson and his 'family' used to sabotage globe-moving heavy machinery).
Nosotros begin to meet the pattern of Neville's life. Parts of his day are spent doing whatever he wants in the deserted streets of Los Angeles, while the rest is spent methodically hunting and shooting sleeping/dying mutants in their nests.
During a trip for clothing in a deserted department store, Neville meets an uninfected adult female named Lisa (Rosalind Greenbacks). Their relationship is initially i of deep distrust, until Lisa rescues a captive Neville from the family. She has an ulterior motive for the rescue.
Turns out Lisa is taking care of her sweet younger brotherRichie (Eric Laneuville), who is in the early stages of mutation. Lisa hopes that uninfected Dr. Neville might exist able to cure him. Eventually winning her conviction, Neville and Lisa before long partake in an bad-mannered bit of romance ('the last boy in the world and the last girl…').
Neville also learns of a grouping of plague-resistant immature people living out in the hills outside of L.A., led past a erstwhile medical student-turned-radical hippie namedDutch (Paul Koslo), who comes to trust Neville every bit well.
A recovered Richie begins to question why Neville continues to chase the mutants instead of but curing them. Not satisfied with Neville's copout of an answer, Richie takes his mini-wheel deep into the city to propose a truce with Matthias and the family. He brings the hope of a cure as an olive branch.
It doesn't end well.
Later on Richie is killed, Neville rages holy hell upon the family.
In the melee, he also loses Lisa, who turns rather abruptly every bit she begins to hear the 'call' of Matthias and her new 'family.'
After Lisa joins their ranks, Neville is left alone to fight them off. He is outnumbered, captured and eventually killed. In his melodramatic dying gasps (very Hestonian), he spreads his arms, about Christ-like, beyond a fountain outside his home. Dutch and his gang of plague-resistant youth find Neville'due south body, take a few vials of his resistant claret, and presumably go off to save the world…
The Cease.
Departure.
While the novel's in-depth wait at Neville's deteriorating mental land is largely gone, the film does retain a few $.25 of Neville's pathos; his 'haggling' with a long-mummified used car dealer, his countless rewatching of "Woodstock," his playing chess with a bust of Caesar, etc. However, the moving-picture show seems less concerned with his mental unraveling and more about cementing Heston's lantern-jawed heroic status. The Christ imagery at the cease (Neville'southward sacrificial claret saving the earth, with Dutch's gang as his Disciples) is as nuanced as a sledgehammer striking an anvil.
The family unit's mutants are less on-the-olfactory organ than the book's vampires, merely they besides say something more about cultism, as well as the darker side of the counterculture move. "Omega Human" was fabricated in the early days of cultist-killer Charles Manson, who left much of the establishment white-knuckled with fear in those days. Crazed killer cults also subsequently play roles in such 1970s drive-in fare as "Race With the Devil" and "The Devil'due south Rain" (both 1975).
More than benign hippies were also represented in the film with Dutch's helpful band of merry rebels, who represent the hope for the time to come that both Neville's and the Family unit'southward dead-concluded approaches couldn't achieve. Again, serving as the Disciples to Neville'due south Jesus.
Both versions besides retain something of that now-cliched post-apocalypse, libertarian ultimate fantasy of having an emptied city (or world) for the taking… if merely 1 has the weaponry and cojones to simply take it from whatever mutants or vampires make it ane's style. The belatedly George Romero'south "Dead" movies and their endless imitators, such as"The Walking Dead" graphic novels/Tv set series have fabricated an undying (excuse the pun) manufacture out of this fantasy.
And then while the depth, methodology and pathos of Matheson'south masterpiece book is essentially shredded, there is something in "Omega Man" that speaks to many 1970s concerns (cultism, counterculture, biological warfare) in more than directly ways than Matheson's book. But make no mistake; Richard Matheson's book is far superior to the film, though the two are so different equally to be almost unrelated. It'southward a bit like ordering a medium-rare filet mignon with all the trimmings, and getting a plain hamburger instead. Both involve beef, simply they're very different culinary experiences.
Though sometimes only a burger will practice.
Encounter the family.
Director Boris Sagal was a name that I'd remembered seeing earlier, though I couldn't quite place where… until I rewatched an episode of classic "Star Trek" chosen "The Render of the Archons", which besides featured an eerie, cultish social club with robed 'lawgivers' who roamed about an eerily tranquil city.
Despite its widescreen frame, "Omega Man" very much feels like a Television set-picture sometimes. Given its managing director's pedigree, information technology's not surprising. Sagal also directed a segment of the 1969 "Night Gallery" anthology pilot ("The Cemetery", starring Ossie Davis and Roddy McDowall), likewise as the groundbreaking 1976 miniseries "Rich Homo, Poor Man", which starred Nick Nolte and was produced past time to come Star Expedition movie producer Harve Bennett. Sagal's direction of "The Omega Man" is a good fit for the material.
Charlton Heston gives the kind of cynical, earth-weary performance that we'd get accepted to after "Planet of the Apes," and for "Omega Man" that pessimism works very well. While nowhere virtually the depth of the volume's Robert Neville, Heston is perfectly adequate for the role equally it is onscreen. At that place are moments where he gets to convey some of Neville'southward occasionally unpleasing grip on sanity ("There is NO telephone ringing, dammit!"), though nowhere near the level of drunken nihilism present in the book.
Rosalind Cash also gives the movie a prissy shot of energy as Lisa, too. Her edges are dulled a flake when she all-as well predictably warms up to Neville. I preferred the edgier, less-trusting version of the graphic symbol. Her mutation (while a scrap as well abrupt) made me genuinely distressing, largely because the fire within of Greenbacks's character had completely gone out.
Music for "Omega Human being" was equanimous past the legendary Australian-born composerRon Grainer, who created the classic 'Electro-Theremin' (or Tannerin) & guitars theme song for"Physician Who" (a theme every bit iconic every bit "Star Trek" and "The Twilight Zone"). He also created the theme for Patrick McGoohan's short-lived cult serial"The Prisoner" (some other favorite TV serial of mine) and the music-heavy characteristic film, "To Sir, With Love" (1967). His music for "Omega Man" alternates from comfortable 'made-for-Idiot box' sounding melodies early on, to more eerie and isolated cues subsequently. Maybe not among Grainer'southward all-time (the man was a genius), but once again, adequate for the textile.
^ Oh, and kudos to Margo Baxley and Becky Rous of the wardrobe department for a rebellious piece of Dutch's ensemble that always makes me smile a flake…
Other incarnations of "I Am Legend."
Turns out "Omega Man" was a middle child. At that place have been two other attempts to picture Matheson'due south archetype novel. Both missed the marker to varying degrees.
The first attempt to film Matheson'south book was 1964's "The Concluding Man On Earth." The motion picture starred a somewhat miscast Vincent Price equally Robert Morgan (nee: Neville) in an otherwise surprisingly faithful accommodation of the book (Matheson cowrote the screenplay under the pseudonym of 'Logan Swanson'). Regrettably, the moving-picture show was sabotaged by an obvious low budget, ill-defined black-and-white cinematography and an otherwise fine lead thespian who is just not correct for the role. Price is unbeatable when doing old-school Gothic horror such as "House of Wax," "The Abominable Dr. Phibes,"or even the natural language-in-cheek Roger Corman adaptation of Poe'south"The Raven." But bandage as an everyman struggling to alive in a vampiric post-apocalypse? He is completely wrong. The employ of Italy-for-Los Angeles is similarly jarring as well. Some of Toll'south Italian costars are conspicuously dubbed into English language. This version could've worked with a chip more than coin funneled into it, also as a more appropriate lead role player (Rod Taylor of "The Birds" comes to mind…).
The tertiary endeavor was 2007's "I Am Legend" starring Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville, who is once once more a military pathologist, merely similar Heston's version. Like "Omega Homo", this is another entertaining, if slightly off-the-mark take on the book. In some ways truer to the book's tone, IAL 2007 has lots of necessary updating, as well every bit a location change from suburban L.A. to the much more cinematic Manhattan. Will Smith gives a truly no holds-barred performance; he is arguably the closest to the novel'southward psychological (if not physical) portrait of Neville. However, Smith's largely figurer-generated vampire foes are the movie's weakest link. They appear then gelatinous and phony, that they're more like an army of poor man's Gollums instead of nocturnal bloodsuckers. These new vampires are also much more than animalistic, grunting and growling instead of speaking. This makes them far less interesting than the novel's vampires, or even "Omega Human"'south albinoid cultists. IAL 2007 had all the tools to do a near-perfect adaptation of the book, still it however misses the mark. Securely frustrating, as and so many elements of this version (the casting, the location) were and then right.
Hither's hoping that perhaps someday we might see an HBO miniseries of "I Am Legend." That'd be a more than proper way to permit the source material's pathos, darkness and contemplative mood adequate room toexhale. A 2-60 minutes movie, specially in today's action-heavy, R-ratings averse market, might simply be the wrong format to tell this story.
But of course, if you don't want to expect? There'south always Richard Matheson's bright book as well…
Terminal musings on 'the Human.'
I can't exactly remember when I first saw "The Omega Homo" (may have been late-dark television? Not quite sure…), but I do very distinctly remember seeing some of the mutants in the pages of the late Forry Ackerman's"Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine (my very commencement magazine subscription as a kid).
They gave me one hell of a case of the skeeves. Serious nightmare fuel for a young kid in those days. Their gray skinned, white-pupiled look reminded me a flake of Linda Blair'south demonic possession makeup in 1973's"The Exorcist."
Watching "Omega Man" a couple of times lone in my bachelor days, I remember having an all-besides-uncomfortable kinship to Heston's lonely, isolated Neville at times. Luckily, I had enough of not-mutant friends to keep me company in those days. Well, peradventure i or 2 of them were mutants…
Overall, the movie today even so has some effective moments. The kickoff half hr is arguably the best, when the story is focused on Neville and his 1-man struggle against the mutants. Unproblematic, creepy and even a scrap spooky at times. Later, the film loses some of that isolated vibe when additional characters evidence upward (especially Dutch and his group) and brand information technology feel a fleck as well crowded.
It as well helps if you ignore any connexion to the vastly superior Richard Matheson source fabric and enjoy information technology equally a simple, dystopian take a chance film. On that level, "The Omega Man" is a perfectly acceptable entry in the late 1960s/early on 1970s Charlton Heston Dystopia Anthology.
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Source: https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2018/05/30/retro-musings-1971s-the-omega-man/
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