The Omega Man

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This second film adaptation of Richard Matheson's science-fiction novel I Am Legend (the first version being The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price) unfolds in a post-apocalyptic 1976. Charlton Heston is Robert Neville, the sole recipient of a serum that enabled him to survive an onslaught of germ warfare between Russia and China - which seemingly rendered him the last (normal) human alive. Neville lives in a garish, antique-strewn L.A. penthouse. During the day, he roams through the vacant city. At night, he fends off a bloodthirsty horde of mutant scavengers garbed in Spanish inquisition robes and sunglasses, led by Matthias (Anthony Zerbe), a former television newscaster in his good ol' pre-mutant days. Matthias and his half-human vampires want to kill Neville. Neville's last man on earth status is shattered when he comes across a group of young people, presided over by the sexy and cynical Lisa (Rosalind Cash). Neville begins to form an interest in her, as the two try to keep Matthias and his minions at bay. The Omega Man was filmed in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoons, an area that consists almost exclusively of office buildings, and therefore was suitably vacant at the the time of production. In 2007, Matheson's novel received yet another incarnation - this one with Will Smith in the Heston role. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Subtitle: Eng/Fre/Spa
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • Introduction by co-stars Eric Laneuville and Paul Koslo and screenwriter Joyce H. Corrington

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Charlton Heston - Neville
       Anthony Zerbe - Matthias
       Rosalind Cash - Lisa
       Paul Koslo - Dutch
       Lincoln Kilpatrick - Zachary
       Eric Laneuville - Richie
       Forrest Wood - Family Member
       Monika Henreid - Family Member
       Brian Tochi - Tommy
       Anna Aries - Woman in Cemetery Crypt
       Jill Giraldi - Little Girl
       Linda Redfearn - Family Member
       John Dierkes - Family Member
       DeVeren Bookwalter

• Director:

  Boris Sagal

• Producer:

  Walter Seltzer

• Screenwriter:

  John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington

• Cinematographer:

  Russell Metty

• Composer (Music Score):

  Ron Grainer

• Editor:

  William H. Ziegler

• Art Director:

  Walter M. Simonds, Art Loel

• Set Designer:

  William L. Kuehl

• Costume Designer:

  Bucky Rous, Margo Baxley

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Robert Martin

• Makeup:

  Gordon Bau

• First Assistant Director:

  Donald Roberts

• Short Story Author:

  Richard Matheson

REVIEW:

• Entertainingly cheesy, The Omega Man is another entry in Charlton Heston's toothy last-man-standing science fiction phase, a la Planet of the Apes (1968) and Soylent Green (1973). Adapted from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend with key 1970s differences, the dystopian story of one man's fight to save humanity features intentionally and unintentionally striking images of arch-conservative Heston tooling around an uninhabited Los Angeles in convertibles and mistily taking in a screening of Woodstock (1970) when not battling monkish Ray Ban-wearing zombies. While the near-complete elimination of the population via germ warfare serves as a still-timely warning regarding technology and its abuses, the Luddite albino mutants with their Charles Manson-esque murderous allegiance to "the Family" become a reverse lesson in technophobia. As the one survivor blessed with immune blood, Heston trades Biblical role models on his way to a fate and final image audacious in its hubris. Though this second screen version of Matheson's novel was hardly a blockbuster, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ridley Scott were set to shoot a third until it was deemed too expensive. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi