The Omega Man
Director: Boris Sagal
Year Released: 1971
Rating: 2.5
A war between Chinese and Russians (damn them to hell!) unleashes a plague that takes out most of the people on Earth, but Neville (Charlton Heston), a scientist, tried a vaccine on himself that made him immune, so he spends his days in empty Los Angeles shooting albino mutants (led by Anthony Zerbe) that somehow survived and only come out at night. Post-apocalyptic movies have been commonplace of late, so I wanted to take a peek at this older adaptation of Matheson's novella I Am Legend: as it turns out, it's actually a decent action movie despite some clearly dated aspects (the soundtrack is atrocious) and the occasional cornball moment (nice spear throw from the balcony). As loathsome as Heston's ideology became as he aged (he was a Democrat as a younger man and supposedly concerned with human dignity), you can never question his commanding presence on screen (he was a quintessential leading man).
