The Omega Man

Director: Boris Sagal Boris Sagal

Overview

Charleton Heston plays Neville, a man perfectly poised to survive, Robinson Crusoe-like, in the ruins of modern civilization. Neville is one of the few survivors of a biological war and has established a palatial lifestyle through scavengery and a good knowledge of scientific principles; he was immune to the last biological weapon used in the war. A stricken band of survivors, among whose debilities are an inability to bear sunlight, has been trying to kill him. These unfortunates are led by the charismatic Matthias (Anthony Zerbe), who believes that science is the root of all evil and all its works must be destroyed. Neville has a few allies who are able to travel abroad in daylight, including one young man who is only slowly succumbing to the plague.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/15/2007
UPC:	0085391163213
Original Release:	1971
Rating:	PG
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	2,909

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

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

Technical Credits

John William Corrington

William Peter Blatty

Boris Sagal	Director
John William Corrington	Screenwriter,Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Walter Seltzer	Producer
William Peter Blatty	Screenwriter
Gene Lloyd	Sound Effects
Robert Martin	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Entertainingly cheesy, The Omega Man is another entry in Charlton Heston's toothy last-man-standing science fiction phase, à 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.