Stars: Charlton Heston, Rosalind CashBudget: ?
Directed By: Boris Sagal
Very apt for today's situation too, if your reading this some time in the future, in 2020 we had a global pandemic from a virus named covid 19, or corona virus.
In this movie (an adaptation of the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson) a disease has turned people into freakish white, scared very single minded monsters.
Nothing like the book that turned people into very basic minded vampires. The second in adaptations of the book the first being 1964's last man on earth, which i'll do at some point. the third being Will Smiths I Am Legend in 2007. None of them bar the older version follow the book very closely.
I can't find concrete release dates for this some places say 71' others 73', also no budget for it either?
There is another version, an asylum flick, starring the one the only Mark Dacascos. I might, might do it one day too i've seen it and it does not follow the book very closely either.
The book follows one Robert Neville who is seemingly immune to the disease and they also don't know where it originates from 100% either. though throughout the book he starts to learn all he can from books on the subject. The same with the infected, they are not vampires, nor like in the book do they suffer from the same weaknesses as vampires either (like crosses, garlic, mirrors etc). They are also very susceptible to being killed by conventional means.
That's some of the main things changed in the film from the book, It's now military scientist Richard Neville, the virus was known and he's not naturally immune. He inoculates himself with an experimental serum only moments of not being infected left. It works and he becomes immune to the virus.
Months later we join Neville as he tries to occupy his mind, like the book he has succumbed to being alone for a long time. He goes around like the book killing members of the infected who now call themselves 'the family' they are very anti science and see it as the reason for the downfall of humanity now. Neville being 'normal' is the embodiment of all of this too so they naturally hate him.
the film deals with the isolation and loneliness one would face by being the last person alive, going through phases of madness, alcoholism even suicidal. practically being a prisoner of your own mind/devices it's a scary place and one i'm sure people are feeling a lot today.
One day Neville thinks he see's someone else while he's raiding a store chasing the person he loses them, coming to the conclusion that he was just seeing things. Neville is eventually captured by the family and almost burned alive for his technological sins. He is saved by the person he seen, one Lisa and her friend Dutch. In a massive departure he is taken to a place where children are, they are infected but do not totally succumb to the virus until they hit adulthood.
He decides to try and use his blood to synthesis a working serum to help the children, saving the rest of the world would take forever though. throughout the rest of film Neville falls for Lisa, continues his work on the serum and occasionally gets attacked by the family from time to time.
They all come to conclusion that if he does manage to make a cure they will leave the city and make a new home out in the wilderness somewhere. Lisa succumbs to the virus later on helping the rest of the family infiltrate his home. Here we leave off telling you the end of the film like we do in THN as The Omega Man is definitely a classic piece of cinema to be watched.
We award this film a strong 3 out of 5 stars as some of the political messages haven't aged well, the situation however is to real at the moment.
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