The Omega Man

I watched a movie and it was called The Omega Man, directed by, released in 1971. It stars Carlton Weston, Rosalind Cash and Anthony Zerbe. The story is about how there was an outbreak of germ warfare, decimating almost all of humanity save for a few. Those who survived are Heston and a few other people though they are mutated and hostile, wanting to kill Heston as he represents the old world. This is a movie based on a book Richard Matheson, "I am Legend". This is the second adaptation of the book. Obviously it was changed a bit to fit the film or perhaps reflect the times and it kind of shows. Heston's performance is brooding and intense since he is the last man on Earth save for the mutants that are trying to kill him. He is cynical and trying to survive. Anthony Zerbe pulls in a usual creepy, scenery chewing performance as the leader of the group of mutants who call themselves "The Family". Rosalind Cash plays one of the survivors that Heston finds while “shopping” for new clothes, mostly jumpsuits. Her character is hard describe. She is a strong, black female character and really represents when this movie was made, 1971, but really serves no purpose other than a sudden love interest for Heston and a means to move along the thin plotline as her brother is changing into a mutant and she wants to help him and it just so happens that Heston is an Army scientist. It’s a strange turn of events and yes, I suppose I was happy that there was a woman to sate the masculine Heston’s libido, I mean, it had been 3 years after all but other than that, she really contributes nothing more than that and a caricature of a Blaxploitation character like Foxy Brown. 

I haven't seen this movie in some time as I have a recorded of TV VHS version that I made some time in the 90s. I remembered the beginning and the ending but not any of the middle, basically the whole story in between. It is a short movie, 98 minutes, and the story starts with no backstory, using empty streets and lifeless, decayed bodies as establishing what happened. It is an eerie feeling seeing those Los Angeles streets empty like that, I must say and also really intriguing, only because I wonder what that would be like. I remember this movie being better though the downer ending kind of makes it seem pointless. There is a happy ending but really, that doesn’t change the fact that it has a downer ending. I suppose that adds to the harsh reality of how life would be after most of humanity is lost to some tragic circumstance but I’m sure there could’ve been better ways to make this movie. I really would like to like this movie but there are too many cheap and weird things about it that I say skip it. Or at the very least, give it a look if only for the grindhouse quality that it has.