Why The Omega Man Is The Weakest Movie Version Of I Am Legend
The Omega Man is the weakest version of Richard Matheson's book because it fails in the many of the same ways that The Last Man on Earth (1964) and I Am Legend (2007) do, only worse. All three films fail to portray the original story's true horror—the extinction of humankind due to its arrogance and violence. In all three films, humankind is ultimately saved in some way, whereas in the book, it most certainly comes to an end. All the films also fail to fully capture the original story's irony that its protagonist—and by extension humankind—is revealed to be its antagonist; in other words, Robert Neville blindly becomes a version of the very bogeyman that humankind has always feared. The Last Man on Earth does feature this irony to some extent, but since Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) provides a cure for the infection, that irony is somewhat diminished, because he is also a savior.
The Omega Man, like The Last Man on Earth, does a slightly better job than I Am Legend the film in the way it presents humankind's end. The former films feature the end of humankind as we know it, whereas I Am Legend the film implies that humankind as we know it will persevere, just on a smaller scale. What makes The Omega Man the worst version of I Am Legend in this respect is that it is the only version that seems to imply that humankind's old ways were not flawed, but instead, they were simply misused by a certain subset of society, basically a filmic depiction of the bad apple theory—instead of blaming the system as a whole, the film implies that only certain "bad" countries and fundamentalists are to blame for society's ills.
The Omega Man is worth watching, however, because despite its failures, it does add some elements—specifically the inclusion of the Family—that make it an entertaining, though not very frightening, film. As with the other films, it is a watered-down version of the original story that takes out the most unsettling aspects of the book, namely the fact that humankind's downfall will be the direct result of human nature.
The biggest way that The Omega Man fails in comparison with the book and the other films is that its protagonist is completely oblivious to the idea that humankind has gone astray. Other aspects of the film concede the error of humankind's ways, but protagonist Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) never does. As a symbol of humankind, Neville in The Omega Man, like Neville (Will Smith) in I Am Legend the film, is always the hero. However, unlike I Am Legend the film's Neville, he is not only a symbol of humankind's capacity for sacrifice, but he is also a symbol of everything else that supposedly makes humankind good: self-sufficiency, science, and even religion.
The Omega Man's Neville doesn't sacrifice his life in the same way that Neville does in the movie version of I Am Legend. The former is murdered, whereas the latter commits suicide. This minor difference means a lot: The Omega Man's Neville never concedes the fact that his way of life was wrong, or that he must change. In The Last Man on Earth, Morgan comes to the realization that he was wrong to be killing the living infected with impunity for so long. He realizes the error of his ways and dies because of them. Even in I Am Legend the film, Neville realizes that changing humankind must start with him, and he consequently commits suicide. There is no such realization for Neville in The Omega Man, he lives and dies a hero in his mind and in those of the people he saved. His version of humankind—the guns, the cars, the narcissism—is redeemed in his death.
Another thing that makes The Omega Man worse than its counterparts is that fails to incorporate the irony of Neville becoming the very evil which humankind has always feared, which made the original story's ending so powerful. I Am Legend the film also lacks this irony, since it removed the element of a new society altogether. What makes The Omega Man worse in this regard is that it had a much bigger opportunity to include it and still failed.
Unlike the book and The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man features two new societies instead of one, both of which are seeking to start a new world order, but with different aims. However, neither one ever raises Neville's status to legendary evil. The first new society encountered in the film is the Family, a group—similar to The Manson Family—of tertiary-stage infected humans who blame technology for humankind's downfall and who wish to create a new medieval society. The Family is characterized as a group of homicidal maniacs who live by night; they have pale skin, white hair, and white eyes. The second new society, led by Dutch (Paul Koslo) and Lisa (Rosalind Cash), is barely a society at all, and is comprised of primary- and secondary-stage infected humans who live by day and appear to be uninfected. They live in fear that their infection will one day evolve to the tertiary stage without warning.
Both of these societies fear Neville in some way, but never to an extent in which he becomes a legendary evil to them. The first wants to destroy him completely, which for them would signal the end of humankind's old ways; the second saves him in hopes that he can develop a cure and give humankind a new start in what Dutch calls a new Garden of Eden, only this time they wouldn't listen to the serpent. The Family considers Neville, and all humans, their enemy, but he hardly ever becomes the antagonist in their story, let alone a legendary evil. Instead, for them, he is a political symbol of the old human society they wish to replace. In essence, they want to replace his flawed society with their own. The Family is analogous to the vampire-like creatures of the book and the infected of The Last Man on Earth.
Lisa's society is quick to accept Neville in The Omega Man, and he never truly serves as an antagonist to them either. Lisa and Richie (Eric Laneuville) do mention that they did once fear him, but that fear was only superficial, as they always understood him—and more importantly, themselves—to be human, which is why they saved him from the Family in the first place. Lisa's society is analogous to the new societies of the living infected that kill Neville in the book and Morgan in The Last Man on Earth. They are a worse version of the living infected since they actually seek him out as a hero, not as a villain. In the end, he provides a cure for the disease, and actually dies sprawled out in the shape of a cross, a heavy-handed reference to sacrifice as symbolized by Jesus Christ.
The Omega Man is worth watching because it does address the theme of humankind's end, only in a very comical way. In the film, Matthias (Anthony Zerbe), the leader of the Family, gives several long speeches about how humankind, with their reliance on technology, has brought about the end of civilization. His aim is to avoid their mistakes and reject all things technological, preferring instead a more medieval level of technology that includes bows and arrows, wooden catapults and handheld weapons. This is another example of blaming just a few bad apples for a systemic problem.
Matthias' long-winded conversations with his second-in-command, Zachary (Lincoln Kilpatrick), clumsily set out their ideals, which include the eradication of racism. When Zachary refers to Neville's stronghold as a "honky paradise," Matthias tells him to forget the old hatreds, that they are all one, and that the Family is everything now. Their new society of chosen people, those who have survived infection and have been transformed, must destroy Neville, who is a symbol of everything they reject. The problem with this is that instead of ridding their society of its nightmare, the Family is simply replacing humankind's cruelty with their own. Neville in The Last Man on Earth similarly criticizes his own pursuers about this, whereas in the book, they truly do fear Neville as an evil creature, not just a symbol of their political differences. Ultimately, the defining qualities of the Family mirror those of the human society they claim to reject: violence and arrogance.
The addition of the Family in The Omega Man is one of the film's redeeming qualities in terms of what the book originally intended. The Family's errors replace those of Neville's in the book, as they unwittingly come to embody the evils that they claim to reject. Despite their comical and heavy-handed portrayal, the ultimate result of their inclusion is a commentary on human society that is as valid as the book and the other film versions of I Am Legend, just not as frightening as it could be.
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