Neville the Redeemer is Legend

THE OMEGA MAN (1971)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When I first saw "The Omega Man" many years back, two aspects of it stayed with me. One was seeing Charlton Heston driving all over empty Los Angeles streets, making a stop to watch "Woodstock" at a repertory movie theater. Another were those plague-carrying albinos wearing black hoods, causing fires around town and doing not much else. "The Omega Man" is an odd, albino duck of a movie - it is frequently riveting yet silly, often thrilling yet anticlimactic. It is a macho Charlton Heston sci-fi action pic and, on that level, a heck of a lot better than other apocalyptic films of its ilk.

Neville (Heston) is presumably the last man on Earth, thanks to an outbreak of biochemical warfare that began with the war between China and the Soviet Union. Neville is a scientist who has created a vaccine that eradicates any trace of this deadly plague. Ultimately, there are others who have survived this holocaust. Some turn into albino mutants with sores on their faces, otherwise known as the Family, who want destroy all traces of existing technology ("the Science"). There are other survivors who have not succumbed to albino status, including Lisa (the sexy Rosalind Cash), one of the few ragtag group of survivors who have not turned yet. Meanwhile, Neville befriends them and informs them of a serum that can cure them with the help of his uninfected blood. Will he help the Family who have waged war on Neville?

"The Omega Man" is fascinating and often engrossing stuff. Neville's own insular life where he has plenty of food and artillery in his apartment, as well as a bust of Caesar to use as a chess opponent, adds a degree of emotional weight. What I can't figure out is why Neville did not start treating people as soon as the outbreak occurred, only saving himself. The ongoing, two-year war with the Family is a little perplexing - they know who Neville is yet can't they figure out a way to destroy fuse boxes to do away with electricity so Neville has no power in his apartment? The Family hates science after all, so they might hate electricity too. Instead they spend their time uttering epiphanies about science and technology, yet they burn works of art! According to Heston, Neville deals with the Family on a nightly basis (they are nocturnal creatures after all) because he doesn't want to be completely isolated. When he meets and falls for Lisa, you hope his situation and the other non-albino mutant survivors will improve. Occasionally, though, Lisa and others call Neville "evil." Is it because he could have done more before this biochemical warfare reached astronomical levels? How do they know that?

Loosely based on Richard Matheson's book "I Am Legend," "The Omega Man" confounds the viewer somewhat by not instilling any real clarification about the chemical apocalypse or its subjective stance and/or opinion of Neville. Hero, antihero, villain or semi-Redeemer thanks to a closing Christ-like shot? Still, despite many perplexing questions, I was caught up in "The Omega Man" all over again. Heston has the titanic presence and stature of a man who won't easily go down without a fight (and I suspect his Neville might have a sneaking bit of sympathy towards the Family). Rosalind Cash is simply a stunning woman in every respect (sharing one of the more tender kisses with Heston since Heston's own "Touch of Evil" with Janet Leigh), and the great Anthony Zerbe as the Family's leader Matthias (as well as former news announcer) delivers every line with frightening intensity. "The Omega Man" is one of the more intriguing sci-fi films of the 1970's.