The Omega Man (1971)

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Director: Boris Sagal

Writers: John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, from a novel by Richard Matheson

Stars: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo, Eric Laneuville, Lincoln Kilpatrick



This is the second version of Richard Matheson's thrice-filmed novel I Am Legend.

 


Charlton Heston leant his commanding screen presence to a string of science fiction films in the 70s, of which this is probably the least, though it is still entertaining. 



Director Boris Sagal and the screenwriters altered the story to comment on social issues of the time, making the plague victims into a Manson family-type commune intent on destroying the last vestiges of the technology that spawned them. 



This makes the film seem terribly dated at times, but it is still enjoyable. 



Some of the early sequences with Heston wandering alone through an empty city are still creepy.



 Spoiler alert!!! This is the end of the movie!! (Heston always ended up the same way in these 70s SF extravaganzas.)



















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