The Omega Man is great for the type of movie that it is. It's also my favorite version of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. Vincent Price's Last Man on Earth is closest to the books tone but feels cheap and uninspired. Will Smith royally fucked what could have been a masterpiece by using rubbery CGI monsters. I'm not even going to mention Shrek. Back to the book, I never liked the fact that Matheson called the creatures vampires. Using the word "vampire" always seemed to narrow what the book was about and cheapen it. It's a study of loneliness, of one society replacing another and of a man realizing that he himself had become a monster.
Anywho, I like the changes made in Omega Man, dig it's funky 70's vibe and prefer it over Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green. I like that the mutants were anti-technology. It also made the logical choice of having Neville arm himself with guns instead of wandering around and staking people with wood, which I always thought was one of the stupid things about the novel. Rosalind Cash was also hot as fuck in the movie and it was quite daring, for the time, to feature an interracial romance as they did between her and Heston. But what I liked most about The Omega Man was the overwhelming sense of melancholy and sadness that hangs over the movie.
A few interesting factoids about the flick; Director Boris Sagal, who also Directed episodes of the original Twilight Zone, was the Father of Katey Sagal, yes, Peggy Bundy herself. He was partially decapitated on the set on a TV mini-series called World War 3 when he walked into the tail rotor of a helicopter. The score was composed by Ron Grainer, who also created the original theme for Doctor Who, and it's very beautiful. Here it is....
