There was a real darkness about science fiction films in the early 1970's that when you think about it, kind of reflects the film noir genre of the 40s/50s. There was a tremendous cynicism about humanity and it's seemingly endless capacity to monumentally screw things up.
Coming (in the USA particularly) at a time of the Vietnam war, growing awareness of various environmental issues, the death of the hippy era, fear of nuclear war, the oil crisis, racial tension and economic stagnation, the time was right for filmmakers to gaze into their crystal balls and try to extrapolate how bad things could get if the current madness continued.
So we got films like THX1138, Soylent Green, Rollerball (not the lame remake), Westworld, The Planet of the Apes series, Logans Run and more. Films where the future is universally grim - over polluted, corporate controlled, conformist and generally just very bleak.
The Omega Man (1971) sits fairly comfortably in this pack. Set in Los Angeles in 1977, a couple of years after biological warfare wiped out almost all of the planet, Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) a military scientist who developed the weapons and is the only person to have tried the vaccine - is - in effect - the last man on earth.
Well this isn't entirely true - there are a bunch of albino cultists who have some kind of resistance to the "plague" but are slowly dying and are quite insane and violent. They are led by a charismatic former tv newsman turned religious crazy who sees science as the cause of their woes and they are determined to kill Neville as the last representative of the old system.
Throw into the mix some young folk who haven't developed the albino disease yet (and the obligatory love interest), a possible cure for the plague made from Heston's blood and you have yourself the fixings of a story.
Ultimately, there is a fair bit about this film that seems kind of silly now. There is a bunch of religious symbolism that just plays way too over the top and indulgent (Heston takes some kind of crucified pose at least every 20 mins or so and when he first meets his love interest Lisa (Rosalind Cash) at gunpoint, she tells him to spread his arms like he's being crucified. )
(From Wikipedia)
It has been suggested that the film parallels the story of Christ, the Apostles, and the Crucifixion[citation needed]; there are disciples, a betrayer, a Mary Magdalene figure, a Pilate-judge, allegories to the persecution by the Pharises and the salvation from the Blood of Christ, and even a spear being thrust into the main character. The "omega" in the title references the final letter in the Greek alphabet (implying, like the 1964 version that Neville is the "last" man), which is also connected to Christ, who was referred to as the Alpha and Omega
Now perhaps this is more my issue but it's kind of hard to see Charlton Heston and not think about him as a gun nut. (President and spokesman of the National Rifle Association 98-03). He certainly seems a fan of them in the movie. (Interestingly, having done a little research, he was actually more of a lefty back around those days and actually called for gun control after the murder of Robert F Kennedy).
The film opens well with scenes of Heston driving around a deserted city like a maniac, "shopping" and generally doing the things you could imagine doing if you were "the last man on Earth". I know that this was something that always fascinated me growing up (I think I first saw this film on latenight tv as an early teen) as a bit of an outsider who was happy with my own company. I think it was probably the absence of rules that appealed but I always came to the conclusion that life without other people would be boring/maddening before too long.
One of my all-time favourite sci-fi (or sf if you prefer) films deals with this issue as well - Geoff Murphy's 1985 NZ classic The Quiet Earth. (But we'll come back to that one).
Unlike other films in this genre at the time, The Omega Man didn't really seem to have that much to say in terms of social commentary - beyond perhaps the whole "wiping the planet out with biological weapons" thing is a bad idea - and plays better as a post apocalyptic action flick.
It is based on a 1954 novel by Richard Matheson entitled I am Legend. The diseased in the book are much like vampires (though without the supernatural/mythical origins) and there is more of a focus on Neville's psychological struggles to deal with being the last man on Earth. Another film version was made in 1964 with Vincent Price and the story itself has been quite influential over the years - George Romero said that the book inspired his 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead.
Blade Runner director Ridley Scott tried to make a version in the 1990s with Arnold Schwarzenegger but the film didn't get off the ground (um, I suspect thankfully - although Ridley Scott...) and apparently Will Smith is set to star in I Am Legend this year.
This film is worth checking out if you like the post-apocalyptic genre or the 70's sci-fi - for the most part it works but is a little clunky at times. Certainly nothing to worry about if you aren't a fan of blood and gore.
Here's the trailer.
