The Omega Man (1971)

Watched 5/16/24 (Blu-Ray)

Based on I am Legend, a Richard Matheson novel you may recognize the title of, and starring one of the ‘60s and ‘70s great movie stars, much akin to a 2000s Will Smith believe it or not, you’d think The Omega Man would be a slam dunk of a  popcorn flick. Unfortunately, much like its eponymous character, also known as Robert Neville, this movie is stranded in no-man’s land.

The film’s deceptive opening 15 minutes position it as a low-budget, low-effort Charlton-Heston-maniacally-shooting-vampires, loose-cannon action/horror fable, but we instead get a tremendously self-serious science drama with the exception to the rule being some campy black-cloaked vampire cult members who don’t get much to do beyond trying to kill Heston in increasingly strange ways—with the kicker being a hilariously improbable javelin toss… Could have used more of that energy, if we’re talking about making the movie more watchable.

The bigger problem, however, is that this 1971 director, Boris Sagal, was just not built for action sequences. There should be a real sense of claustrophobia as the possibility of sudden violence looms over every movement and every character. Unfortunately, the script and especially the direction don’t allow for us to feel even a sliver of that tension amidst the tepid, fruitless dialogue and the brief, un-storyboarded, bare-minimum gunfights. While the ‘70s ultra-scarlet blood is certainly welcome, it makes all too brief of appearances in the film’s very few, very rushed shootouts.

This is the perfect movie to set up a character having to get from point A to point B and putting them through a filmmaking ringer to get there, replete with creative weapon uses, fun booby traps, and in-depth geographical verve. With the plot often being so dependent on characters staying indoors, this is a film that a better director could have wrung a great tracking-shot escort scene out of, or perhaps a home-alone style trap attack. The material just isn’t a great match for the unadventurous, stagnant filmmaking style on display.

We follow Dr. Neville through a series of listless, toothless interactions with fellow survivors, blandly recycling scenes of blood donation with scenes of what I guess in the ‘70s passed for romance? Once these interactions start, we don’t really make a return to action until the last 25 minutes or so which, on the page, does of course indite this as a waste of a good vampire movie premise in its own right, as sub-par as the action may be.

Overall, not even another charismatic Heston performance can save what amounts to missed opportunities for dynamic action filmmaking and propulsive storytelling between those action scenes. Very little understanding of how to make gunfire cinematic and a perilous overuse of the same kill style each and every time defeat The Omega Man in its pursuit of action movie achievement, while the colorless character dynamics fail to fill in the blanks. It’s too bad this project wasn’t given to a real ‘70s action director like a John Milius or a Walter Hill—or even one as journeyman as a Ted Post. Could have revamped the script with a few more suspense set pieces that an understanding of on-screen combat logistics would have gone a long way to amplify. This swing and a miss would have, at worst, been a deep foul ball.

4/10