Throwback Thursday: "Omega Man"

I don't know what it is with Charlton Heston flicks lately, but this Thursday's throwback is Omega Man, inspired by my enjoyment of I Am Legend - the book and the movie.

Omega follows Richard Matheson's novel about as much as Will Smith's I Am Legend, which means there are various interpretative liberties - some of which are good, some maybe not. For those who have seen or read Legend: in Omega, the "vampires" are more like albino Amish, with about as much of a fear factor.

The enemy of self-assured "last man on earth" Heston, the albinos refuse to use the machines of war to out Heston's character, Dr. Robert Neville. To me - this would have been a welcome handicap to accelerating their extinction, but Heston's Neville - much like Matheson's - mostly gets drunk and talks to himself.

Omega also does a good job of portraying the book Neville's, ahem...yearnings, shall we say, that would be pretty substantial after a few years of no Internet porn.

The film is from 1971, and for the time period, they do a fine job of showing empty streets, isolation, mass death, and broad shots using clever camera tricks that we take for granted now that there's so much technology to facilitate it. Heston is a believable Neville if not a little creepy when he smiles.

This may be a childhood riddled with Planet of the Apes movies talking, but this felt eerily similar. While the albinos are a little off simian, I'd venture to guess that if you like Apes then you'll like Omega.

I strongly doubt there were any Oscars won for acting, but the period special effects are good, the story is pretty solid, and it's got some decent action sequences.

So, if you’re looking for another take on what World War Z author Max Brooks calls LMOEs (Last Man on Earth) type stories, which I favor, admittedly) then give Omega Man a go.