two movies

[topaz]

This weekend I noticed that The Omega Man was available for instant watching on Netflix, so I turned it on.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's the first film adaptation of Richard Matheson's vampire novel I Am Legend, before the Will Smith version that was released last year.

Good lord, what a dreadful movie.  It's an early-1970s science fiction flick, so I expected it to be low budget and cheesy, and let me tell you, it surpassed my expectations in every way.  It stars Charlton Heston, which is without a doubt their first mistake.  He spends much of the movie acting like his chief weapons against the monsters are his dry wit and his arched eyebrows.  (Of course, it is Charlton Heston, so he gets plenty of screen time slinging around semiautomatic weapons too.)

The monsters don't fare much better.  In Matheson's novel (which is really very good), the villains are vampires.  Some sort of mysterious virus is responsible, but they're real, honest-to-goodness, classically gothic vampires -- garlic, stake-through-the-heart, and everything.  The 2007 remake made them into kind of silly-looking CGI zombies, I guess because zombies are chic again.  But in the 1971 film they look and act more like anemic Moonies.  They roam around at night all pasty-faced, wearing long black robes and Oakley sunglasses (apparently because the virus has made them so night-sensitive), call each other "brother" and act like they're all in a religious cult.  I assume that the producers didn't think they could get away with having a virus turn people into actual vampires, but the solution they came up with is really no less hilariously campy.

Will Smith is far better in a role like this than Charlton Heston, and his movie is somewhat better, but really, the time put into either of these movies would be way better spent reading the book.

Then last night after dinner, my father and keyne and I sat down to watch Stranger Than Fiction.  It was a blessed antidote.  I saw this movie when it was released and enjoyed it a lot, but on repeated viewing I think I like it even more.  Say what you like about Will Ferrell (and lord knows the man has made some clunkers): he can hold his own against both Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson at the same time, which is no mean feat.  It's a lovely and touching movie and manages to be sentimental without pandering.  (Well, maybe just a little bit.)  And really anyone who writes should see this at least once.

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Science fiction movies are always barometres of society's current anxieties. In 1971, there was a lot of concern over what are now neutrally called "New Religious Movements" but were then commonly referred to as "cults". Vampires, on the other hand, were not a big concern.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Vampires, on the other hand, were not a big concern.

And that's just one of the things that was wrong with the 1970s.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

I thought I'ld hate Stranger than Fiction, since I can't stand Will Ferrell usually,but when he calms down he's great. one quibble...that baker is so unbeleivable,totally nonfunctioning store...sorry,went off there for a moment

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Ha! I absolutely loved Maggie Gyllenhaal in that role, but I should have realized the portrayal of the bakery would bug you :-)

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

baking in a tank top and massive bake ovens in the same part of the store as customers? AARRGGHHH!!!!

[primal-pastry.livejournal.com]

but, he bought her flours!

[redjo.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY want someone to buy me flours ... that was my favorite moment of the film ...

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

For a long time I was of the opinion that there was no movie so good that Will Ferrell couldn't ruin it. (Wedding Crashers is an example but if they'd accidentally cast him as one of the children running around the wedding in The Godfather, Coppola's career might have ended then and there.)

Stranger than Fiction helped a lot, enough so that Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is an occasional insomnia/deep-cable guilty pleasure.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

There are so many things to object to in Omega Man but the biggest barrier for me was that the power plants were still operational two years later.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

They were? Neville's house was run off a generator. Where did you see something that indicated that power plants were still running? That was a detail that I thought actually they got right, more or less.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember electricity in other places. Of course I only vaguely remember the whole thing except for a few choice bits.

Ah - according to IMDB goofs, the traffic lights work.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I missed the traffic lights!

[penk.livejournal.com]

Glad you finally got to see this. It does fill in the niche though. There's images that I've carried all my life though - particularly Neville watching the Woodstock movie by himself, having memorized all the words.

Now I suppose I have to see the Wil Smith version.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was kind of a neat scene. I got a special kick out of the fact that they made Charlton Heston, in particular, watch Woodstock. You could almost see him clenching his teeth at all the dirty hippies.

The Will Smith version has its own issues -- I think it's overall both more faithful to Matheson's book and a better movie, but it fails to treat the zombie apocalypse as a society of its own the way the book did. (On the other hand, The Omega Man tries to do this and fails miserably, so maybe I should be grateful for small blessings.)

[noeltheone.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the alternate ending?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

!! Alternate ending? No!

[noeltheone.livejournal.com]

Alternate ending yes (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4050675069536850106).

[fj.livejournal.com]

I think I saw a version of I Am Legend starring Vincent Price. In black and white.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Oh, great guns, you're right. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/) I even knew that and I went and ignored it. Thanks for reminding me. Maybe that one got it right!

[fj.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember that as true vampires.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

It's a fairly faithful adaptation of the book, too.

[nooks.livejournal.com]

I had a collection of post-apocalypse stuff lined up at one point; I think The Quiet Earth was my favorite (set in New Zealand!). It has some of the same strange 70s-SF-flick flaws you mention but is still kind of fun.