The Omega Man Reviews

I saw an interview with Heston in which he said that this film was the first major motion picture to portray a white man and a black woman in a romantic relationship, which made it very controversial when it was released.

The music is dated (70's) and a little campy, but the issues are less dated, and the germ warfare threat is actually more real today than it was then. The movie's uniqueness allows it to explore some new territory that makes it fascinating nevertheless. If you're a sci-fi buff, Heston fan, or into eschatology, sociology, or just like very cool, bizarre, and unique films, you should see it.

One warning: I purchased the PG rated video, and the one occurence of the "F" word was blanked out as if this were a made-for-TV production. Also, this "PG" rated version had some brief nudity that surprised me - it's more like a PG13 at least, a rating which didn't exist when this film was originally created.

Rating: 4 - Head of NRA cuts loose on bad guys in Los Angelas
The second attempt at filmimg Richard Matheson's post apocalytic vampire novel "I am Legend", is violent, flawed and unintentionally funny in many places, but it is one of my favourite films to sit down and watch on a rainy afternoon....

Charlton Heston plays army medico Robert Neville, the sole (?) survivor of Sino-Chinese germ warfare that has decimated the earth's population, leaving only millions of rotting corpses, and a hooded band of psychotic mutants intent on finishing off poor Heston in ghost town Los Angelas. Heston is holed up by night in his penthouse surrounded by guns, gadgets and Julius Ceasar (?) as the mutants prowl around the front of his block calling for him to come out. A chilling Anthony Zerbe plays the doomsayer / TV anchorman Jonathon Mathias turned demented evangelist who vows to re-start the earth and destroy old technology and sciences and the poisons that they brought with them.

However, Heston doesn't stay alone for too long when he bumps into Rosalind Cash out doing a little clothes shopping....and Paul Koslo as guardian of a tribe of semi-resilient children hiding from Mathias and his murdering mob. It looks a little dated, but OMEGA has a kind of enduring camp quality about it....and Heston is fun to watch as he battles the mutants and searches out their lair in the city.

SPOILERS AHEAD.............................

Watch closely in one of the scenes after Heston leaves the movie theatre and is racing to get home before dark. As he flies along in his Mustang, way off in the distance you can clearly see another car drive through an intersection.
And it always bugged me that if Heston is driven crazy by Mathias and his incessant chanting every night, why doesn't Chuck just drill one right through Mathias with his automatic rifle with the infra red night scope ????

None the less, a 70's sci-fi classic that is still great viewing!

Rating: 4 - Hippie Science Fiction.
It is the height of irony that Chuck Heston, who has recently raised the ire of numerous liberal do-gooders for his arch-conservative stances on issues such as gun control, was the star of counter culture sci-fi flicks of the late 60's and early 70's: Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and this classic, The Omega Man.

"The Man" has screwed up and destroyed mankind with his weapons of mass destruction. All that remains is a scientist (Heston) who discovered a vaccine against the deadly virus that has either killed people or turned them into mutant psychopaths. Also alive are a handful of children and a couple of adult free spirits; but unless they are vaccinated they will turn into mutants with time. ("Don't trust anyone over 30!") Can the Omega Man use his blood as a vaccine to save what is left of mankind? Can the Omega Man survive the night when all the mutants come out to try and kill him?

This is a fun movie! Sure "The Omega Man" is dated; but that is part of its charm: the music, the clothes, and those afros. Some parts are priceless such as sight of Chuck Heston watching the movie "Woodstock" and knowing all the dialogue by heart. Or a black mutant trying to convince the head mutant, Anthony Zerbe, to allow him to use artillery to blast Heston out of his "honky paradise." (On a serious note: This movie did feature one of the first interracial movie romances in which race is considered inconsequential.) Heston is at his hammy best here, and he does utter his trademark line: "Oh, my God!" The ending is a hoot with Chuck as Christ- "The blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven."

"I was like Charleton Heston in "The Omega Man." Beauty movie, eh?"- Strange Brew

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The Omega Man