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Such a good 70's flick with many flaws. Just enjoyable on many levels

I have watched this sci-fi flick at least 5 times and enjoy it every time. I like how innovative he was in setting up his residence to keep The Family at bay. I have always wondered what he would do when his food stash ran out and the stuff in stores started expiring. I also don't understand how he kept putting himself in harms way by staying out until dark. Another thing that puzzled me was why he did not kill The Family when they came around at night? He had a sniper rifle with night light. He could have been rid of them in a couple of evenings. Still this was a very good story about "the last man on earth".

People knock this film. Yes it has many flaws but some slack should be cut. It was 1971, Hollywood was in a desperate time of recession and change. 'Easy Rider' had blown a hole in the side of the school of thought that the studios had subscribed to. Suddenly, story material that would never have been tackled by the major studios prior to this time was emerging.

'The Omega Man' was of course an adaptation of Matheson's novel and is a second film version of it. But the technical challenges were vast. Find a time of day when L.A.'s deserted? Do me a favor! It's a miracle they got anything decent on film. Yes there are distant cars in the back of that zoom out at the top of the film but these guys didn't have computers did they?

Anyway, Heston looks amusingly dated in the role of Neville wearing his safari jacket and skintight tracksuit while he prowls the 'deserted' streets. The thing about Chuck is he just LOOKS like a film star. Just driving a car he grabs your attention. The supporting cast here are less engaging. An afro and 'Hey man' too many perhaps. The writers seemed desperate to tap into 70s pop culture. A sure-fire way to date your film.

The camera crew on this film must have gone straight onto 'Quincy' after they'd finished this. It's bizarre. There are dolly moves for no reason whatsoever (when Heston first enters his apartment and later before he discovers the sardine tin), zooms that hit the end stop so hard they almost bounce back and roving pans where you actually feel for the operator while he tries to find where the hell Chuck's car's gone. But this is one of the things that makes 70s cinema so great. The raw elements of film-making are on display.

Ron Grainer's score is genius in places and god awful in others. It goes from the brilliant main title theme to the woeful chase music when Heston pursues the leading lady. There's also the typically almost pink-tinted blood. Why couldn't they get blood right back then?

'The Omega Man' is an engaging, thought-provoking but very dated piece of cinema. The last image of Heston is immortal even if the film's hair-dos are not. Watch it, enjoy it and cut it some slack.

A post-holocaust caused by a virus, in a germ warfare , has been destroying most of mankind , the plague that causes the end of the world was unleashed as the result of a border war between China and Russia , in fact, China and Russia had some very serious border skirmishes during 1969 that had many world leaders concerned about the possibility of an all-out war between the Communist superpowers an U. S . As an Army scientist named Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) , who had immunized himself, is practically alone in the city of Los Angeles, except for a group of albino-like survivors . Army doctor Robert Neville struggles to create a cure for the plague that wiped out most of the human race . Neville is immune to the effects of a biologically engineered plague and fights those aren't , an army of mutants bent on destroying what's left of the world and constantly harass him . Neville uses a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) with an Infra-Red scope killing mutants . The pale-skinned men are led by sneering and creepy leaders (Anthony Zerbe, Lincoln Kilpatrick) , they want to eradicate what is left of mankind, but they feel is responsible for the disaster and this, of course, includes Neville. But Neville isn't the sole survivor , early appear a few survivors, an African-American woman named Lisa (Rosalind Cash). Pray for the last man alive. Because he's not alone. The World Is Dead. One Survivor. Then The Others. Crawling In Darkness. The Strangest Sect Of All. *Hunting The Last Man On Earth.*

Omega Man's spectacular adaptation with top-notch performance by Charlton Heston . Strong intrigue and suspense with considerable violence based on novel by Richard Matheson , which is also the basis for the film ¨The last Man on Earth¨ directed by Sidney Salkow , starred by Vincent Price and a modern version ¨I am legend¨ by Francis Lawrence with Will Smith and Alice Braga . This is a blockbuster production that manages to convey an eerie atmosphere to dismay . The film packs noisy action, tension , thrills , terror and entertaining enough. Good performance by Charlton ¨Chuck¨ Heston , usual actor of spectacular Sci-fi and epic movies . This movie marked the fourth teaming of producer Walter Seltzer with star Charlton Heston who worked together on 1973 ¨Soylent Green¨ , 1972 ¨Skyjacked¨ , 1969 ¨Number one¨ , 1968 ¨Will Penny¨, 1965 ¨The War Lord¨ , they would work together again on ¨The last hard man¨, their seventh and final movie together .Interesting screenplay by John and Joyce Corrington based on novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson , though he said that The Omega Man was so removed from his book that it didn't even bother him . Heston is well acccompanied by a good cast , such as : Rosalind Cash, Anthony Zerbe , Paul Koslo , Lincoln Kilpatrick and the teen Eric Laneuville

Atmospheric but rare musical score fitting to action and suspense by Ron Granier . Colorful and glimmering cinematography by Russell Metty . The production company wanted a locale that looked like an abandoned metropolitan area, but it was too costly to build , the producer drove through Downtown Los Angeles and majority of the movie's exteriors were shot there on weekends when shoppers were closed . The motion picture was professionally directed by Boris Sagal , a television series expert such as ¨Rich man, poor man¨, ¨Ike¨ , ¨Columbo¨, ¨Diary of Anne Frank¨ ,¨Masada¨. Rating : Above average and well worth watching .

What we got right here is a prime sampling of Charlton Heston's 1970s renaissance, that's what. Prime Chuck. The Hest. The MAN. In all his ageing, fading glory. From the very beginning we see a sweaty, swarthy and downright bad Chuck rollin' in his five-oh (a la Vanilla Ice, I suppose), scouring the streets of a skeletal near-future Los Angeles. And as the last man on earth, it's the least he can do. Only this is the future with a demonic hitch - Chuck must defend himself at every darkening turn from an evil cult of postwar mutants, led by the maniacal cool-as-ice Matthias. This aggrevated Luddite soul-brother crew's primary aim it seems, is to rid the world of Chuck - while they're not oozing cool and spouting kitschy new-age philosophies. In response, what we as viewers receive is Chuck at his absolute baddest (take that how you wish). In a film where Hest's teeth practically take second billing, we hear him say all the things Chuck was born to say: Damn, bastards, God, SOB and so on.

It's one hell of a ride, dated badly from the first moment we see Chuck pop a tape in the 8-Track. Thus, when you feel the need for cheese, simply mix in "The Omega Man" - and a little prime Chuck.

Fantastic Sci Fi classic in which Charlton Heston is the last man alive. Not as intense as "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price, but great high tech update of the tail, with a small lesson in race relations. Classic scene is when Heston goes to the movies for the recored breaking run of "Woodstock".

A film that can't help but aim too high, "The Omega Man" suffers from the very thing that makes it great. Set in a post-apocalyptic future (for the audience of 1971) the film attempts to show a world populated by a single solitary man. Well, a man and a cult of malcontented zombie/mutant/vampire beings. Robert Neville (Heston) is the lone survivor of a germ war that turned the population of the world into freaks. Based on the amazingly brilliant book "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, the film shares most of the qualities of the book, yet excludes the portions that make "Legend" fantastic.

The idea of being the last man is intriguing. I used to fantasize about being Neville as a child (probably not the healthiest thing for a kid). Neville has paradise, but with the highest price possible. He can have anything he wants, but no one to share it with. And come night time, he must hide in his fortress away from the angry mob of mutants.

The apocalyptic world that makes the first half so captivating is destroyed by the second half's plot device. I won't go into details for those who haven't seen it. However, I will say the film starts to slide downhill from the mid-way point. But the lesser parts can be enjoyed as early 70's camp.

Even with its faults, "The Omega Man" is a great Sci-fi movie. It also gives Heston a chance to play his quintessential role of a man at the end of civilization. The film's weaknesses don't ruin the experience entirely. It is a film that myself and my friends talk about to this day despite the fact that most of my friends only saw it once or twice (when forced by me).

Related note: I Am Legend was also made into the film "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price. "Omega Man" is discussed in the first scene of indie-film classic "Slacker."

This film was horrible. It was a complete nightmare to watch, and totally tedious. Instead of writing concise sentences on why this movie was so horrendous to me, I will simply list the negative points about the film:

1. The dialogue - When I heard Heston scream out "It's turning into night," that's when I knew I was in for a long night.

2. Neville - I had an easier time connecting with one of the many manikins in the film than Neville. He was interestingly uninteresting. The dog in "I Am Legend" was an added necessity for Will Smith's character recognition. It helped.

3. The Family - Even though they can articulate like intelligent human beings, they proved to be more mindless than the mindless monsters running around in "I Am Legend."

4. The romance - This should have been number one on this list. I didn't buy the romance for one split second. It was laughably absurd. It only took a second for it to happen. And I didn't believe Heston was even attracted to her.

5. Richie or Richard (whatever) - What was he thinking?

6. The performances - For-the-birds.

7. Camera work - I started calling out the next shot before it happened, like the zoom in on Heston when he found Richie's note. It looked shamefully amateurish and predictable for what was a string of corny shots since the beginning of the film.

8. Music - It was all done in one night on a Casio synthesizer keyboard.

9. Make up/Effects - Okay. What was with the red Kool-aid and, in some cases, the Campbell's tomato soup as blood? And granted, the CGI monsters in "I Am Legend" weren't easy on the eyes or sensibility (I hated them), but I can appreciate them more than the intellectual, pale faces walking around in their Jedi cloaks.

10.The ending - Need I say more?

Overall, it was an awful film. If I could give it "zero" stars, I would.

Of the three films that have been explicitly drawn from Matheson's heady pulp sci-fi story "Last Man on Earth" Boris Sagal's The Omega Man is probably the most well-respected. While it is not as lavishly produced as Lawrence's (2007) I am Legend, nor as creepified as Ubaldo Ragona's Last Man on Earth, it is a nice example of a sci fi adventure film with a soul and a brain.

Doctor Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) has survived an engineered plague which has wiped out most of the earth's human population. Neville developed a cure as the plague erupted, but was unable to get it into production due to a very unfortunate accident. He injected himself, and is now immune. Every night, he is hunted by vampire-like plague victims lead by the puritanical Luddite fanatic Matthias. Matthias and his followers view the plague as the salvation and rebirth of humanity and see their former lives as evil. Neville is the embodiment of everything they despise. Neville, in the meantime, is desperately pursuing survival and trying to re-create the cure.

Then one day, Neville encounters a young black woman (Rosalind Cash) posing as a mannequin in a department store.

Omega Man is not a sci-fi spectacular. There really are no special effects to speak of and the director, very appropriately, went to great lengths to make it clear that the story takes place today - not in some distant future. The film was made by a director whose career staple was 'made for TV' movies. Unsurprisingly, Omega Man is economically directed - and its thrift sometimes shows.

The cinematography is effective, but some of the action scenes are unconvincingly shot. The cast is excellent - Cash and Heston are especially strong. Remarkably, Omega Man creates an abandoned Los Angeles in 1971 with no special effects - almost as effectively as "I am Legend" did in 2007. It is worth mentioning that I am Legend is estimated to have enjoyed a budget at least 10 times as great as Omega Man's.

Omega Man is a good example of the semi-experimental tangents of late 1960s/early 1970s Hollywood film-making. Influenced by the cold war, nuclear proliferation, Viet Nam, and the burgeoning Western counter-culture, films like 2001: A Space Oddyssey, Silent Running, Rollerball and Omega Man - and even the original Star Trek series - stand out as landmarks in the usually intellectually barren landscape of mainstream sci fi.

Recommended.

Charlton Heston is not a good actor. We know this, we've seen the roles he plays, the incredible limitation of his acting range - this is one ham that does not taste any better with age.

The Omega Man is a (then) fashionably downbeat view of the future, complete with slang that has aged just as well as the cheston himself. It could be somewhat believable that a plague could happen - it is somehow realistic that the only person apparently left is a pompous, arrogant, self-righteous self-obsessed windbag. However, it is unlikely that that the rest of the surviving population would be turned into photosensitive Bauhaus groupies.

What follows is a film-by-numbers morality play that wavers between the unintentionally funny and the downright predictable.

It would have been immensely more apt to have Richard Matheson's book in a crucifixion pose by the end and save charlton an hour in make-up.

One of these days soon we will see another remake of Richard Matheson's seminal Horror novella. If we do, I hope the marquee will read: "I Am Legend." This should be done for no other reason than to make it easier for Sci-Fi nerds to argue and champion their personal favorite. But I have this feeling the producers will take the easy way out.

Boris Sagal, the veteran television director, who died under the most grisly of circumstances--he walked into a helicopter blade--helms a brilliant adaptation of the book. Sure, they changed the vampires into psychotic albinos. And they also injected a heavy dose of the Seventies counter-culture. But the essential themes resist the tampering by the new screenwriters and remain solid story chestnuts. No one handles a weapon with such verve as Mr. Heston. He fires at random and generally hits something. Always a good approach in this type of movie. I enjoy his conversations with Caesar's bust in his "Honky paradise". The sculptures and paintings on the walls are actual reproductions of the immortals they represent. Also, check out the art work on the back of "Dutch's" jacket. It packs a wallop. Ron Grainer's score is legendary and has a elegiac feel punctuated by strange sounds from obscure instruments. The action scenes rival the best. Catch Heston's despair and loneliness when he jogs by a large office building along side a reflecting pool. Every scene is chock full of memorable lines and quirky bits of business. The bodies of the dead pop up randomly with a wild note on the soundtrack. There is a brief nude scene that for once fits into the plot. A standing ovation is in order for anyone left alive.

Robert Neville is the last man on Earth. After a rocket containing a deadly cilia-based disease is unleashed, the world becomes infected. But Neville has a prototype vaccine, and it works! Now he spends his days and nights hunting down those who are infected before they can kill him.

This movie, based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend", is the second of three major adaptations (after the Vincnet Price version and before the Will Smith one). And in my humble opinion, it fails in comparison to the Price version, which seemed to really nail the idea of isolation and having to fight to survive against deadly others.

This version is alright, and lot of fun to watch, but is done in a silly way that makes things seem light-hearted and not at all scary or dangerous. Neville (played by Charlton Heston) is firing off machine guns, driving fast cars and drinking wine. It's like an episode of "Miami Vice" or "Hawaii 5-0". Not to say I didn't like the movie -- I did -- but it seemed silly when guys in robes would jump out of nowhere and cocktail-inspired fight music would pick up.

Charlton Heston is a good leading actor, as evidenced by not just this film, but also "Soylent Green" and "Ten Commandments" and "Planet of the Apes". But why does he need to take his shirt off? Maybe in 1971 times were different, but an old man with saggy chest muscles does not seem like something a lot of people would want to look at.

There is an obvious Luddite theme in this film, with a cult that is anti-technology of any kind. However, the writer made it so we couldn't possibly identify with the cult, not even for a brief moment. They're ruthless and hypocritical and completely exaggerated. I can agree that when we are launching disease-carrying missiles we are using technology for evil ends, but why does that somehow make all technology bad, including apparently modern clothes? And where do we draw the line? Simple machines like a catapult and such are alright, but what isn't? What would make us a "creature of the wheel"?

This movie is legend, and you really ought to see it. This, and the Vincent Price version, especially if you can get around to it before the new Will Smith version comes out, which will likely be the worst yet. Why can't they make one that is faithful to Matheson? (Allegedly because he's too gory, but isn't that what horror fans want?) But there are some interesting things going on here, and you'll be glad the world didn't end in the 1970s... if every day had to be like this, with these clothes.

Adaptation of Richard Matheson's book "I Am Legend", previously filmed as "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price, features Charlton Heston as seemingly the last healthy man left on the planet. Most everyone else is either dead or one of an army of night-dwelling, light-sensitive zombies with bluish-white skin. "The Omega Man" catches one off-guard with its grimly violent and serious scenario. There are many tightly-composed, thoughtful sequences, such as Heston sitting in a deserted movie theater watching "Woodstock" for the 100th time; fending off attacks by 'The Family' in his townhouse, where his only companion is a bust of Caesar; or saving a young boy from certain death. Anthony Zerbe is positively commanding as the leader of the undead, Rosalyn Cash very fine as an unusual love-interest for Heston. Some of the dialogue is silly (a child asking post-Moses Charlton Heston if he's God...); nevertheless, though the picture is ultimately too much of a downer, it isn't a cop-out and has a powerful finish. *** from ****

This film is a bit muddled philosophically: there are some half-hearted attempts to "question" Heston's morality, like a scene where a kid says "Sometimes you scare me more than The Family", yet he's clearly the one to root for, the only hope of humanity, and at the end he's set up as a Christ figure. But it's still a fine piece of moviemaking, and a definite improvement on the pale 1964 version of the same story ("The Last Man On Earth"). This remake, of sorts, has a lot more impact, and the "vampires" (or whatever you wanna call them) are a more existing and constant threat (and far more intelligent, too). However, this is not the altogether great movie that could, conceivably, be made from this story. (**1/2)

This action packed and thought-provoking sci-fi drama has been one of my personal favorites for over 30 years. Charlton Heston found his definitive role here, as the last man on earth, a scientist fighting a single handed battle against hundreds of mutant creatures of the night.

On the basic level, this movie has some of the most explosive action I have ever seen. Heston is at his best as a bloodless technocrat, a stone killer, "exterminating" mutants with machine guns, pistols, grenades, and his bare hands, all the time giving off an icy air of detachment. Put Chuck up against Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson and he definitely holds his own purely as a Seventies action hero.

On the other hand, this is also Chuck's best performance as an actor. The fact that he literally has the screen to himself for the first half hour allows him to do things he never did in his "epic star" mode. Watch him buy that used car, making small talk with a rotted corpse. Chuck puts across so much loneliness and yet entirely avoids self- pity, as in "thanks a lot, you cheating bastard." It's a scream to watch the bigger than life Moses dealing with life's everyday hassles, not in reality but in wistful fantasy.

Then watch the WOODSTOCK scene in the movie theater. Here's right wing idealist Charlton Heston watching left-wing hippies dance and frolic. Here's the last man on earth watching huge mobs of people crowd up the world that is now empty. The ironies are razor sharp, and Heston just lies back and lets the dialog work for him. "Just to see, just to really realize, that if you have to be afraid to smile at someone, if you have to be afraid to walk down the street, what kind of world is that? Right?" Note well the master's restraint. He doesn't sneer, he puts much more sadness into the lip-reading bit, with a little self-loathing on the side. The dialog and situation are tailor-made for Heston's cold decisive vocal style. It's not hammy stuff, it's Heston giving you the same kind of chill Deniro achieved in TAXI DRIVER. It's the paranoid loner as tragic hero. This cold withdrawn stuff is right down his power alley, and Chuck sends this scene into the upper decks.

Once the movie gets started, Heston gets superb assistance from Anthony Zerbe as the religious fanatic Brother Matthias. Zerbe is superb and the commentary on religious fanaticism is even more relevant today than it was thirty years ago. Then there's the sizzling racial subplot, the kill-whitey fanaticism of Brother Zachary striking far too close to home in 1973 but remaining as provocative as ever today. It's disturbing indeed to note the subliminal message of the inter-racial love affair -- the nice white man is happy to take care of the black woman and her children, but only after the assertive black man is dead. A movie that provokes, entertains, and combines scorching social issues with rip-roaring adventure, THE OMEGA MAN is Heston's best.

"Nope -- they sure don't make pictures like that any more."

"The Omega Man" is certainly a film of its time with its obvious acknowledgments to the insanity of the Cold War rivalries of the time, (in this case conflict between Russia and China) along with the matter of racial tensions that gave rise to the Black Power movements. The racial context together with the developing on-screen relationship between Lisa and Neville provided an interesting dynamic between the two characters.

"The Omega Man" seems to serve largely as entertainment value and as a piece of film horror. The film acts more as a vehicle for actor Charlton Heston whereas in the earlier film, Last man On Earth, Vincent Price gave a far more convincing performance in conveying the idea of isolation and the desperate struggle to survive against the relentless presence of death. Vincent Price invested himself fully in the role of a man struggling against personal tragedy while struggling to survive alone in a hostile world bent on consuming him.

Ron Grainer's film score in its 1970s style of jauntiness stands in jarring contrast to the more darker and menacing moments of the story.

"The Omega Man" does raise some interesting questions about our humanity, our civilization and human progress. It isn't always apparent in the film exactly who the enemy is. Is it the old civilization with its technological progress, its weapons of war, its insatiable consumerism? Is the enemy Matthias' cult-like group of mutants who are hell bent on wiping away every last vestige of the old civilization and taking the world back to some kind of dark age?

In its smug arrogance and complacency, the modern world worshiped its god of economic greed and materialism and wallowed in its belief in the certainties of science and technology. The end result - fashioning the means of its own destruction.

Those on the receiving end of civilization's destructive impulses appear to have been gathered from society's outcasts, the alienated, the ordinary and powerless and voiceless. All they needed was someone to provide that voice and a vision. Matthias was the one to step into the void and take on the mantel of prophet with a message the desperate were ready to receive.

Thus was born a cult - fanatical, zealous, fundamentalist with a bleak outlook and vision of the future and an uncompromising rejection of all past human accomplishments and progress. Even when offered the hope of a way out in the form of a vaccine serum, it like all products of science is rejected and rationality is eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance and fear. (Now doesn't THAT sound familiar in the context of the current Pandemic!)

The tragedy is that this scenario doesn't seem all that shocking or unbelievable. Our history both distant and very recent is littered with examples where civilization has been brought to the brink through its own stupidity and hubris, and where desperate conditions have impelled whole societies to seek to vilify and exterminate perceived enemies while mindlessly handing over their minds and wills to groups and individuals intent on exploiting their sense of grievance.

I watched this again today. What a terrible mistake. I recorded it from TV because I vaguely recalled seeing it back in the '70s, maybe at a drive-in, or perhaps on late-night TV. I also had a vague recollection of it being OK.

In hindsight, I think I must have been absolutely off my face at the time, because, oh, how my memory had deceived me ... I could not have been more wrong. It is not OK. It is mind-bogglingly terrible - without doubt, one of the cheapest, shoddiest pieces of pseudo-hip, plastic, cliché-ridden, overacted rip-off Seventies Z-grade Hollywood garbage ever foisted on an unsuspecting public. The only amusing aspect was that I had watched the superb "Shaun of the Dead" the night before, and this provided me with a gold-plated example of that old adage about 'chalk and cheese'.

And what a horrible, rancid, stinky, mouldy old piece of cheese it is. This frightening mutation of a movie has just everything wrong with it. You'd think you couldn't go far wrong with Matheson's fine original story, but oh no, they had to make it "hip" in that dreadful, stodgy, cringe-inducing Mod Squad way that only Hollywood in that era could. Everything about it screams 'cheap Seventies 'telemovie', from the script to the sets to the horrible, stagey performances. It looks like it was shot in three days, the 'sets' are SO obviously the Warner backlot, the script is appalling, and it features some of the most spectacularly bad acting in movie history. Chuck's trademark "Oh ... my ... god" line - uttered when he finds he body of the black kid he'd saved from the plague - is the absolute nadir in a zombie-like performance that rates as one of the very worst in an otherwise fairly distinguished career. The Big Cornpone never had a great range, but to call this a one-note performance is to insult notes.

The person I actually feel most sorry for is Rosalind Cash, who was obliged to strip off for no good reason, kiss Charlton Heston (erk!) and utter some of the most tooth-grindingly self-conscious blaxploitation lines ever committed to paper. But hey - no surprises there: a quick Google search for writers John and Joyce Corrington reveals a couple so blindingly white- bread that they make Anna Gasteyer and Will Ferrell's SNL school music teacher characters (Bobbi and Marty Culp) look like prime candidates for a Sly & the Family Stone reunion. Even less surprising is the fact that the Corrington's mostly earned their living penning daytime soaps and Z-grade movie schlock-fests like "Killer Bees". I should have guessed.

A special brickbat goes to TV veteran Anthony Zerbe, an actor every bit as corny as Chuck, and likewise one never known for avoiding a chance to chew the scenery, no matter how flimsy. Granted, he doesn't have much to work with but is just AWFUL - his wig is ridiculous and his acting is worse ... although I have to admit that, in a sterling display of racial equality, Lincoln Kilpatrick's portrayal of his sidekick Zachary is every bit as bad.

Also - if the mutants are so anti-technology, where did they get those neatly-tailored lurex cloaks and designer shades? (I know, I know ...)

But wait - there's one more dump I have to take on this film ... it's hard to single out the worst thing in a movie so spectacularly rich in bad points, but it leaps out at you from the opening shots - it is the awful, braying, corny score by Ron Grainer. Just ... TERRIBLE. This movie ought to be required viewing in every media course as a textbook example of how NOT to write music for films. It is loud, stupid, intrusive, almost entirely inappropriate/irrelevant to the action, and just plain BAD music in its own right. It beggars belief that such an experienced and otherwise accomplished screen composer could have turned in such a load of old crap ... but, on the other hand, it suits the movie perfectly, so maybe he got it right after all?

In my mind the ONLY reason to watch this film - other than to get wrecked and have a good laugh at its expense - is for the views of downtown Los Angeles ca. 1970, before they totally ruined the place. Apart from that, I can only quote Men on Film:

"HATED IT!"

I love those 70's flicks. They really experimented with no-nonesense plotlines, and didn't have the resources to exceedingly engross themselves in needless over-production. This last issue is a big problem with many of today's movies, where your eyes often pop out, but your brain usually falls asleep. Someone here complained about the score. I felt the music was great, it sets the whole tone of the movie. For example, in the fight scenes, it gives you an eerie sense of repetition and fatality that, come to think of it, really is the whole point of the movie. Bottom line, just for the premise alone, it's worth watching. Expect some basic production and a couple of cheesy lines. But this is overly compensated by excellent tension and engrossing plotline.

Something about this movie. I can watch it everytime it shows up on TV. I guess it could be considered a cult classic. The acting wasn't the greatest, or the story. But I love it.

The Omega Man, along with another Heston film round the same time, Soylent Green, is one of the worst made films I have ever seen in my life. This film can only be regarded as true camp, as the film was taken fairly seriously when it was made, and has strong moral implications, but the results betray the seriousness and implications implied. Even more disturbing than the low quality of the movie itself is the movie's original musical soundtrack score done by Ron Granier. I'm a big fan of Granier's work for Steptoe & Son, Dr. Who, The Prisoner, etc., but his score for The Omega man is simply atrocious; it's as though he was scoring for a completely different film altogether, as well as different scenes.

As a campy, low budget, Sci-Fi B film, The Omega Man is entertaining enough because of its star, Charleton Heston, and because of the interesting story that it tells, but don't expect much more than terrible effects, terrible acting, terrible directing, and terrible music. Of course, some people really seem to revel in low quality films like this, so it doesn't surprise me that this is one of those midnight movie cult favourites that is praised by awkward sci-fi geeks who more than likely peed their trousers in primary school.