The Omega Man
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS: Germ warfare gets out of control, kills everyone.
SYMPTOMS: Charlton Heston is the Last Man on Earth. Except, of course, for everybody else.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Heston is content to live out his remaining days driving fast cars, shooting creeps with a high-powered weapons, playing chess by himself and watching the movie Woodstock every day. Others would prefer he die. Still others see in him some measure of hope for the future. It’s tough gig, being Last Man on Earth, everybody wants something from you.
WHO ARE THE BAD GUYS? The pale-faced, black-robed, light-sensitive, technology-hating, medieval-thinking goons who want to kill Heston and end all human life on Earth are led by, of course, a broadcast journalist. Then as now, they only wish to destroy.
NOTES: The movie is directed by Boris Sagal, veteran TV director and father to Katey. The only other film of his that I’ve seen is the similarly apocalyptic Elvis Presley vehicle Girl Happy.
Big problem: the bad guys here aren’t very scary. Or very interesting. Metaphorically they make “sense” (creatures who can’t tolerate light dress like the Spanish Inquisition, talk in fake medieval-speak and want to destroy all of humanity’s accomplishments), but they’re weak, disorganized and laughably inadequate to the task of being frightening or threatening.
The irony of Heston defending civilization’s greatest accomplishments against backward-thinking zealots (at the barrel of a high-powered assault weapon) while watching Woodstock every day and making whoopee with a hip, sassy black chick is not lost on me.
