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The Omega Man [DVD] [1972]
 
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The Omega Man [DVD] [1972]

DVD ~ Charlton Heston
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
RRP: £13.99
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Frequently Bought Together

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Product details

  • Actors: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo, Eric Laneuville
  • Directors: Boris Sagal
  • Writers: John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, Richard Matheson
  • Producers: Walter Seltzer
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Warner Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: 29 Sep 2003
  • Run Time: 94 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0000AISJU
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,077 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s--the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavour, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap.

Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilisation that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine--but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. --Grant Balfour

Amazon.co.uk Review
With its opening long shots of a car driving through the canyons of empty streets stirring up clouds of waste paper, Charlton Heston's 1971 film The Omega Man is an interesting precursor of more recent last-person-on-earth films such as 28 Days Later. Heston is surprisingly good at conveying the terror of being completely on your own, with sanity that wanders into long conversations with the inanimate. Rather less good are the film's antagonists, victims of bacterial warfare left as albino psychotics determined to destroy Heston as a representative of the old dead world of science and technology and a small group of the infected, but not yet changed, who live virtuous pastoral lives in the hills. The film's racial politics are interestingly dated: the heroine, Lisa, is black and has some wince-worthy moments of blaxploitation movie chic; the moment when she changes is nonetheless chilling for being eminently predictable. Loosely based on Richard Matheson's classic genre novel I Am Legend, perhaps the best thing about the film is that it comes from an era when science-fiction blockbusters could be relentlessly downbeat.

On the DVD: The Omega Mancomes to disc with some interesting special features. There's a television "making of" that was shown at the time, as well as the trailer and an interesting short retrospective documentary containing interviews with the surviving screenwriter Joyce Corrington and a couple of the younger actors. The anamorphic widescreen picture is fine, as is the digitally remastered mono sound. --Roz Kaveney

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
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 (6)
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 (3)
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, unique, classic 70's film, 14 Mar 2000
By M. Barrett (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Omega Man [VHS] [1972] (VHS Tape)
Most of the published reviews of this film have been written by people who have clearly never seen it.

The story is simple. Charlton Heston plays a USAF Doctor who, when an un-named enemy launches a biowar strike on the US, labours to produce a vaccine. He makes a breakthrough, but on the way to a city centre hospital to test it both he and his pilot catch the disease and crash.

Cut to some time later. By day Heston roams the streets, becoming more and more affected by the solitude, even to the point of watching "Woodstock - The Movie" over and over again. By night he retires to his fortified apartment, while people who have been driven mad by the disease but not killed lay siege to him.

The victims come out only at night because they have been made super photo-sensitive by the disease. Insane enough already, they are organised by the clearly barking Matthias, recognisable as the sanctimonious newsreader from the films opening sequences. His mission is to destroy all technology and learning, which is lucky for Heston as it prevents him going after him with a tank.

When Heston discovers some sane, apparently uninfected people scavenging in the city, he gets another chance to save humanity by using his blood as a serum.

This film has everything. Great "empty city" settings, fantastic 70s music, a brilliant story and plenty of action. An underrated masterpiece. Never let anyone tell you it's about vampires.

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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "the conclusion of all our yesterdays", 4 Jul 2004
By Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
Based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend", which was recommended to Charlton Heston by Orson Welles, and one that Heston was inspired to make into a film, is a truly creepy sci-fi/horror classic. Heston is marvelous as Colonel Robert Neville, a scientist who is immune to the plague that resulted from biological warfare, due to an experimental vaccine he injected himself with.

The survivors infected with the plague are hooded mutants that cannot see in the daylight, and are bent in destroying all the attributes of civilization that remain on earth, crying "burn, burn, burn !" as they pile books in a fiery heap. Their leader is a former news anchor played to the hilt by Anthony Zerbe, who warns the zombie "Family" of the evil created by the "users of the wheel".
It is all quite thought-provoking, and has several connotations to terrorism today, and also has symbolism relating to Christianity; at one point Heston is tied up in a crucifixion pose, and his blood, turned into a serum, can save the remnant of humanity. There are a few reminders from the Book of Revelation, where of course, Jesus said "I am the Alpha and Omega".

Rosalind Cash is lovely as Lisa, one of the remnant hiding in the hills, and her relationship with Heston is a rare instance of an interracial love affair from that era. Films from the 1970s fascinate me, with the hair and fashion styles, and 8-track tapes in the cars.
This film has fabulous cinematography by Russell Metty of a deserted, devastated Los Angeles, a good score by Ron Granier, and fast-paced, disquieting direction by Boris Segal that will occasionally make your heart skip a beat with fright.
Total running time is 98 minutes.

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars essential science fiction viewing., 27 May 2004
This review is from: The Omega Man [VHS] [1972] (VHS Tape)
This is one of the best science fiction films ever made and the first half of the film, dealing with Robert Neville's one man battle for survival against the mutated survivals of a global plague caused by germ warfare, is simply some of the most effective story telling in the history of SF cinema. Much of Matheson's Vampire novel is stripped of it's gothic horror trappings and turned into a potent speculative tale of the way the world is going. It even as a layer of semi religious symbolism that is handled with subtlety and daring for the most part. The best thing here is that Heston plays the modern man to metaphorical perfection. On the surface, he's all macho coolness and style, with guns, sports car and sunglasses, like James Bond in the grave yard, but this bravado and techo-cool style is all front, underneath it, the modern man is lonely and frightened, a prisoner in his own home with no one to talk to but himself, and no future to hope for either. Images of scanitily clad women are so painful he can't bare to look at them and one daring scene has him reach for the body of a female mannequin. Then the real cruncher...this symbol of white male America must die, Christ-like, and give way to blacks, hippies and children, who represent the only real future of our society. He gives them his blood to wash away their sins, saving them. He dies symbolically, but the message is clear, this tough guy war monger belongs to the past. Amazingly subversive and potent, with a charging narrative thrust and sinister atmosphere, this film takes Matheson's novel which was really a gimmick piece anyway, (the one man becomes a legendary monster, like Dracula, to a world of Vampires, a classic reversal of how Dracula the Vampire is the legendary monster in a world of humans)and makes it into something much more sophisticated and memorable. This is an underrated film, it has its faults (too many people can be seen in the back ground when Heston's supposed to be the last man on Earth!) but overall, it's a brilliant film and well worth a close inspection.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated film
The Omega Man is the second film version of Richard Matheson'snovel I am Legend, the first being a low budget Vincent Price vehicle. Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Krings

4.0 out of 5 stars Good film.
Short review. Good film. Better than I am Legend remake staring Will Smith.

Post "apocalypse" was rarely done better than this. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. A. M. HOGG

4.0 out of 5 stars 'I am Legend' gets the Heston treatment... and with good results
A 1970's film, this one, so the soundtrack, lingo and fashion dates it a little, but besides that it can be from any time. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Paul Mattis

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant surprise...
I remember watching this film as a teenager and it certainly has stuck in my mind over the years. It was with a little trepidation that I rented it - would I be disappointed? Read more
Published 13 months ago by N. R. Jones

2.0 out of 5 stars Not keen
I don't know what I was expecting from this film but I didn't quite get it I'm afraid....maybe it's because I've read the book and was thinking of the book too much whilst... Read more
Published 18 months ago by marg twain

2.0 out of 5 stars Early 70s pre-cursor to 28 Days Later
Interest may be re-kindled in this 70s apocalyptic sci-fi because of the new film based on the same book, I Am Legend. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Greshon

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting cult classic
I saw this film as a teenager and it wasn't until years later that I read 'I Am Legend', the source novel. The film is not particularly faithful to the original material. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. Ian Thomas

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as they say
Fairly watchable 70's sci-fi. I am a fan of 'survival' films such as George Romero's 'The Crazies' and his zombie trilogy. Read more
Published on 1 April 2007 by Lain

5.0 out of 5 stars "Build coffins. That's all you'll need"
This film starts with a great opener. Charlton Heston driving through the streets of a deserted Los Angeles to the tune of funky `70s music. All seems normal, peaceful. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2006 by mad_mushroom

4.0 out of 5 stars great updating of matheson's classic novel.
this version based upon richard matheson's novel "i am legend," is much better and more faithful in some ways, than the 1964 film with vincent price. Read more
Published on 23 Jul 2006 by Mr. A. E. Ward Davies

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