Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, unique, classic 70's film, 14 Mar 2000
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
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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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
essential science fiction viewing., 27 May 2004
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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