I’ve wanted to see this movie since I am Legend came out in 2007. I was captivated by Robert Neville's world. I started looking up the novel of the same name, and previous film adaptations. The Last Man on Earth was a rare find, and I discovered the movie is all over YouTube- much to my delight!
I finished watching it. If you liked the 1968 original film, Night of the Living Dead(“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”), then you can ride through this one. It’s very casually-paced and scenic, which could potentially irritate those who are culturally ADD. This movie is not for the bootleg B action movie lover. Vincent Price stars as Robert Morgan (not sure why they changed the name), and much of what you saw in Will Smith’s movie can be recognized here. Had you been in my house, you might’ve thought I was watching a comedy because I'd burst out in laughter at some of the creative choices. I liked this movie. I just wanted to enjoy a good old-fashioned horror flick. But Price’s character is so dang polite. The man is sure to press his pants, starch his collar and wear a sweater, complete with suit jacket before he goes out to scavenge for supplies and kill vampires! Even his gait is a reserved 9th grade teacher kind of stride in this dangerous world. I shrug it off between laughs because you can appreciate the genuine effort to make a great movie. There’s a charm about great dramas done by people working with less, rather than what we often see in cinema today.
This version of “vampire” is slow, dull-witted and weak unlike those found in I am Legend, the film. Price can push and knock them over with reasonable effort. Later in the movie is a lengthy flashback to how it all began: the news reports of a rampant disease, the deterioration of his family. The most affecting scene is his infected daughter confined to bed, under a clear net and kept secret from the authorities. She’s gone blind. She calls out to her mother for comfort. Then the introduction of a little black poodle, which Price is more than happy to take in as a companion until he finds out the dog has been infected. “What’s the use?!” he laments, throwing up his hands. These scenes do a great job to indicate a kind of downward spiral, and it served to remind me how much I appreciated Will Smith’s performance. I found I loved I am Legend a great deal more. In that movie, you felt Will Smith ache and you saw him bug out from the agony of his dog’s death. You see how his mind has frayed when he begins to speak in unison with the dialogue of Shrek, in the company of actress Alice Braga and the child she's with. His manner underlines how long he's been alone and how difficult it is to relate well. All of this the result of the intense trauma and pressure of his situation. Will Smith’s performance should’ve at least been nominated for an Oscar, because it was a study in what loneliness can do to a man. That matters to me because the real pandemic of our day is loneliness. It’s hard to readapt this story beyond the ideal vision that was pretty much perfected in I am Legend. Why would you want to?
Richard Matheson wrote the novel. At the end of the novel, Robert Neville is captured by the vampires and they execute him for his crimes. The vampires- the infected population- are becoming an organized society. The concept to capture here is that while Neville appears to be the hero to all of us, for the vampires he is their own boogieman who terrorizes them. Neville dies thinking, “I am legend.” How Vincent Price meets his end aligns the closest to how the novel ends. Richard Matheson has made significant contributions to the original Twilight Zone series. He recently passed away on June 23rd, 2013.
There was a second film adaptation to the book called, The Omega Man (1971) starring a youngish Charlton Heston with swag enough to roll with Rosalind Cash, and fight a version of albino mutants out to kill him. I saw it. It was all right.
I’m going to see Will Smith in I am Legend again.
Originally posted June 28th, 2013 on Facebook
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