The Omega Man (1971) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 2

  The first third of this movie might be one of my all-time favorite first thirds of any movie. Charlton Heston, last man on Earth(ish), losing his mind, talking to himself, playing dress-up, shooting random mutants (From his cold dead hand!), watching WOODSTOCK in an abandoned L.A. movie theater -- does it get any better and sadder than that?

• Review by Josh Lewis ★★★ 2

  The first half hour or so of this is amazing. Just Charlton Heston driving around a desolate LA in his convertible, brutally gunning down mutant vampire cults and performing to himself/random objects in an attempt to recreate the world before the implied nuclear apocalypse. (Including running a film print of Woodstock for himself and almost completely stone-faced remarking “they sure don’t make pictures like that anymore.”) When the plot eventually kicks in its mostly fine, however by trying to make this a broad action/adventure story it totally whiffs the novels morally complex depiction of a protagonist who doesn't realize he's dehumanized his enemies until they do it to him.

• Review by Kaijuman ★★★★ 9

  “We mean to cancel the world you civilized people made. We will simply erase history from the time that machinery and weapons threaten more than they offered. And when you die, the last living reminder of hell will be gone.”

  I’m not the first one to say it, hell lots of the reviews mention it, but the first ten minutes are unbeatable. They’re so unbelievably compelling and eerie, it’s legitimately one of my favoriteopenings of all time.

  Charlton Heston drives down empty roads that get increasingly littered with trash, cars, and corpses. He stops suddenly to open fire at a silhouette passing a window. He continually mutters sarcastic thoughts out loud as he traverses an empty, dead city. He finally…

• Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★ 4

  Not one of my favorite Sci-Fi Classics due in part to it being "extremely dated" and the mutant make up jobs were truly appalling to the point it took me out of the film!

  I very much enjoyed the beginning of the film when Neville (Charlton Heston) was alone and we saw through his eyes how he dealt with his lonely existence! His visit to the car dealership, the movie theater playing Woodstock were quite touching and helped set the mood and overall tone of the film! I especially got a kick out of his interactions with the mannequins!

  It also should be noted this film was one of the first films to depict a kiss between a white man…

• Review by Andy Summers 🤠 ★★★★ 4

  It's hardly surprising that Charlton Heston went on to become the President of the NRA given the way he nonchalantly dispatches "The Family" here with a variety of sub-machine guns? As 70's post-apocalyptic films go, this is right up there as a documentary on how Donald Trump was going to deal with the Covid pandemic, only with a little more bleach. Richard Matheson's book, one of my all time favourites, gets a terrific treatment courtesy of director Boris Sagal, and although Matheson said he barely recognised his work after all the changes, he still put a nice cheque in his pocket. Let's face it though, Heston had already been transported to a Planet of the Apes, spoke to God in…

• Review by Travis Lytle ★★★★

  An end-of-the-world horror spectacle that communicates both counter-culture and establishment sensibilities, Boris Sagal's "The Omega Man" is a memorable and haunting piece of work. Based on Richard Matheson's "I am Legend," the film combines action beats with 1970s-centric thrills for a potent and engaging experience.

  Finding Charlton Heston's Robert Neville thriving in a lonely, urban landscape where, to his knowledge, he is the last man on Earth, "The Omega Man" sees Neville's existence threatened by both old enemies and newfound friends. Allying with another group of humans to take on The Family, a collective of nearly walking dead, Neville sees his own survival under attack.

  The film's story bears passing resemblance to Matheson's great vampire tale but seems to be…

• Review by Joe ★★★★ 2

  Early scenes with Charlton Heston roaming through an abandoned Los Angeles machine-gunning albinos are terrific. I can't think of a better actor than Heston to convey this kind of solitude because he doesn't play up the sadness or the poignancy of it - it almost seems like he enjoys being alone, until you realize that's impossible, and that he sits through Woodstock for the 800th time and plays chess with a dummy because he doesn't have anything better to do (by the way, is there a more potent cultural stew than Charlton Heston sitting in an empty movie theater lip-syncing Woodstock and wielding a rifle? We're all just people, maaan).

  The movie falters a bit when it comes to the…

• Review by Gregory Kent ★★★ 2

  1971 Ranked
  Physically Owned Films

  The Omega Man starts out great. I could forever watch Charlton Heston wander around empty Los Angeles hunting down a hidden evil while sarcastically talking to himself. Unfortunately, that only lasts the first act. Once the hidden evil is exposed and they are completely goofy, the film loses a lot of steam. It is still fun, but the campiness is too far out of control, and it ultimately leads into obvious cliches and overwrought symbolism. Still a light recommend though with solid action, great cinematography, and a fun premise.

• Review by Geoff T ★★★½ 8

  Geoff T's Hoop-Tober 4.0 Challenge
  The Omega Man (1971)

  There's been several on-screen adaptations of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend over time, each with varying levels of success. The Omega Man is the second of these adaptations, coming nearly a decade after The Last Man on Earth and several decades before the Will Smith film.

  In The Omega Man, archetypal tough-guy Charlton Heston is Robert Neville, a doctor who remains one of the lone survivors as a result of a biological outbreak. During the day, he drives around the empty streets of Los Angeles doing various activities. During night, he rests in his house, working on his research while shielded from 'The Family' (led by former news anchor Matthias), a…

• Review by mrbalihai ★★★★ 4

  This movie came out when I was 12 years old, and man, was it ever the ultimate exercise in adolescent wish-fulfillment. I daydreamed for years about being the last dude in Los Angeles, taking any muscle car I wanted out of the local dealerships and driving it to Disneyland, where I'd spend the day riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds as many times as I wanted without an E ticket. Sure, I'd have to ice a few albino neo-Luddite mutants with my giant infrared scope-mounted high-calibre rifle now and then, but that was just sweet, sweet icing on the dystopian cake, as far as I was concerned. And if that weren't enough, I'd also have the smokin' hot Rosalind Cash with her…

• Review by arLopez ★★

  In short: It's kinda, like, the source material — by way of the NRA.

  I liked the bit in which Heston's Neville shows moments of going slowly insane as he's dressed like Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor; but then a lot of that is just jettisoned in an effort fer things to go ratatat and boom.

  Rosalind Cash does her best Misty Knight here — and should've been in a whole movie onto herself.

• Review by RanchoTuVu ★★★★

  Futuristic look at the world in the aftermath of a biological war that has killed almost the entire population. Charlton Heston's role as a government scientist and seemingly the only survivor has a symbolic significance which grows as he battles with "the family", a group in long cloaks, hoods, and dark shades, who emerge after dark. It's got that Manson cult vibe in it, but who can blame them after Heston's military industrial complex has ruined the world? Their leader is the charismatic Anthony Zerbe whom they follow with total allegiance. It sets up a duel between Zerbe and Heston for the future which follows some interesting paths, like Heston spending his afternoons in an abandoned theater watching "Woodstock" and…