, a 1954 novel written by Richard MathesonLast Man on Earth - In COLOR! Also Includes the Original Black-and-White Version which has been Beautifully Restored and Enhanced!
, a 1964 movie staring Boris Karof; written by William F. Leicester, with screenplay by Richard Matheson (as Logan Swanson), Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo B. Ragona The Omega Man [Blu-ray]
, a 1971 movie staring Charlton Heston; Screenplay by John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington, based on the novel by Richard Matheson.
I Am Legend [Blu-ray]
, a 2007 movie staring Will Smith; written by Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by Richard Matheson.
Part I. See No Evil
In this part of the ongoing analysis of I Am Legend , the 1954 novel written by Richard Matheson, The Last Man on Earth , the 1964 movie starring Boris Karof, The Omega Man , the 1971 movie starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition) , the 2007 movie starring Will Smith, we will look at what is shown and what it not shown. This tells us a lot about the movies and the societal attitudes which have shaped each presentation of the story.
One distinction that stands out immediately in the different versions of I Am Legend, is that the 1954 novel, as well as the movies, Last Man on Earth and Omega Man, show corpses on the streets and decaying bodies sprawled in homes and offices. On the hand, I Am Legend, the 2007 movie, does not show any corpses. So, why this crucial difference? Surely in the 21st century we know and understand that a society-destroying plague would result in dead bodies which don’t get buried. We’ve seen this in other plague movies and books, like Stephen King’s novel The Stand, written in 1978, and in the 1994 movie The Stand, each graphically depicts the consequences of a plague which accidentally escapes from a research facility. In this aspect we see an almost squeamishness to the presence of corpses. It is as if we must deny that death has won a battle over us. This attitude goes hand-in-hand with the theme that the humanity’s hubris about our expanding medical research will conquer disease, and eventually conquer death. It is an attitude of “we are knowledgeable and logical, therefore we cannot be beaten by disease,” which prevails throughout the 2007 version as Will Smith’s version of Robert Neville repeatedly says, “I’m not going to let this [disease] happen!” Smith’s version of Robert says, “I’m not going this let this happen. I can fix this,” in the first flashback when he’s evacuating his wife and daughter from Manhattan to escape the krypto virus which has become airborne. He says it again when Anna, one of the plague survivors, wants him to go with her and Ethan to the survivor’s colony. He says, “I’m not leaving. This is ground zero. This is my site. I’m not going to let this happen. I can fix this.” Even in this statement we see, not only the guilt Robert feels, but the denial and contradiction. He says, “I’m not going to let this happen,” yet it has happened. Millions are dead and thousands have been transformed into mindless creatures by the virus. As if realizing his own denial, he follows up by saying, “I can fix this.” This version of Robert shows the complete confidence in medical research that prevails in society. We see this again in the final scene while the “Dark Seekers” are throwing themselves at the glassed wall of the isolation chamber trying to kill Robert, Anna, and Ethan. He yells at them, “I can fix this. I can save you.” Here is the blatant statement that through logical scientific research, all problems can be fixed. And indeed, in the 2007 version, even though Robert still dies, his persistence using the scientific method fixes the problem. The movie ends with Anna and Ethan entering the survivor’s colony with the vaccine that Robert has developed.
Even though genetic theories have been around since before 1858 when Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly announcement of the theory of natural selection, “that members of a population who are better adapted to the environment survive and pass on their traits,” the idea of actual manipulation at the genetic level wasn’t really taken seriously until 1975 when the international conference was held in California urging the adoption of guideline regulating recombinant DNA experimentation. (History of Genetics Timeline) Even then the idea of molecular genetic manipulation was not a real concept to many laymen. It was just the stuff of science fiction. It wasn’t until the sheep, Dolly, was cloned in 1996 that the public began to seriously consider the possible Pandora’s Box that had been opened. The project yielded questions of consequences and moralities which rippled through the general population. Questions about possible side-effects from introducing cloned animals into the food chain and the moral implications of cloning whole humans. Would a cloned person be senient? Have a soul? Have equal rights? Many people thought we had decades to work out the consequences which have been projected by science fiction for years before the actual science existed. However, the Human Genome Project announced its 2003 successful mapping of the human DNA and many of the possible problems associated with manipulating genes came to the forefront. Even though the Human Genome Project offered numerous possible benefits, such as identifying the gene responsible for mental illness, autism, and cancer, the long term consequences were, and indeed are still, feared. We see this clearly in I Am Legend, the 2007 movie.
Another obvious difference in I Am Legend (the movie) is that nature has begun to take over the city. Grass has broken through the payment and is thigh-high; birds flock over a deserted city; deer run in herds through the city streets, and lions have escaped from the local zoo. Neither I Am Legend (the novel), nor Last Man on Earth, nor Omega Man show the decrepitude of civilization. We don’t see any evidence of the inevitable encroachment of nature on a city after three years without maintenance. Why? Even in the 1950s people knew that unattended grass will grow out of control. Yet we don’t see it in the novel, even though Matheson gives detailed descriptions of dust in the library, or the two earlier movie versions of the novel. This shows a lack of respect for the true power of nature. This is a different kind of hubris. It is the hubris of denial, believing that 20th century civilization will be overrun by nature. It is arrogance that, what was built in the 20th century will remain as an epitaph to the men who built it. There is a real irony here because these three versions of the same story are willing to admit to the death of men, as evidenced by the corpses, but are not willing to admit that nature will triumph over their creations, and in the most recent version, they are willing to admit nature’s overpowering growth, but not that bodies will remain unburied from that dead civilization.
I could be write or I could be wrong. Let me know what you think.
, a 1971 movie staring Charlton Heston; Screenplay by John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington, based on the novel by Richard Matheson. I Am Legend [Blu-ray]
, a 2007 movie staring Will Smith; written by Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by Richard Matheson.Part I. See No Evil
In this part of the ongoing analysis of I Am Legend , the 1954 novel written by Richard Matheson, The Last Man on Earth , the 1964 movie starring Boris Karof, The Omega Man , the 1971 movie starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition) , the 2007 movie starring Will Smith, we will look at what is shown and what it not shown. This tells us a lot about the movies and the societal attitudes which have shaped each presentation of the story.
One distinction that stands out immediately in the different versions of I Am Legend, is that the 1954 novel, as well as the movies, Last Man on Earth and Omega Man, show corpses on the streets and decaying bodies sprawled in homes and offices. On the hand, I Am Legend, the 2007 movie, does not show any corpses. So, why this crucial difference? Surely in the 21st century we know and understand that a society-destroying plague would result in dead bodies which don’t get buried. We’ve seen this in other plague movies and books, like Stephen King’s novel The Stand, written in 1978, and in the 1994 movie The Stand, each graphically depicts the consequences of a plague which accidentally escapes from a research facility. In this aspect we see an almost squeamishness to the presence of corpses. It is as if we must deny that death has won a battle over us. This attitude goes hand-in-hand with the theme that the humanity’s hubris about our expanding medical research will conquer disease, and eventually conquer death. It is an attitude of “we are knowledgeable and logical, therefore we cannot be beaten by disease,” which prevails throughout the 2007 version as Will Smith’s version of Robert Neville repeatedly says, “I’m not going to let this [disease] happen!” Smith’s version of Robert says, “I’m not going this let this happen. I can fix this,” in the first flashback when he’s evacuating his wife and daughter from Manhattan to escape the krypto virus which has become airborne. He says it again when Anna, one of the plague survivors, wants him to go with her and Ethan to the survivor’s colony. He says, “I’m not leaving. This is ground zero. This is my site. I’m not going to let this happen. I can fix this.” Even in this statement we see, not only the guilt Robert feels, but the denial and contradiction. He says, “I’m not going to let this happen,” yet it has happened. Millions are dead and thousands have been transformed into mindless creatures by the virus. As if realizing his own denial, he follows up by saying, “I can fix this.” This version of Robert shows the complete confidence in medical research that prevails in society. We see this again in the final scene while the “Dark Seekers” are throwing themselves at the glassed wall of the isolation chamber trying to kill Robert, Anna, and Ethan. He yells at them, “I can fix this. I can save you.” Here is the blatant statement that through logical scientific research, all problems can be fixed. And indeed, in the 2007 version, even though Robert still dies, his persistence using the scientific method fixes the problem. The movie ends with Anna and Ethan entering the survivor’s colony with the vaccine that Robert has developed.
Even though genetic theories have been around since before 1858 when Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly announcement of the theory of natural selection, “that members of a population who are better adapted to the environment survive and pass on their traits,” the idea of actual manipulation at the genetic level wasn’t really taken seriously until 1975 when the international conference was held in California urging the adoption of guideline regulating recombinant DNA experimentation. (History of Genetics Timeline) Even then the idea of molecular genetic manipulation was not a real concept to many laymen. It was just the stuff of science fiction. It wasn’t until the sheep, Dolly, was cloned in 1996 that the public began to seriously consider the possible Pandora’s Box that had been opened. The project yielded questions of consequences and moralities which rippled through the general population. Questions about possible side-effects from introducing cloned animals into the food chain and the moral implications of cloning whole humans. Would a cloned person be senient? Have a soul? Have equal rights? Many people thought we had decades to work out the consequences which have been projected by science fiction for years before the actual science existed. However, the Human Genome Project announced its 2003 successful mapping of the human DNA and many of the possible problems associated with manipulating genes came to the forefront. Even though the Human Genome Project offered numerous possible benefits, such as identifying the gene responsible for mental illness, autism, and cancer, the long term consequences were, and indeed are still, feared. We see this clearly in I Am Legend, the 2007 movie.
Another obvious difference in I Am Legend (the movie) is that nature has begun to take over the city. Grass has broken through the payment and is thigh-high; birds flock over a deserted city; deer run in herds through the city streets, and lions have escaped from the local zoo. Neither I Am Legend (the novel), nor Last Man on Earth, nor Omega Man show the decrepitude of civilization. We don’t see any evidence of the inevitable encroachment of nature on a city after three years without maintenance. Why? Even in the 1950s people knew that unattended grass will grow out of control. Yet we don’t see it in the novel, even though Matheson gives detailed descriptions of dust in the library, or the two earlier movie versions of the novel. This shows a lack of respect for the true power of nature. This is a different kind of hubris. It is the hubris of denial, believing that 20th century civilization will be overrun by nature. It is arrogance that, what was built in the 20th century will remain as an epitaph to the men who built it. There is a real irony here because these three versions of the same story are willing to admit to the death of men, as evidenced by the corpses, but are not willing to admit that nature will triumph over their creations, and in the most recent version, they are willing to admit nature’s overpowering growth, but not that bodies will remain unburied from that dead civilization.
I could be write or I could be wrong. Let me know what you think.
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