Omega Man, The
At a risk of stating the fucking obvious, there's something about so many 70s movies that's just so cheesy, particularly the 70s science fiction films. The clothes. The music. The zooms. The pathetic-even-if-they-tried-really-hard-for-the-time special effects. You just can't take them seriously.
I love Logan's Run (1976), and Planet of The Apes (1968, admittedly) and get sucked into watching gems like Futureworld (1976) whenever they're on, but I enjoy them just as much for their camp quality as anything else. And yes, controversially perhaps, I feel the same about Star Wars (1977), although it has managed to transcend being grouped with these other films thanks to its longevity, better sequels, and shitter prequels that just wont let the story die.
It's impossible to watch The Omega Man (1971) without laughing, cringing and rolling your eyes.
Which is a shame, because the plot is fucking fantastic. The only enjoyment you can get out of this film is accepting you're not going to get a reasonable dose of thoughtful or spectacular sci-fi or horror and just embrace its camp shtick.
With that mindset, the start is great. Charlton Hester is cruising around an empty Los Angeles in a slick automobile. He stops the car briefly to shoot at some shadowy figure inside a building, then merrily continues on his way. When he crashes his car he simply goes into a store and takes another, all the while carrying on conversations with himself. The film also hilariously becomes part blaxploitation flick after we meet the afro-haired female lead, who spits out sassiness with her every word.
The basic premise is that after a great war humankind is virtually extinct. Just about everyone died from some viral biological warfare agent, and those who haven't died have changed into…something else. Except Charlton Heston.
The Omega Man.
What's interesting is that to these creatures Heston is the bad guy, the vermin in their utopia. They just want to live as one family, quite happy how they are, and yet here's this evil maniac trying to kill them all.
The film can also quite amusingly be read as gun-advocate Heston trying to shoot dead a bunch of pigmentally challenged hippies. At the start of the film Heston even watches Woodstock (1970) in an abandoned cinema before going out to kill a few of them.
The zombie/vampires/whatevers (its never said what they are, which is cool, but they can't stand any kind of light – and the book apparently has them sharing other vampire traits) are the direct result of war, creations of a modern world gone mad, and thus believe in reverting to the old ways, sans all technology. They also believe very strongly in unity and family, and I'm sure also “free-love”, although sadly we don't get to see any proof of that. Of course these hippies are more from the Charles Manson family than a product of Woodstock, and yes, indulge in the occasional homicide, but to them it's just to protect their way of life.
Then there's the Jesus allegory. Only Heston's blood can save the world. We see him in numerous crucifix poses. He finds any excuse to take his shirt off, just like Jesus did.
Don't be fooled into thinking any of these themes are handled well. They're not.
I'm usually a sucker for these apocalyptical type films. I'm also massively a sucker for vampire films (please believe that pun was not intentional). I can't wait until there is a great version of Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend made because there's some great themes at play here, a lot of interesting stuff going on that just never gets the respect it deserves. In the right hands the remake could be superb. I do however have a horrible feeling it'd turn into some dodgy high-octane action craptacle starring Arnie as the planet's last remaining man, the sole survivor who just goes around blasting the creatures to pieces with some really big guns.
POSTSCRIPT
After checking out the current info on the remake on the Internet I did in fact see that at several stages Arnie was going to star. On second thought that sounds pretty cool. When has Arnie blowing stuff up with big guns ever let us down before?!