I Am Legend - SPOILERS ABOUND!
May. 9th, 2020 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearYesterday, I immersed myself in the world of I Am Legend, reading the 1954 book by Richard Matheson, and then watching the 1971 adaptation, The Omega Man, and then finally the 2007 Will Smith film version.
I'm not sure it was the best idea to spend all day reading and watching a story about a global pandemic, but still! It was a very interesting exercise.
The book tells the story of Robert Neville, who believes himself to be the only immune survivor of a pandemic that has turned the rest of the world's population into vampires. He fortifies his house against nightly attacks, seeks out sleeping vampires to destroy during the day, and eventual starts researching the bacteria that causes the vampirism, in the hopes of finding a cure. One day, on his travels, he comes across a seemingly unaffected woman and takes her in. Her name is Ruth and she is reticent about trusting him or telling him much about herself. It eventually turns out that she is actually infected and has been sent by a faction of the 'living vampires' to gain his trust and then betray him. They have found a way to exist with the infection in a way that allows them to retain their higher cognitive functions and slow the progress of the bacteria. They intend to rebuild human society under their new conditions and see Neville as an obstacle to this, as he seems intent on destroying them. They capture him and kill him, as he is, to them, the legendary monster that vampires once were to humans.
It's a really good book. It jumps straight into Neville's daily routine, letting you figure out what's going on gradually. The minute details of his activities gain added interest as his wider circumstances become clearer, and are interspersed with intense action sequences where the jeopardy is obvious and serious.
Some of the science detail was lost on me, though I liked the fact that Neville tries to investigate the various aspects of vampirism from a scientific point of view. They are repelled by garlic and crosses, and don't come out during the day. They drink blood and can be killed by the use of wooden stakes, but don't turn into bats and can be seen in mirrors.
The book spans the period from five months after the pandemic to three years later (January 1976 to January 1979 so set 20 years after the book was written), and very effectively explores Neville's mental state over that period. He finds solace in classical music and physical labour, but goes through periods of intense despair and frustration, as you would expect.
Flashbacks and background exposition link the spread of the bacteria to 'bombings' that also cause a lot of dust storms. It is also revealed that Neville had a wife and daughter, both of whom succumbed to the bacteria early on.
It turns out Neville was bitten by a vampire bat in Panama and believes the bat must have come across a true vampire at some point, thus infecting him with a minor strain of the bacteria that he was able to recover from, rendering him immune.
I loved the fact that he becomes the monster that threatens the future of humanity by the end, and that the only way for the new vampire society to continue is to kill him. It's a very clever ending, and provides the meaning for the title.
The 1971 film version, The Omega Man, stars Charlton Heston and is set in 1977, after Robert Neville has already been alone for more than two years.
He lives in the penthouse of a hotel rather than his existing house, and spends time amusing himself by going to the cinema and driving a sports car very fast round the deserted city. He talks to himself and to the bust of Caesar in his flat, providing the relief of dialogue in what might otherwise be a very silent film, at least to begin with.
This Neville's music of choice is jazz, he plays chess against the bust, and always dresses for dinner on Sundays. He also spends quite a lot of the film with his shirt off.
The infected in this version are fanatical religious cultists, who have been turned albino by the bacteria, and are thus extremely sensitive to light, so only come out at night. They are pale and marked by pink weals on their skin. They wander the streets in hooded robes, setting everything to do with the old world on fire because they see the disease as a punishment from God, and believe that all science, technology and knowledge from before must be destroyed.
It is made clear from flashbacks that there was a war between Russia and China, which led to the use of bio-weapons that spread the disease across the world. This version of Neville was a military scientist working on a vaccine, who was able to inject himself with the cure early on, thus rendering him immune. There is no mention of him having a family.
The cultists want to kill him because he represents the evils of the old order, but it turns out there is a small group of people in the hills outside the town who are more resistant and thus haven't deteriorated as much as the albino cultists. Neville befriends their leader, a black woman by the name of Lisa, who rescues him when he is captured by the cultist and about to be burned to death. Neville makes another vaccine, using his blood, to save Lisa's brother, who then suggests they should offer the cure to the cultists. He goes off on his own to do this and the cultists kill him. They then come for Neville and do eventually kill him, though not before he is able to give a bottle of the vaccine to the other people, who then go off into the wilderness to try and eke out a life away from the city.
So, here, Neville becomes a legend for sacrificing himself to save what remains of humanity, and there is hope for a future, free of the disease. The last shot of the film is of Neville spreadeagled in a fountain, in a manner very reminiscent of the crucifixion, making his sacrificial status abundantly clear.
I didn't like this as much as an ending, but the film was interesting, and quite good overall.
In the 2007 film version, Emma Thompson destroys the world with a genetically engineered measles virus, which is designed to combat cancer, but actually turns people into mindless ravenous zombies that are burned by daylight.
Will Smith takes the role of Neville, and his music of choice is Bob Marley. Flashbacks show him trying to evacuate his wife and daughter from the infection zone in New York, but they are killed when another helicopter collides with theirs in mid air.
As with The Omega Man, he is a military scientist and he is trying to create a cure for the virus, experimenting on a captured zombie. He also has a dog, Sam, and this results in the most horrific part of the film, when the dog gets infected and Neville is forced to kill her. There was a dog briefly in the book, which Neville attempted to befriend and which died from the bacteria, but this dog's death is much more traumatic, as she has been Neville's only friend and consolation up to that point in the film.
The 2007 film is very much more of a horror film than The Omega Man. There are tense sequences where Neville wanders about dark spaces with his gun, quite a few jump scares, and the infected are more like horror monsters than the cultists, who could converse and demonstrate motivation.
As with both the other versions, though, the way Neville unravels as the story unfolds is very effectively portrayed. Here, he takes a daily trip to a DVD store to get a new movie, and has populated the shop with mannequins he talks to.
He is saved from the zombies by an awesome Brazilian nurse named Anna, who tells him about a colony of uninfected people in Vermont and tries to convince him to go there with her. However, the zombies over-run the house before they can leave and Neville takes them (and himself) out with a grenade, after providing Anna with a cure to take with her.
So, much like in The Omega Man, Neville sacrifices himself to provide a future for what is left of humanity. But there's a greater sense of divine intervention, with Anna saying God told her to come and find Neville, and Neville equating her butterfly tattoo with a random comment his daughter made on the day she died. So, that wasn't great.
I didn't really like the 2007 version - it was scary and gory and unpleasant, and again changed the meaning of the title to make Neville the hero of humanity, rather than the eventual monster of the book.
It's a shame that both film versions changed the whole point of the original book, though I guess I can see why, since more modern audiences would expect the protagonist to turn out to be a hero, and for humanity to be able to continue on with his sacrifice.
Hey ho! Regardless, I very much enjoyed analysing the book and its adaptations overall!
I'm not sure it was the best idea to spend all day reading and watching a story about a global pandemic, but still! It was a very interesting exercise.
The book tells the story of Robert Neville, who believes himself to be the only immune survivor of a pandemic that has turned the rest of the world's population into vampires. He fortifies his house against nightly attacks, seeks out sleeping vampires to destroy during the day, and eventual starts researching the bacteria that causes the vampirism, in the hopes of finding a cure. One day, on his travels, he comes across a seemingly unaffected woman and takes her in. Her name is Ruth and she is reticent about trusting him or telling him much about herself. It eventually turns out that she is actually infected and has been sent by a faction of the 'living vampires' to gain his trust and then betray him. They have found a way to exist with the infection in a way that allows them to retain their higher cognitive functions and slow the progress of the bacteria. They intend to rebuild human society under their new conditions and see Neville as an obstacle to this, as he seems intent on destroying them. They capture him and kill him, as he is, to them, the legendary monster that vampires once were to humans.
It's a really good book. It jumps straight into Neville's daily routine, letting you figure out what's going on gradually. The minute details of his activities gain added interest as his wider circumstances become clearer, and are interspersed with intense action sequences where the jeopardy is obvious and serious.
Some of the science detail was lost on me, though I liked the fact that Neville tries to investigate the various aspects of vampirism from a scientific point of view. They are repelled by garlic and crosses, and don't come out during the day. They drink blood and can be killed by the use of wooden stakes, but don't turn into bats and can be seen in mirrors.
The book spans the period from five months after the pandemic to three years later (January 1976 to January 1979 so set 20 years after the book was written), and very effectively explores Neville's mental state over that period. He finds solace in classical music and physical labour, but goes through periods of intense despair and frustration, as you would expect.
Flashbacks and background exposition link the spread of the bacteria to 'bombings' that also cause a lot of dust storms. It is also revealed that Neville had a wife and daughter, both of whom succumbed to the bacteria early on.
It turns out Neville was bitten by a vampire bat in Panama and believes the bat must have come across a true vampire at some point, thus infecting him with a minor strain of the bacteria that he was able to recover from, rendering him immune.
I loved the fact that he becomes the monster that threatens the future of humanity by the end, and that the only way for the new vampire society to continue is to kill him. It's a very clever ending, and provides the meaning for the title.
The 1971 film version, The Omega Man, stars Charlton Heston and is set in 1977, after Robert Neville has already been alone for more than two years.
He lives in the penthouse of a hotel rather than his existing house, and spends time amusing himself by going to the cinema and driving a sports car very fast round the deserted city. He talks to himself and to the bust of Caesar in his flat, providing the relief of dialogue in what might otherwise be a very silent film, at least to begin with.
This Neville's music of choice is jazz, he plays chess against the bust, and always dresses for dinner on Sundays. He also spends quite a lot of the film with his shirt off.
The infected in this version are fanatical religious cultists, who have been turned albino by the bacteria, and are thus extremely sensitive to light, so only come out at night. They are pale and marked by pink weals on their skin. They wander the streets in hooded robes, setting everything to do with the old world on fire because they see the disease as a punishment from God, and believe that all science, technology and knowledge from before must be destroyed.
It is made clear from flashbacks that there was a war between Russia and China, which led to the use of bio-weapons that spread the disease across the world. This version of Neville was a military scientist working on a vaccine, who was able to inject himself with the cure early on, thus rendering him immune. There is no mention of him having a family.
The cultists want to kill him because he represents the evils of the old order, but it turns out there is a small group of people in the hills outside the town who are more resistant and thus haven't deteriorated as much as the albino cultists. Neville befriends their leader, a black woman by the name of Lisa, who rescues him when he is captured by the cultist and about to be burned to death. Neville makes another vaccine, using his blood, to save Lisa's brother, who then suggests they should offer the cure to the cultists. He goes off on his own to do this and the cultists kill him. They then come for Neville and do eventually kill him, though not before he is able to give a bottle of the vaccine to the other people, who then go off into the wilderness to try and eke out a life away from the city.
So, here, Neville becomes a legend for sacrificing himself to save what remains of humanity, and there is hope for a future, free of the disease. The last shot of the film is of Neville spreadeagled in a fountain, in a manner very reminiscent of the crucifixion, making his sacrificial status abundantly clear.
I didn't like this as much as an ending, but the film was interesting, and quite good overall.
In the 2007 film version, Emma Thompson destroys the world with a genetically engineered measles virus, which is designed to combat cancer, but actually turns people into mindless ravenous zombies that are burned by daylight.
Will Smith takes the role of Neville, and his music of choice is Bob Marley. Flashbacks show him trying to evacuate his wife and daughter from the infection zone in New York, but they are killed when another helicopter collides with theirs in mid air.
As with The Omega Man, he is a military scientist and he is trying to create a cure for the virus, experimenting on a captured zombie. He also has a dog, Sam, and this results in the most horrific part of the film, when the dog gets infected and Neville is forced to kill her. There was a dog briefly in the book, which Neville attempted to befriend and which died from the bacteria, but this dog's death is much more traumatic, as she has been Neville's only friend and consolation up to that point in the film.
The 2007 film is very much more of a horror film than The Omega Man. There are tense sequences where Neville wanders about dark spaces with his gun, quite a few jump scares, and the infected are more like horror monsters than the cultists, who could converse and demonstrate motivation.
As with both the other versions, though, the way Neville unravels as the story unfolds is very effectively portrayed. Here, he takes a daily trip to a DVD store to get a new movie, and has populated the shop with mannequins he talks to.
He is saved from the zombies by an awesome Brazilian nurse named Anna, who tells him about a colony of uninfected people in Vermont and tries to convince him to go there with her. However, the zombies over-run the house before they can leave and Neville takes them (and himself) out with a grenade, after providing Anna with a cure to take with her.
So, much like in The Omega Man, Neville sacrifices himself to provide a future for what is left of humanity. But there's a greater sense of divine intervention, with Anna saying God told her to come and find Neville, and Neville equating her butterfly tattoo with a random comment his daughter made on the day she died. So, that wasn't great.
I didn't really like the 2007 version - it was scary and gory and unpleasant, and again changed the meaning of the title to make Neville the hero of humanity, rather than the eventual monster of the book.
It's a shame that both film versions changed the whole point of the original book, though I guess I can see why, since more modern audiences would expect the protagonist to turn out to be a hero, and for humanity to be able to continue on with his sacrifice.
Hey ho! Regardless, I very much enjoyed analysing the book and its adaptations overall!
