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I Am Legend

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I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in Los Angeles. He actually lives in a suburb of what was then a not-so-built-up metropolis.

Contents

Plot summary

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The book takes place in the then-future of 1976–1979, and opens with the monotony and horror of the daily life of the protagonist, Robert Neville. Neville is apparently the only survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of a bacterium the symptoms of which are very similar to vampirism. He lives in a house fortified against nocturnal attacks by the roaming infected, and sallies forth by daylight to kill the sleeping vampires. Every day he also makes repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, and disposing of vampires' corpses on his lawn.

Neville's psychological disposition is a significant element in the novel, and his struggles with despair imbue the character with intensity and gravitas. The author emphasizes that he is an ordinary, flawed man trying to deal with an extraordinary catastrophe.

Much of the story is devoted to Neville's struggles to understand the plague that has transformed everyone he meets except for himself, and the novel details the progress of his discoveries. In this regard, the novel is unique in vampire fiction in that instead of asking the reader to accept a supernatural explanation for vampire phenomena, the author strives to offer scientific basis for such symptoms as aversion to garlic, craving of fresh blood, and resistance to bullets but vulnerability to stakes and sunlight. The aversion to mirrors and crosses (or, in the case of one vampire of Jewish origin, the Torah) is classified as psychological.

Eventually, Neville discovers that while he is the only person immune to the bacterium, he is not the only one still alive. Others who have been infected have discovered a means to hold the disease at bay. However, during the daylight hours, they appear to be fully involved vampires. Thus, along with the vampires, he has been killing these still alive persons. He becomes a source of terror to the still living, since he can go abroad in daylight (which they can't) and leaves their dead behind. Just as vampires were regarded as a legendary monster that preyed on the vulnerable humans in their beds, Neville has become the last of a dead breed; a mythical figure that kills both vampires and the infected living while they are sleeping. He becomes a legend as the vampires once were, hence the title.

Film adaptations

I Am Legend has so far twice been adapted onto film, with mixed results.

In 1964, Vincent Price starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in The Last Man on Earth. An Italian production, the original title was L'Ultimo Uomo Della Terra). Matheson wrote the screenplay for this adaptation, but later rewrites were so changed that he did not wish his name to appear in the credits. The pseudonym "Logan Swanson" appears instead. This version is considered by most film and sci-fi critics as being of poor quality despite being the closer of the two to Matheson's original novel.

In 1971 a far different version appeared as The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston and Anthony Zerbe. Matheson had no influence on the screenplay for this film, and it deviates from the book in several ways, particularly in removing any vampirical elements. Taking place in a similar time-period as that of the novel, the movie revolves around Colonel Robert Neville (played by Heston), an apparently lone survivor from the fallout of a biological war between China and Russia, who fights nightly battles against infected evil albino mutants. Heston portrays a military biomedical researcher who escapes infection by injecting himself with an experimental vaccine. Zerbe is John Matthias, a TV news anchor who becomes a messianic leader and organizes the surviving infected into "The Family". Matthias aims to destroy the remnants of the previous world, and has recast Neville as the "demon" that must be destroyed before a new, cleaner world can be rebuilt by the survivors. In his bid for survival, Neville drives around during the day recovering supplies and killing whatever infected he can find. The infected are extremely photosensitive, and only venture out at night to feed and conduct their purgings of technology, art, science and everything else Matthias has deemed "evil". Neville is forced to hole up in a townhouse - his actual home in Los Angeles - which is stocked full of weapons and modern conveniences. After he discovers a small group of young survivors, he attempts to develop a serum from his own immune blood that will save them from reaching the final "tertiary" stage of the disease. It has been suggested that the film parallels the story of Christ, the Apostles, and the Crucifixion[[Citing sources citation needed]]; there are disciples, a betrayer, a Mary Magdalene figure, a Pilate-judge, allegories to the persecution by the Pharises and the salvation from the Blood of Christ, and even a spear being thrust into the main character. The "omega" in the title references the final letter in the Greek alphabet (implying, like the 1964 version that Neville is the "last" man), which is also connected to Christ, who was referred to as the Alpha and Omega. This version, while not a cinematographic masterpiece, is considered the far superior of the two adaptations by most film critics. When released to theaters, it received favorable reviews from most critics, including Gene Shallit, who reviewed the film for NBC's Today Show when it premiered, as well asRoger Ebert and Gene Siskel, and has become a cult classic.

A Ridley Scott adaptation was scheduled for production in the late 1990s, but fell through due to an inflating budget (upwards of $100 Million, considered tame by today's soaring pricetags). The film was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A new adaptation of the film, directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich has been announced and is slated for release in 2007. Will Smith and Johnny Depp have been cast to star in the adaptation before beginning production on Tonight, He Comes.

Further films inspired by I Am Legend include:

Other influences

Music: Television and film:

External links

 

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