We’re in Santiago, Chile for a few days, on our way home from a trip to see Easter Island - not a particularly apocalyptic thing although it might be a good place to ride out a zombie attack if you need to. I can’t remember if it was mentioned in “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” or not. The island is one of the most remote, and the ocean floor drops off sharply near it, possibly making it difficult for underwater zombies to reach land.

But I digress.

We took a break from sight-seeing and all the empanadas and ham-and-cheese sandwiches to see “Soy Leyenda” yesterday, which I’d been interested in seeing in the US but didn’t have time to catch before we left. The film was in English with Spanish subtitles… there are several places in the film where you can barely hear lines, and it’s odd to see them clearly (in Spanish) in the subtitles. Given how weak my Spanish is, I could barely understand the subtitles, too.

“I Am Legend” is a big budget action adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel “I Am Legend”, originally released in 1954 but still stands quite relevant (and a good read) today.

“I Am Legend” the film follows the story from the book surprisingly faithfully, up to a point. Of course the story is updated; it takes place in near-future New York City; one of the reasons I was attracted to it was to see the gorgeous scenes of a deserted New York, which were very satisfying. And there are differences; the main (and almost only) character has a canine companion from the start of the film, whereas a dog shows up partway through the book. The film tells the story of the plague through flashbacks; the novel documents the main characters attempts to understand the plague.

Of course, as the story progresses the film deviates further and further from the novel. When I say “surprisingly faithful” I mean that I’m surprised that it was a faithful as it was, not that it really followed the book all that well.

The meaning of “I Am Legend” is quite different between the book and the film, and I have to say that the meaning is the book is much deeper to me than the film. If you want to know the difference, select the inviso-text below to see the spoilers.

Still, it was an entertaining, gripping film that I’m glad I saw.

“I Am Legend” has been adapted to the big screen twice before - once as Vincent Price’s “Last Man on Earth” and once as Charlton Heston’s “The Omega Man”.

Vincent Price has the acting ability to be able to pull off his role with an air of grace and sadness, and “Last Man on Earth” was still a watchable, enjoyable film in the days of fast editing, fast zombies and gore. “Last Man on Earth” was also much more faithful to the original material than the film “I Am Legend” was though there are still significant differences.

“Omega Man” is a distinctly different film, coated in the flavors of 70’s apocalypse films and feeling more inspired by “I Am Legend” than an adaptation of it, it’s still significant in the genre.

And you may have heard of a little film called “Night of the Living Dead”… people (this time dead people) start turning into violent, cannibalistic killers for unknown reasons; survivors hole up in a house attempting to fend them off… George A. Romero has acknowledged “I Am Legend”’s influence on his work.

You might put together an interesting film festival running “Last Man on Earth”, “Night of the Living Dead”, “Omega Man” and “I Am Legend”.

I find it interesting that the last few years have had so many high profile films of a similar nature: “28 Days Later” and its sequel “28 Weeks Later”, Nicole Kidman’s body snatchers remake “The Invasion”, “I Am Legend”, the upcoming “Doomsday”, not to mention George A. Romero’s own “Land of the Dead” and his upcoming “Diary of the Dead” and the numerous remakes of his living dead films.

They’re all stories of people changing, becoming violent, unpredictable and murderous, and a few intrepid individuals trying to survive and possibly turn the tide. Perhaps that’s our collective unconscious knocking on the door trying to tell us something?

Whether you see the new film “I Am Legend”, I’d encourage you to read the book. It’s not a long story, and it’s influenced the genre more than possibly any other story I can think of. You can find it at Amazon, and as an audiobook at Amazon.

[tags]i am legend, movie, book, will smith, richard matheson, omega man, vincent price, zombies, plague, omega man, last man on earth, night of the living dead[/tags]

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