Reviews

Well, I had the pleasure of catching the last hour of this one on the late-night cable at the airport hotel. I sort of enjoyed it, but then, it had no competition and I wasn't ready to fall asleep yet. While playing spin-the-dial, I found a natty James Woods emotionally torturing a comatose Sharon Stone, and I thought "Well, at least there'll be something interesting to watch until that wedding party finishes up downstairs".

I won't say I enjoyed it completely, but these were probably the best circumstances under which to watch it. Also, I missed the first hour, so part of my brain was able to work at reconstructing the plot while I watched the eye-candy. I agree with the reviewer who said that it looked terrific; Miami was beautiful and the colors were sparkling clear.

What I enjoyed-- (**POSSIBLE SPOILERS, BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?**)

James Woods, of course. I only managed to see Eric Roberts for about five minutes before he had that fatal cup of coffee, but I liked him in their "final confrontation" scene. Then, when James lost it on the phone with Sly, I think he earned his paycheck in ten minutes of screen time. Too bad about that innocent phone...

The sex-in-the-shower scene. Sly looked (and acted) like a Classical Greek sculpture. I don't even remember what Sharon Stone looked like naked, but then, to be fair, she was covered up a lot of the time. I do remember that Sly had better breasts. Not surprising that he has a porn background. One question: does the shower drain leave a permanent mark?

Finally, I loved the small touches of humor, and there were a few. I especially enjoyed the scene when Sly blew the Crab Shack and it began raining live crustaceans. You just don't see that often enough in today's films...

So, two out of ten, with an extra point for being there when I needed it.

I saw this film as a teenager, when it was a first-run feature in 1971. In this context, I didn't find it dated at all, and I thought Charlton Heston was a tragic hero, Jesus Christ with pectorals. I saw the film 25 years later, on television. It held up about as well as Mr. Heston's pectorals, which is to say that it's imperfect, but still has more substance than some other pectorals from that time.

**possible spoilers** The Christ imagery is hard to miss by the final frame, but the film also used the images of communion and transubstantiation as Heston's blood becomes a symbol of hope for the future. The sharing of blood as salvation--a very powerful image much loved in science fiction. (It was only years later that I noticed the crypto-racism of the last great white man on earth saving the blacks, children, and hippies by giving the gift of his pure Christian blood.)

As much as I had a crush on Heston from Planet of the Apes, I think Anthony Zerbe really walked away with this film. Charlton had the chiselled looks, the noble grimace, and the powerful hardware, but it was the unprepossessing Zerbe that elevated this film to something special. He was charismatic and intense as Mathias, Heston's nemesis; in spite of his embarassing makeup and sunglasses, he was a pure force of power, a complex mutant with traces of his humanity still intact. A brief scene of Zerbe, pre-plague, gives the audience a hint of the transformation his character has undergone by the time he becomes the leader of the mutants.

**spoilers** I could believe in a relationship between Mathias and Neville more convincingly than I could between Heston and Rosalind Cash, probably because Zerbe was more passionate. Years later, I forgot the shoot-em-ups and flaming bodies, but I remembered Mathias bidding a rueful goodbye to his nemesis after the final battle. I think this film really launched Zerbe's career, at least in television.

Of course the racism, sexism, and dumb-headedness are still there. Eg. Rosalind Cash's ready availability--was she really that horny? I guess she was just waiting for a real man to come along. Oh well, enough about this stuff; it's how this action movie got made in 1971.

Besides Zerbe, the thing I remember most about this film is a small touch at the beginning. The last normal man on earth risks his life to go to the downtown movie theater, where he sits alone in the dark to watch a film. What does Neville choose? Woodstock! Even this early in the film, we know that Heston's character is anything but an old hippie. So why Woodstock? As Heston sits alone in the deserted theater, we feel his existential loneliness as he absorbs the images of happy, attractive young people spontaneously enjoying the legendary "tribal" gathering. A great scene that almost redeems the rest of the film.