Facts About "The Omega Man"

Was Charlton Heston the last man standing.

The Omega ManPhoto byCreative Commons: cdrummbks

During the late 60s and early 70s Charlton Heston did a string of post-apocalyptic movies. I’ve already discussed Soylent Green, now it’s on to The Omega Man. Having seen The Omega Man years ago, and I am Legend not quite as many years ago, I prefer The Omega Man.

As with Soylent Green and Planet of the Apes, there are messages in the movie. Some more obvious than others, but nonetheless, the movie generally will hold the attention of its audience. So, here are some things you didn’t know about The Omega Man.

1: The film featured an interracial kiss between Charlton Heston and Rosiland Cash.

It was one of the first interracial kisses in the movies. Of course, Star Trek, the TV series, had an interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Ohura before that. When it comes to kissing Captain Kirk really was one to boldly go where no man has gone before.

2: The movie played to mixed reviews.

Rogert Ebert gave the movie two stars, while Gene Siskel gave it only one star. Ah, The Omega Star.

3: The book had already been made into a movie in 1964. It was called “The Last Man on Earth”, and starred Vincent Price.

As it turns out, Vincent was just The Next to Last Man on Earth.

4: When the production company was looking for a city that looked like an abandoned city, they noticed that downtown Los Angles had no shoppers and seemed abandoned, so many of the exterior shots were done there on weekends.

Everybody must have been shopping at Walmart.

5: The set used for Heston/Neville’s home is located on Warner Brothers Ranch Park Boulevard (formerly Columbia Ranch) in Burbank. It’s pretty much on changed and can be seen on Google Maps 3D.

It’s pretty much unchanged. Maybe the place went into probate after Neville’s death.

6: Heston’s personal diary from the time of filming indicates he was getting tired of playing action heroes.

But that was before Soylent Green. I guess he wasn’t tried of taking action hero checks.

7: Heston said his co-star, Rosiland Cash, had trouble with some of her scenes. He told her he had trouble with some of his scenes in “Ben Hur.”

Cash said something to the effect that she felt like she was having sex with Moses. I can understand Cash’s hesitancy. I think the Ben Hur thing is a false equivalency.

8: The Mathias character, who was the leader of “The Family,” was previously a television newscaster.

That’s a fairly common transition nowadays.

9: The death of Heston in the fountain was meant to be reminiscent of Christ on the cross.

So, from Moses to Jesus. Somebody is pretty proud of themselves.

10: During the movie, Neville does some commentary about the movie, “Woodstock,” while watching it. That became the inspiration for “Mystery Science Theater.”

I had never thought about Charlton Heston and Mystery Science Theater being linked together before.

11: Before Omega Man, Charleton Heston hadn’t ridden a motorcycle.

I hope he didn’t expect the traffic to part when he was riding.