Book-To-Movie: ‘I Am Legend’

A vampire similar to the ones in 2008's "I Am Legend" which starred Will Smith.
Credit: Pixabay.com

It’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, I review a book and its movie adaptations. This month’s book and its movies based on it is I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. While vampires were no longer in in the American pop culture of the the 1950s, science fiction horror in general was. So Matheson’s I Am Legend brought the scientificising of vampires into the pulp literary scene of that era. Not too long after, in the early ‘60s, the first of three book-to-movie adaptions appeared and was renamed The Last Man On Earth which starred Vincent Price. The other two were The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston in the ‘70s and I Am Legend starring Will Smith in the 2001s. Even though each one debunked the myth of the vampire as a supernatural being, each had its own depiction of the creature.

‘I Am Legend’, The Book

Set in a near post-apocalyptic future, Matheson’s novel is about Robert Neville who thinks he may be the last person alive on the planet after a deadly plague has wiped out humanity. The ones who are still “living” have turned into vampiric creatures and so drink human blood. Neville is desperately pursued by these vampires. He is forced to turn vampire hunter in order to save his own life and hopefully reach any remaining living humans. He sets up garlic strings, mirrors and crucifixes on the exterior of his house to keep the living dead away at night; he makes wooden stakes to slay them with while they sleep in their dwellings during the day.

This book, published in 1954 which was late in the golden age of science fiction when supernatural horror lost its popularity, debunks the supernaturalism of vampires. As part of this trend in vampire fiction, the character of Neville is a cynic, a trait that contributes to his self-training as an amateur scientist in an attempt to find a cure for the vampire plague.

 

The conflict between Neville and the vampires is developed good but, perhaps more importantly, so is the one between himself and his loneliness. It’s a conflict caused by his failing self-esteem from having no living humans to relate to. In dealing with this he goes to the extreme of drinking and wanting to die. Yet, he feels a mysterious urge to continue living. These motivations are played out well in his character making him sympathetic to the reader. While the vampires are a threat to his physical existence, the loneliness is a threat to his psychological and spiritual one. It’s this second threat that is a turn from the one seen in vampire stories that are more heavily influenced by Dracula where the vampires are a more spiritual and psychological threat.

The downside of I Am Legend is that there is some sexism in the book. However, that’s probably a result of the overly defined lifestyle of the 1950s: women work in the kitchen, men work in the outside world. Although, on a more superficial level, Neville has kind of broken this type cast: he has to work in the kitchen and out in the wider world because his wife, along with their daughter, have been long gone and so killed by the plague.

The Movie Adaptations

Vincent Price as Robert Neville in "The Last Man On Earth".Credit: Pixabay.com

The first of the three book-to-movie adaptation of I Am Legend came out in 1964, about 10 years after the novel. Vincent Price starred as Neville and was fitting for the part. The grim characteristics of his acting add to the tragic situation of the main character. Most of the movie stays faithful to the book except for some minor details--such as Neville’s role as professional scientist, as opposed to amateur, which reduces the challenge of seeking a cure to the plague. However, this change is fitting for a movie that runs not even an hour and a half. Speaking of that, many of the other obstacles he faces in the book are absent in the movie. But the ones that do remain and are most important are the the vampires and the isolation that drives him to near despair. The vampires are like mindless zombies, adding to the tension.

The cinematography is done well, but the black and white filming alone adds to the gloom of the post-apocalyptic setting. Also the day time scenes of a deserted, run down city are conveyed good.

Only six years later, a remake of the movie, titled The Omega Man, came out. It starred Charlton Heston as Neville who did not play the character as near good as Price did although his interaction with the other characters was done well. In this one the vampires are more like occult worshippers than zombie-like creatures: they wear ceremonial robes and perform ritualistic killings. Very little reference is made to these night creatures as vampires--unlike in Last Man, Neville does not fight them off with stakes, garlic or crucifixes but with machine guns. (Maybe they’re loaded with tiny wooden stakes, or even lead ones?) The only defense that makes reference to their vampiric state are that they sleep during the day and are afraid of bright light.

As much as this movie deviates from the book, it’s good in its own right and was fitting for the “Satanic” ‘70s, when a big religious cult movement was going on and feared by many. Although I didn’t like Omega Man as much as Last Man, I still liked it a lot. Probably because I’m a nerd for ‘70s pop culture!

2008’s I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as Neville, sticks much more closely to the book than Omega Man. One of the few deviations is that it is set in New York instead of Los Angeles. Of course! It seems like ever since the 1980s Hollywood has had to set almost every single one of its movies in New York making it the city on top of the hill regardless of where the original story to a movie takes place! It’s become total cliché. (As much as I love New York.) However, the movie was made really good especially with Smith’s role who, like Vincent Price in Last Man, plays the character convincingly. The character in this movie is also well developed and tragic like in Last Man. We can sympathise with him much more than we can with Heston’s.

The vampires in Legend are also zombie-like as in Last Man but, as with Omega Man, very little reference is made to their vampiric state. One exception is when Smith explains that they feed off of living humans although he doesn’t say exactly how. While Smith acts out Neville’s cynicism really good there is also a theme of both spiritual and social redemption running throughout the movie as with the other two films.

All three of these book-to-movie adaptations, in one sense or another, were cleverly made but the one that I like most is Last Man On Earth. It conveys the vampire subgenre element more clearly than the other two movies. Yet, at the same time, as does the novel, it debunks the myth of the living dead. Not to mention, I’m just a nerd for original movies almost no matter how rotten they are!


Now do I prefer any of the book-to-movie adaptations to the novel? No. The book’s events and main character are more convincing and thought-provoking. Still, as a movie fan, I won’t deny that all the films do a good job interpreting the novel and I can watch them again and still get enjoyment from them. 

Have you read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson or seen any of the movie adaptations? Which movie is your favourite? Feel free to leave your comments in the vampire box below!

Until next time . . .