Monday Movie Review: The Omega Man

The Omega Man (1971) 8/10
Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) is the only survivor of biological war. With the world dying of plague, Neville developed a vaccine too late; and only he was treated. Everyone else is dead or mutated into vampire-like creatures lead by Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) that are blinded by daylight.

Giving a numeric rating to a cult classic is kind of a fool's game. You know there's a cheese factor, you know there are things that are overblown, and yet that's part of its charm. I like to take my movies seriously, and I seriously think that Omega Man is a terrific movie, but there are definitely major flaws.
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For one thing, the soundtrack is horrific. It's a nightmare of seventies-style sweetness. At one point, Neville plays Theme from a Summer Place on the radio, and that's pretty much the tone of the whole thing, including during the scary, horror, and action sequences. The soundtrack actively works against any tension the movie successfully builds (which is considerable). The other major flaw is the direction of the action sequences. Whether it's a car chase or a fist fight, it's very staged and posed and transparent; groan-worthy.

And yes, Omega Man is overblown. It sells its message too hard, and paints its metaphors with too broad a brush. But given the moody atmospherics, the intensity of the last-man-on-Earth scenario, and a powerful flow of events, I really don't mind the broad brush.

Lots of people criticize Charlton Heston's acting, but he holds the screen like a magnet. It requires something special to be alone on screen, babbling to your household objects, and retain audience interest. Heston's dynamic presence makes it work. Is Neville crazy or just lonely? We are never sure, but neither is he, and that makes him sympathetic. It turns out, of course, that Neville is not the last man on Earth, and his vulnerability in the sudden presence of people after years alone is touching.

Matthias, we learn, is a former news reporter watching the plague unfold and reporting on it. Gradually, he comes to hate the technology that is destroying the world, and before succumbing, he has already turned his news broadcasts into polemics. Now, he is the cult leader of the mutant victims, called "the Family," they celebrate the scars on their skin as cleansing them of the world's sin. All this is very over the top, which, let's face it, is what you want when you cast Anthony Zerbe. The Family is a mishmash that serves to criticize witch hunts, superstition, religious fervor, and anti-science bias, but the reality is that science did destroy the world. The Family is vile, monstrous, and not entirely wrong.

This is all very juicy stuff; our lone heroic survivor paints an iconic figure even before the messianic metaphors start flying. Visuals of an empty and abandoned Los Angeles are stunning, and paint a sharp contrast with Neville's home, fully of knick-knacks, art, science, and luxury. My overall assessment is that Omega Man absolutely earns its cult status.

(Last cross-post on Earth)

Sunday Sierrablogging

Outlet stream from Ridge Lake, Emigrant Wilderness.

East Coast Friday Random Ten

Richard Buckner, "Song of 27" Richard Buckner
Cat Power, "Silver Stallion" Jukebox
The Flaming Lips, "The Spiderbite Song" The Soft Bulletin
Cub Country, "If We Should Fall" Stay Poor/Stay Happy
Luna, "Beggar’s Bliss" Pup Tent
Pulp, "The Trees" We Love Life
Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin’" Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3
Alison Kraus & Union Station, "New Favorite" Live
Built to Spill, "Life’s a Dream" There is No Enemy
Lisa Germano, "Nobody’s Playing" Lullaby for Liquid Pig

Bonus: Pinetop Seven, "November, 4AM" Bringing Home the Last Great Strike

I typed this up before looking to see that nothing is happening around here. Was that a tumbleweed going by?

Sunday Sierrablogging

There's a place in Ansel Adams Wilderness, along the Hemlock Crossing Trail, called Surprise Saddle. You hike mostly through viewless forest for 5 or 6 miles, climb up a few set of switchbacks, turn a corner, and see...this. Surprise!

Friday Random 10

Growlers - Old Cold River
El Michels Affair - Glaciers of Ice
Voxtrot - The Future Part 1
Nyles Lannon - Next Obsession
Tricky - Cross to Bear
Man or Astro-Man? - Television Fission
Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women - Que Sera, Sera
Sonantes - Mambobit
Colin Newman - Not Me
Young Marble Giants - Credit in the Straight World

Bonus track: Les Yper-Sound - Psyche Rock

Another all-eMusic list this week, because I forgot my iPod yet again. Kind of a meh list--1, 3, & 4 are all free downloads that I wouldn't necessarily have paid for.

What are y'all listening to today?

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Redwood Lily (Lilium rubescens) in lower Long Canyon, Trinity Alps Wilderness. More below the fold...

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Quote of the Day: Beyond Parody Edition

Republican flack (and full-time Palin apologist) Matthew Continetti:

Like a lot of people, as soon as I got my copy of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue," I immediately thought of the German literary critic Hans Robert Jauss.

Sunday Sierrablogging

North Fork Kid Creek basin (and beyond) from Glacier Saddle, Monarch Divide, Kings Canyon National Park.

Wild Thing

Eat your heart out, Henri Rousseau

Friday Random 10

All eMusic this week, because--yeah, you guessed it--I forgot my iPod again. Maybe if I had better headphones I wouldn't keep forgetting it...

Link Wray - Please Please Me
Fall - L.A.
Essential Logic - Stereo
Tuxedomoon - Incubus (Blue suit)
Link Wray - Four Gray Walls
Kinks - Holiday
Enrique Herrera - Summertime
Dodos - Jodi
Lene Lovich - Wonderful One
Los Mirlos - La Danza de los Mirlos

What are y'all listening to this morning?

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Field Chickweed (Cerastium arvense) near Point Arena Lighthouse, Mendocino County.

Blue Crow

On a recent morning with an attractive dead thing in the road. This is relevant.

Friday Random Ten (OMG Deborah got an iPod!)

1. Little Green -- Joni Mitchell: Except the sound was screwed up, so now I have to figure out if I need to remove and re-upload this one.
2. Whispers from a Spiritual Garden -- Yusef
3. Louisiana 1927 -- Randy Newman
4. My Romance -- Michael Feinstein
5. Know Now Then -- Ani DiFranco
6. El Matador -- Los Fabulosos Cadillacs: I had no idea this thing was on my iPod. Turns out it's from the soundtrack of Grosse Point Blank, which is continually rewarding.
7. Don't Touch My Hat -- Lyle Lovett
8. Come Away With Me -- Norah Jones: I almost want to remove this one, it's so familiar and so beloved that it lacks something of the surprise and delight of using shuffle.
9. I Was Doing All Right -- Annie Ross: Another one I didn't know I had.
10. Farewell to Tarwathie -- Judy Collins: I swear to the gods, I thought I removed this from my iPod already. It's lovely, but not really iPod music, y'know?

(Randomly cross-posted)

Forgot my iPod Again

Maybe someone else could post the FRT this week?

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Lemmon's Paintbrush (Castilleja lemmonii) at Red Devil Lake in the Clark Range, Yosemite National Park.

Monday Movie Review: I've Loved You So Long

I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) (2008) 8/10
Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has just gotten out of prison after fifteen years, and moves in with her sister, brother-in-law, and young niece.

I've Loved You So Long is a quiet film, quietly watching a broken woman be...broken. We don't know about Juliette's crime at first; as an American viewer, I did not at first realize that 15 years was an incredibly long sentence in the French prison system; a French viewer would know right away that the crime must be terrible indeed. Yet it is quickly clear to anyone that the revelation of the crime will be the film's dramatic center. Perhaps the major flaw of the film is the obviousness of this structure: We know we're building to The Big Confession, and when it comes, there's a certain self-consciousness to it. Don't get me wrong: It's a moving scene, and Thomas is amazing, it's just that it's been over-broadcast; nothing can live up to a whole movie building to that one scene.

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Which is a shame, because I've Loved You So Long excels in the small scenes. Thomas's acting is delicate, and as she struggles to interact in a normal way, as she seeks work, as she tries to joke, she reveals herself and her story without apparent effort. She is like a vision of feeling; so obviously agonized that the denouement is almost unnecessary. As we begin to know how terrible Juliette's crime is, we also can see, through her every pore, her regret and sorrow, and we cannot condemn her.

Of course, her family and the people who know her have struggles of their own. There is, apparently, a monster in their midst, but also a sister, a lovely woman, a friend. How to manage this contradiction?

Although freed from prison, Juliette is still imprisoned by her own deep loss and pain, and in allowing herself to be so raw, Kristin Scott Thomas shows us how many of us are truly imprisoned by invisible walls.

(I've cross-posted so long)

Sunday Sierrablogging

Ward Mountain Lake, LeConte Divide, John Muir Wilderness.