DVD The Last Man on Earth

horror, noire, religious allegory and a great performance

The Bad

Obvious budget problems, some hooky dubbing voices, continuity errors such as having night and day appear in the same scene and some questionable acting. - But not by Vincent! Due to the flaws the film might elicit laughs by indiscriminate viewers. Just avoid watching the film with these types - we all know who they are.

The Good

The film has many noire elements: the despairing, unstable, confused loner, deserted streets, a voice over narration describing the inner world of the protagonist and a fem-fatale. The film takes place in a modern post apocatalypitc Las Angeles but there are abundant elusions to the dark ages of medieval Europe: spears as weapons, paranoia, fear of the supernatural, plague victims, wrong headed crusaders, and vehicles carrying the dead to be consumed by fiery pits. The story has all the plot points of a religious allegory and on top of all this it's a horror movie. There is an outstanding - one man show - performance by Price - Price plays his character as if he were a 120 year old man in a forty year old body- tired worn out frustrated, angry, depressed, moping, hunched shouldered and dug deeply into the worst nightmarish rut imaginable. His only activities are to go out by day and destroy former victims of the plague now turned into goulash vampires - By night he boards up his house and drinks himself into a stupor. The original story by "I am Legend" Richard Matheson was very good to begin with but the Last Man on Earth screenplay adds more symbolism, which gives the film additional depth. Much of the film is told in flash backs which reveal all the hero's errors in judgment. Last Man On Earth is a moody, dark, compelling nightmare.

This DVD version is from very good film stock My only complaint is that it apears as if the DVD may have been dubbed form a very good VHS print Other then this the film stock is almost flawless for an old movie- but know the film always had an appropriate gritty, documentary, black and white, look and sound.

Maybe the DVD does not deserve 5 stars but- but because of the films depth in story, Prices performance, pathos, intelligence and symbolism along with being a very good horror film ...! I cannot give this DVD anything but 5 starts. Absolutely no one who loves Vincent Price or, horror films should pass this up!

What makes a great movie? Movies are supposed to leave some things to the viewer's imagination or they'll never use their brains. "The Last Man on Earth" leaves so much out, that it really makes a person think. The new releases that are out are quite similar to this film are movies like "Dawn of the Dead", "Resident Evil", and "28 Days Later". They all deal with some kind of virus getting out and killing almost every person on earth and only a few are still alive. Some people would say that these are run-offs of "The Last Man on Earth" and "Night of the Living Dead" which are both old movies. The only thing missing in "The Last Man on Earth" from movies today is blood, humor, and nudity. Do those characteristics really make a movie? It's ridiculous to add comedy to a scary movie or horror flick. That will just confuse the viewer to either laugh or to be scared. One of the main things that are seen in films today is nudity. It's like a movie is not good enough unless some kind of body part is exposed. Plus, a viewer will barely ever see a naked male, but almost always see a naked female. That doesn't really satisfy both genders. Most movies are sexist and view women as incredibly weak, unstable, sex objects.

This movie has its downsides because of the lack of realistic situations. One thing to think about is that Morgan couldn't get the disease because a bat bit him, so there has to be more people or animals out there that has the same anti-venom. There are millions of people out there. If there were no more people alive except Morgan after three years, how is the electricity still working? It was ironic that a lady would appear out of nowhere and then run away. The movie viewed women as uneducated, unsuccessful, house wives. The wife of Morgan was the first person to transform into a vampire or zombie. The viewer gets to decide if the dead are actually zombies or vampires. Throughout the movie it gives hints that the creatures are vampires but it also gives hints that they could be zombies. They only come out at night, they hate to see themselves in the mirror, they're allergic to garlic, and they bite at the neck. On the other hand, they look like zombies, they seem retarded and dumb, and they come back to life after they are dead. So it's anyone's assumption on which creature they really are.

There is so much imagery in this movie. It makes a person look at life in another perspective and to not take simple things like going outside at night to see the stars and going to the grocery store for granted. In this movie Morgan couldn't go out at night time and during the day he spent all of his time filling up his gas tank, getting just enough can food to last him, new mirrors and fresh garlic to protect himself. He would wood up his house and have crosses all around to keep them out. This showed how a person can protect themselves in their own home and to believe in god. A scene that was a little ironic was when Morgan ended up dieing in a church. That is symbolic since he was the last real man on earth. When Morgan cures the infected woman with his blood, it shows that people can actually cure each other, and we have our own medicine within us. Since the people who were infected but found a semi-cure killed Morgan, it states that we kill what could keep us alive. He was the last human alive and they killed him out of stupidity.

For the most part this movie is well written and great for the horror lovers. "The Last Man on Earth" has meaning behind the scenes and actually makes people think deeper then what's handed to them. The viewer gets to create or add on to the film. A famous novelist, Wolfgang Iser believes "texts leave great portions unexplained to the reader, whether as gaps in the narrative or as structural limits of the text's representation of the world. This basic indeterminacy "implies" the reader and begs her participation in synthesizing, and indeed living, events of meaning throughout the process of reading." This means that if you replace text and reading for script and viewing it would make since that this is what the producer and writer of this movie wants to capture with his/her audience.