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I've never been too much of a Heston fan, but The Omega Man is actually pretty good fun. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of tone a Charlton-starring, end-of-the-world movie was going to have - preachy or goofy? - but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the apocalypse looks and sounds a lot like Coffy, that blaxploitation classic. I don't say that simply because Rosalind Cash, the foxy young maiden who is one of the last hot bitches left on planet Earth, is very Pam Grier-esque, but also because the film has a disco-street soundtrack and most of the movie's hand-to-hand combat reeks of the lightly-choreographed wonders usually found in most exploitation flicks of the era.

Even more impressive (and probably a bit ahead-of-its-time, too) is that the interracial romance of Cash and Heston is played out quite a bit. It takes them a while to finally smooch, but eventually we even get a scene of a naked Cash sitting on the bed talking to Chuck while he makes some breakfast (given, they're not in the same shot together, but Rome wasn't built in a day). It's nice that Charlton and his exotic lover just want to do the nasty - no societal woes to fret about, no "What would my Aryan friends/soul sisters think?" questioning: these two just get it on to the soulful sound of plastic 70s funk. Yeah.

Alas, the film misses its shot at cult film greatness after it gets mired in some pretty overdone Christ symbolism. Don't believe me? Check out the last shot of the film, which seems out of place and heavy-handed enough to be a total buzzkill. Unfortunately, the movie all but falls apart during its last twenty minutes.

Still, The Omega Man can be a quirky, enjoyable beast of a movie. It may not be consistently engaging enough to be considered an action classic or ridiculous enough to rank high up in the camp pantheon, but it sure as hell makes for an enjoyable waste of a few hours. Even if just for the music.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, The Omega Man actually looks pretty good. The film does show its age, as some dirt and grime hamper the print, but it is a clear step up from all previous video versions. Blacks are nice and solid with decent color reproduction, although fleshtones can appear a bit too orange. Detail is above average for a film of this period and there is no real edge enhancement to speak of. All in all, this transfer is up to Warner's usual high standards.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Alas, Warner has chosen to stick with the film's original mono soundtrack and it's neither here nor there. Frequency response is wafer-thin, with dialogue especially suffering from very cramped low and high end. The ridiculously over-the-top soundtrack is also balanced so high in the mix that everything around it is overwhelmed. At the very least it would have been nice to bump this up with a stereo remix. Oh, well.

Also included is a French mono dub, plus English, Spanish and French subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

First up is a 4-minute introduction to the film featuring actors Eric Laneuville and Paul Koslo and co-screenwriter Joyce H. Corrington, which gives a bit of a look into the development and evolution of the picture. Most of it is pretty surface-level, but it's an interesting look back at what many consider an iconic film. Then we have the vintage documentary The Last Man Alive - The Omega Man, a 10-minute piece following Heston on the set, the production team on location, and the challenges in bringing this hard- to-film story to the screen.

Rounding out the disc is a text essay, Charlton Heston - Science-fiction Legend, and some cast and crew bios.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts