I am legend

So, I have just finished reading 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. It was really good, a vampire/science fiction novel originally published in 1954, mainly to do with loneliness and isolation. I had already seen the Will Smith film based on it, plus the Charlton Heston one (although I have not seen the Vincent Price one from 1964 (The Last Man on Earth). I preferred the book to the films but I would have enjoyed the films more if they stuck to the story, instead of throwing in all the Hollywood cliches.

In the book, Neville is by himself until he sees an injured dog out in the daylight. He spends weeks trying to feed it and bring it indoors, trying to build up the dogs trust in him. He eventually gets the dog inside, where it is still terrified of him, until it gets caught up in a blanket and Neville caresses and soothes it for hours. The dog then licks Neville for the first time. A week later, the dog is dead, as Neville could not save him. This brings home how lonely Neville is and his absolute despair at having hope in something, and losing the only companion he has found (Ruth does not appear till near the end, and she does not have a child with her, unlike the Will Smith film).

Also, as the Will Smith film wants to make him out to be a hero, he dies protecting and hiding the girl and child, plus he finds a vaccine which he gives to them to take back to the other live humans, thus saving mankind and becoming the legend of the title.

In the book it is a lot better. Because Neville has been killing the vampires risen from the dead and the live humans who have the infection, when he is caught at the end, he realises people have learnt to live with the disease (drugs and bacteria mutating), and he, because he had been going out and killing them, had become something fearsome to them, rather like the Dracula myth had been. He was the only human left without the infection, but he had become the freak/odd one and they were going to execute him (plus he never found a cure). Therefore he was a legend to them, a terrifying one, not a hero like Will Smith.

Don't get me started on the Charlton Heston movie, that is shit. He even gets captured and nearly burnt at the stake in Dodger stadium at one point. He also saves humanity with a serum and then dies in a Christ like/Crucifixion pose. Bloody Hollywood.

Looking foreward to the Vincent Price one!

toodle pip