“He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet’s intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.”
-Richard Matheson, I Am Legend, The Original Novel
In 2007, the final entry in a triptych of films adapted from Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend was released. With the previous films being titled The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man with respect to chronological order, the producers of this film finally recognized the power of such a title, I Am Legend, yet still took a plethora of creative liberties in the final product directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith.
Although the films was a commercial success, and critically, the film received a moderately positive response, it seems like the film is rarely mentioned approximately a decade later.
As a young child when the film was released, I was absolutely terrified of the film based on the premise, alone, and upon just watching the opening scenes, I was borderline traumatized.
Almost every element of the film’s narrative touched on my hardcore fears. At that age, I was emotionally degraded by dusk, and I was petrified by the darkness, especially during an age where I was sleeping by myself. New age zombie movies such as 28 Days Later, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and the sequel to the former, 28 Weeks Later, terrified me.
Mainly because they featured more aggressive, threatening, agile zombies and portrayed the concept of a viral outbreak in a more tragic, petrifying manner as opposed to the creepy elements of the classic Romero zombies from Night of the Living Dead. With these more aesthetic, common fears that haunt young children in a plethora of diversified ways, a much more unsettling fear that is reminiscent of premature tendencies of solipsism at a young age was being genuinely alone.
I’m not referring to the emotional feeling of detachment from people who love, care for, and appreciate you, but rather the inexplicable feeling of discomfort that accompanies the concept of being the only person who inhabits the entire world.
These two aesthetic fears and third more abstract fear intertwined to define the characteristic atmosphere of I Am Legend.
Of course, once I grew older, I eventually matured out of my fear for the film, and, in order to negate feelings of embarrassment that I was a “scared little kid” despite my friends enjoying the film, it became my “favorite” film for a brief epoch of my nerd-journey when I was around 12 or 13. As I grew older, of course, I was introduced to cinematic classics as well as lesser-known works that I found atmospheric, powerful, and cerebral. Films such as Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Ridley Scott’s masterful adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that was released in the early 80’s, Blade Runner, and the classic character study provided by Martin Scorsese in 1970, Taxi Driver.
With modern movies, very few mainstream blockbusters proved to be, at best, an enjoyable one-time viewing for me. I mostly enjoyed less commercially successful movies such as Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman, and, I absolutely adore Under The Skin from 2013 or 2014. Semi-recently, though, I decided to reassess some films from my childhood such as I Am Legend that I was fanatic over during my adolescent years.
Many of them fell to mush, or, rather, most of them weren’t necessarily bad, but they usually fell in the zone of mediocrity. I Am Legend, though, still had an emotional impact on me after all these years. Chiefly, it was the first film in which I began to ask questions about what happened behind the scenes, how the screenplay was written, who directed the film and what was his or her aim, and appreciate aesthetic qualities such as the cinematography, the visuals, the music, etc. At an older age, though, I couldn’t wrap my brain around why the film still mesmerized me.
Undoubtedly, the film has some issues such as the vampire/zombies who, despite being somewhat threatening and scary within the context of the film, aren’t originally designed and are unbelievably computer-generated, and although the writing and Will Smith’s performance is outstanding in its portrayal of complete isolation, some steps that the character takes to preclude himself from insanity are somewhat forced. Lastly, if one views the film with the original theatrical ending, then the conclusion completely undermines the thematic depth that had been developed over the course of the film.
That last critique is the most crucial note in my reassessment of the film. Many of my fellow enthusiasts of fiction tend to disagree with me, but my honest assessment of I Am Legend is that it is a flawed masterpiece as long as one chooses to accept the alternate ending provided on the home-viewing release as opposed to the original theatrical ending. The cinematography is absolutely stunning, and the visuals and audio mixing truly lends themselves to the haunting nature of a desolate, abandoned New York.
It’s very commendable that the filmmakers were able to produce such an engaging, thoroughly entertaining film that mostly follows a single character, the very complex but subtly stated protagonist, Robert Neville. The film undeniably had an impeccable script with a director capable of capturing such grandiose themes as Francis Lawrence, although I question if Danny Boyle’s attachment would have minimized some of the film’s issues. These issues, as aforementioned, are undeniably present. The overstated flashbacks are engaging, but, ultimately, they don’t provide much but filler to the thematic depth of the film. The admittedly unsettling horde of “darkseekers” wouldn’t be as unsettling without the isolated context of the film. Objectively, their CGI is underdeveloped, and their characteristics aren’t overtly original or defined (they are a mix-matched cross between 28 Days Later-esque zombies and vampires). Although scientific accuracy isn’t necessarily important to the film’s aims, the universe that Neville inhabits would have been a bit more mysterious and unsettling without the overkill of attempts at scientific explanation. And, lastly, of course, the original, Hollywoodized ending that depicts Neville as a derivative hero, the creatures as nothing more than mindless hordes, and the arbitrary cure as the ultimate aim of the characters undermines the film’s depth.
This is where I arrive at my assertion of the film’s thematic depth if viewed with the alternate ending. Over the course of the film, I Am Legend portrays a sole survivor of a global pandemic that has transformed our species into unrecognizable abominations. We few Neville’s character as the relatable hero attempting to save our world, and we perceive these creatures as disturbing works of sci-fi horror.
We experience his emotional turmoil at the loss of his family and complete, hopeless isolation. We follow his mission to acquire a cure for the virus. We witness him lose his dog to these creatures, his only friend in the world.
During the film, Neville outright claims that these creatures have completely eradicated all traits previously characterized as human, however, Neville fairs to consider the scope of these creatures from the scope of a new race. In the final scene, in which Neville is about to be devoured by the attacking darkseekers, has an uncannily human encounter with the alpha male darkseeker whose romantic partner has been kidnapped for experimentation.
During this revelation, Neville is suddenly struck with the fact that he, a human, has become the legend thus cultivating the power of the eye-catching title. A lone wanderer accompanied by an animal who preys on the new species’ people and can walk during the day, which the darkseekers cannot do due to ultraviolet rays being immediately lethal to them. This is challenging and utterly powerful, and makes us question, rather than would it means to be human, what it means to be the human race as a collective species.
For all these reasons, I implore you to give I Am Legend, an underrated modern classic a viewing with the alternate ending.
