If only John Wayne would have played Robert Neville back in the day. I got through watching Omega Man just recently and I was watching John Wayne all day on TV. Then I pictured John Wayne as Neville. I think it would have been great. They would have had to make a few changes though. They would've had to make it less silly and campy for one. They would have also had to change the ending. I thought the ending was so damn stupid.
shareJohn Wayne didn't have the action credentials. He wasn't a physical guy and couldn't pull off the physical stunts that Heston had to do.
The ending was a commentary on the possibility of hope for humanity, with corporations and governments gone, people had to start over, hopefully for the better.
John Wayne did plenty of action and I remember him doing his own stunts in the Sons of Katie Elder. Heston didn't do his own stunts anyway. It was so obvious that wasn't him on the motorcycle. Even some fights scenes you saw the obvious stunt man. John Wayne had such a strong screen presents. Just the way he walked. Can you imagine John Wayne walking the deserted streets of LA in the beginning. I think it would've been cool.
I understand what the ending was trying to say, but I always thought it was stupid how Matthias was able to hit Neville dead on from a mile away with a spear. I thought it was stupid having Neville get killed like that by Matthias. Matthias killed how many people. Even killed Richie and never paid for it in the end. I understand how Neville sacrificed himself in the end, but the way it was done in the end was stupid. I don't mind Neville going out in a blaze of glory, but not like that.
This was three years after Omega Man
Check out John Wayne here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX0GsD2K8tc
Heston didn't do his own stunts anyway.
I'm a big fan of John Wayne, but not sure if he'd have been right for this role. He had a great presence and could definitely do action, but keep in mind that by 1971 he was a pretty old guy.
Also, frankly John Wayne often comes across as if nothing could get to him or cause him to despair. Granted that doesn't do his nuanced, complex roles (like as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers) justice, but that's how people saw him. Heston can pass as an athletic scientist, John Wayne not quite as much imo.
I think he's underrated as an actor, but I liked Heston in the role. And I'd agree that its kind of frustrating the way he died, I don't mind that he died but with the weak guy throwing a spear from that different with Neville just standing there after he just escaped a room full of baddies?
Yeah, the ending was so stupid.
shareMarion would have ruined the film. His pseudo-tough guy delivery would have over-powered the solid acting of Anthony Zerbe, simply by virtue of Morrison's hammy style. While I'm not Heston's greatest fan, and he certainly did his best to come on too cocky and too strong in this film, I appreciated his craft much more than anything Marion could have thrown down, save the next to last scene at the fountain - I might have enjoyed seeing that spear thrown (down).
shareCould you imagine Marion with Rosalind Cash? I couldn't...
shareYou know it would have been really interesting seeing Duke in the Neville role. Watching him talking to himself, the kissing scene with Lisa but he would not die at the end. The only reason Heston dies at the end is because he doesn't want to do a sequel. I just could not see Wayne as a sceincist, maybe he is the chopper pilot who survives and Dutch finds the cure.
shareWhere did you find the information about Chuck not wanting to do a sequel?
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I read his autobiography. He didn't like doing "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", it left a bad taste in his mouth and only agreed to do that if he'd die in it, plus a ton of money. He also believed that sequels were inferior.
shareYes, I've read it too. To my knowledge he just said that about the second POTA movie, not The Omega Man. Chuck died in lots of movies, which he points out in his book, I doubt not wanting to do a sequel was the reason for his many deaths. In some movies (such as this one, IMO) it's just good filmmaking.
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