Some books you find. Some books find you…
I Am Legend is one of a handful of books that made me want to be a writer. It was dated and a bit hokey when it found me, but I fell in love with it just the same. My attraction wasn’t based on the high concept aspects of the book. It was based on Robert Neville’s struggle with isolation and his defiance in the face of an overwhelming and hostile world. The book has popped up in my short fiction, and now that the new movie’s out, I doubt the references will be seen as too obscure.
I’ve suffered through two attempts to turn the book into a movie (The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man). Neither succeeded in bringing the Robert Neville I knew to the screen. Schwarzenegger was set to do his best impersonation of Charlton Heston in the late nineties, but that attempt was pulled (thankfully) for financial reasons. That brings us to Will Smith. When I heard Smith was visiting super-max prisons to see how the inmates handled constant solitary confinement, I knew the movie was on the right track.
I had the opportunity to see I Am Legend on an IMAX screen. It’s a smaller movie than you might expect, but the overwhelming format works with Robert Neville’s isolation, pulling you into his world. Smith’s performance is mesmerizing. And while the third act of the film deviates from the book a great deal, it brings with it a satisfying enough conclusion. Read the book. See the movie. You won’t be disappointed.
