December 25th, 2007
by
Ariel Wetzel
I saw Will Smith’s new post-apocalypse film, I Am Legend, today with my parents and brother. All of us enjoyed it. I grew up on Independence Day and Big Willie Style and Fresh Prince reruns, so I’m particularly fond of Will Smith. I’ll post my further comments, including some spoilers, behind the cut.
I’m unfamiliar with the source material, the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, and it’s been years since I’ve seen The Omega Man. In this film, Will Smith plays Dr. Robert Neville, a military virologist, and he is apparently the only survivor in New York City of a cancer cure that mutates into zombie-like creatures those it doesn’t immediately kill.
I Am Legend wasn’t especially a cautionary tale, or at least I wasn’t left with any take-home messages about changing the way the world is headed. Nor were the infected people particularly scary or original. But I’m okay with that. I Am Legend was largely about how a man deals with the apocalypse and the loss of his family. The scene in which Dr. Neville holds his dying dog Sam, crying, almost got me crying, too.
Almost all of the characters in this film are people of color, which is especially nice to see in a science fiction film. As far as I noticed, the film didn’t rely on racial stereotypes, either, without pretending to be “colorblind” (I’m recalling Neville’s discussion of Bob Marley that talked about the musician’s response to racism). As far as gender goes, the two main women in this film didn’t get to do as many cool things as Smith’s character. They largely served as maternal figures, but it didn’t seem especially out of place in the film because Neville as much love for his daughter and dog. I did like that fellow survivor Anna never became a romantic partner for Neville, too. She had her own reasons for being in the film.
I’d love to hear what other folks think about this movie. I looked around for other blog responses to I Am Legend and probably am just overlooking them, so feel free to post some links.
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Filed under TV & Film, people of colour | Comments (13)
[...] material goods I could ever want! I saw I am Legend with my parents and brother, and go figure, I wrote a blog post about it like I always do when I step out into pop [...]
I read a not particularly positive (and spoiler-heavy) review at Wired: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/12/reviewi-am-lege.html
I’m afraid that I would have felt let down if I had gone to see it without realizing there had been major changes to the story, because I did read the source material once upon a time and back then I was fond of the ending.
On the other hand, now that I know that it’s a different tale I might be able to enjoy it on its own.
I’m a big fan of post-apoc type films but was very hesitant to see this…but I after reading this I may have to reconsider. It was between this and National Treasure :/
I was a disappointed by I Am Legend, actually… It had a lot of good ideas, but the monsters came across as silly (why was it always that same zombie?) and the proselytizing got a little too heavy by the end of the film.
But, seriously, why did he rig the courtyard with explosives instead of just spending more time tying those lights down better? And why didn’t he throw the grenade into the zombies and crawl down the tube after Anna?
There were a lot of good parts, though, especially in the first half of the film. Nice use of clever traps. And the dog was excellently portrayed.
Grr… I think maybe I’m still sore from how terribly “I, Robot” screwed up its source material. That’s not really Smith’s fault, though. But still.
I Am Legend Fan Site
You want a blog review of I Am Legend, well there’s one on my site! I enjoyed the movie as mindless blockbusters go, and that’s despite significantly departing from the book (which everyone must read, the ending is one of the most elegant ever seen in sci-fi) and saying what I feel is a lot of dodgy stuff about gender. I understand there’s also an article in Popular Mechanics disputing some of the science integral to the plot. I’m all for plausibility in my movies, but some people have simply got too much time on their hands.
[...] Feminist SF – The Blog! » Blog Archive » I Am Legend: Post-Apocalypse Done Right [...]
[...] level of Will Smith. It is also, according to Feminist SF: The Blog, an excellent example of post-apocalypse done right, including its take on gender: As far as gender goes, the two main women in this film didn’t get [...]
I just got back from seeing “I Am Legend”. I’ve read a little of the original: I opened it in the bookstore at the scene where Neville chases a ‘girl’ down in a cornfield [?] and proceeds to slap the hysteria out of her. She had blonde hair and big scared dark eyes, from memory. I put it back on the shelf.
The movie was pretty good but SCARED THE SNOT OUT OF ME. On account of how I am a total sook and it was *really loud*. The vampires weren’t so scary though – Anyone else think “Voldemort!!!!”?
But, there were some very cool things:
1) Very good portrayal of the effects of loneliness and fear of insanity such a lifestyle would bring
2) Sam. ‘Nuff said.
I thought an under-used development was how at least one of the vamps/zombies, the big male who kept turning up, seemed to have quite a bit of intelligence. He was the one that set the trap, right? I thought he kept turning up because he was trying to rescue his lady friend, the one that Neville took to test the vaccine. The movie was a little too short – I wanted to know if the vampire woman recovered or not! And imagine the perspective of the vampires: there’s this mystery man lurking in their territory, taking members of their hive captive, and they are never seen again….
And regarding David Simon’s question: “And why didn’t he throw the grenade into the zombies and crawl down the tube after Anna?” I thought it was because the tunnel door wouldn’t lock from the inside, and if they all went down the tube together, the vampires would eventually break through the glass, get into the tube, catch them, and eat them. Neville said that the vampires wouldn’t leave, or stop, so I thought that was the reason.
I think I’m a horrible cynic. Maybe Neville didn’t “get the girl” because it’s a more intelligent version of a genre film that didn’t need gratuitous sex, and I agree it was *great* that Ana was in the film for her own reasons, but… The only horror/SF genre films I’ve seen with a black male lead are 1) Virtuosity [Denzel Washington], 2) I, Robot [Will Smith], 3) This movie. I guess I could count the Matrix films, with Lawrence Fishburne as a main supporting character [though I confess I've not seen #3], Event Horizon [Lawrence again], and Indepdence Day [Will Smith again, sharing the lead with Jeff Goldblum]. And why, in none of them except Independence Day, does the black guy “get the girl”? – and in Independence Day, she is a black “girl”.
The scene in “I, Robot” where Dr. Calvin is checking out his “repairs” would have degenerated into a sex scene in almost *any* other film. Ditto for the necessary bonding sex that pops up in a lot of movies, and I thought would have been a natural response on his AND Anna’s part in “I Am Legend” [I mean, we all saw Neville checking out vampire-woman's chest, right?]. OK… that was horribly heteronormative of me, and I apologise. Anna had her own reasons to be there. On reflection, I’ll leave that bit in though, because Hollywood is generally very heteronormative and a sexual relationship between the male and female leads is a very commonly recurring theme.
Am I being horrible and heteronormative/racist [please correct me if I am], or is this a trend in movies? I’ve seen a number of films with white man/woman of colour, but hardly any with man of colour/white woman relationships, unless they’ve been ‘message’ movies or historical movies.
Thoughts? [And sorry for the rant. I’ve been wondering at the last part since “I, Robot”. I mean, Will Smith!! Who wouldn’t???)
I saw the movie and I liked it a lot. I didn’t know the ending of the book, though it seems sort of clever. I did like the ending of the movie because well, I like happy endings sometimes, or at least semi-happy. Will Smith was great, and I liked that he seemed genuinely intelligent.
I liked that Anna didn’t end up sleeping with him. That would’ve been stupid, and Neville, as the smartest one there (not because he was a man, but because he was the scientist) would know if Anna wanted to go to the colony she’d have a harder time if she accidentally got pregnant. Besides, there wasn’t time, they had what? A day. I didn’t think there was too much God, but hey I’m religious, so as long as it doesn’t seem too Christian-oriented (I’m Jewish) or fake (Hollywood Buddhists) I’m fine with it. I was under the impression that he committed suicide because he had come to believe that someone within the vampires ranks was specifically after him. Likewise, the thing with the “head vampire” was interesting, but I liked it better as a man vs. beast sort of conflict. The vampire was intelligent, but only to a point, so you could compare it to the classic “evil” predator like a tiger or a dragon. So, instead of a being a normal human to human interaction it was one between two different species, as the vampires or whatever they were weren’t really human.
# MissKriss Says:
January 7th, 2008 at 7:49 am
“The scene in “I, Robot” where Dr. Calvin is checking out his “repairs” would have degenerated into a sex scene in almost *any* other film. Ditto for the necessary bonding sex that pops up in a lot of movies, and I thought would have been a natural response on his AND Anna’s part in “I Am Legend” [I mean, we all saw Neville checking out vampire-woman’s chest, right?]. OK… that was horribly heteronormative of me, and I apologise. Anna had her own reasons to be there. On reflection, I’ll leave that bit in though, because Hollywood is generally very heteronormative and a sexual relationship between the male and female leads is a very commonly recurring theme.”
Given that Neville and Anna had been acquainted for all of eight or nine hours at the point, and the presence of the boy, and coming on the heels of the death of his only companion for the last three years, I think more than being heteronormative, a relationship would have come across as extremely forced and tacked on. If the story had given them at least a few days of bonding and mutual support, then it might have made dramatic sense.
“I think I’m a horrible cynic. Maybe Neville didn’t “get the girl” because it’s a more intelligent version of a genre film that didn’t need gratuitous sex, and I agree it was *great* that Ana was in the film for her own reasons, but… The only horror/SF genre films I’ve seen with a black male lead are 1) Virtuosity [Denzel Washington], 2) I, Robot [Will Smith], 3) This movie. I guess I could count the Matrix films, with Lawrence Fishburne as a main supporting character [though I confess I’ve not seen #3], Event Horizon [Lawrence again], and Indepdence Day [Will Smith again, sharing the lead with Jeff Goldblum]. And why, in none of them except Independence Day, does the black guy “get the girl”? – and in Independence Day, she is a black “girl”.
“Am I being horrible and heteronormative/racist [please correct me if I am], or is this a trend in movies? I’ve seen a number of films with white man/woman of colour, but hardly any with man of colour/white woman relationships, unless they’ve been ‘message’ movies or historical movies.”
I can think of a handful, but not from any particularly noteworthy films. Moreover, they’re all action films, not SF or horror at all. You’re correct that it’s rare.
There was the Wesley Snipes vehicle “Drop Zone”, where he hooks up with Yancy Butler’s character at the end. But the relationship never becomes physical onscreen–only implied at the end.
There was the Mario Van Peebles film “Full Eclipse”, where his character engages in very carnal acts with the antagonist’s blonde and blue-eyed girlfriend. Given that the plot of the film turns all the main characters into werewolves, however, it might just be a crude “jungle fever/animal magnetism” trope coming to fore. It’s been a long time since I saw it, so I’m not comfortable assigning motive to the filmmakers based on my shaky memories.
In “The One”, Jet Li’s hero character (as opposed to the evil duplicate he also portrays) has a white wife. But again, their relationship is never physical nor particularly intimate onscreen. She’s more of a trophy, or object on a pedestal to be cherished and guarded. In another Jet Li film, “Kiss of the Dragon”, he renders assistance to Bridget Fonda’s prostitute character and her daughter, but no romance blossoms. Jet Li’s almost an East Asian version of a “Magical Negro”, exercising his skills on behalf of white women in distress, but not permitted to have relationships with them.
Hollywood has far less issue with a man of colour paired off with a woman of another non-white race. Hence Wesley Snipes in “The Art of War” ends up with a Chinese woman, Jet Li and Aaliyah pair up in “Romeo Must Die”, Chris Tucker and Rosalind Sanchez hit it off in “Rush Hour 2″. Most of these don’t get very physical on the screen, but are typical male lead/female lead pairups of the action genre. Not the implied chaste relationships that seem to happen when the female lead is white.
I definitely agree that a romance for Neville and Anna would be forced and tacked on. However that hasn’t stopped similarly unlikely relationships from happening in other action/SF films I’ve seen :). I’ve probably watched way too many bad movies, so that “emergency sex” or whatever is just expected, and it’s a surprise when it doesn’t happen.
I guess it’s more likely that IAL is just a more intelligent/serious film that doesn’t have gratuitous sex – and I’m definitely not complaining :). I remember also being very surprised at the end of The Prophecy, as was the friend I saw the movie with: “hey, the cop/ex-priest guy and that teacher lady, they didn’t have sex. Wow…”. This was “fixed” in the sequel, I think (hottie angel boy making nephilim babies with a mortal woman ?or something?). I wasn’t sure how to phrase my question before: was I noticing the absence of a relationship *more* because the male lead wasn’t white, rather than because it just wasn’t that type of film?
I haven’t seen Full Eclipse though :) Maybe when I need to turn my brain off for an afternoon :)
And speaking of Asian “Magical Negros”, I’ve just finished “Territory” by Emma Bull: Chow Lung was *so* cool, a martial arts master, doctor, teacher, magician and busy doing his own thing… right up until the plot demands a tragic moment to motivate the hero. Who was not Chow Lung.
In I Am Legend there are mutiple ways
you can look at it. You see the main character as being a male. He is
more of the mocho type because he has to go hunting and has guns and all.
He also has his german shepard beside him helping him out. You do not see
women in the movie till later. And the fact that she does not save will
smith with fire power but with light shows something. Maybe that they do
not see women as good with guns. Then on top of it the girl has a child
with her. You do not see will smith taking care of a child throughout the
movie but the lady does. Then as soon as they get attacked by the creatures
the lady does not help protect but hides. She has survived this long without
the help of will smith so she knows how to protect herself but they made
her run and hide and let the main character protect her and her child.