Upon Seeing "I Am Legend"

I remember years ago, my sister and I going to the theater and seeing "Omega Man". "I Am Legend" is reminiscent of "Omega Man" with human induced world wide catastrophe (judgement), of the survivors, the remnant of humanity bearing the scourge of that disaster, and the few of humanity who were immune to the disaster, and who were seeking to bring redemption to humanity by finding a cure. Of these two apocolyptic films, in my mind "I Am Legend" is the better.

“I Am Legend” is perhaps one of Will Smith’s finest performances. Towards the end of that film a woman and boy find him in decimated New York City just in time to save him from the “bad creatures”. In ensuing conversation the woman asserts “god” told her to go to NY and so on. Will Smith as the Dr. trying to find the cure for the man made disaster around him responds vehemently, “There is no “god”!”, but then latter near the very end of the film tells the woman there is a reason she is there and there is a mission she was sent to perform. I’d go on, but don’t want to spoil it for those who have not seen it.

I've noticed over the years is how some films have this sense of some kind of guiding hand that transcends the material existence of the people in the story. It is often a vague pantheism of sorts. In our hearts we know there is something bigger then ourselves. As a fallen humanity we try to sooth that angst with meaning, but resist going to the One in whose image we were made, even as that image, as broken as it is, testifies to the reality that image was intended to point to.

As an aside, at the end of "I Am Legend" I realized I had watched a film markedly devoid of crude language and cursing. The restricted rating was do to intense action scenes with some pretty scary creatures. The absence of F words and D words and S words was refreshing.

~ The Billy Goat ~