Anyone who saw this growing up has a soft spot in their hearts for it; I've encountered enough people over the course of my 37 yrs who perk up at the mention of it to be aware of its place in a lot of our memories. This has been satirized on the Simpsons, which proves it has embedded itself in the national pop culture consciousness. Anyone who has read the book its based on, the incredible "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson, knows that this film has very little in common with it beyond its initial premise--and even that is not followed too closely. All of the criticisms of THE OMEGA MAN are valid: It is very dated and not at all scary or intense and some of the stunts and special effects are laughably, ludicrously cheesy; the villains--who should have been more terrifying than even Romero's zombies--are just crazed albino hippie Luddites and the last half of the film, once Chuck hooks up with Rosalind Cash and the kiddies, is really a let down. But the scenes that open the film of Heston hefting a cool-looking machine gun while decked out in Austin Powers-style finery (!) staring in angst at an old calendar or losing his mind for a moment hallucinating the sound of telephones ringing in the deserted city still pack a punch. This was the second movie, after 1959's THE WORLD,THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL, to successfully pull off the eerie effect of being the last living human being in a huge empty city. Both films established the visual motif of streets filled with blowing waves of newspapers and swirling trash.After years of seeing this on TV -- a guaranteed late September or early October event every year for a few years on the local TV station during my Pacific Northwest childhood in the old Dark Age before CABLE TV and the videocassette revolution, its nice to see this movie on DVD with a beautiful widescreen transfer. It looks and sounds great. As a child I always liked the music, particularly the "surprise party" theme that plays when the villains make their first appearance. It rocks here in all its xylophone and funky electric organ and horns glory!