I'm a legend

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am Legend , even I, the last man (original I Am Legend ), is a 1954 published science fiction -novel the American writer Richard Matheson . It is the author's first work.

action

The plot spanned three years (1976 to 1979) in a then future Los Angeles . As a result of a mosquito-borne plague, everyone in the world appears to have died and resurrected as vampires . Only Robert Neville survived and is immune to the plague. He attributes this to an incident during his military service in which he was bitten by an infected bat.

Robert has expanded his house into a fortress that is always besieged by vampires at night. During the day he leaves his safe house armed to find candles, gasoline and food and kills the sleeping vampires. During the night vampires appear in front of his house, against which Neville can only defend himself with wooden stakes and self-planted garlic, since the vampires cannot be killed by bullets. In addition, he has to endure the psychological torture of the vampire leader, his former neighbor, who constantly urges him to leave his house. In order not to go crazy, he drinks a lot, and in general his house and he are quite neglected.

To keep himself occupied, he conducts tests on killed vampires to find out more about the disease and a possible cure. In doing so, he must first teach himself everything that is necessary. Robert discovers that it is triggered by a bacterium in the bloodstream, which lives symbiotically with the vampires if there is enough blood supply, but acts parasitically through contact with oxygen and leads to the death of the creatures. He realizes that it is not the stake through the heart that kills beings, but the air that enters the bloodstream. In his research he found a new task and regained courage. When he discovers that a dog in the neighborhood has survived, he tries to gain its trust. However, this is only partially successful. When Robert notices that the dog is injured, he catches it and tries to treat it. However, the dog dies soon afterwards. As a result, Robert falls into a deep crisis of meaning.

But not all people have fallen victim to the disease . One day he meets a young woman who can also walk in the sunlight and takes her into his house. After initial distrust, he developed an affection for her, which she apparently returned. He tells her everything he found out about the disease. However, when he discovers that she is also infected, she knocks him down. In a letter, she reveals to him that some of them have managed to develop a pill that will keep them alive despite the infection. They call themselves "living vampires" (as opposed to the "dead vampires"). They are not immune to the plague like Neville, but still live and can even exist in sunlight. She was sent to him as a spy, for this task she volunteered because he killed her husband, who was a vampire in front of Robert's house. The woman advises him to leave his house and flee into the mountains, as the members of her kind will soon come to fetch him. Their conspecifics see Neville as a monster, because he slit the wrists of vampires to save pegs after he found out that this is more effective. They see this method as unnecessary cruelty on the part of an intruder. He decides not to flee. From the window Robert sees how the "living vampires" slaughter their dead fellows. In a panic, he then opens fire on the invading vampires, but is then seriously injured by them. The “living vampires” exterminate the “dead vampires” for good, and a new society emerges.

When Neville wakes up in a house, a cell, seriously injured, the woman hands him a pill that he should swallow before he is publicly executed. She is a person at the top of the hierarchy of the new society and was therefore able to smuggle the pill into the cell. She explains to him that for the vampires he is an abnormal monster that they are afraid of because they do not understand it.

Because they learned to live with the disease and it is a myth that killed those who loved them. For them it is what the vampires used to be for humanity: an evil that must be destroyed. As a final act, he swallows the pills given to him, puts on a smile and dies. The novel ends with the title line: I am a legend.

effect

The novel, which combines science fiction and horror elements of the vampire novel , was a great success. Matheson frees vampirism from its original, mythical meaning and turns it into a "disease".

The American horror writer Stephen King was inspired by "Ich bin Legende" for his second novel " Burning Must Salem ".

The American director George A. Romero called the book an essential inspiration for his film The Night of the Living Dead .

Film adaptations

The novel was first filmed in 1964 as The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price in the lead role. However, the main character's name was changed from Neville to Morgan .

In 1971 the novel served as a template for the film The Omega Man with Charlton Heston in the lead role.

A new film adaptation of the novel had been in the room for years, but the project was repeatedly postponed. Initially Ridley Scott would direct and Arnold Schwarzenegger would play the lead role, at times Michael Bay was also scheduled as a director, but these projects did not get beyond the planning stage. Finally, in September 2006, filming began on a remake called I Am Legend , in which Will Smith played the lead role of "Robert Neville" and directed Francis Lawrence . The remake was released in the USA on December 14, 2007, and the film was shown in German cinemas on January 10, 2008.

As part of the remake, the US production company The Asylum , which specializes in B-films, produced the novel-based film I Am Omega with Mark Dacascos in the lead role.

Deviating from the original, the protagonist is portrayed as a trained scientist in all of the films, researched in the first three adaptations and he finds a therapy that he also passes on.

literature

Editions in original language:

Issues in German translation:

  • Richard Matheson: I, the last person. Translated by Werner Gronwald. Heyne: Munich 1968 (Heyne Tb 3020). - In this version the story takes place from 1986–1989.
  • Richard Matheson: I am a legend. Translated by Lore Straßl. Heyne: Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-30803-4 .
  • Richard Matheson: I am a legend. From the American by Ralf Schmitz. Heyne: Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-453-50155-3 .

Reviews

Web links