The Omega Man and The 1970s Dystopian Sci-Fi Film Trend
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- čas přidán 12. 01. 2023
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All my favourite sci-fi films from the 70's are being reviewed by Dave Cullen, the man clearly has excellent taste!
Easily my Favourite period of Cinema. An era where Directors where given free reign to do interesting things. Is it any wonder that this was the period that gave us The Godfather, Apocalypse now, Star Wars, Alien, Jaws. Personally I don't think this period has been beaten.
@@effinjamieTT Agreed.
How bout reviewing 'Boy & His Dog.' as well!
Just realised Charlton Heston was king of the dystopian movies.
Oh he’s. He was the go to man back then fir your dystopia film. And he did a great job on all of them.
Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973). Also the King of EPIC movies.... The Ten Commandments (1956), The Big Country (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), El Cid (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Khartoum (1966),
He was in a lot of them alright.
I LOVE CHARLTON HESTON!!! ❤
Honestly I really liked Omega Man, mostly because it was a character study ( performed by an incredibly talented actor) of how the last man in the world would feel and act. It was also the first movie I saw where the hero dies at the end - although its a heroic sacrifice , as he collects his blood to provide a cure.
Actually, if you've read An Actor's Life by Charlton Heston which was a journal he kept from 1955 to 1975, he said it was his decision to die at the end. He had just finished doing Beneath the Planet of the Apes, a sequel for he had no enthusiasm and did not want to risk getting roped in for another sequel should Omega prove a hit.
It's all Mayor Quimby's fault.
@@HerrEllsworth I read Heston's "In the Arena" and it was very interesting and informative for people keen on films. Unfortunately he did stray into political stuff but he argues his case well, and justifies this as being there "In the Arena", out there, exposed, sometimes winning, and sometimes losing. I must read "An Actor's Life".
We are living in what would have made a dystopian nightmare movie in the '70s
...and they did a bit of predictive programming to get us there...
I was a young teenager when these movies came out. I saw them in the cinema and they made an indelible impression on me. I believe that they had a distinct impact on my generation.
I remember watching this in the 70s when I was a kid. Those eyes always creeped me out! Love that movie! 😎👍
Hilariously Paul Ehrlich, author of the very popular book (at that time)The Population Bomb in the 70s, was recently on 60 minutes predicting all the same old doom and gloom, even after he's BEEN WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER PREDICTED.
'Pop Bomb' was published in 1968. (I had always assumed 'PB' was published before and gave rise to Harry Harrison's 'Make Room! Make Room!' [source material for 'Soylent Green'] but 'MRMR' came out in 1966.)
Any relation to Neil Ferguson, he's useless at predicting anything too!
Predicting doom is just too much fun, apparently. Malthus published his nonsense all the way back in 1798, despite clear evidence around him that industrialization was improving the situation and allowing more humans to survive.
@@thewiirocks , that's what floors me about so much of this. When Ehrlich was predicting India would starve, which apparently wasn't a super unreasonable assertion at the time, the same year he published his idiot book, Niels Borlaug introduced a species of wheat to India that gave higher yields, even in harsh climates, preventing the famine.
He also said that if he's wrong then science is wrong.
Great movie. The cinema scene is very moving. Also I think it's interesting in regards of a lot of what Dave talks about is how Charlton Heston went from pretty liberal to pretty conservative by the end of his life. An interesting journey perhaps many of us are making, what did he see that made him change? and why didn't may of us notice earlier? He clearly saw problems way back in the seventies about the direction society was going in.
We all start very liberal because of our education system has a liberal agenda. I remember thinking women are just as good drivers as men and gypsies are the same as us the host nation. Then I started to live my life and slowly gained enough experience to understand what really happening in the world.
Also there is a strong liberal agenda in my country (and probably in your country too) so as it happen many times if you try to force something certain type people will resist in the same force and that force slowly became stronger and the resisting guy slowly became the opposite what was your agenda. (Except of course if your agenda was exactly this.)
I don't think Charlton Heston changed as much as you think. Chuck was always a midwestern man at heart who thought everyone deserved to make their own way in life and not be oppressed by the will of a greater statist society. Which is why he marched with Dr. King for the civil rights of black Americans and opposed the Vietnam War's unjust draft, yet was also pro-gun NRA and low taxes.
From Ben-Hur, to The Apes films, Soylent Green, The Agony and The Ecstasy, El Cid and beyond, the power of the Individual is the paramount thesis of Heston's body of work.
As Ronald Ragan was noted for saying, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me." For him, Heston, even Elon Musk... it seems if you wait long enough, they chang enough to leave everyone behind.
@@ralphsexton8531 You just had to ruin your point by including Musk. Might as well have included Ye.
@@SomeOrangeCat - Musk was a democrat supporter and voter until he said something that made them have a cow. Heck, even Trump was a Democrat darling until he said stuff they didn't like - the same stuff he's been saying for 30 plus years. If we wait long enough, the DNC will call their current superstars right-wing. Their party has steered so far left that they broke their rudder, and can't turn away from that course, and seem to have embraced it.
The Omega Man is 1970's sci-fi at its best.
It is probably the most enjoyable of 70s Sci-Fi until the epoch change which was the original Star Wars.
@@countofarcadia Star Wars isn’t sci fi though
Heston truly got some of the most iconic sci-fi moments, topped by Liberty on the beach.
Heston wrote in his journal that after Khartoum, he felt his career needed a boost, a re-tooling for new audiences. The historical films that he was doing weren't making money anymore so when Arthur P. Jacobs approached him for Planet of the Apes, he figured it would either be a big hit or destroy his career. He took the gamble and it paid off.
@@HerrEllsworth A man of contrasts, if not contradictions. He agreed to Beneat The Planet Of The Apes on the insistence Taylor be killed off. He proudly fronted the NRA, then did that truly cringe-worthy cameo in Burton's Insult Of The Apes where he denounces mankind's violence. I miss his kind in filmdom.
I love you doing these 70s dystopian films. You have to do "A Boy and His Dog". A movie that would never get remade! George Miller said he stole the look of the film for The Road Warrior. I think A Dog and His Dog and The Road are the most realistic dystopian films. Ugly and horriffic.
BTW I was thinking about the A Boy and His Dog remake around 2005. I imagined Jamie Bell and Rosamund Pike as the two main character and Don Johnson as the leader of the Vault, I forgot the other leader (the female) but I think I imagined Will Sasso as the robot guy, he would look good on a creepy smile on his face.
I love the dog's final line at the end of the film. Sublime.
@@Hiraghm Classic.
The Omega Man is an action movie that just happens to be set in a dystopian future.
I think you need to watch it again if that’s all you think it is?
Also worth mentioning is that the score to Omega man by Ron Grainer is absolutely superb: both sad and dynamic at times, it perfectly sums up Neville. I love the way his vulnerability, lonliness-induced madness, is explored. He's a big, tough, smart guy who can handle himself, but the solitude and hopelessness of his situation is getting to him. He knows all the words to the Woodstock film he watches and rewatches obsessively and "THERE IS NO PHONE!" is a classic scene.
I was about to leave a comment about the score. It’s excellent.
Mr Smith: R Grainer's score made the film. I agree, it's superb 👏 👌 👍
During the pandemic I made so many Omega Man references to my father, who had seen it when it came out in theaters in '71.
Just as long as you didn’t wear a frilly jacket and shoot at people with a night scope rifle😳
@@braxxian
I will neither confirm, nor deny.
Charlton Heston still remains my favourite actor. Not only is he an amazing actor he wasn’t afraid to do sci-fi, something many big names refused to do because they thought it was beneath them.
I was lucky to meet him. Lovely bloke and great to talk to....
I never met him, but I saw him on stage in Scotland in the 1980s. it was a great show with a very good supporting cast; I didn't want it to end.
@@christopherquinn5899 I got to meet after he did a play. A superb gentleman and a superb actor.... He really could do stage work as good as any UK actor.....
He was great in Julius Caesar
I saw this in a movie theater for 50 cents in 1971. It was considered really freaky at the time.
I can't remember how many times I snuck out of bed to watch this on the late night film on our rabbit ears tv and 3 channel universe. Anthony Zerbe was always a reliable villian and he is really creepy here. Modern Hollywood could learn a lot from these diverting stripped down films that don't need $200+ mill budgets.
Omega Man was the most frightening movie I have ever watched. Between the corpse ridden city and the mutants there is plenty to disturb you.
Omega Man is one of my favorites. It’s wonderful to watch on Halloween night on a projector outdoors.
Or "Night of the Living Dead," which also shares a pedigree with it, George Romero having been inspired by the earlier "Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price. =^[.]^=
Love to see a review of The Andromeda Strain. Another Sci Fi classic.
The book is better. It has a superior story.
You Should look at "Demon Seed" (1977) that film was way ahead of it's time, and gave us a good look at how dangerous AI could potentially be.
Despite it's age it is still very relevant today.
I think that was based on Dean Koontz’s first book of the same title.
@@lockwoodthexton I'm pretty sure it is, but I have never read the book and it has been a long time since I last watched the movie so I can't remember if it's stated in the credits.
Neville's stocked penthouse might be a handy thing to have in the near future.
Good stuff. I still don't think we've seen a definitive version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. All three adaptations, especially the most recent one, deviate from the source material.
The whole point of the MC being a legend is because the entire world has been converted into vampire-like mutants (there are no more humans left but him). They have begun a new society (the ones who have not succumbed to bloodlust), and the MC rides around during the day and kills them as they sleep. He is the bogeyman to this new society - he is their version of Dracula, a monster who kills 'innocent' people.
That said, I do enjoy The Omega Man for what it is. I mean, Charlton Heston is the man.
With Planet of the Apes, kinda a trilogy. Heston was always the man we wanted to be in the 60s. So damn cool. If only one man was going to survive, gotta figure it would be Heston. Completely believable.
I don't know if you've done it already but Zardoz is another one which would fit into 70's dystopia. Also, seeing Sean Connery in a nappy. 😆
...and that Freddy Mercury moustache !
I think it was the first time he appeared without his hairpiece too.
Oh it’s a shockingly bad movie haha.
The Omega Man has been one of my favorite Sci Fi films since I first saw it, back in the 70's on TV. Heston is great as Neville and the rest of the cast terrific as well. And, although many call it dated, I love the soundtrack by Ron Grainer (he of Dr. Who theme). All in all, a good watch with popcorn and a soda.
Really love this theme of 70s dystopian movies. I hope you do one on Rollerball. Great movie!
Another great film!
Yes!!! Rollerball is a classic.
Zardoz
"Silent Running" is another film in this genre. Perhaps the darkest of the post-apocalyptic seventies movies. The series will be incomplete without a discussion of it.
A very interesting movie
"Rollerball", "Dark Star", "Colossus: The Forbin Project", "Phase IV", "Demon Seed", "The Lathe of Heaven".
Never heard, of them?? Don't read what they're about, just see them.
"Overdrawn At The Memory Bank" is an 80's movie. Only saw it once, think I liked it.
You might like "Electric Dreams".
"That's where I live. It's where I used to live. It's where I'm going to live, and not Matthias nor his Family... nor any other son of a bitch is going to make me leave."...I've always loved the defiance in those lines.
Dave, been following you for almost 4 years now and your content keeps getting better. May 2023 brings you all the wealth and prosperity which you so richly deserve.
There was also dystopia on television at the time with the BBC series Survivors and Blake’s 7. The first depicted a world after 99.99% of humanity had been wiped out by a virus and the survivors had to start anew. The second was a more dark version of Star Trek with a flawed group of rebels taking on a dictatorial Federation. And then there was the Doctor Who serial Genesis of the Daleks which showed how the Daleks came into being after a vicious nuclear war had ravaged their home planet of Skaro.
All the Blake’s 7s plus the seventies Dr Who’s including Genesis of the Daleks were on the late lamented Forces TV last year,I managed to record them all.
I finally sat down to watch Blake’s 7 a couple of years ago because it had influenced other sci-fi television shows that I enjoyed. I was definitely not disappointed. Especially with Paul Darrow as Kerr Avon.
Interestingly there was an idea to do a crossover between Blake’s 7 and Dr. Who that never materialized. Also Colin Baker played a highly amusing bad guy of the week on Blake’s 7 too.
Blake’s 7 is on the CZcams, at least it was a few years ago.
@@surlyunicorn9461 That's good you heard of him
Agreed. Blakes7 especially is a classic. Sure the sets wobble but the world and characters it created are still amazing.
The 70s had a lot of dark sci-fi films. A couple more mentionable films are The Stepford Wives and Demon Seed.
When the original Star Wars came out, it was like a breath of fresh air.
What about the '60s? _Star Trek_ was a thing.
Another take on the 70s zombie stories is 1973's "Messiah of Evil" about a strange man that appears out of the sea every other generation or so, during a blood red moon, and causes a plague of flesh eating zombies. It was the same year The Exorcist was released.
One of the best zombie vampire films of all time. And the Zombies are actually intelligent making it even harder to survive. Also great sound track.
At least they weren't trying to eat Dr. Neville.
I like in The Last Man version, where he discovers that he has become the becomes the nightmare monster for the mutant children.
Omega Man terrified me as a child..... The Heston trifecta of Omega, Soylant and Planet is still my fave dystopian films. Logan's Run still hold up today (always wanted a Sandman pistol).... Thanks Dave!!!!
I am a big fan of the Omega Man film. Charlton Heston's campy outfit he wears at home and that infra red scope on his rifle are comedy high-points. The fact that Heston plays it totally straight is adorable.
It's a real active emitting infrared rig.
It wasn’t a joke, that was cutting edge tech, they used those in vietnam
Lol talk about arrogance in youth.
@@robertlandin40 I didn't mean to suggest the scope never existed but viewing that today doesn't change the fact that a guy in 18th century clothes is wielding a rifle with a huge red pimple on it.
@@peterschattmann8298 !8th Century clothes? I thought he was wearing a safari suit most of the time.
I want to put in another word for Ron Grainer's score. It just hit the right note in every scene. Not surprising it was Film Score Monthly's most popular release a few years back. Grainer also did a telemovie around that time---"Thief", with Richard Crenna---which had a great Main Title.
Upon reflection the 70's where actually a decade of interesting movies upon reflection.
As a counter, do Woody Allen's "Sleeper." It's so funny as a flip side of dystopian sci-fi films. Surprisingly relevant today, it punctures seriousness with pure slapstick.
We had all these warnings in films to warn us of the great reset, and almost everyone still missed it.
I am a Gen X'r and I have increasingly gone back to watch more movies/TV shows from the 60's and 70's to see their thinking at the time. The original Star Trek, The Twilight Zone have been favorites. I really enjoy your reviews of these dystopian movies from the 70's.
Have you checked out The Outer Limits similar to the twilight zone but more emphasis on Aliens/monsters.
Watch also, "Zardoz", "Rollerball", "Dark Star", "Colossus: The Forbin Project", Phase IV", "Demon Seed", "The Lathe of Heaven".
never heard of them?? Don't read what they're about, just see them.
"Overdrawn At The Memory Bank" is an 80's movie. Only saw it once, think I liked it.
You might like "Electric Dreams".
I mostly recall Omega Man for me and my sibling watching the movie at home alone and it showed a wall calendar for March 1975. I started laughing when I noticed the date was that of when we were watching the movie. We joked that maybe we should stay home tonight.
That BAR on the miniature with the early IR scope is baller as Fuck tough .
I saw this at the movies when it come out. I was 12 and I loved it!
Saw this film at the movies when I was a kid, scared the hell out of me!
I didn't know the book was adapted with several different titles. Fascinating
One of the first of the 70s dystopian films was 'Colossus: The Forbin Project', perhaps worth revisiting now that electronic surveillance is such a 24/7 phenomenon.
You have to remember back in the 70s American cities had a major crime problem also a problem with their economy so it makes sense that the movies would be a reflection of their time
Indeed. And urban decay made some cities look like a post-apocalyptic world.
Charlton Heston was a big science fiction fan, and would most likely have made more of them given the chance.
Really well thought out. I would suggest looking at the film ‘The Ultimate Warrior’ starring Yul Brenner if you want to continue the theme, along with ‘ZPG’. A concurrent trend with ‘mankind sucks and we gonna all die’ was the ‘journey to salvation’ film.
Thank goodness for 1977 and ‘Star Wars’ for making SF fun again, eh? 😁
brother, i'm 63. my buddies and i loved all these movies when we were kids. they were exciting and insightful! we read all the novels as well. great review Dave!
I always took these kinds of films to be thoughtful warnings about what could happen. I grew up in this era and sensed the fear around me, but it somehow didn’t touch me the way it did others. I always thought these kind of movies were “cool,” but not real.
It came with the Vietnam War when people suddenly began to realise just how much their Governments were lying to them.
There is a dystopian novel that is playing out in rea life in America right now: The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail.
Yay, Omega Man! Thanks for the review Dave. How about one more. “The Andromeda Strain”.
The string of sci fi dystopian movies in the 70's was not alone, we also had a corresponding string of disaster movies, and these both show that nothing much has changed in hollywood wit the current string of superhero movies.
New Zealand movie "The Quiet Earth" (1985) is an interesting take on 'the last man on earth' story.
I have a soft spot for actor Bruno Lawrence.
Another movie from the same stable is "As Time Goes By"(1988). Not dystopian, but enjoyably bizarre 🤩
@thedavecullenshow6654 eh, I don't think so.
Explosion of sci-fi books on this theme also in the 70's
Star Wars and Star Trek came out as well at that time period. They were quite positive. The other films you mentioned I saw on late night tv. They were alright. I thought nothing of it. Logan's Run and THX were the only ones that stood out for me.
I still think that Star Wars became such a big success partly due to that dystopia trend. It felt like a breath of fresh air - something optimistic and really fun compared to what else there was at that time. I was a teenager in the 70s and I really wanted to have something that was just fun for a change when it came to entertainment, and I would guess I was not the only one. There was a demand for that, and not much competition around.
Yeah definitely, Star Wars (A New Hope as it was later called) wasn’t cerebral or thought provoking, it was just a swashbuckling ripping adventure yard using the old trope of the young farm boy who becomes a knight, takes advice from the wizard and defeats the evil king. Just good old fashioned adventure.
I have seen all three film adaptions of I Am Legend, The Omega Man is my favourite. Trivia: The Music composed for the film was done by Ron Grainer, you might be familiar with him, he wrote the theme tune to Doctor Who!
Don't forget around the same time, " The Ultimate Warrior" starring Yul Brynner.
It's probably not exactly up your alley, but I really liked the early 70s TV movie "Frankenstein, The True Story." It's lo-o-o-o-ng, but a great telling of the story. These videos are great, please keep them coming!
You have excellent taste in cinematography! Thank you for reminding me about these cult classics, I have an irresistible urge to re-watch all of them now.
Well what can I say lol, only Rollerball left for you.
I love Omega Man and Soylent Green, Rollerball and Logans Run. What a great challenging SF films.
Thanks for reviewing Omega Man. Hopefully people who never heard about it, will check it out.
Please keep doing reviews on movies from the past. These classics are so much more interesting than anything we have been getting from movies these last few years.
Genuinely can't wait for Rollerball
Yes, second this ..........!
Omega sure do be looking like an alpha
Disaster movies were also popular in the 70s.
In 1974 I saw EARTHQUAKE in theater and there were extra speakers the size of phone booths that would play a bass sound so you would feel the vibration during the earthquake scenes. The system is called SENSURROUND.
This film, Soylent Green and Logan's Run I have in a triple feature Blu-ray set that I had previously pointed out, so thanks Dave for reviewing them in order! I think "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price is a better version though, if admittedly flawed.
I saw The Omega Man in the theater first run. It was very enjoyable. This review is a very accurate summary.
One of my all-time faves!! The best part is after he scatters some albinos.. he casually goes back to his chess game he is having with a bust of Caesar.
“Did you move?”
Colossus: The Forbin Project is an old school si-fi film from 1970 meant to scare you with the potential for nuclear war and mankind’s attempts to prevent it.
You forgot Zardoz, Dark Star and Slaughterhouse Five.
Thank you for the thumbnail of Chuck with the 1918 B.A.R. with an Infrared sight.
4:52 - you also had the Love Canal disaster and Three Mile Island accident in 1979.
I really like "The Omega Man." The death of the protagonist, Neville (Charlton Heston), leaves a powerful impression.
In this case, I wish you had said more/had more to say, but it is a highly underrated film and thanks to great movie lovers like you, is starting to get rediscovered again. Hope Warner issues it in 4K.
Don't forget "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1966). Computers taking over. What could go wrong?
Great run of reviews, top channel.
and here all this time i thought all these dystopian movies were a cautionary warning, not their mission statement.
My dad took me to see this flick in our small town theater when I was a boy, I loved it. Thanks for the review 👍
I will check this out. Thanks for the recommendation.
You forgot to mention "A Boy &His Dog" but very good collection of films you mentioned!
I remember watching that at the drive in theater with my uncle back in 70/71. I was 9 or 10.
A large factor with the themes of these movies was that there was a Cold War going on. There was a real threat of Nuclear War at any moment. If you're not old enough to remember the Berlin Wall coming down then you're not going to fully understand the impact this had on daily life. We had "Nuclear War" drills in school when I was a kid in the early 70s. They didn't call them "Nuclear War" drills, but we knew what it was about.
My school was adjacent to an SAC Air Force base at the time, even as a kid I was wondering why bother doing drills? We’re all going to be vaporized, which is probably the best way to go anyway… what we should be doing in our final 10 minutes is open the cafeteria storeroom and ladeling out that tasty tasty canned chocolate pudding
I was gonna post a similar comment, I still remember a vivid nightmare I had about my city getting nuked and the aftermath
@@CmoreChap Interesting, my most vivid dream as a kid was Jimmy Carter signing some sort of agreement on TV announcing WW3 and he was shaking hands and smiling (he did a lot of that) with various folks that agreed this was a good idea. I was wondering why he was so flippant about it. Thank goodness there’s no chance of such a thing happening, dreams are silly
I was in 1st grade and I had no conception of what was going on I thought the Japanese were going to bomb us I didn't even know what nukes were then when I was all the way to twelve that's when I first heard about them and I was sick and worried that day that was 1975 and i was in a school library then the next day I was fine .
While not sci-fi or quite dystopian, Three Days of the Condor was another good movie that speaks volumes today.
"I was a one man force. Like Charlton Heston in Omega Man. You see it? It's a beauty." Bob McKenzie from Strange Brew
I think you’ve found a great new niche, reviews of old classics that are still worth watching.
The Omega Man was somewhat closer in tone to the Disaster films of the 1970s
One of my growing up movies.
I had always read that the theme was that in the end Neville realized that he was the enemy to the mutants, and he was now legend.
Regarding your central theme, Does the fact that Planet of the Apes was a 60’s movie matter?
What about the 50’s movies like The Day the Earth caught fire, Or the day the Earth Stood Stlll?
Dystopian sci fi was well established by the 70’s.
My vote is "predictive programming" to make possible the emergence of mass formation psychosis, like we've seen over the last 3 years.
I didn't know I Am Legend was an adaptation of The Omega Man. I learned something new today.
Love this series Dave!
Sleeping Dogs - One of Sam Neils first films shot in New Zealand in 1977 portrays an authoritarian NZ regime that would make Jacinda giggle happily.
Loving this series, Dave!
OMG ONE OF MY FAVOURITES!!
Like in Planet of the Apes dude says their Law Giver told them not to go to the forbidden place? The Law Giver is Moses. And the forbidden zone is allegory for the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That leader Ape said he knew he was coming and dreaded his return? That’s talking about the second coming of Christ.
We thought the sandwiches in our vending machine at work were used for props during this production...and we affectionately referred to the machine as "Mr Soylent"...
One of my all-time FAVORITE movies! I have to add that the Cold War was still raging at the time of this and the other movies you have examined. I recall all too well how many of us were certain that nukes would go flying anytime. I would also mention that you could consider the movies of the 50s which were all the more grim, in their own ways, depicting the "End of the world". Be it by war or aliens or monsters created by "science," the theme of such horrible fates was very popular.
A good dystopian 70s movie is Rollerball given its strong individualist message
One of my favorite 1970s dystopian sci-fi films is "A boy and his dog". It was written by the dependable, brilliant and notoriously cantankerous Harlan Ellison. Ellison was arguably responsible for writing some of the most influential sci-fi television. Along with one of the best Star Trek episodes⁸"City on the edge of tomorrow", there was Outer Limits episode "Demon with the Glass Hand" and Twilight Zones 'Soldier" (which Harlan successfully sued James Cameron over Terminator). AB&HD was cited by director George Miller as large atheistic influential for his Mad Max films.
One of my favorite character actors L.Q. Jones, who was spectacular as J.J.McQuade's partner in the awesome Lone Wold McQuade, wrote the screenplay and directed AB&HD.
This film is a low budget but I think it has an interesting message along with some pretty dark humor.