Every Little Thing Gonna be Alright

I enjoyed the end of the movie much more than the end of the book. The producers of the film definitely altered Matheson’s novel to fit the Hollywood movie mold in that I am Legend the film was a typical action/horror flick complete with a hero and a happy ending. Will Smith’s Robert Neville was much more of a hero in the end than the main character of the book. While both deaths were suicides, in the film Neville died to protect the cure that he had created. In doing so, he therefore ensured the hope of a future for mankind. In the novel, Neville simply took the pills Ruth had given him and gave up because there was no future for mankind. Granted, the circumstances surrounding the deaths were different, given that the Neville of the film died knowing he was protecting the human race, whereas the Neville of the novel died after the realization that there was no one left to protect. At the end of each story, the main characters are both deemed legends. The Neville of the film was declared a legend by the surviving humans he sacrificed himself for. However, in the novel, Neville declared himself a legend based on the notion that the vampire race now fears the idea of him similar to the way the human race used to fear the legend of the vampire. The end of the movie was also much more pleasant in that it provided viewers with the hope that there would be a future for mankind, whereas the end of the novel insinuated that mankind was no more. The recurrences of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” in the film were appropriate and also served to foreshadow that everything was going to be alright for mankind.