The Corona Man

What can the the apocalyptic Sci-Fi of the Seventies teach us during the COVID-19 crisis?

As a child of the sixties and a life-long SF fan, I grew up with all the dystopian worlds that the movies and TV put in front of me. The main threat in the SF of the sixties changed from the avatars of communism and nuclear war of the previous decade to nature itself, as the earth seemingly fought back against human overpopulation and environmental pollution. Regrettably, these warnings went unheeded.

Now with Coronavirus we find ourselves actually living through one of those scenarios, which has revealed particularly in western neo-liberal and capitalist countries that the system upon which our society is based is simply not up to the task.

As we all hunker down in our virtual bunkers and trawl through our movie collections or streaming services, is there anything these movies can still teach us?

The Omega Man (1971) opens with Charlton Heston driving through an entirely deserted and abandoned Los Angeles, the only other sign of life being a hooded figure glimpsed in a window upon which he immediately opens fire. The whole scene is designed to be unsettling, hammered home further when he crashes the car whilst trying to avoid an overturned security truck. Money blows in the wind, gold bullion is strewn across the road — with the first desiccated…