Dawn of the Dead (1978)
I was writing this for the user comments of imdb, but it went overlong because I couldn't stop writing. I think I need to add photos but at this moment I have other horror films to watch on this particular Sunday. I just enjoy spending an afternoon with Dawn of the Dead. I think many consider the heavier alternate versions overlong, but I just consider them another worthwhile zombie experience.
The review itself...
The plot: America has fallen under an apocalyptic doom thanks to the dead eating on the living with two SWAT members, a helicopter pilot, and a news broadcasting station director “running”, hopping in a chopper, flying off for a place to get away from the threat of destruction, landing on a huge shopping mall, hermetically sealing themselves off from the world around them, until their new “home” is invaded by a traveling group of raiders who move from place to place to pillage and steal to survive.
I finished watching the “extended version” and actually much prefer it to other versions because it just felt more like a “complete” film, further advancing the characters, how they deal with the zombie apocalypse and enjoy the mall for all the creature comforts and material wants that such an environment provides.
Just throwing off some thoughts, I have to admit that Roger’s departure was kind of a bummer this time around to me, because I wondered to myself how he would have reacted (and responded) to the raiders intruding upon “their digs”.
Flyboy and Francine’s (David Emge and Gaylen Ross) relationship never quite seems to contain any real present passion, which I found interesting; if anything, they seemed to annoy each other. I often wonder why Roger (Scott Reiniger) seemed to lose his bearings during the sequence where he and Peter (Ken Foree) were hot wiring diesels and driving them in front of the mall doors to protect their home from outside forces (the zombies, possible authorities, or others wanting to enter in). I mean he had already seen a lot of murder and zombie activity—I guess, after seeing enough of it, he could no longer hold together his sanity, but still, I ponder what sent him over the deep end to the point of irrationality which eventually led to several mistakes that would cost him his life.
Often discussed by zombie aficionados and DAWN fans is the comic treatment of the zombies: I think this movie just uses zombies in every way imaginable, including the pie-in-the-face ridicule, useless against weapons, dangerous when allowed to enlarge, a menace in that their bite contributes to the increase in numbers (strength in numbers matters), such a reminder of what we once were that some living humans have a hard time shooting them in the brain (a constant reminder of how difficult it is to just kill zombies is news broadcasts featuring talking heads on opposing sides debating the immoral act of shooting a former loved one in the brain or separating the head from the body, or especially the uneasy debate on how to respond to the epic crises facing the country, with non-stop bickering and arguing expressing the collapse of civilization, showing us that when push comes to shove, we cannot handle an epidemic of such magnitude), and even ignored for a small period of time (once our heroes are able to quarantine them from the mall, they seem to go about their lives inside the mall, enjoying their place for its many pleasures).
As a teenager, I remember renting the VHS, utterly shocked by the graphic violence on display, the way bodies are torn apart (the scene where a victim has his bowels removed certainly had me in total amazement), flesh is ripped from throats, shoulders, necks, legs, and arms, and the feeding frenzy that results from stupid decisions of several victims. David Emge’s zombie is a stunning depiction of a man in his exact state the moment of death: the limp, the gun hanging on the finger, the lumbering walk ( just impressive).
As an adult, the most powerful sequence to me is the Harlem apartment complex raid where the police enter to find a Puerto Rican gang of hostiles, encountering the undead as well, with one particular SWAT member completely unhinged ( a racist, blinded by rage and hostile intent, exploding a head with a shotgun blast). That incredible moment where a boarded room with those arms emerging, full of zombies, and the kid killing himself (I seem to remember the scene actually showing him blowing his brains out when I watched it on VHS, but dvd prints don’t seem to have it) show us Hell on Earth, a taste of how the zombie crisis is turning a once civilized country upside down.
Of course, the middle-of-nowhere farmland plane landing pad where our heroes stop to get fuel contains many powerful, memorable moments (such as the head severed at the top by the helicopter propeller, Foree having to shoot two zombie kids, and the iconic poster zombie’s momentary presence on screen).
Many do not like the greenish blue skin color of the zombies, but I think it gives the picture an appropriate comic book quality, including the bright red, thick, gushing blood that bubbles when the skin is pried away by zombie teeth. To this zombie fan, nothing is more awesome than rotting flesh make-up effects and flesh-wound gore, and “Dawn of the Dead” pleased this gorehound in every way.
To me, the *money shot*, a phrase used to describe all sorts of things, for a horror film isn’t the exposing of tits but a quick, bursting impact of brains/blood splattering on a wall after a zombie’s (or human’s) head is hit with a shot-gun blast. I applaud this movie for its audacity, the challenge to anyone to sit through its violence and dig on the thematic material that accompanies the gore.
I was fortunate, I think, to rent a grotty, beat-up VHS copy from an appliance center more concerned with selling refrigerators instead of hiring out video tapes, as a teenager, having never experienced such “sucker punch” (as Romero puts it) horror at such an impressionable age. I’m a “dead-head” thanks to that particular Midnight experience (and a lot of Saturdays, re-renting the movie over and over from the same place!) and continue to watch the film with such fondness and joy.
The review itself...
The plot: America has fallen under an apocalyptic doom thanks to the dead eating on the living with two SWAT members, a helicopter pilot, and a news broadcasting station director “running”, hopping in a chopper, flying off for a place to get away from the threat of destruction, landing on a huge shopping mall, hermetically sealing themselves off from the world around them, until their new “home” is invaded by a traveling group of raiders who move from place to place to pillage and steal to survive.
I finished watching the “extended version” and actually much prefer it to other versions because it just felt more like a “complete” film, further advancing the characters, how they deal with the zombie apocalypse and enjoy the mall for all the creature comforts and material wants that such an environment provides.
Just throwing off some thoughts, I have to admit that Roger’s departure was kind of a bummer this time around to me, because I wondered to myself how he would have reacted (and responded) to the raiders intruding upon “their digs”.
Flyboy and Francine’s (David Emge and Gaylen Ross) relationship never quite seems to contain any real present passion, which I found interesting; if anything, they seemed to annoy each other. I often wonder why Roger (Scott Reiniger) seemed to lose his bearings during the sequence where he and Peter (Ken Foree) were hot wiring diesels and driving them in front of the mall doors to protect their home from outside forces (the zombies, possible authorities, or others wanting to enter in). I mean he had already seen a lot of murder and zombie activity—I guess, after seeing enough of it, he could no longer hold together his sanity, but still, I ponder what sent him over the deep end to the point of irrationality which eventually led to several mistakes that would cost him his life.
Often discussed by zombie aficionados and DAWN fans is the comic treatment of the zombies: I think this movie just uses zombies in every way imaginable, including the pie-in-the-face ridicule, useless against weapons, dangerous when allowed to enlarge, a menace in that their bite contributes to the increase in numbers (strength in numbers matters), such a reminder of what we once were that some living humans have a hard time shooting them in the brain (a constant reminder of how difficult it is to just kill zombies is news broadcasts featuring talking heads on opposing sides debating the immoral act of shooting a former loved one in the brain or separating the head from the body, or especially the uneasy debate on how to respond to the epic crises facing the country, with non-stop bickering and arguing expressing the collapse of civilization, showing us that when push comes to shove, we cannot handle an epidemic of such magnitude), and even ignored for a small period of time (once our heroes are able to quarantine them from the mall, they seem to go about their lives inside the mall, enjoying their place for its many pleasures).
As a teenager, I remember renting the VHS, utterly shocked by the graphic violence on display, the way bodies are torn apart (the scene where a victim has his bowels removed certainly had me in total amazement), flesh is ripped from throats, shoulders, necks, legs, and arms, and the feeding frenzy that results from stupid decisions of several victims. David Emge’s zombie is a stunning depiction of a man in his exact state the moment of death: the limp, the gun hanging on the finger, the lumbering walk ( just impressive).
As an adult, the most powerful sequence to me is the Harlem apartment complex raid where the police enter to find a Puerto Rican gang of hostiles, encountering the undead as well, with one particular SWAT member completely unhinged ( a racist, blinded by rage and hostile intent, exploding a head with a shotgun blast). That incredible moment where a boarded room with those arms emerging, full of zombies, and the kid killing himself (I seem to remember the scene actually showing him blowing his brains out when I watched it on VHS, but dvd prints don’t seem to have it) show us Hell on Earth, a taste of how the zombie crisis is turning a once civilized country upside down.
Of course, the middle-of-nowhere farmland plane landing pad where our heroes stop to get fuel contains many powerful, memorable moments (such as the head severed at the top by the helicopter propeller, Foree having to shoot two zombie kids, and the iconic poster zombie’s momentary presence on screen).
Many do not like the greenish blue skin color of the zombies, but I think it gives the picture an appropriate comic book quality, including the bright red, thick, gushing blood that bubbles when the skin is pried away by zombie teeth. To this zombie fan, nothing is more awesome than rotting flesh make-up effects and flesh-wound gore, and “Dawn of the Dead” pleased this gorehound in every way.
To me, the *money shot*, a phrase used to describe all sorts of things, for a horror film isn’t the exposing of tits but a quick, bursting impact of brains/blood splattering on a wall after a zombie’s (or human’s) head is hit with a shot-gun blast. I applaud this movie for its audacity, the challenge to anyone to sit through its violence and dig on the thematic material that accompanies the gore.
I was fortunate, I think, to rent a grotty, beat-up VHS copy from an appliance center more concerned with selling refrigerators instead of hiring out video tapes, as a teenager, having never experienced such “sucker punch” (as Romero puts it) horror at such an impressionable age. I’m a “dead-head” thanks to that particular Midnight experience (and a lot of Saturdays, re-renting the movie over and over from the same place!) and continue to watch the film with such fondness and joy.
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