I do intend to watch the Extended Cut of Dawn of the Dead (1978) later this year on a Saturday, maybe in the late fall or early winter before 2020, the year very similar to how fucked the country was presented in Romero's zombie nation, ends mercifully. Not that I expect 2021 to be any better, but I digress... I have had DofD on the mind as riots, pandemic madness, and skyrocketing unemployment, not to mention, political divide has rent countries like the US apart. The opening of DotD left me jaw agape as I totally could see our country reacting in such a way. A government bureaucratic scientist on a left-leaning rescue stations public service broadcast company tries to tell them that the dead have to be shot in the head or their head must be separated from the body. And those in the station, under great stress, as information going out and coming in isn't always accurate and even when it is, much like how we accept and reject facts because we don't like them now, many simply won't stomach the thought of obliterating their loved ones. Even as they come for you, to feed from you, some have a hard time shooting them in the head. So we get a glimpse at this one public service station, how those inside it can't communicate and scatterbrained employees seemingly disheveled from the nation falling apart can't get their shit together. Richard France as a doctor and "zombie authority" (he was also a scientist in "The Crazies" on the verge of a cure for the psycho virus) tries and fails to convince the talking heads that perhaps at this point bombing cities might be an only option to contain the hungry walking dead... obviously his audience, wherever they're holed up, didn't find this option reasonable. France does mention that it doesn't matter whether or not your Democrat or Republican, to the dead, as there is no room in hell, you are food. Who'd have thunk it that I would think of zombies and the pandemic similarly. The pandemic, which doesn't give a fuck what political party you dedicate yourself to, will possibly fucking kill you. Granted a zombie bite kills your ass no matter the age, but Romero's film in 1978 addressed the zombie pandemic in familiar terms we can view as allegory beyond our materialistic nature. The bickering every time Flyboy cuts on a television or radio and the signal proves that not much has or ever will change.
Flyboy and Fran escape with the station whirlybird when the functioning production breaks down. I really get captivated by this because Romero seemed so adept at revealing how things can escalate badly when a situation that challenges society as a whole breaks down and the inability to control what a viral outbreak can do feels like a challenge humankind fails at miserably. Sure in this film we get a taste of that as a SWAT team goes in to a tenement building containing Philadelphia residents, some armed because they feel their rights are being threatened or violated, with a gunfight breaking out. The officers there to take care of dead family members and friends must fend off the still alive residents, with zombies also interrupting the mayhem. Again, a dead husband won't just disregard his former wife, as teeth prying away shoulder viscera reveals. A racist SWAT officer unhinged with his intense hatred for the residents in the tenement sure enough escalates the already deteriorated conditions. A young officer being eased by Roger before going into the tenement getting shot in the head by armed residents, another officer shooting himself in the face after killing a legless zombie crawling on a floor are among two examples as well of how the situation we are brought into by Romero clearly exposes how worsening the crisis of this virus outbreak has become.
So before we even get to the mall, the first chapter of the film, even with the shortened Argento European Cut, unveils quite a bit about how escape from all this societal collapse seems quite understandable.
Comments
Post a Comment