I just watched this for the first time last night (I've seen a couple of really bad remakes). If I didn't know better I would've thought that Romero was a black director. The fact is that this is historically the first horror movie with a black protagonist and brings up some serious questions regarding prejudice. When the character Ben first comes into the house he is greeted by Barbra who does 2 fear takes. The first when she can't see him to well and the second when she realizes he is black. It is one of those moments where a facial expression says more than any words can. Then there are the others in the house: The family in the basement where the father locks in a power struggle with Ben. Another telling line is where the wife says to him "THOSE people are not our enemy." It really is an expository statement as to what the husbands issue is. The other couple that is there aren't into helping anybody they are only out for themselves. It is like the people who had no opinion on the issues and just stood aside and watched then died when trying to make their escape. The Zombies themselves were just a metaphor for the impending lynch mob. SPOILER ALERT: In the end when Ben gets shot by another impending lynch mob (if you want to get technical it could be the police or a vigilante group) it is a clear cut representation of the mob mentality of shoot first ask questions later. Followed with stills under the final credits of the mob busting into the house and pulling Ben's dead body out with meat hooks that look like late 19th century photographs of the torture of slaves. One of the central questions of the film is can you put aside your own prejudices to save your life in a time of Crisis? Timeless. Stay Brown, Rev J
If Night of the Living Dead was a microcosm of the racial unrest which existed at the time, then Dawn of the Dead surely represented the progress that was made during the intervening 10 years. Hotwater
Oh man! Romero is known for social commentary in his movies. Seriously. The original Night Of The Living Dead is what brought me to love film as much as I do. I can even tell you where I was when I first watched this movie. It was Easter weekend (fitting for the Zombie Jesus Day) at my aunt's house in the big city. We had BBQ ribs for supper with my extended family BUT because of dinner I missed the final fifteen minutes of this film because it was aired on television. I was twelve.
Night really was a pretty good movie. But I do think original Dawn is the very best. Both had parables of our daily live's wrapped up into their stories of zombie apocalypse and were well written. I consider Dawn to be an ultimate classic; and Night to be very good. But your Night observations, Reverand JC, are spot on. Dawn gives even more, but different.
Oh and I meant to add; Survival has a pretty good storyline that I enoyed a lot. It explores another interesting angle in Romero's zombie world. I think I like it better than the previous one; what was it, Land or something.
I thought "The Crazies" was really good too. Especially how they framed certain scenes to look like famous news photos of Vietnam War Protests. Stay Brown, Rev J
It's funny though that "Night of the Living Dead" was shot just outside of Pittsburgh. So it was also one of the first "Independently Spirited" films. Stay Brown, Rev J
I like the Night of the Living Dead, but are plenty of remakes and I'm unsure which of them I seen so far...... what do you think of a remake made of this soon? I wouldn't mind seeing how they would make it ...or ruin it
Every remake I've seen has been kind of watered down because they had a tendency to cut out the sociopolitical elements of the film. Using a white actor for the hero, taking the latently racist family out of the basement etc. Doing these things seems to be taking away the original point of the film. I have since starting this thread seen the whole series and they all have been commentary on current events and social issues like the gulf war, martial law, social networking etc. Stay Brown, Rev J
The thing that i always love about this, is that its a great example of Romero doing really timely social commentary completely by accident (some of his more deliberate attempts in recent films, imo, fall down completely.) he cast duane jones as the star, simply, as he himself admitted, because out of all of his acquaintances that they could get to do it, he was the best actor. however, having an african american in the role completely alters the dynamic within the house, adding a really interesting racial dimension and implicit prejudice, although this was never present in the script, and the other actors considered for the role were all white. in one interview, Romero recalls that, on the last day of shooting, they loaded the cans into the trunk of his car to go and sell them to distributors and started driving, only to hear the news of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King over the radio, and event which obviously has eery similarities to the final scenes of the film, in which a capable, charismatic african american character is shot in the head by a bunch of rednecks. another example of Romero doing social comment completely by accident is in dawn of the dead. Gaylen Ross' character is hailed by feminist film critics as a standout character in the horror genre. horror's always been accused of being misogynist (and with good reason, it could be said, certainly its no coincidence that, during the height of the feminist movement, slasher films in which sexually active females ran around screaming before being symbolically punished by the male "monster" with a knife to the gut, reached the height of their poularity) yet Gaylen Ross' character she demands to be taken seriously by the male characters, demands to be taught how to shoot and fly the helicopter and is generally depicted as much more capable than her boyfriend and, most importantly SHE NEVER SCREAMS. However, George Romero has admitted that the reason she never screams in the film is actually because he asked her to scream on the first day of shooting and the sound was so piercing that he said "please...never do that again" i find it so interesting that on two occasions he managed to perfectly cpture the countercultural zeitgeist almost completely by accident. also, with regards to other versions and shitty remakes of NOTLD: there are lots of them, this is because the team who made NOTLD pretty much didnt understand how to copyright their work, which means that the film became public domain, anyone has a right to use the name to make a remake, or to sell the film (which is why you can get a dvd of it on amazon for like, a penny. and the original team don't see a dime. HOWEVER, Tom Savini, the low budget makeup and effects magician who more or less invented the modern zombie and SO much other cool shit, did a 1990's color remake of NOTLD. the film istelf is pretty good , sticks to the original with only a few added scenes and better special effects, although i much prefer the feel of the black and white film. he more or less did it so that the original team could use the title "night of the living dead" to actually make some money off their masterpiece, so if you like the 1968 film, consider buying the 1990 remake, because then the team that gave you the 1968 version actually get some money, its a nice way to show your appreciation for one of the most important films ever made
This is one of my favorites! The black and white, the tension between characters, and the lack of blood and guts makes it so intense. Love love love all the socio-political commentary. In the late 60's, with the war and the people being so divided, it reminds me of the current times in the USA. The world could use another Romero type right about now.
I liked this movie and for once I can say ITS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! (Everyone dies in the original which is sad)
