Dead on
I could not convince my significant other to see "George Romero's Land of the Dead" at the Grande today (she'd had her fill of entrails as entrees last year, in the remake of "Dawn of the Dead") so I went by myself.
This one was pretty good, as movies about flesh-eating zombies go.
The cool thing about Romero's "Dead" films, from super-low budget cult classic "Night of the Living Dead" to the original "Dawn of the Dead" to "Day of the Dead," is that they make their most profound comments about the living.
"Dawn of the Dead," for instance, is set in a shopping mall, where the undead look no different from the living in their blank-faced reverence for buying stuff.
They mill aimlessly through the stores, same as us.
The original, "Night of the Living Dead," contains a haunting subtext about race (its tragic hero is a black man) and lynching.
Romero said he hadn't planned for his lead to be a brother. He just happened to be the best actor.
Comments (4)
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Allen,
There is an excellent documentary that was broadcast on IFC a few years ago titled, "American Nightmare." It examined the changing of American horror films in the late sixties through the latter seventies. There are great interviews with Romero, Hooper, Cronenberg, Craven, and Carpenter. The audience finds that the monsters of old, vampires, werewolves, re-animated corpses are not as scarey as the real life monster living next door to you.
During Romero's interview he reveled several interesting coincidences about "Night of the Living Dead." Among them was that the day he went to deliver the film for its premier was the day MLK was assasinated. In that instant the undertones of the film became more prominent.
Another interesting thing he exposed was who the living dead are and it's something you hit on in your log. Since we are the only animal which knows it's going to die, we walk around in a constant state of dread. Hence, we are the living dead.
I have a copy of the documentary if you can't find it or haven't seen it. I would be glad to lend it to you for your perusal. Send me an email and I'll get it to you.
My students particularly enjoyed this documentary. I couldn't figure out if it was the examination of the changing American culture or if it was the exploding head from "Scanners" that had them on the edge of their seats.
Posted on June 26, 2005 10:34 AM
George Romero had a cameo in "The Silence of the Lambs". He was one of the three men who forced Agent Starling away from the cage during Starling and Lecter's last meeting.
Posted on June 27, 2005 5:41 AM
Joe:
Ah, the exploding head in "Scanners." I sometimes wonder what makes Cronenberg tick. What a weird sensibility, from "Videodrome" to "Dead Ringers" to "The Fly" to "Naked Lunch."
"Land" was pretty good, with real actors for a change, but my favorites remain the original and "Dawn of the Dead."
Steve:
I didn't realize that was Romero in "Silence of the Lambs." I'll have to pay closer attention during my 557th viewing.
Posted on June 28, 2005 6:30 PM
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