Post by Clark Nova on Oct 14, 2006 17:08:09 GMT -5
Of all the images of carnage, brutality, and sheer terror that dominate George A. Romero’s cult classic, “Dawn of the Dead”, there is one scene that stands out from the rest in my mind; one scene that scares me more than any other and encapsulates all the horror and mayhem that Romero may have been going for. The funny thing is, in practically any other film this scene would have been one of peace, quiet, and tranquil domesticity. We see a relatively comfortable looking living space, complete with nice furniture, a top-of-the-line television, radio, and record player, a bedroom off to the corner, and a quaint little kitchenette. Two well-dressed men, Stephen (David Emgee) and Peter (Ken Foree), sit around an art-deco coffee table sipping gin and playing cards while Stephen’s pregnant girlfriend Francine (Gaylen Ross) prepares dinner. What we see is a lifestyle that would be desired by anybody craving the simple life, and these three have achieved it. We the viewer feel right at home in this nice little apartment, until we remember back to mere minutes before that this is not an apartment, but rather a storage room, and they’re not in a nice apartment building, but rather an abandoned shopping mall, and they’re surrounded not by friendly neighbors but by the ravenous undead, every moment trying to bite and claw their way through the walls of this refuge, hungry for warm, human flesh.
No explanation is ever given for the sudden appearance of these zombies that wreak havoc with society as a whole, making the situation that much more frightening. After all, if the walking dead suddenly showed up on your doorstep with a craving for your innards, would you rather run as fast as you can or politely inquire as to your assailant’s origins? Yeah, thought so. The aforementioned Stephen and Francine, employees at a Philadelphia television station, think the same way, high-tailing it out of the studio in a “borrowed” helicopter, along with SWAT team members Peter and Roger (Scott H. Reiniger). Following a ride through the countryside featuring many of Pennsylvania’s finest hunting down the undead to music and beer-drinking, our heroes find themselves at the shopping mall (Pittsburgh’s Monroeville Mall, to be exact), taking refuge while cleaning the place out of any leftover zombies and making camp. As time goes on, as evidenced by a wonderful montage showing our heroes taking full advantage of what their new playground has to offer, they become eerily comfortable, decorating their hideout as they see fit and shrugging off that little zombie problem literally a wall away in the aforementioned home-sweet-home scene.
If such a scene, merely a throwaway in, say, a romantic comedy or drama, could have such an effect on the viewer, what becomes abundantly clear is that Romero has not constructed a mere zombie movie like so many others, but something much, much bigger. Whereas your typical zombie flick will have the pretty teenager and her hopelessly inept group of friends being chased by dull, slow-walking corpses, this film actually rises above the rest for the simple reason that it has something to say. Like in “Dawn’s” landmark predecessor, “Night of the Living Dead”, Romero is making a statement on the obvious foibles of the human race and society as we know it, using zombies as his messengers.
Obviously a 28 year old film about zombies is going to show its age, but honestly, who cares? Yes, much of the zombie makeup is nothing more than gray face paint, the music is like something out of “The A-Team,” and the biker gang vs. undead finale features a pie fight – yes, a pie fight – as its set piece, but look past all the silliness and you might actually see that this is so much more than your typical horror movie. In fact, to call it a horror movie may even be erroneous, as there are arguably more laughs than scares overall. Such different scenes as ones of our heroes wasting the day away in the mall or their makeshift apartment, along with those of the zombies shuffling and filing along through Penney’s actually make you think a little bit: don’t those zombies, slowly but surely walking among the televisions and designer clothes look just a little familiar? In fact, show me a surveillance video of any mall these days, I’d tell you it was an outtake from “Dawn of the Dead”. These zombies are us, folks, and we are them. Obviously we don’t go about ripping apart the first person we come across to eat their intestines (at least I hope), but there’s no denying that we are those zombies, filing in and out of shopping malls every day, creating an inescapable consumerist culture. “They're after the place,” one of the survivors states. “They don't know why, they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here.” One has to consider if it’s only the flesh-eating undead that need apply here.
There are going to be many moviegoers who have absolutely no interest in debating the doom of the human race to buy this, buy that, so for them, there’s plenty of zombie-killing mayhem to be found in “Dawn of the Dead.” The film is incredibly gory and violent at points, pleasing even the most picky horror fan for an incredibly fun watch. However, if you want something more cerebral and want to see past the mere feasting on severed limbs, watch “Dawn of the Dead” with an astute eye and the faults within you and society will be painfully obvious. At times frightening, at other times funny, and at times incredibly cynical, Romero’s magnum opus combines over-abundant blood and gore with, of all things, a criticism of American Consumerism. Juxtapose these two extremes, in particular scenes of the undead filing through the mall to incredibly goofy musak and scenes of our heroes living happily and comfortably in their pretty little apartment, and you start to wonder which group comprises the real zombies.
8/10
