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Amputee Minor 
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TITLE |
Dawn
of the Dead (1979) |
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DIRECTOR |
George A.
Romero
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NOTES |
I love this
film for reasons which are probably best left in my |
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subconscious. The world (i.e... the USA) is threatened with
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being
overrun by zombies. As the director, who also wrote |
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the script,
explains "When there is no more room in hell, the |
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dead will
walk the earth". Initially we see an all out fight |
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between some
kind of troupers in blue uniforms against |
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people
barricaded in a house. It's like a SWAT team against |
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the Black
Panthers but by opening the wrong door they come |
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Two troupers
then decide it's time to get out and they team up with two
news reporters who have a helicopter. The action |
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then moves
to a shopping centre where it remains the rest of |
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the film.
The most part is taken up with their securing the |
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centre
against the zombies who are inside and trying to get in. |
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This means a
lot more gore and exploding heads since the |
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head shot is
the only way to 'kill' them. Even if you hate gore |
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you'll love
the shopping scenes where you can buy as cheaply |
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as you
browse. This idyll of an oasis is disturbed first when |
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one the
troupers is bitten and becomes a zombie himself. |
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And soon
after when a gang of motorcyclists descend on the |
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It simply
doesn't matter to enthusiasts that the zombies' |
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make-up is
so apparent, that the blood is bright red, that this |
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may have
been shot on a year of Sundays when the shopping |
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centre was
closed. It doesn't matter that the four main actors |
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have little
charisma and so far as I know have never appeared in another
main stream film. |
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There's also
humour, the deaths are as little disturbing as the |
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practice
shots at a mannequin and the plague or virus is |
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At the very
beginning the two troupers meet a black priest who is a right
leg above the knee amputee. I can think only that this is a
touch of irony since many of the zombies have lost body parts.
The doctor on TV who is trying to convince people how serious the
situation is has a patch over one eye which may be meant to imply that
the one-eyed man is king in the kingdom of the blind. But that's
probably too pretentious a reading. |
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Notes
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