DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) Review

Great to see Charles back on the DVD reviewing wagon. Your best review yet, I think. It's hard to review something that you love so much, and still come up with a reasoned and readable end result, but this managed it.

One thing that's always bugged me about the movie though - the bikers. Yes, seeing Bikers vs Zombies is awesome, but it seems like a cop out from the theme of the film. The bikers are too much of an aggressive invading force, and remain cartoon protagonists devoid of any motivation beyond carnage - not much different to the zombies.

As such, there's no ambiguity to the defence of the mall. There are two scenarios I think would strengthen that section of the movie:

1) The bikers are more rounded characters. We see that they're just trying to survive as well. It's the main characters prejudice that makes them repel the bikers with force - just as the SWAT guy opening fire on humans and zombies alike.

2) Or, even better - replace the bikers with another group of armed and desperate survivors, much like Roger and Co when they arrived at the mall. That way, their resistance to "invasion" becomes much more selfish, and we see just how their manufactured paradise has corrupted them. It also becomes a comment of the social ladder - "We've made it, but we're not going to help you - in fact we're going to try and make you fail so we can keep more for ourselves".

I think that would be the logical conclusion to Romero's consumerist subtext, instead of faceless slapstick villains.

I'm late from work so I don't have the time to read the full review right now, but I just wanted to say:

"After being told yet again that the Princess was in another castle, Mario went off the deep end."

"It was at this time that Peter North decided he should probably make an appointment at the clinic."

"Everyone knew it was suicide to attempt 88mph in a mall, but Doc Brown was crazy enough to think it just might work..."

Best. Captions. Ever.

I heartily agree with alobek. Those were hilarious. As for the review, I'm one of those rare cinephiles that actually has not seen this film in any of its forms. When I saw the shiny red box yesterday I was tempted but didn't pick it up. I think I'll have to reconsider after this review.

Loved the review and when I get paid on Thursday, this and the Angel S4 are mine!!

Two things.

Loved the Peter North caption
and
I don't have much love for the Goblins soundtrack. It's a little grating at times but that's just personal preference and really doesn't detract from the awesomeness of the movie.

Really well written review Charles you outdid yourself with this one.

Thanks for the love.

That's how I really take it. I mean, the bikers are just there to loot and they don't care about Roger et al, so what begins as a sort of survival exercise turns into selfish defence of the mall and its goods. It's really disheartening to see the two groups fighting and one eventually killing off the other, and then think about what really could have happened had they worked together instead of being so selfish. It's a pretty damning indictment on humanity, but it's also not a far-fetched one, in my opinion. I can understand the whole concept of the bikers being cartoonish, but I think it works in the sense with the tone of the film and the whole comic book nature. It's a bit like Helm's Deep in a way, we have no investment in these invaders, compared to the guys inside, and there's no real sense of motivation besides that they want to get inside and they'll do so in any way, so naturally we would root for the characters we've followed. However, with DAWN, instead of just an overt example of fighting for survival (as in TTT), we start to wonder whether they're really fighting for their survival, or if they're fighting for the right to wear fur coats i.e. all the stuff in the mall, and it's when that thought really comes in that it starts to play a bit deeper and gets even more disturbing.

That's kind of my problem with the bikers though. They're no different to the zombies, or an army of orcs. They pose the simplest threat of all to Roger and co. - the threat of hostile invasion. The element of selfishness never really comes into it, as the bikers are such one-dimensional marauders, defending the mall becomes an act of self-defense. There's no suggestion that the bikers are there for anything more than to fuck shit up, so there's no ambiguity in killing them.

If the bikers were replaced with a less emotive group of general survivors - armed and desperate, but just trying to survive - then that adds an extra dimension to our "heroes" reaction. Because I believe, by that point, their reaction would be the same as it was with the bikers - they're hoarding pointless artefacts as much as food and clothing, and they're afraid of having to share. They'd just as quickly turn on anyone who tried to enter their little kingdom.

I just feel that by making the invaders in their domain such cut-and-dried "bad guys", the message about our selfishness under pressure is diluted - and that seems odd, as Romero isn't really one for diluting his work.

Thanks. Now you've told me that, I realized the error of my mistake. I should've given it 4/10 at the most. Thank you for this enlightenment!

The acting was certainly good. Not oscar worthy but certainly solid and above the pale when it comes to B movies.

Don't feel bad, ObiJuan. I also have never seen this movie, I just know about it.
That was a great review, though. Really makes me want to pick it up. Plus, when I read:

"When there's no more room in hell, the pimps will walk the earth",

I laughed for about 5 minutes straight.
Good stuff, man.

Watch it again, Dan. Peter clearly states that they should just stay in hiding until the bikers are done raiding the place. Fly Boy specifically says, "No, it's our stuff, we took it." right before shooting at them.

Romero's point was that the survivors, bikers, and zombies were all very much alike. Struggling for control of the shopping mall. Even Peter acknowledges, "We're thieves and outlaws."

Yeah, but my point is that by having the intruders be "bad guy" bikers, the audience automatically sides with Fly Boy. There's no chance that the bikers are there for anything more than carnage. Those few lines address the issue briefly, but I feel it would have been more effective had the intruders been more sympathetic. To what lengths would our survivors go in order to maintain their little kingdom? Fighting off a gang of violent bikers is a no-brainer. Opening fire on people who are much like they were at the start of the movie? That carries more thematic weight.

I see what you mean, Dan. I just prefer to think that it makes the theme a bit deeper. By using obviously scummy bikers Romero shows just how low our heroes (Fly Boy, anyway) will stoop. Just as the zombies were visual representations of mindless consumerism, the bikers were ugly representations of greed.
The movie's not designed to be subtle. I think having such overt representations of human behavior suits it well.

Great review, Charlie. This movie is difficult to review in large part because it's so iconic; it's always tougher to find new ways to praise what's been praised so much before, and you do a nice job of reminding me why this movie's so great.

I think the bikers are fine antagonists. I love the way my thinking on this film has changed over the years. When I first saw it at twelve, I thought, "Hey, of course you go to the mall. Great idea." And since the bikers want to take it over, I was glad to see them shot. Now, of course, I love the (not at all subtle) absurdity of their satisfaction when they've got the mall cleaned out. Yeah, it's funny that the zombies still want to be conspicuous consumers, but it's even more telling that the four find a way to construct happiness when the entire world is crumbling. The bikers aren't any less deserving or sympathetic than our heroes-- perhaps we perceive them as such because they're so uncouth, but they're not trying to take anything that actually legitimately belongs to the four.

I also don't really think Romero does the military well, except in smaller slices. Try as I might, I can't warm up to Day of the Dead anywhere near the level I love the other two. It still seems to me that Boyle in 28DL did the military better.

I spent a lot of time with this set last night, and it was definitely worth the wait. I can't quite figure out why Document of the Dead has a 1989 copyright date when all of the footage was shot more than ten years earlier.

Oh, and the shot in one of the docus of Savini jumping over the railing onto the pile of mattresses the floor below is pretty great. The guy's a wildman.

One word: brilliant.

Picture, captions and review.

Great review.

I love this flick. I guess this would be the time to finally get it on DVD.

Good point. Hadn't thought of it that way.

Did God tell Maus to be a dick?

Anyway, great review, Charles. I'll probably keep my $10 version of the flick while silently pining for this bad boy, but it sounds like Anchor Bay put together a kickass set.

I can't believe the rest of us share air with your loser ass.

"When there’s no more room in hell, the pimps will walk the earth."

I'm sorry, I just had to quote that again. Great review, Charles. I thought you did a fine job of giving a thoughful evaluation of material that you clearly love.

Spiffy review, Butterball.

I digs on the black fella and the wee white gay fella being chummy-chummy. GAR was way ahead o' the pack on the equality issues. And it was nice that a stronghold of masculinity like the black duder was tolerant of that lil wank. Even when he went and fucked off by letting that bloke bites him.

Whatevers. I'm gonna git this.