Appeal of "Dawn of the Dead"? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

Totally off topic: have any of you guys watched the film Dead Birds? If not then I recommend giving it a shot as I found it to be quite a good low budget, but very well made, indie horror film. Jumped more than a few times during it and not just at the standard "sound spikes" scares either....it's been some time since a horror film did that to me.

Anyway, back to the thread.

 

[Kevin M]

Baaah...damn double post!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yep, rented that one from Blockbuster a few months back, decent little indie flick with tons of spooky atmosphere. They have it at Wal Mart for $7.50 and i'm always tempted to pick it up everytime I go there.

 

[todd s]

I can deal with running zombies...But, the idea of intelligent zombies just ruins it for me.

 

[Ronn.W]

Cosigned.

It's good survival fiction. This is not aimed at the OP, but I read once where people who do not value their own life do not understand the appeal of survival fiction, whether it's a book or a movie. I always thought that was interesting.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I think it's good to try something different (Halloween 3, F13 5) but sometimes it falls on its face. DAY had one of the worst reputations for nearly 15 years but eventually fans came around to it. I'm sure the same thing will happen to LAND.

 

[Rich Romero]

Sorry but must repsectfully disagree. Land is just not a very good movie. Day was and always has been a great movie. It only wasn't recieved well due to the expectations and the drastic differences from Dawn. Land just isn't very good compared to anything, and will never be a cult favorite.

 

[TravisR]

I can't see the future but I think Land Of The Dead will gain favor among fans in about ten or fifteen years too. It may mostly be people who like something because everyone else hates it and they're smart enough to 'get' it but I think there will be fans for Land someday.

I've liked (but not loved) it since the day I saw it eventhough it's easily the weakest of Romero's zombie movies.

 

[Kevin M]

I'm fine with Land personally, yes, some of the complaints are fairly valid but I still like it as an entertainment....it does have a little more on it's mind but frankly the message is convoluted....are we to now try and "get along with them" or are we to be replaced and deservedly so, a new beginning with the dead rather than the morally dead living? I don't know but the basic structure is interesting and I liked it fine.

 

[Andy Sheets]

That was my reading of it. It's the story in which the humans finally realize that their time is up and they have no legitimate claim to the world any longer. Night of Living Dead has often been described as a rip-off of I Am Legend, but I actually see more parallels in theme in Land of the Dead, with the idea of the dead starting to evolve and build a civilization of their own.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I'd nuke the entire planet before i'd allow the living dead to take it from the living.

We fought for this planet, we fought wars, earned the right to build our varying civilizations and cultures and now i'm supposed to sit back, throw up my hands and just hand it all over to these hell sent beings? Nope, wouldn't happen if I were in charge.

I tell you what, Captain Rhodes and I would have gotton along famously because I view the smelly son's o' bitches the same way he does, I don't want them to learn, evolve or do a damn thing except drop over.

I hate zombies, and if we take Romero's idea and follow it to it's conclusion than I guess in his world he'd consider me a Deadist.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I just saw this last night and I really liked it. It was kind of a return to form for Romero, who hasn't made anything interesting to me for probably 20 years. I have high regard for Night and Dawn and put them on about equal footing, and I didn't particularly like Day the one time I watched it. I have the original DVD release, so I need to watch it again. I liked Land immediately and rank it just below the first two.

I get what you're saying about the message, but the thing is, I am Romero's complete polar opposite politically, so I just ignore what he's trying to say. He wanted me to feel sympathy for the zombies, and he failed. I was much more interested in seeing Big Daddy get his comeuppance (denied!) than I was Kaufman, which I'm sure would horrify Romero. But, Kaufman was correct: "You have no right!" I'd have launched on those bastards in a heartbeat if I saw them walking along.

 

[Richard--W]

Huh?

 

[Seth Paxton]

Kevin, I took the use of faster moving zombies to just be a version of a MOB scene. At least to me that's how Snyder depicted them as a group moving. And to me that retained a sense of what even the slow zombies were about.

It's the chaos more than the speed and that's clearly what he focuses on. Each time a character hits a "serial killer super monster" it directly drives them out into a world of full-on zombie chaos, which is exactly how people are killed by the slow moving zombies in earlier films.

To me 28 Days was much more of a departure and used the speed in a more monster style.


I'm with John, I do still enjoy Dawn and Night, but both films were brilliantly remade. And in regards to the lack of attention to social commentary of consumerism I thought Down with the Sickness in it's short stint took things to a level that the original never did hit. Sure they didn't quite dwell on it, but they did feature a clear commentary on star culture with the "hunting" scene.

IMO it's just put in with some subtext and subtlety far better than in the original which is why is perhaps doesn't come off as so obvious.


Now unlike Joe I do like the characters ON PAPER in the original Dawn, I just didn't like parts of the actual performances. Some of it was acting, some of it was staging or writing, but the remake tightened that stuff up. Same again with Night - and I love those scenes of the PA hunters at the end.

To me all 4 are great flicks and have tons of rewatchability. Stories are retold all the time (Bond, vampires, Shakespeare) so remakes of any sort don't inherently bother me. Just make a good film no matter what, original or remake.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

LOL, that was my, apparently, poor attempt at coining a new phrase.

Seeing as how I hate zombies so much and given my attitude towards them, and Romero's love for them, in his eyes i'd be a racist...except he'd be talking about zombies.

 

[Rob Foss]

It's a funny, scary, delightfully gruesome, end of the world tale. Romero is well served by his principal actors and setting the story in a shopping mall was a stroke of genius. I like the Goblin score as well.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I liked the remake in spite of the quick cuts and noise. That stuff annoyed me, but not enough to mitigate a good viewing experience. It's been so long since I've seen the original that I can't properly contrast them, but I liked them both. One plus for the original: as cool as Ving Rhames may be, he's no Ken Foree. He kicks eternal ass.