Post of the Dead

Have started using blog to organise life, using it as secondary memory. Is working out well.

After seeing the remake of Dawn of the Dead and realising that I had only seen one other George Romero film, night of the living dead, I decided to take it upon myself, as a film geek/student (a geek my any other name) to track down (i.e. Borrow off of friends) and watch all of the trilogy of the dead.


First up, the original Dawn of the Dead.

Here we have a problem.

Anyone remember that whole video nasties moral panic meme of the 80s (spread by the ever helpful Daily Mail)? Well, Romero's opus didn't come through it too good. Not only that, but dawn of the dead has been cut up and stuck back together more times than frankenstein's monster. The first version I tracked down was the 1992 4front video release which corresponds to Romero's theatrical release after it had gone through the BBFCs hands. Looks like it was cut with a flint axe. How the fuck are you supposed to enjoy the film when you can't even see what the director meant you to see? Bah.

Anyway, visiting the haus of goth recently I realised that Vicki had the director's cut on video. Joy!

But, it turns out it isn't actually the director's cut but something rushed together for Cannes. Still, is much better than the other version I've got.

Whilst I was watching it I realised how tight the script was, and what a good job all round the film is. Not only that but that there was an underlying anti-consumerist message. Could Dawn of the Dead be an anti-consumerism parable?

Check out this dialogue from Francine, after they've landed in the mall.

"Your hypnotised by this place, all of you. It's so bright and neatly wrapped you can't see it's a prison too."

You know, I could probably write an essay for uni on that, and get an A for originality. Ah, Academia is so much like masturbation!