In nineteen sixty eight, George Romero brought us Night of the Living Dead.
It became the classic horror film of its time. Now George Rameiro brings us
the most intensely shocking motion picture experience for all times. It gets up and
kills the people it kills, get up and kill. This situation must be
controlled before it's too late. They are multiplying too rapidly. Dawn of the
Dead. Leave me on the roof at nine o'clock out in the chopper.
We've got to survive. Somebody's got to survive. They kill for one reason.
They kill for food. They eat. They're victims. Imagine if you
will, that something has gone terribly wrong. Soon now, except the fact
that there's no escaping the horrible consequences. George Romero brings back the dead.
Night of the Living Dead has ended. Dawn of the Dead is here.
We must not be loved by the concept that these are our family members or
our friends. They are not. They will not respond to such emotions.
Operated dead post a van and they never get out of law. It's everywhere.
What the hell is It looks like a shopping center, one of those
big indoor malls. What are they doing. Why do they come here some
kind of instinct memory? What they used to do? This was an important
place in their lives. What is it? We've got a war. We
have spawned our own savagery. Soon it will consume us all. It is
a horrible, puntingly accurate vision of the mindless excesses of our society gone mad.
Why they must be destroyed on site? When there is no more room
in hell? The dead will walk the earth. We are down to the
line boats, We are down to the line of the Dead. Sequels are
some of the most polarizing films in cinema history. They are debated as being
worthy to the previous film, or even if they should have been made.
Ten years following his landmark Neither of the Living Dead, George A. Rameira
returned to the beasts, He created zombies, and in turn gave a rare
instance in film more where a sequel could even be considered to supersede the original.
Released in nineteen seventy eight, Dawn of the Dead continues Romero's story of
the zombie apocalypse. When the film begins, the world is in more chaos
than we left it. At the end, A Night of the Living dead
due to the fact that the undead are winning on their rampage, tearing through
the living. The film starts frequent Romero contributors Ken Free in his most known
role and special effects group guru Tom Savini. In this film. To escape
the undead, four individuals land a helicopter on the roof of them all to
seek refuge. In that refuge could end up being their demise. I mentioned
chaos that has overwhelmed the world, and the opening scene of this film shows
that the film begins at a local news station where two individuals are on the
air arguing about what is going on behind the scenes. Individuals are arguing over
what te air, what not tear, and even if they should be on
the air. Why I chose this scene is the fact that we hear a
common trope in these Romero films that society can be crumbling and falling apart,
and instead of working together, we look towards our own interests, in our
own survival. You are right, what the hell, that's a whole different.
But if we do that, we don't know that, we don't know
that. We got to operate on what we do know. I'm still dreaming
human beings who to say. Turn the explained several times. The guys and
the crew are going crazy. A couple of them plowing the coop already.
I don't know how long we're gonna standing here. Came to you just got
to report the half those stations have been knocked out. Give me a list.
Sure, I'll just pull it out of my ass. Right, you
want the day to return to life. I'm not so you believe the day
to returning to life and attacking the living. I'm not so sure what to
believe. Doctor. All we get is what you people tell us. And
it's hard enough to believe. Fact, it's fat hard enough to believe without
you coming in here. And you're not running a talk show here, mister
Berman, you can forget pitching an audience tomorrow. You're talking about the Freddie
gets another list of rescue stations. Charlie's receiving as stations. Half of those
are inoperative as of now, Charlie, the rescue stations we can't send people
are inoperative. Restu station. You've had all information on the air for the
last twelve hours. Kill those old ones, givens one stuff, kill them,
help given to see meself. The situation to me lately by the public
guitar. You have not listened. You have not listened to the situation for
three weeks. The po will see people aren't willing to accept your solutions,
doctor, and I for one, don't blame them. Every dead body that
is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills the people
it kills, get up and kills operated rest the stations. When Dan open,
he is trying to do type that up, I think Foster's shright.
We're losing, blowing in our suits. Hill's going on, who killed those
supers? But he has these porters through that garret who told you to kill
those supers? No, my air killed them there at days you know you're
on the air. I want to Since this film's release, a common opinion
is that this film is a criticism of consumerism. The undead marched aimlessly towards
the mall, and when they get in, they stumble around without direction,
So it's easy to see where one can get that opinion. For the four
individuals that seek refuge in the mall, new station workers Stephen and Francine and
officers Peter and Roger, the refuge becomes a hedonistic paradise. Our next two
clips set the all up. First, the individuals arrive and fill out a
plan to get inside and attract little attention from the undead. And then,
when their greed takes over as they raid shops throughout the mall, Roger is
bitten and begins to turn to a zombie. This scene is very hard to
watch, as while Roger dies, the three survivors are watching an individual speak
on television about the nature of the newly deceased, rising to feed. What
the hell is it? Homes like a shopping center, one of those big
indoor malls. Oh my god, no chance, forget it. Let's get
out here. Wait a minute. They can't get up here. Yeah,
and we can't go down there. Let's check it out. Most of the
gates are down. I don't think they can get it to the stores.
I haven't seen any of them up on the second floor, the big apartments.
Those usually use both floors. If we can get in up top,
okay, yes, the poll is not often that there. What are they
doing? Why did they come here? It's a kind of instinct memory what
they used to do. This was an important place in their lives. Thank
you. Look at this They said, you get down into the mall.
Now business, how do we get down there? Now? The death of
Roger, I'll stay with it. Take care of me, or to Peter,
you take care of me when I go. Just try to get some
sleep back the safest strength. I I don't wanna be walking around and like
a fat Peter. Peter, Yeah, I'm here, man, don't do
it to you. Sure I am coming back. I'm going to try not
to. I'm going to try not to come back. I'm gonna try not
to. They use maybe five percent of the food available in the human body.
The kind of thing. With that small amount, the body is usually
intact enough to be mobile when it revives. What do you say? I
mean, you know, use science and dummies, suggested dummies. Dummies listen,
quiet, quiet, One wonders whether it's worth saving. This is worth
saving? For all I know, the brains are already dead, and it's
the idiots that are still alive. And I figured out how to stay alive.
Two And I'm trying to help you, dumb in your calm helping way
to irritate way, logic, way illogical, hell illogical. Hell, I'm
showing you a way that we can up the food supply twenty times supply for
who, for a whole specimen that is walking around there in increasing numbers.
We should need them. What else you're going to do with them? Give
me an alternative? I thought you scientists could come up with an actual way
to solve the problem rather than feeding the opposition. Doesn't make any sense any
With the commentary at play, it could be argued this film is more thought
provoking than the original. My opinion is the criticism of consumerism is so in
your face that it is not the prime piece of social commentary. But to
describe what the point of the film truly is, why not go to the
source. Our final clip of this review is a clip of an interview Romero
did with BBC two in nineteen ninety seven regarding this film in what he was
trying to show us about human nature through the zombie apocalypse. Now, this
interview does have film clips interjected into it, just to warn you, so
you're not sitting there thinking that I did anything to the clip itself. I
don't think anyone would have gotten it except Dario Argento. Approached us Italian director
and we showed him the script and he said, I'll be the first money
in on this one. I mean, basically, he caused the movie to
happen. Right, run, why not go? Right? A theme that
I've always used is just this idea that we don't talk to each other.
I mean, this complete lack of communication that we have and a willingness to
adopt a position. People aren't willing to accept your solutions, doctor, and
I, for one, don't play the three dead body that it's not exterminated,
becomes one of them, It gets up and kills the people it kills,
get up and chill. You know, this sort of tribalism or you
know, I think it's white, I think it's black, and there's no
attempt to try to figure out, you know, any sort of middle ground
or build a bridge. I mean that's true in everything from religious wars to
the O. J. Simpson case. I'm not so sure what to believe,
doctor. All we get is what you people tell us. And it's
hard enough to believe black. It's fat hard enough to believe without you coming
in here. And if you're not running a talk show here, mister Berman,
you can forget pitching an audience for Morald. To me, that is
the most appalled thing about what we do to each other. And so it's
a theme that I've tried. I've worked with, particularly in the zombie films.
I think, if your people start shooting at you, then sure you're
all going to shoot back at the same common enemy. But in a situation
where there's where anything is ambiguous, I think there's going to be at the
very least arguing and that then perhaps at the worst, you know, people
murdering each other for their point of view, Hey, oh my god,
what are you doing? Scary, isn't it? Until the shooting starts,
there is no common enemy, And that I think that in trying to decide
who the enemy is, or if even if there is an enemy, that's
where we just need to talk and figure out what our strategy is going to
be. Let them know we're here. Did all right this time? Boy?
How about it? Feeling? I was trying to do it like a
comic book kind of visual The blood it's you know, very red, bright
red, flowering out behind somebody's head. What we were going for was just
this garish kind of ec comic book kind of a look. None of that
stuff was particularly threatening. The repetition of the violence. I mean, zombies
get shot every few minutes in the action parts of the film, and you
sort of get immune or inured to it. Again, that was part of
what we were seeing in the eighties, I mean about us just getting so
desensitized by the things that we were seeing on television and you know, show
the military and the hunters and all that, just just you know, enjoying
it. And as that being an outgrowth of g you know, we got
ourselves a new shooting gallery here. And also it worked to sort of ramp
you up towards the really grizzly scenes in the end when we become just pieces
of meat there at that point, and then the people upstairs in those quarters,
it's sort of what we do. We live somewhere over here while all
this you know, violence, and you know, the world's exploding. If
I ever do another one, if I ever do the you know, the
the two thousand one, I think that's what it'll be like. I mean,
you know, maybe humanity will have come back. There'll be security guards
and the zombies are out in the street, you know, sort of like
the homeless. But will we care as long as we get you know,
as long as we have this valet to bring the car and we can get
out of there and not really have to deal with it. Obviously, the
film's success does not need to be stated. However, it does deserve recognition
based mainly on word of mouth in some commercial advertising, this film well exceeded
box office expectations. It grows twenty four million dollars worldwide after being made on
only a nine hundred thousand dollars budget, and it is the most profitable of
Romero's Dead series of films. This film is just as influential as Night of
the Living Dead. It has been remade, had tributes done to it,
parodied, and even became the primary basis of a successful video game series,
Capcom's Dead Rising. It is harrowing, dark and brooding as great as Night
Was. Dawn is a rising of a new era for the zombie film and
is the best of the series in my opinion. It is rare to have
a sequel be more highly regarded than the original, and that is the case
here. That makes this must see viewing no matter the time of the year.
I hope you join me next week when we continue our Halloween slate of
films with Sam Rainey's rollicking, hilarious time travel in demon filled gorefest Army of
Darkness, starring the Great Bruce Cambon for WMNH and Matt Connorton. Unweas this
has been a classic film review with Eric Hilter Allen, No, I'm dam
we din't know about rancy is fils that we have a say I did,
what's coming with you? We have a day I did? We're coming from
you? Do you have a dad. We're coming with you? Because about
the dads out as you were saying what mansills me? What they can be?
Stout where counts selling about we have a dad idea, I'm coming from
you, but we have a dad. What's coming to you? We have
a dad? What's coming? Have a bowery on brow and let us out
a little bed now a tall rob the other you're not having power house brown
cots a bow out the tail about Brad now adad well walk video you have
a very wow ow ground jus about when you have a tag and I'm coming
down when you have a Dagon's coming out. We have a dag coming but
yeah, I coprate bars like a album man house a dead a living blow
down else some tam let us out bad. Now that my dad, well,
rod Well, we have a dad. That one time I go go,
we had a dad that one time I need o. We had a
dad one time I go go. We have a dad now one time I d go