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Day of the Dead
Now, I was thinking of just doing a 1-line review for this movie, along
the lines of "Day of the Dead - easily the best Romero Zombie film",
but it appears that (as is often the case), people don't seem to agree
with me despite the fact that I am always right. So apparently I will
have to justify this claim. Now, all of his zombie movies are pretty spot-on
(yes, even Land of the Dead, while not a patch on the others is still
far superior to most other zombie films), and I am sure most people would
more-or-less agree. Where I am in the minority is in my knowledge that
with Day, George got everything pretty much spot-on.
The characters in Day are much more interesting than the Night or Dawn
chaps. Tell me that Flyboy doesn't annoy the bezeesus out of you, or that
you don't want to leave Barbra out for all the monochrome zombies to devour
just to shut her up? With Day, the only character who is nearly as irritating
is Captain Rhodes, but this is acceptable as we are supposed to hate him,
and we both want and expect him to get his comeuppance. He's the bad guy,
for gawds sake!
With Day of the Dead, the gore effects that were trialed out on NOTLD,
and were given a bit of a budget (and tested out in colour) in Dawn reached
their peak in Day. The zombies don't look like they are made of plasticine
as they do in Dawn, and they do not utilise cheap looking CGI as in Land
of the Dead. How often have you seen effects from this film ripped off
and mimicked in more recent movies? Rhodes' death itself is so iconic
it's been copied to death!
And then there is the story. Night of the Living Dead is your typical
siege film, locked in a building with no escape and plenty of infighting.
Dawn is a meandering tale that takes an age to get going and tries to
encompass the whole of society, but in the end is too caught up with anti-consumerism
and has far too many characters resulting in a rather disjointed affair.
Day of the Dead discusses the utter futility of life itself. Here the
whole of human existence is condensed into one location, one generation
and a few short weeks. Should we spend our existence fighting for survival,
studying and trying to find a purpose to life, or simply sitting back
and making the most of what you have?
To delve even deeper into the sociological metaphors, here the military
take on the role of the politicians, the scientists as the philosophers
and the civilians are the proletariat. A condensed yet concise slice of
society.
Anyway, this is getting a bit too 'film studies' now. It is a great movie
because the story, characters and effects are superb. There are numerous
memorable set pieces, fantastic music throughout, and it is a thoroughly
consistent film from start to finish. This is his best film for these,
and many more reasons, just accept it eh?