I have noted many times I am trying to fill in most of my Fill-In Filmography poster, but how was I to know one of the hardest movies to find would be George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead? Night of the Living Dead is easy to find because the filmmakers didn’t set the copyright correctly, making the movie public domain. Day of the Dead bounces around different streaming services all the time. But the middle part of Romero’s original trilogy? The one that is arguably the best of the three? Not only does it not seem to be streaming anywhere, not even as a rental, but I couldn’t even find a cheap DVD of it. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but I haven’t the slightest idea what it is, and I’m feeling too lazy to look it up.
Then by sheer dumb luck, I found it on YouTube. I wasn’t even looking for it at the time. Someone had put some host segments before, after, and in the middle of the movie, but basically, it was there. Was it worth the effort?
The zombie plague Romero depicted in Night of the Living Dead has only gotten worse. Anyone who dies comes back as a zombie, desiring only to consume the flesh of the living. Destruction of the brain or fire is the only way to stop a zombie. Individually, they aren’t that tough. Their danger comes in swarms. In the city of Philadelphia, four people decide to flee the city in a helicopter. The pilot, Stephen (David Emge), is a local traffic reporter. He’s bringing his pregnant girlfriend, news producer Fran (Gaylen Ross). There’s also two heavily armed SWAT team members, Roger (Scott Reiniger) and Peter (Ken Foree). Roger and Stephen are friends, and Roger met Peter during a clean-up of a local housing project. No one really has any answers, and since society seems to be falling apart, why not just make a run for it?
The foursome, after some escapades, eventually find a shopping mall with plenty of provisions inside. Running out of fuel, they decide to camp out there. From there, they need to find a way to make the place zombie-proof, blocking entrances and taking out any of the undead that are already wandering around inside. That’s easy enough since the four are fairly resourceful, and the zombies are almost comically stupid and easy to evade as long as you’re quick enough. But there are other problems. See, the thing about the undead is they’re rarely the biggest problem in a world like this. The zombies are dangerous, sure. But other survivors might make things a heck of a lot worse.
Romero’s zombie movies, the better ones anyway, always have a reputation for social commentary, even if Romero himself claimed he never intended it that way the first time around. That fact is probably why Dawn may be the best of the bunch. I didn’t care for Day, and while Night is groundbreaking in many ways, it still has a smaller scale and a more amateur (but talented amateur) feel to it. Dawn, meanwhile, has a bigger scale and something to say about consumerism without being preachy or direct about it. While the movie initially shows the four protagonists being smart about survival, where all four are fairly capable and Fran is no damsel-in-distress (arguably Steve is the clumsiest initially and Roger the most reckless), that doesn’t last. As they settle down to life in the mall, they all take advantage of all the merchandise they have free access to, even grabbing a load of cash at one point despite the fact that money in this new world is probably useless.
In fact, for all that the four eventually realize they’re probably turning into something that they can’t really get behind, the real threats come from other living humans. It’s the shortsightedness, the greed, and the stupidity of people that is far more destructive than the zombies. And since those mindless former humans are still just wandering around a shopping center like they did before they died, well…mindlessly consuming isn’t any better if you’re alive or among the undead. As it is, Romero’s movie shows how the world could fall apart, and then how people might not be able to move on to something else, let alone put it back the way it was. That’s a depressing message, and probably not a completely inaccurate one.
Grade: B+
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