REVIEW: Night of the Living Dead, 1968 (NO SPOILERS)
Finn Clark
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by George Romero
Starring Duane Jones & Judith O'Dea
This is it. This is *the* horror movie. Neither Hammer's Frankenstein,
Universal's Dracula or any other damn film in the world so completely
revolutionised ideas of what could be done with horror in the cinema... yet
it was done on tuppence-ha'penny with a mostly amateur cast and Bosco
chocolate syrup for blood. Its zombie extras were paid one dollar and a
T-shirt saying "I was a zombie on Night of the Living Dead." Copyright
problems mean it's public domain. There have been many other zombie flicks
since 1968, made with more money and greater scope, but there's something
timeless about Night of the Living Dead. Simply, it's a must-see.
This timelessness becomes particularly impressive when you consider the age
in which was made. Let's get some perspective. In 1968, they hadn't yet
put a man on the moon and Hammer had recently released Quatermass and the
Pit. The previous decade (the fifties) was the age of monster flicks like
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms - oh, and the last Laurel and Hardy movie.
Hell, 1968 is about as near to our era as it is to silent films and Murnau's
Nosferatu. Romero didn't film in black and white as some kind of artistic
statement, as with Schindler's List, but because the budget wouldn't stretch
to colour and black-and-white films hadn't died out yet.
What's more, this is a film set in the American South in the sixties with a
heroic black lead character. He even gets to shoot a cowardly piece of
slime white guy - and the audience cheer! Screw today's milk-and-water
political correctness. This is crusading social polemic with a flesh-eating
bite.
It starts out like an episode of the Twilight Zone, with similar music.
Sometimes the era intrudes, as with that huge bakelite TV on which appear
presenters speaking the American equivalent of BBC English. Oh, and there's
also Marilyn Eastman's hair. But the moment Duane Jones appears on the
scene, you forget it's not taking place today. He's strong, smart,
practical and a landmark in black cinema as much as he is in horror.
The style is ultra-realist. In such a naturalistic piece, it feels wrong
even to notice the acting (which is never inadequate) but at times you can
tell that Hardman and Wayne are amateurs.
The introduction is particularly interesting. Filmed today, it would be
tight on the actors and full of close-ups... but instead George Romero
seems more interested in the world they're driving through. Little touches
like the radio ("we are coming back on the air after an interruption due to
technical problems") put us subtly on the alert and watching what's around
rather than giving all our attention to the dialogue. This is probably a
good thing, since it's not a particularly interesting conversation!
As an aside, it's been claimed that despite Ben's brave resourcefulness and
Mr Cooper's cowardice, the former was wrong and the latter was right. Had
they all gone down to the cellar, they'd have survived. This, I humbly
submit, is bollocks. Ben's thinking was sound and it took terrible luck to
screw it up. Whereas Mr Cooper's "plan" (let's all hide and wait for a
miracle) would have needed only a very little bad luck to bring a horde of
zombies down the stairs for munchies all round. (I wouldn't have liked to
be trapped down there when the lights went out and the little girl went
freaky, for a start.)
The zombies (never named as such) are unusual. Later films turn them
basically into vampires, infecting you with their bite and so on. However
here it's more general - anyone who dies might get up again, while Barbra
appears to be zombifying while still alive. (She shows signs of fever by
complaining that it's hot, is rather too fond of her knife and gets scared
of fire.) I've never really bought the argument that we're all zombies
under the skin, despite the messages in Dawn of the Dead and other such
films, but with Barbra the lines are definitely being blurred.
The make-up jobs are also pretty minimal, with the dead not having had much
time for decomposition. Later Romero films would show zombies in a far more
disgusting state. (Incidentally, I can't believe that the imdb lists as a
goof those still-moving eyes on the zombie that's just had a crowbar through
its head. Not only is it obviously deliberate, but it's possibly the
movie's single most chilling image!)
Even after so many years, Night of the Living Dead still has the power to
shock. The scenes of cannibalism are hard to take and the ending retains
its punch even on repeat viewings. There's a beauty to the cinematography
that you only get with black and white, combined with an uncompromising
realism that cinema's largely lost over the past twenty-odd years. It's not
the goriest zombie film out there, but it's one of the finest cinematic
achievements in the genre. Takes no prisoners.
Finn Clark.
James Mcconnell
news:aevm6r$336$1...@news7.svr.pol.co.uk...
> NO SPOILERS - but dammit, everyone must have seen this one!
>
> Night of the Living Dead (1968)
> Directed by George Romero
> Starring Duane Jones & Judith O'Dea
Your best review so far, excellent stuff. Keep it up!
Jamie
--
"The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in- Film at eleven"
ICQ#:158873494
Dr Walpurgis
Decent review old boy, but I'm obliged to point out (once again) that
Ben is a blithering idiot, who -- when he isn't cheerfully admitting to
breaking into motor cars -- behaves like an absolute shower. "Heroic"?
"Resourceful"? "Sound thinking"?. My arse. He was a stupid, stubborn,
one-man-crime-wave who could have made the whole movie more dramatically
satisfying by taking a bullet from Cooper at the start of the second reel.
--
Dr Walpurgis: Cooper was right, you know -- the cellar *was* the safest place
Finn Clark
> Decent review old boy,
Dashed decent of you, old bean!
I'm about to disagree with the rest of your post, mind you.
> but I'm obliged to point out (once again) that Ben is a
> blithering idiot, who -- when he isn't cheerfully admitting
> to breaking into motor cars --
Dude, if I'd just seen a couple of dozen living dead barbecue a truck
driver, I'd cheerfully admit to carjacking the popemobile and taking the
anal virginity of his cardinals.
> behaves like an absolute shower. "Heroic"?
> "Resourceful"? "Sound thinking"?. My arse. He was a
> stupid, stubborn, one-man-crime-wave who could have
> made the whole movie more dramatically satisfying by
> taking a bullet from Cooper at the start of the second
> reel.
Whuh? I simply don't get this. Ben takes direct action to keep out zombies
and improve the general situation on several occasions, which is more than
anyone else does. And it's not his fault that Tom spilled gasoline all over
the burning torch. If that accident hadn't happened, they could have all
jumped in the truck and driven away to safety. It was a good plan that went
wrong. Dunno about you, but in a situation like that I'd personally back
the chap with a plan - and if there's a 10% chance of it fucking up, I'll
weigh up the odds and probably run with it.
As far as I can see, Ben only makes two debatable calls. Firstly he stops
Mr Cooper dragging everyone down into the cellar, which I personally agree
with. Secondly he shoots Mr Cooper, which again I'd do in his shoes. The
man's a weasel who by that point had proved himself an active danger on two
occasions.
What, specifically, do you think Ben did that was stupid? (And besides, I
disagree with the "dramatically satisfying" bit on the more fundamental
grounds that Ben's the only character with enough balls to make things
happen - whether he's wrong or right, without him the story would have been
90 minutes of "let's hold our breaths as we wait in the cellar... oh shit,
our daughter's started biting us!" Plus if they'd stayed in the cellar,
they wouldn't have received the TV or radio broadcasts, so would have been
clueless about pretty much everything.)
Finn Clark.
bod
"Finn Clark" <kafe...@blewbury99.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:aevm6r$336$1...@news7.svr.pol.co.uk...
> What's more, this is a film set in the American South in the sixties with
a
> heroic black lead character.
hate to pick ...maybe im wrong but isnt it set in pitsburgh...a bit lower
than new york and not considerd the south in american terms?
apart from this and more of a personal opinion than a review i have to agree
with the rest...keep it up!
writing a review is a difficult task because theres allways some smark fuck
that knows better....even though its impossible to know it all and the smart
fuck doesnt account for that!!!
hats off to you for attempting something i have trouble aproaching!!!
--
regards from BOD! (as seen in viz magazine...and ill never let you forget
it!!)
"dont worry yoko, its only a friggin water pist...."
JOHN LENNON 1980
see bod pissing in the wind at...
www.bodland.co.uk the updated home of bod!
bod
"Dr Walpurgis" <drwal...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3D13629...@blueyonder.co.uk...
> Decent review old boy, but I'm obliged to point out (once again) that
> Ben is a blithering idiot, who -- when he isn't cheerfully admitting to
> breaking into motor cars -- behaves like an absolute shower. "Heroic"?
> "Resourceful"? "Sound thinking"?. My arse. He was a stupid, stubborn,
> one-man-crime-wave who could have made the whole movie more dramatically
> satisfying by taking a bullet from Cooper at the start of the second reel.
spoilers
lol...here we go....
ben didnt have the advantage unlike the viewer of the film of knowing that
he was going to be a rescue attempt the next day...he wanted to keep his
options open and not go for the last resort...the cellar was plan b....what
if they all did hide in the cellar...the film would have been even more
tragic if all of them had lived only to be gunned down the next day by a
trigger happy american with a gun...however if there had been no rescue
attempt, they would have all starved to death...
yes, nor ben nor cooper would listen to each other, that was the fatal
mistake in the end and one that romero repeated with day of the dead...at
least in dawn they worked together, it was only when rodger lost his shit
and started going off the rails that things started to go wrong for the
group....
communication is a key to a lot of romeros films and also one everyone needs
to learn in everyday life...
if we stop fighting and work together then maybe one of dose tings wont cum
up behind us and bite us on da ass!!
all romeros films deal with a breakdown in civilisation in one way or
another !!
WideScreenPig
<kafe...@blewbury99.freeserve.co.uk> writ thusly:
>As far as I can see, Ben only makes two debatable calls. Firstly he stops
>Mr Cooper dragging everyone down into the cellar, which I personally agree
>with.
Um, the irony of the film is that Ben winds up hiding in the cellar,
which _does_ turn out to be the safest place. _Cooper was right all
along._ Did you miss that? Cooper had a plan long before Ben found
his way into the house.
>Secondly he shoots Mr Cooper, which again I'd do in his shoes. The
>man's a weasel who by that point had proved himself an active danger on two
>occasions.
Cooper behaves the way he does because he is trying to protect his
family--Ben's actions are putting them at risk, and he does what he
has to do to minimize that risk. Ben, on the other hand, commits the
films only act of outright, cold-blooded murder, shooting an unarmed
man dead because he's a "weasel". Cooper's actions under the
circumstances are entirely justified. Ben's aren't.
I'm with the Doc on this one. Don't confuse "protagonist" with "hero"
folks. Ben makes every bad decision there is to make. If the film
had begun with Cooper & co. arriving at the house, barricading
themselves in the basement, only to have stranger Ben show up,
immediately start bossing everyone around, disrupting what was
previously a secure situation because of ego, leading to everyone
being killed save himself, no one would be arguing this point.
horrorflower
> Ben is a blithering idiot, who -- when he isn't cheerfully admitting to
> breaking into motor cars -- behaves like an absolute shower. "Heroic"?
> "Resourceful"? "Sound thinking"?. My arse. He was a stupid, stubborn,
> one-man-crime-wave who could have made the whole movie more dramatically
> satisfying by taking a bullet from Cooper at the start of the second reel.
No way! Ben was my hero! He was the coolest. He had the kind of
stubborness that marks true leadership. He was burningly intelligent
and had the right idea,even if everything did go terribly wrong:
Better to face the world then hide in a dark basement waiting for
death. In general, that's a sound philosphy. I couldn't disagree more,
doctor!
hf
Sara Merry
calls. Firstly he stops Mr Cooper dragging everyone down into the
cellar, which I personally agree with. >>
(WideScreenPig) : << Um, the irony of the film is that Ben winds up
hiding in the cellar, which _does_ turn out to be the safest place.
_Cooper was right all along._ Did you miss that? Cooper had a plan long
before Ben found his way into the house. >>
I think the point is that it doesn't matter who was right or wrong.
What mattered was two guys couldn't put aside their ego and prejudice
long enough to survive. They were both right about some things, both
wrong about others. The egotistical human inability to admit we are
sometimes wrong was what killed them. Even when surrounded by the
living dead, we are our own worst enemy.
Just imagine the chaos that would have erupted down in the cellar (if
they had locked themselves in) when the little girl sprang to unlife.
If the events of the film say anything, it's that life if fraught with
unknown variables. Cooper's plan may have gone awry as well, probably
would have as he and Ben squabbled over who owned what side of the room.
( I'm putting a white line down right here, and if you cross over it, I
swear I'll...etc, etc.)
(Finn Clark) : << Secondly he shoots Mr Cooper, which again I'd do in
his shoes. The man's a weasel who by that point had proved himself an
active danger on two occasions. >>
(WideScreenPig) : << Cooper behaves the way he does because he is trying
to protect his family--Ben's actions are putting them at risk, and he
does what he has to do to minimize that risk. Ben, on the other hand,
commits the films only act of outright, cold-blooded murder, shooting an
unarmed man dead because he's a "weasel". Cooper's actions under the
circumstances are entirely justified. Ben's aren't. >>
Yes, but right before Ben shoots him, it looked like Cooper was going to
lock himself and his family in the cellar while leaving Ben to die. He
has the gun pointed at Ben and says something to the effect of "You want
to stay up here now?" in a mocking tone.
Helen refuses to go down, I assume because she is disgusted with what
her husband is about to do to Ben. So when Ben gets the gun back he
shoots the man who was about to leave him for zombie food.
I don't agree with Ben's decision to kill at all, but Cooper was about
to do the same to him. In an even more gruesome fashion. Could you
share a cellar with a man who just tried to feed you to zombies?
Let's not forget that this is all after Cooper almost left him alone
once before. Ben probably could have been more diplomatic when Cooper
did finally help him, and I'm sure Cooper's humiliation at having been
beaten contributed to his decision to leave Ben to die later.
(WideScreenPig): << I'm with the Doc on this one. Don't confuse
"protagonist" with "hero" folks. Ben makes every bad decision there is
to make. If the film had begun with Cooper & co. arriving at the house,
barricading themselves in the basement, only to have stranger Ben show
up, immediately start bossing everyone around, disrupting what was
previously a secure situation because of ego, leading to everyone being
killed save himself, no one would be arguing this point. >>
Ben's plan mostly likely would have worked, except Tom did something
really, really dumb. Tom was a good kid and all but there it is.
Cooper shows his selfishness and cowardice when he first appears. When
asked why he didn't respond to Barbara's screams, he replies: "We luck
into a safe place and you're telling us we got to risk our lives just
because somebody needs help?", to which Ben replies: "Something like
that."
Don't know about you, but if I was in that situation and overhead that
particular conversation I know who I'd put more trust in.
I don't think Ben is "heroic" at all. The first time I heard that word
applied to him was while reading Danse Macabre, and I was taken aback.
NOTLD is not a movie about heroes. He's much braver than Cooper though,
and willing to risk himself to help others. Cooper's protection of his
family is more possessive than loving.
Sara Merry
----------------------------------------------
Crow: Oh you know, it's just your basic multi-media package, nothing
special, a 90 megahertz pentium, with 32 megs of ram and a quadruple
speed NEC cd-rom, soundblaster 16-bit multi-CD sound card, I threw that
in, and a Courier v34 28k baud modem.
Tom: You think that'll make ya happy, hue?
Crow: YES!
Finn Clark
> Um, the irony of the film is that Ben winds up hiding in
> the cellar, which _does_ turn out to be the safest place.
> _Cooper was right all along._ Did you miss that?
> Cooper had a plan long before Ben found his way into
> the house.
I don't know if you noticed, but the house was wide open when Ben and Barbra
arrived. The house's doors weren't even locked, let alone boarded up.
Cooper's plan (that you're so fond of) was about as secure as a barnyard
animal's anal passage in a boy band's dressing room.
I'm a bridge player and we have a term "result merchant", which means
someone who always defends the course of action that would have worked on a
given hand... even if the line of play they're recommending depended on a
wildly unlikely lie of the unknown cards and to follow it would mean
deliberately choosing a line of play that was going to succeed 25% of the
time instead of a 75% alternative (for instance).
I think you're being a result merchant. Yup, Ben ends up hiding in the
cellar. (But hell, waiting for the rescue team doesn't exactly do Ben a
buncha favours.) But by that point, the situation has changed.
Situation one - before Ben turns up, the Coopers had been hiding in the
cellar. This might be how they shook off the zombies who'd overturned their
car and bitten their daughter (or maybe not, since you'd expect Mr Cooper to
offer it up as evidence that hiding in the cellar is a proven survival
strategy). However given the speed with which zombies gather over the
course of the film, they obviously hadn't gone far.
What's more, if the Coopers had stayed down in the cellar they'd all be
dead. They would have had no information from the radio or television.
When their little girl got up off the slab, they wouldn't have known to
defend themselves and they certainly wouldn't have killed her. The cellar
*wasn't* a safe place and it was only the gun (found by... Ben!) that made
it so.
Situation two - when Ben first arrives, he knows there's a truck and
gasoline outside. And by the time he learns about the cellar, the zombies
are gathering in force outside and plenty excited. Yes, the cellar is the
safest place to hide... but that doesn't make hiding a safer option than
trying to escape.
And as we saw, you can always fall back to the cellar as a second line of
defence. If you make the cellar your first choice option, there's no
back-up option (except praying to the Lord) if there's a fuck-up.
The house contained lots of goodies - a radio, a TV, a gun, a truck,
gasoline and flammable objects. Without the first three, hiding in the
cellar would have been a losing option. And until the truck and gasoline
were taken out of the equation, hiding was a definite second-best course
anyway.
Situation three - no truck, no gasoline. Even when everything's gone as
wrong as it could possibly have done... Ben STILL has the option of hiding
in the cellar! In fact, Ben's the *only* character in Night of the Living
Dead who doesn't die through their own stupidity.
Barbra - dies because she freezes on seeing her brother.
Harry Cooper - dies because throughout he defines "safety" purely in terms
of himself and his family, repeatedly endangering Ben. Even at the end,
when the zombies are breaking in, he's *still* playing his stupid power
games and at last persuades Ben that he's more trouble than he's worth.
Helen Cooper - dies because she can't bring herself to fight back against
her little girl.
Tom - dies because he poured gasoline on a burning torch. Duh.
Judy - dies because she ran out after her boyfriend, despite the fact that
she could have been of no possible help in their incredibly dangerous
zombie-infested mission.
> Cooper behaves the way he does because he is trying
> to protect his family--Ben's actions are putting them at
> risk, and he does what he has to do to minimize that
> risk.
No, Mr Cooper behaves the way he does because he can't bear to lose an
argument. Remember what Mrs Cooper says to him? "That's important, isn't
it? You've always got to be right." Fear and selfishness are big
motivations for him too. Not for the last time in a Romero zombie film, Mr
Cooper is a very dangerous person because he sees everything as a power
struggle and he can't stop fighting for dominance.
> Ben, on the other hand, commits the films only act of
> outright, cold-blooded murder, shooting an unarmed
> man dead because he's a "weasel". Cooper's actions
> under the circumstances are entirely justified. Ben's
> aren't.
Mr Cooper had endangered Ben by...
1 - not offering assistance at the beginning, even when zombies were in the
house and Barbra was screaming.
2 - shutting him outside with zombies after the truck escape bid went wrong.
3 - trying to grab the gun at, to put it mildly, a bad time.
It's a story about teamwork, yes, but Ben ain't the villain. Compare and
contrast: (a) going out into the zombies to help fill up a truck with
gasoline in order to help everyone escape, and (b) making the gun your chief
priority as zombies are breaking in... so you can point it at Ben, and thus
directly cause him to shoot you dead.
> I'm with the Doc on this one. Don't confuse
> "protagonist" with "hero" folks. Ben makes every bad
> decision there is to make.
I'm a complete 180-degree from you on this. I reckon the only way to
condemn his decisions is to be a result merchant about 'em, e.g. going for
the truck is only a bad decision if you know it's going to explode.
> If the film had begun with Cooper & co. arriving at the
> house, barricading themselves in the basement, only to
> have stranger Ben show up, immediately start bossing
> everyone around, disrupting what was previously a
> secure situation because of ego,
Ben isn't acting out of ego.
> leading to everyone being killed save himself, no one
> would be arguing this point.
Actually, the film is nearly what you describe. It starts with just Barbra
and only introduces Ben once quite a lot has happened (and our first sight
of him makes him seem rather threatening, too). And once the Coopers et al
emerge from the cellar, everyone gets pretty much the same screen time. You
describe Ben as the protagonist above because he earns the title in our
minds through being the only one who can get things done.
Note that Ben doesn't stop anyone else from doing whatever they want. He's
happy for Cooper to hide in the cellar (in fact, he's eventually begging him
to do so). Cooper was perfectly free to stay down in the cellar throughout
the film. The only person Ben acts on behalf of is Barbra, and that's
because she can no longer think for herself.
Finn Clark.
MST3KPIMP
climbers.