Dawn of the Dead. (18.)
Directed by George A Romero. 1978
Starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reininger and Gaylen Ross. Limited Edition 4K UHD or Blu-ray four-disc box set from Second Sight Films. Includes three different cuts of the film and extensive extras. Released November 16th. 127 mins.
The making of Zombie movies has been one of the great arenas of human achievement over the last half-century. We've done sod all in most other areas of human achievement, but we have built up a very impressive set of Living Dead movies, so at least we have that to show for it. And I believe this, Romero's second Of The films (to be followed by Day, Land and Diary Of The) is the main reason why. Sure, the first Night of the Living Dead, made ten years earlier effectively created a new horror genre but its immediate cultural influence was mostly restricted to the crimson excesses of seedy Europeans. It was this follow-up - bigger, bolder, colourer – that would show the wider filmmaking world how potently symbolic the Lumbering Dead could be.
Even after this it still took a while for them to move into the mainstream, but once the Living Dead juggernaut got rolling it's been zombies, zombies, zombies ever since. If you have trouble keeping track this is the one where a group of survivors hole up in a mall. It is as much action comedy as horror, mixed in with a DIY makeover show. Today it's a banal commonplace to use zombies as a satire of consumerism but forty years ago it must have been revolutionary for audiences to see themselves in the dead-eyed creatures lurching around the shops looking for someone to eat.
It's a classic, but a scrappy classic, endearingly rough around the edges; which is a very good look for these types of films because they are all about making do and making the best of what is still around when the world is running down. The opening scenes in zombie films are often the most crucial because they are about society collapsing and the mindset lag as people try to adapt to the new normal. Dawn opens in a TV studio with heated arguments about the best way to deal with the crisis and the Follow The Science guy getting a hard time.
From there we go into lockdown, with four people escaping by helicopter and holing up in the expansive Monroeville out-of-town shopping mall. A great deal of the film is filled by the process of gentrification, with them making the place habitable and turfing out the undead.
Forty years haven't diminished the film at all. The makeup and the special effects still look impressively realistic, all the more so for being practical. (I'd still maintain that the blood is too red.) You can see the joy they had coming up with ever more inventive ways to sunder body parts and spew blood and entrails from gaping wounds. The acting is pretty good, or at least good enough. All the four leads look like they might be the slightly less charismatic sibling of a major movie star. (Emge really could be Jack Klugman's son.) As a group, they are ordinary enough for us to empathise with, and special enough to look like they deserve to be up on the screen.
Is it scary? Maybe not, but it is unnerving. It's slow and largely avoids major jumps but there's no let-up. The moments of levity only emphasises the helplessness of watching all you knew fall away. Faced with the choice of three versions of the film I went for the longest one because there's more downtime in that version, more shots of the four of them pottering about in the mall, playing at normal life. Ultimately, these are more chilling than the blood and the gore.
Discs 1&2. The Theatrical Cut/ The Extended Cannes Cut.
Note the extended cut on disc 2 isn't a definitive director's cut but rather the version that was used to sell the film at the Cannes film festival. Job done, Romero then went back and trimmed it down by around 10 minutes so if you want a director's cut the Theatrical Cut on Disc 1 is effectively it.
Disc 3 Zombi- The Argento Cut.
Dario that is, whose company shared the distribution rights. They had access to most of the non-English-speaking market and made an abbreviated cut that took out lots of dialogue and concentrated on the gore. According to the commentary by producer Richard P. Rubenstein on the Extended Cut, this version was originally scheduled to come out in Britain and the censor at that time took a look at it and demanded nearly a half-hour of cuts in order to give it a certificate. So, instead, they presented him with the Romero cut and the number of cuts required was reduced to 3 minutes because now he could see a motivation and artistic purpose to it, rather than just loads of gratuitous violence. You may find it a bit egregious that a couple of blokes in Soho were allowed to adjudicate the artistic merit of films, but I think this speaks rather well of our censors. Possibly isn't such a great recommendation for this cut though.
Disc 4. All your extras.
NEW Zombies and Bikers – With John Amplas, Roy Frumkes, Tom Savini, Christine Forrest, Tom Dubensky, Tony Buba, Taso Stavrakis
and a whole host of zombies and bikers! (59 mins)
• NEW Memories of Monroeville
A tour of the mall with Michael Gornick, Tom Savini, Tom Dubensky and Taso Stavrakis (34 mins)
• NEW Raising the Dead: The Production Logistics (25 mins)
With Michael Gornick, Christine Forrest, John Amplas, Tom Dubensky (23 mins)
• NEW The FX of Dawn with Tom Savini (13 mins)
• NEW Dummies! Dummies! – An interview with Richard France (12 mins)
• NEW The Lost Romero Dawn Interview: previously unreleased archive interview (20 mins)
• Super 8 Mall Footage by zombie extra Ralph Langer with the option of archive commentary by Robert Langer and new commentary by
Ralph Langer (13 mins)
• Document of the Dead: The Original Cut (66 mins)
• Document of the Dead: The Definitive Cut with optional commentary by Roy Frumkes (100 mins)
• The Dead Will Walk 2014 Documentary (80 mins)
• Trailers, TV and Radio Spots.
There are also three audio discs. One of the Goblin, (Argento's band) soundtrack and two of the De Woole Library music that Romero used to score the movie.
AND
Rigid box with a lid featuring the original iconic artwork
• Two inner digipaks
• Dissecting the Dead – a 160-page hardback book featuring 17 new essays, archive article and George A. Romero interview plus original
marketing, artwork and merchandise images and behind-the-scenes stills.
• Dawn of the Dead: The novelisation book by George A. Romero and Susanna Sparrow with exclusive artwork.
So basically, get this and you're done.
Directed by George A Romero. 1978
Starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reininger and Gaylen Ross. Limited Edition 4K UHD or Blu-ray four-disc box set from Second Sight Films. Includes three different cuts of the film and extensive extras. Released November 16th. 127 mins.
The making of Zombie movies has been one of the great arenas of human achievement over the last half-century. We've done sod all in most other areas of human achievement, but we have built up a very impressive set of Living Dead movies, so at least we have that to show for it. And I believe this, Romero's second Of The films (to be followed by Day, Land and Diary Of The) is the main reason why. Sure, the first Night of the Living Dead, made ten years earlier effectively created a new horror genre but its immediate cultural influence was mostly restricted to the crimson excesses of seedy Europeans. It was this follow-up - bigger, bolder, colourer – that would show the wider filmmaking world how potently symbolic the Lumbering Dead could be.
Even after this it still took a while for them to move into the mainstream, but once the Living Dead juggernaut got rolling it's been zombies, zombies, zombies ever since. If you have trouble keeping track this is the one where a group of survivors hole up in a mall. It is as much action comedy as horror, mixed in with a DIY makeover show. Today it's a banal commonplace to use zombies as a satire of consumerism but forty years ago it must have been revolutionary for audiences to see themselves in the dead-eyed creatures lurching around the shops looking for someone to eat.
It's a classic, but a scrappy classic, endearingly rough around the edges; which is a very good look for these types of films because they are all about making do and making the best of what is still around when the world is running down. The opening scenes in zombie films are often the most crucial because they are about society collapsing and the mindset lag as people try to adapt to the new normal. Dawn opens in a TV studio with heated arguments about the best way to deal with the crisis and the Follow The Science guy getting a hard time.
From there we go into lockdown, with four people escaping by helicopter and holing up in the expansive Monroeville out-of-town shopping mall. A great deal of the film is filled by the process of gentrification, with them making the place habitable and turfing out the undead.
Forty years haven't diminished the film at all. The makeup and the special effects still look impressively realistic, all the more so for being practical. (I'd still maintain that the blood is too red.) You can see the joy they had coming up with ever more inventive ways to sunder body parts and spew blood and entrails from gaping wounds. The acting is pretty good, or at least good enough. All the four leads look like they might be the slightly less charismatic sibling of a major movie star. (Emge really could be Jack Klugman's son.) As a group, they are ordinary enough for us to empathise with, and special enough to look like they deserve to be up on the screen.
Is it scary? Maybe not, but it is unnerving. It's slow and largely avoids major jumps but there's no let-up. The moments of levity only emphasises the helplessness of watching all you knew fall away. Faced with the choice of three versions of the film I went for the longest one because there's more downtime in that version, more shots of the four of them pottering about in the mall, playing at normal life. Ultimately, these are more chilling than the blood and the gore.
Discs 1&2. The Theatrical Cut/ The Extended Cannes Cut.
Note the extended cut on disc 2 isn't a definitive director's cut but rather the version that was used to sell the film at the Cannes film festival. Job done, Romero then went back and trimmed it down by around 10 minutes so if you want a director's cut the Theatrical Cut on Disc 1 is effectively it.
Disc 3 Zombi- The Argento Cut.
Dario that is, whose company shared the distribution rights. They had access to most of the non-English-speaking market and made an abbreviated cut that took out lots of dialogue and concentrated on the gore. According to the commentary by producer Richard P. Rubenstein on the Extended Cut, this version was originally scheduled to come out in Britain and the censor at that time took a look at it and demanded nearly a half-hour of cuts in order to give it a certificate. So, instead, they presented him with the Romero cut and the number of cuts required was reduced to 3 minutes because now he could see a motivation and artistic purpose to it, rather than just loads of gratuitous violence. You may find it a bit egregious that a couple of blokes in Soho were allowed to adjudicate the artistic merit of films, but I think this speaks rather well of our censors. Possibly isn't such a great recommendation for this cut though.
Disc 4. All your extras.
NEW Zombies and Bikers – With John Amplas, Roy Frumkes, Tom Savini, Christine Forrest, Tom Dubensky, Tony Buba, Taso Stavrakis
and a whole host of zombies and bikers! (59 mins)
• NEW Memories of Monroeville
A tour of the mall with Michael Gornick, Tom Savini, Tom Dubensky and Taso Stavrakis (34 mins)
• NEW Raising the Dead: The Production Logistics (25 mins)
With Michael Gornick, Christine Forrest, John Amplas, Tom Dubensky (23 mins)
• NEW The FX of Dawn with Tom Savini (13 mins)
• NEW Dummies! Dummies! – An interview with Richard France (12 mins)
• NEW The Lost Romero Dawn Interview: previously unreleased archive interview (20 mins)
• Super 8 Mall Footage by zombie extra Ralph Langer with the option of archive commentary by Robert Langer and new commentary by
Ralph Langer (13 mins)
• Document of the Dead: The Original Cut (66 mins)
• Document of the Dead: The Definitive Cut with optional commentary by Roy Frumkes (100 mins)
• The Dead Will Walk 2014 Documentary (80 mins)
• Trailers, TV and Radio Spots.
There are also three audio discs. One of the Goblin, (Argento's band) soundtrack and two of the De Woole Library music that Romero used to score the movie.
AND
Rigid box with a lid featuring the original iconic artwork
• Two inner digipaks
• Dissecting the Dead – a 160-page hardback book featuring 17 new essays, archive article and George A. Romero interview plus original
marketing, artwork and merchandise images and behind-the-scenes stills.
• Dawn of the Dead: The novelisation book by George A. Romero and Susanna Sparrow with exclusive artwork.
So basically, get this and you're done.
