Dawn Of The Dead!

Cafe Society
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The extra footage included in AB’s “Theatrical Cut” was apparently due to a mastering error/misunderstanding. For some reason, an entire reel of the film was replaced with a corresponding reel from the “Director’s/Cannes” cut. This is pretty unforgiveable, as it makes a hash out of the dock scene: instead of including the entire extended scene from the longer version, it only includes the back half of it.

As for the motivations of the ghetto people in not wanting to put down their beloved dead ones, the priest has an extra line in Dario Argento’s edited-for-Europe version that is more explantory:

“These are simple people. And they have little. But they do not give it up easily, and their dead, they give up to no one.”

Given that line, I think that it wasn’t so much a question of the ghetto tenants being unwilling to shoot the zombies as much as it was a tenacity on their part to take care of it themselves, on their own time and terms, rather than let the National Guard do it.

This makes sense; after all, if my relative or friend’s corpse needed a bullet through the head, I’d like to think I’d do it myself and not have a stranger do it.

If you haven’t already seen this version, I recommend it; the subtle but effective changes Argento wrought (added lines, shots, scenes and music as well as the deletion of material from Romero’s version) makes for an interesting comparision. The “social commentary” themes have been mostly deleted, along with the bulk of the slower passages, while much gore and action has been added that makeas for a pretty straightforward film. One can hope Anchor Bay includes it on their upcoming box set, because there currently isn’t one DVD release of this version around that doesn’t look completely awful.

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Also, on the issue of “Director’s Cut” vs. “Theatical”:

There’s been a lot of debate over which version could be properly labeled as Romero’s final cut. Romero himself does absolutely nothing to clear this issue up. On his previous website, he did quite a bit of posting on the boards in response to people’s questions, and the issue of his preferred cut came up two or three times.

I won’t quote him exactly (the board is now defunct and nothing was archived, so I can’t go back and check) but his comments were usually contradictary, to the effect of:

“The current U.S. version is my favorite.”

“I had a longer version that was my favorite, but it had to get chopped down for general release because of show schedules.”

“The longer version is my favorite.”

“All the versions are pretty good, I think.”

So…take it as you will. It’s too bad Romero apparently decided to forsake the net, as he was definately a entertaining presence on the boards. Plus, he owes me a story…I posted a query regarding the proper original color timing of Dawn, and he promised to respond soon with a lengthy account of how the complications of the Three Mile Island incident caused serious problems in the negative cutting, color timing and final release printing of Dawn’s original theatrical run…but, alas, he decided that trying to get movies made was more important than telling old stories on the net, and I can’t say I disagree.

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From what I understand the “German theatrical cut” is the Argento edit, which I’ve never seen. I look forward to comparing all 3 versions when the box set is released.

As for why the ghetto dwellers didn’t give up their dead, there’s a scene in the basement after Peter has shot all the zombies in the cage, when a SWAT guy asks, “Why’d they do it? Why’d they put them down here?” Peter replies, “Because they still believe there’s respect in dying,” which in my view leans more toward the “poor-people-couldn’t-bear-to-shoot-their-loved-ones” interpretation. YMMV.

I also have always thought that the Martinez scene was, at least in part, based on the urban terrorism of the radical left groups like the SLA from just a few years before the film was made. You can read the script at Homepageofthe dead.com, a treasure trove of all things Romero.

I’m also curious about the alternate ending of Dotd, in which everybody dies. Savinia has always said thaey shot the footage, but it’s lost. Romero says it was written, but never filmed. I’d love to see it found and added to the new DVD release.

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Sorry, that’s Savini.

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I have the script around here somewhere. (No, I’m not going to try to find it!) In the end everybody dies. IIRC, Fran is sitting in the running helicopter and Peter is in the room with a gun to his head. Fran hears the gunshot, so she knows he’s killed himself. She gives up and stands up into the rotating rotor blades.

It’s been years and years since I’ve read it, but I think that’s what happens.

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From the script:

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Umm…I believe it was “Miguelito.”:smiley: God, I’m such an ass.

I LOVE zombie movies, and this is by far the best. It’s just amazing. Can’t say much more.

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It would be cool if that suicide ending was actually filmed and still did exist. Most of Romero’s productions from Laurel Entertainment have had their negative trims and deleted scenes dumped, though, and nothing’s ever surfaced.

The biggest tragedy is the loss of the original 3-hour black and white version of Martin, the only copy of which was apparently stolen.

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Ok, first of all, gobear, thanks for the link to Homepageof theDead. That place rocks! Especially the link to the free download of Night of the Living Dead. I didn’t know that was public domain already.

Now, a question. At the same site, I downloaded the scripts for Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. Already read through Dawn (it’s almost like watching the movie again!), but I’m conflicted on Day. I haven’t seen it yet, and with this being unemployed and all, I can’t afford to rent it.

Should I read it, and watch when I get the chance? Or should I hold out and enjoy it in all its cinematic glory first, and read only afterwards? Will the movie be ruined by knowing the story? Or will I enjoy it more for knowing what to watch for?

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If you read the script first, you’ll be deeply disappointed in the movie. If you watch the movie first, you’ll be able to put faces and voices to some of the characters in the script.

Essentially, Romero wrote the script of Day to be the zombie epic to end all zombie epics. Unfortuantely, he couldn’t get the financing to make the big budget extravaganza he wanted, so he had to trim the costs and rewrite the script. Instead of travellers wandering into the decadent island retreat of the ex-governor of Florida, Day has the same setup as the other two movies, i.e., a small band of survivors hiding from the zombies without and torn by conflicts within.

The good news is that he may be able to use his ideas in his NEW zombie movie, Dead Reckoning (It would have been called Twilight of the Dead, but Richard Rubenstein holds the rights to that name and he and Romero had an ugly falling out.)

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From gobear’s link:

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So there really is going to be a fourth installment? I might actually get to see one of these on the big screen? Oh Frabjous day!

That rocks. :smiley:

:: Digging through the couch for change so’s I can rent Day of the Dead ::

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That reminds me…did any of you guys like Return of the living dead? The comedy series of movies that came out in the late 80s?

Brains! More Brains!!

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Nobody has mentioned Document of the Dead, a feature-length documentary about the making of Dawn. I bought the DVD a while back but haven’t watched it yet. It should have some interesting details.

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I worked in Monroeville Mall (where it was filmed) for 5 years. Yet, somehow I have never seen the movie. I always thought about zombies when I was in the back corridors taking out trash.

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Damn, I would too! That must be awesome. :slight_smile:

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gobear, pal, you just won yourself a beer from me. That’s the most wonderful thing I’ve heard of in weeks!

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Ok any cites or tidbits on this 4th film. I am dying to See it already! (oops, no not dying…) That is amazing news though!!

Joe_Cool
I liked only the first installment and any fans of that movie will be happy to know that MGM is finally releasing a DVD in the next few months here in North America!!

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OK, if anybody’s interested, I just saw Day of the Dead last night. I’m amazed at how some of the characters felt recycled from Dawn, but otherwise, I enjoyed the hell out of it. For example: Steel (Day) = Wooley (Dawn), Rickles ~ Roger, only when he was freaking out during the Tractor-Trailer expedition. The woman protagonists seem about the same. The reasonable black guy (all 3 movies). It almost seems intentional that in each movie, the survivors from the previous one + one more person make it out: Night - Ben the black guy. Dawn: Peter the black guy, and Fran the girl. Day - John the black guy, Sarah the girl, and Bobby the electronics guy. I wonder if that’ll follow suit when (if?) he makes the 4th.

In the opening scene in sarah’s office, for the first time in years and years, a movie scene made me jump and get adrenaline. :smiley:

Tom Savini kicks major ass. As one reviewer on the web said,

and

Even though I was disgusted by Dr. Frankenstein, and hated Captain Rhodes, I was still deeply bothered seeing them get killed/eaten, because no matter how much they deserved it, they are now a measurable percentage of the human race. And the idea of a human being food for something deeply disturbs me (Maybe that’s part of my attraction to these movies).

Sure it wasn’t as great as Night or Dawn, but I don’t know why it gets such bad press.

How does your version of the story wrap up? Do we survive, finding some way to massacre or un-undead them? Or are the last remaining pockets of humanity overrun and wiped out, to be replaced with mechanical, mindless dead creatures?

One thing I found interesting was this: I had been wondering what happens to the zombies if they don’t find people to eat (working on the assumption that they eat for food - from news reports in the first 2 movies), but that was explained in this one. They don’t get nourishment, whether they eat or not, it’s just instinct. They’re up and about because the instinctual part of the brain was the last to rot. and here, Romero gives sort of an explanation of his vision of how the whole thing works out - that the majority of them just eventually fall down dead again, because they have finished rotting. So I guess that makes my last discussion point useless? hahaha

Comments? Discussion?

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I think if Day of the Dead had been produced without the previous two movies existing, it’d have a lot better press; it suffers by comparison. I first saw Day of the Dead at a midnight movie, and I was literally the only person in the theater. Even though I was in my twenties, I found myself moving closer to the exit, away from the silent black middle of the theater, where any number of zombies could have been waiting, hungry for human flesh…

The zombies were definitely more impressive in Day. But the story was so claustrophobic I got sick of all the characters, including the good guys. (And why did the military guys have to be such dicks? It’s hard to believe a psycho like the captain could have attained that rank; and one of the guys appears to be the oldest private in the history of the Army.) Irritatingly, I found myself sharing the captain’s frustration with the scientists, who really did seem to be just dicking around. I’m not an MD or biologist, but I like to think that with the facilities they had available, and a supply of “live” specimens, I could have learned something about how the zombies work, what animates them, etc. (Assuming there’s a non-supernatural explanation.)