Finally saw Night of the living dead

[Max_Torque]

@Baldwin

I haven’t gotten a DVD of the original movie yet because I’m confused by the numerous different editions. Can somebody recommend the best version?

I have the Special Collector’s Edition, which seems fine to me. Got it before that Millennium Edition came out, and I refuse to be double-dipped, dammit!

I can tell you definitively which version not to get: the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition. They shamelessly shot new footage and edited it into the film itself! And they replaced the soundtrack! Hell with that noise, says I.

[Pushkin]

1.) I didn’t see the ending as a question of racism, just a reminder that by refusing to work together, the people in the house all died. Even the canniest one amongst them. There was a remake IIRC that played up the racism an awful lot at the end.

2.) A mate of mine who is quite keen on zombie films pointed out that the zombie using the brick at the start of the film did seem to go against what was supposedly know of zombies in the second and third.

3.) The brick wielding zombie again stands out, being able to sort of run at a stumble.

[Push_You_Down]

@Pushkin

1.) I didn’t see the ending as a question of racism, just a reminder that by refusing to work together, the people in the house all died. Even the canniest one amongst them. There was a remake IIRC that played up the racism an awful lot at the end.

…I don’t remember racism being present in the remake’s ending at all.

If anything it owes more to the begining of Dawn of the Dead where the good ol’ boys and the National Guard are treating it like a fun outing.

You see zombiers strung up for Target practice and bikers boxing zombies for sport. I don’t recall any racist overtone in that ending.

[js_africanus]

@Max Torque

I can tell you definitively which version not to get: the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition. They shamelessly shot new footage and edited it into the film itself! And they replaced the soundtrack! Hell with that noise, says I.

I don’t know if “shameless” is the word I’d choose. They discuss it extensively in the commentary track and give the reasons why they chose to do it. Personally, I think the movie is better without it, but it’s not like they’re trying to suppress the original.

[Otto]

@Baldwin

In all the Romero zombie movies, the real problem is people’s inability to support each other and work together for the common good.

What are you, some kinda Commie?

(sorry, been reading “The Fountainhead”…sorry…)

[kingpengvin]

I rememeber once on this forum someone wondered how the hell society could break down so fast when in the end of NotLD they seemed to have wrapped up the problem (at least locally),

I turn on the TV and see at what happens in even a modern country when order breaks down for a few days. I believe Romero had a point. In times of crisis people stop thinking logically and work against the common good. Humans are their own worst enemy.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Push You Down

You see zombiers strung up for Target practice and bikers boxing zombies for sport. I don’t recall any racist overtone in that ending.

And what racist overtones are in the original - perfectly healthy, living black man, killed by white zombie hunters - are removed by making Ben ACTUALLY A ZOMBIE!!!

Stupid, stupid choice.