Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Zombies eat people. Only George
Romero and a handful of others have elevated this
simple premise into art. And now, 36 years after Romero's
original "Night of the Living Dead" and 25 years after
the amazing sequel "Dawn of the Dead," this remake
of that sequel proves that one still needs Romero's
genius to make the genre work. This remake is an awesome
film.
I still remember seeing the original
film when I was a teenager at a midnight movie. It
must have been about 1980 or so. I had never seen
a movie so gross and gory and yet, I couldn't walk
away. There was more here than just blood and gore,
there was an amazing social commentary on American
consumer culture as well as Americans themselves.
This was relevant, interesting and thought-provoking
social commentary masked as a gore film. I could never
stomach most gore films yet found myself recommending
Romero's classic and wanting to see it again and again.
For while it was hard to find. Now it has thankfully
been released on DVD to coincide with the release
of this movie.
Filmmaker Zack Snyder makes his
debut here from a script penned by James Gunn, who
cut his teeth at Troma. Gunn's script is based on
the script for the original Romero masterpiece. While
this remake is neither as biting nor as contemplative
as the original film, it still has much to recommend
it in both the filmmaking and the writing arenas.
Snyder's direction is crisp, modern,
showy and edgy. He knows how to build suspense and
he knows how to get a laugh. With the film, he sets
himself up to walk in Romero's footsteps, which is
no small feat. Snyder also has an excellent crew to
make the film work with special effects being as brilliant
and as realistic as Tom Savini's original work.
Gunn's script meanwhile riffs nicely
off the original. While consumer culture is not really
an issue here, sociological struggles within a groups
is. While Gunn sometimes engages in standard plot
contrivances, like power struggles within a group,
he never ones tarries too long in this area. The film
may co-opt some well worn devices but just as easily
takes them into realms heretofore uncharted.
A perfect example of this is how
the main female character has changed in the film.
While Gaylen Ross (the main actress is the Romero
classic) may be a strong female character for 1978,
she is still much more feminine and jumpy than we
would like. Sarah Polley in the remake is a woman
of action. Brilliance in Gunn's script sets her up
as a nurse so when all hell breaks loose, she jumps
right in the fray. Her reactions to her husband's
injury in the first ten minutes of the film is perfect
and shows Polley's Ana to be capable, levelheaded
and focused.
The film also maintains Romero's
trademark racial tensions which remain under the surface
and unspoken throughout the film. Granted, these pressures
wane quickly in this film but, then again, they have
also waned somewhat in the last 25 years.
This film is awesome. Snyder wastes
little time getting the plot underway and in a mark
of genius reminiscent of the original film, it just
starts and goes off running. Within five minutes,
zombies are eating people. It's brilliant.
"Dawn of the Dead" (the remake)
has interesting storylines, interesting characters
(albeit a few stereotypes) and awesome music and special
effects. What is most amazing about this film, like
Romero's originals, is that it seems all too plausible
and real. Not that zombies might ever walk the Earth,
but if they did, the story might go exactly like we
see in this film.
Notes:
Also with Ving Rhames, Kevin Zegers,
Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, and Matt Frewer.
Several actors from the original
Romero film have cameos (all on TV) including Tom
Savini (the sheriff), Ken Foree (the televangelist),
and Scott Reiniger (the general). Gaylen Ross, who
was the main actress in the original, appears via
a sign baring her name at the mall.
The coffee shop in the mall is called
Hallowed Grounds.
Mall music by Tree Adams. Score
by Tyler Bates. A pop song by Johnny Cash plays during
the film's opening credits. Jim Carroll's "People
Who Died" is used over the start of end credits.
In order to see the conclusion of
the story, the end credits must be viewed.
The credits sequences were done
by Kyle Cooper who first came to my notice when he
did the credits for "Se7en." He has done the credits
for over 50 films.
Filmed mainly at an abandoned mall
in Ontario, Canada. The end credits sequence was filmed
in California. Set in Milwaukee.
A song by Sparklehorse was used
in the film's teaser trailer.
Viewed in Austin in March 2004.
The first ten minutes of the film aired on the USA
network (unedited) a few days before the film was
released to theaters nationwide.
