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 Dawn of the Dead
DVD Review by Paul Trombley, M.D |
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"When there's no more room in Hell, the
dead will walk among us," says one of the grim protagonists in George
A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", and so is a fair descriptor of
the state of the world in this bleak horror classic. Taking off as a
sequel of sorts to his own ground breaking "Night of the Living
Dead", Romero gives us a horrific vision of society grinding to a
halt under its own weight as the living become quickly outnumbered to the
new society of the dead, whose only driving force is the physical feasting
upon and utter consumption of the living. Romero states he wrote this film as a satiric and cautionary tale of errant consumerism that was running rampant through the 70's (as the film was made in 1977-1978), and this could only be more true in today's world. For unknown and speculative reasons, the dead have become reanimated and act to eat the living; the film's focus being on one small group of survivors who flee the big city in the hopes of finding a safe place to live, only to find refuge in the belly of a giant indoor mall (a fairly new invention in the 1970's). The story is rich and complex in characterizations, and features very strong acting and realistic motivations and reactions by the main characters. This is the film's main strength. The characters are not golden-good, they are realistic people with streaks of good and bad in their bid for self-preservation and in the dealing with the hell that is around them. Especially nice to see is that the Romero chooses to show strong, sympathetic characters who can succumb to very nasty albeit logical ends at the ghoulish hands of the dead. A real plus to this film is Tom Savini, one of the best special effects artists in Hollywood, who did all of the gory special makeup and effects. And there are some real beauties in that regard, though Romero does try to have some moments of comic relief in the violence that surrounds. One of the best examples of this is a classic scene where a zombie is approaching an unwitting hero, who is refueling the escape helicopter; only to learn the hard way that he might have been a tad too tall to approach a working 'chopper. The only caution to those who have not seen this film: be warned it IS a very violent film, as the story's content and subject would belie. The video transfer is a great one, taking into account that the film is older and was filmed in the 1970's (love those flybacks). The transfer comes from original stock and is letterboxed only. Anchor Bay (the company that put this DVD out) wisely chose to make the disc a double-sided transfer so as to avoid overly compressing the film. As well, this DVD title comes from the Elite LD print of the film, which was recently put out in both a CLV version and a deluxe CAV boxed set, and features the fully restored director's cut of the film. Again, the best way to view any film. The extra moments are not all that significant in this cut, but it actually does help to bridge some odd gaps that were noticeable when one viewed the previously-available versions of the film. It also allows the viewer to see how others are reacting to the zombie infestation a bit better than the original theatrical/ VHS releases. The colors are vibrant, especially the blood reds and the rotting flesh greens. The sound is somewhat lesser in quality, though. The disc is in 2 channel Dolby only. This does tend to limit the soundtrack, and really makes it pale in comparison to some of the other titles available. Most of the sound is channels solely through the almost overworked center channel. Not that there are great sound effects in the movie, save many many gunshots and screams; but the film sounds somewhat hollow or less than complete without all the channels active. I am not sure whether or not the Elite remaster is in any better shape soundtrack-wise, though, so this might be the best that is available to the film. At any rate, the music is particularly heinous, and is probably a blessing that the soundtrack is so limited. (Credits note that Romero wrote and performed the music with his band, including Italian horror guru Dario Argento; unfortunately, Romero is not John Carpenter, a director who can write a halfway decent musical score as well as make a hell of a movie) As for extras, it is somewhat disappointing that Anchor Bay did not choose to use some of the extra disc space (given the 2-sided movie transfer) to add some of the various extras that are included in the deluxe Elite boxed LD set. The ONLY extra it packs (and on both sides) are 2 spots: 1 theatrical trailer and 1 TV commercial. These are the same on both sides, so one shouldn't waste time to check both sets. Though it is nice that a company chose to transfer and release the director's cut of this classic bit of horror, and at a very reasonable price, the only novel thing Anchor Bay DID do was to add a short index of scene choices to skip to. I did like the way they have a bit of film actively playing beside the scene titles, so as to give an indication of where in the film the viewer is going to page to. Overall, tear into this one for a visceral good time. Bon appetite!
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Dawn of the Dead Overall, tear into this one for a visceral good time. Bon appetite! Staring: David Emge Directed By: George A. Romero Release Information:Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 1978 DVD Release Date: 4/27/99 Run Time: 128min Aspect Ratio: Widescreen Letterboxed - 1.66:1 Layers: Single Edition Details:
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