Mar '19 *
Nah... not even trash. Just epic. I watched again for this month's challenge, and I still love it. This movie changed my fucking LIFE.
I still remember the days when I was just getting into horror movies, and I had to binge all the classics. It was a better time, circa 2005, when Anchor Bay was king, and when you were more willing to blind buy a dvd, because the market wasn't oversaturated with crap. I saw this damn movie and it blew my fucking mind. Romero wrote such an excellent social commentary, with a wonderful cast of characters that really reels you in to the carnage and consumerism and character development, and that's what I fucking loved about Romero. He was such a good writer! He was a better writer than director IMO, but together, he was unstoppable. His scope was so epic, his stories were so damn good, and Dawn is the culmination of his narrative prowess. Everything about Dawn of the Dead is perfect, and I consider it a top-10 movie.
There are only so many movies that have as good a replay value as this movie. I've seen this movie dozens of times, and I still remember how awesome the movie was when I first saw it. I stood up and cheered when Ken Foree turned the tables on the zombies and that shittily-awesome triumphant music played. The movie sets the standards for not only the entire zombie subgenre, but the horror genre itself. It set the bar so high, not even Romero himself could beat it with his successors like Day and Land and whatnot. It's really the culmination of the 70s in many ways. A triumph in filmmaking.
As tommix likes to say, "We must stupp the keeling, or loose the wharr!"
"Mangina!" *Eddie Murphy laugh* - (not) Ken Foree
"Blow all their Puerto Rican and n*gg*r asses right off!" - Rascism trash points
"We whipped 'em. We whipped 'em good."
So many quotes in this movie, it's hard to praise them all...
I still remember the days when I was just getting into horror movies, and I had to binge all the classics. It was a better time, circa 2005, when Anchor Bay was king, and when you were more willing to blind buy a dvd, because the market wasn't oversaturated with crap. I saw this damn movie and it blew my fucking mind. Romero wrote such an excellent social commentary, with a wonderful cast of characters that really reels you in to the carnage and consumerism and character development, and that's what I fucking loved about Romero. He was such a good writer! He was a better writer than director IMO, but together, he was unstoppable. His scope was so epic, his stories were so damn good, and Dawn is the culmination of his narrative prowess. Everything about Dawn of the Dead is perfect, and I consider it a top-10 movie.
There are only so many movies that have as good a replay value as this movie. I've seen this movie dozens of times, and I still remember how awesome the movie was when I first saw it. I stood up and cheered when Ken Foree turned the tables on the zombies and that shittily-awesome triumphant music played. The movie sets the standards for not only the entire zombie subgenre, but the horror genre itself. It set the bar so high, not even Romero himself could beat it with his successors like Day and Land and whatnot. It's really the culmination of the 70s in many ways. A triumph in filmmaking.
As tommix likes to say, "We must stupp the keeling, or loose the wharr!"
"Mangina!" *Eddie Murphy laugh* - (not) Ken Foree
"Blow all their Puerto Rican and n*gg*r asses right off!" - Rascism trash points
"We whipped 'em. We whipped 'em good."
So many quotes in this movie, it's hard to praise them all...
But yeah, this one really stands head and shoulders above virtually all other horror movies. Not quite ALL, but it has to be in the top ten. I know what you mean about its rewatchability. It might be the horror movie I have rewatched the most. I watched it on VHS for years, then DVD (which I still have) and often online, more recently.
Why do you think it is so rewatchable? I guess you already answered that... it is complex, so rewatching it you can find new layers, new meanings, new things you missed the first time. It has a lot of commentary on stuff that is still relevant today, forty one years after it came out. The actors all did a great job, they are always engrossing to watch. I still enjoy the camaraderie between Peter and Roger, and the way Flyboy eventually wins his way into their boys club. It all draws me in, and makes me want to see it over and over.
WAIT A MINUTE, I almost forgot the most important thing. That priest dude clearly says "We must stupp the keeling, or loose the wharr." For the love of all that is holy, get that right! Jeez. These things are important. (Also, not as importantly, I still think Peter says "Mangia!" like an Italian grandmother telling her grandchildren to eat, not "mangina.")
Goblin's soundtrack is so amazing. I liked how they included it in Shaun of the Dead, too. It's just right, it's twisted, haunting, businesslike when it wants to be... it's just always exactly what it should be at that moment.
I know not everyone here agrees with me about this, but I think climate change is real and that we are all in deep doo doo. I think of the scenes in Dawn of the people on television a lot, as the scientists try to inform the public about what is happening, and no one wants to hear it, and even the talk show hosts will barely let them talk and keep implying that it's all just a lot of crap. I think we are living through something very similar. By the time most people will be able to see the parallel, it will be too late. I think it is probably too late already.