An Ideology of Horror: The Dead Films of George A. Romero: Day and Land of the Dead
The third installment of Romero's dead films is Day of the Dead (1985). In the film, the living dead have taken over the country and a small band of military and civilians are holed up in a bunker. The film plays on all sorts of issues: relationships, bigotry, and the military vs. science. Day is considered the weakest of the franchise, but has gained popularity when it has been revisited. Romero considers the film his favorite. Considering the year Day came out, the film works on the above mentioned points.
The biggest aspect of the film that underlines this is how the film portrays the struggle between the military and the scientists. If you consider the military part of the U.S. government then you will understand this better. The country was in the middle of their own battle with the government fighting the science community in how they were dealing with the AIDS battle. Like in the film, there was no explanation of the disease and how it was spreading. The government‘s red tape was preventing the science community from doing their duty in studying and finding a way to cure or prevention.
Day is probably the most intriguing of the four films. As I stated above, the film does address relationships from various angles. There are the relationships between the scientists and the military, the military itself, the scientists, the scientists and the civilians, and the military and the civilians. It is the conflict between everyone that drives Day. One of the more conflicted relationships happens between Sarah, played by Lori Cardille, and Miguel played by Antone DiLeo.
The film implies that these two are lovers from how they are treated by Rhodes, played by Joe Pilato, and his men. The conflict between the two stem from Sarah's concern for Miguel's mental health and Miguel's credibility with the men. This is reinforced in the scene soon after the two help Steele, played by G. Howard Klar, and Rickles, played by Ralph Marrero. Sarah's concern forces her to give Miguel a sedative which Miguel refuses.
"I'm just trying to help you Miguel," says Sarah.
"You made me look like an asshole out there," says Miguel.
Even in a world that is overrun by the living dead, does someone still care how they are viewed by their peers?
The film also deals with the issue of racism. The character of Steele is the biggest bigot of the men. His character brings back memories of Harry Cooper from ,i>Night. Steele refers to Miguel as a "spick" and John, played by Terry Alexander, as a "jungle bunny." The films antagonists and protagonists are even divided racially in the film. The antagonists in the film are all white men where the protagonists are a variety of minorities. Romero goes as far as stereotyping a few of the characters with the above mentioned racists and the drunken Irishman.
One of the other big aspects that Romero seems to cover in the film is how science plays in the film. I mentioned the struggle of science vs. the government (the military) in the beginning, but I didn't mention the scientists themselves. There are two in the film: Logan, played generously by Richard Liberty and Fisher played by John Amplas. The two are complete opposites in the film where Fisher is the rational one and Logan is your mad scientist type. Logan is even referred to as "Frankenstein."
In the film, Logan has strayed away from the cause end of the outbreak and has now focused on "civilizing" the living dead to behave which, in his theory, would stop them from wanting to eat the living. Logan wants them to "behave like good little boys and girls" and has seemingly been able to accomplish this with the iconic Bub. The domesticating of the living dead and making them behave was a satiric view of the country of the eighties where there was a big influx of people acting out. The film almost signaled that the days of behaving and self control was dead and a new beginning was afoot.
Of course, this would not be a Romero film if there was not carnage at the end. The living dead do break in the compound and take over tearing the soldiers to bits. The final scene is a final act of revenge by Bub on Rhodes. Day was an incomplete film where Romero did not get to use the full script he had written. In the original script, there is an above ground city and the military is kept underground, but because of budget reasons the film had to be shot using a shortened script and most everything was filmed underground. The original vision of Day was the basis for Romero's next film: Land of the Dead (2005).
What I love about Day and this is fast becoming my favorite of the four is that the majority of the film is set in one location. There is a kind of paranoia and claustophobic element that is horrifying in the film. And if any of you have seen the film you will know by how the end goes. And even though some of the characters are racists there are some moments where we like these guys. I think some of Steele's lines are hilarious. There is also an intimacy in this film at times where we do forget where we are; i.e. the scene at John and McDermott's little cabana where they share their philosophies on what is going on and their relationship with one another.
Land is a film that I have revisited many times and I have to say that this is Romero's most political film in the dead series. In the film, humans have been completely over run and a small group has holed up in a city representing Pittsburgh even though the film was shot in Canada. The city's population has recreated some sense of normality and all the social casts are clear. The privilege lives in a high rise called Fiddler's Green where the rest of the population lives in squalid conditions outside of the high rise. The city's population has goods brought into the city by a band of raiders who travel to the surrounding towns pillaging the grocery stores and whatever they need.
What the film has that the others lack are well known actors in the lead roles. Dennis Hopper plays the part of Kaufman the man in charge of Fiddler's Green and overlooks the daily operations of the city. John Leguizamo plays Cholo who believes that Kaufman will let him in the tower because he is entitled to it. Another actress that stars in the film is Asia Argento who plays Slack, who was a soldier till someone thought she would make a better hooker. Asia is the daughter of Dario Argento, the iconic Italian horror director who helped finance Romero's film Dawn of the Dead.
What did I mean when I said this was Romero's most political film of the four? This is one of the proverbial films to come out in a post 9/11 world. Hopper has said that his inspiration for the film was Donald Rumsfeld and even went up to Romero to see if he could play him as Rummy and Romero said that is who he was shooting for with the role of Kaufman. The film's city has the military presence and there is even the sentiment of the terror combatant's element where in the opening Cholo is taking out the "trash" when we find out later in the film that there were people that Kaufman deemed undesirables. In another scene, where Riley, played by Simon Baker and his partner Charlie, played brilliantly by Robert Joy, one of their friends is brought in and Charlie wonders what they are going to do to him. They are told that Kaufman is going to make him talk by any means to find out what he knows which is a nod to the situation at Guantanamo Bay.
The film is also a microcosm of today's society where social class is prevalent. In the tower, there are the privileges folk and you have everyone else who is poor. If there is ever a middle class then it is the living dead. Even the lead dead represent middle America. The leader is gas station mechanic, you have a butcher, a woman who plays on her company softball team and you have a quarter of a barbershop quartet. In one of the final scenes, the dead show up at Fiddler's Green and start to break down the walls as if saying, "The middle class is here." In the scope of the film, it is everyone, living and dead, who are out to get the upper class. Even in one of the following scenes, one of the living dead stops and looks at a mechanical bird chirping symbolizing the want of the middle class to taste (no pun intended) what the upper class is experiencing.
Even in the film, there are elements that portray a lack of normalcy for the upper class. When Fiddler's Green is introduced there is a video playing portraying all that is offered to the wealthy. There is a glitch in the video at the end symbolizing that everything is not really normal. One of the business men is served an orange drink that strongly resembles Tang. Even with these two aspects, the upper class seems to think they are above everyone in the city. I did always wonder what these people did to deserve their station in life. What is obvious in the film is the overt distinction in the social classes of the groups involved. Romero has stated as I have written before that his series is all about revolution where the new society eats the old society. If his statement were ever more truly than it is in this film.
Romero's films are the standard of every living dead film out there. He has truly adapted to the times he made these films and the time we live in show in his films. If one cannot take any sort of social or political subtext away from his films then they have not been exposed to what has occurred in this country. Night changed the landscape for African American leads in a horror film, Dawn showed us the downfalls of capitalism, Day made us rethink how science and government are always going to be at war with one another, and Land showed us how truly political the country is now. I will always encourage new and old horror fans to revisit these films to really appreciate them for what they tell us about ourselves. These films paved the way for such living dead films like: Dead Alive, a.k.a. Brain Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Zombie, Night of the Zombies, and even, dare I say, 28 Days and Weeks Later. Some of these films have some sort of lingering aftermath from Romero's films.
Please feel free to leave me some feedback. This is the fourth column and I am interested in knowing if you are enjoying it or share your thoughts on some horror films or topics that I could write for you.
