3/7/07: Dawn of the Dead (2004)Forget what you’re hearing about any Leftist political slant to
300. The eagerly anticipated action film—which opens this Friday—has a conservative pedigree. Yes, we’ve had
our own doubts about Frank Miller, who wrote the original graphic novel. We’re still comfortable in knowing that the film’s directed by the same guy who helmed the 2004 remake of George Romero’s
Dawn of the Dead.
As much as we love the 1978 original, Zack Snyder’s take on
Dawn of the Dead was a surprisingly strong zombie movie. We would’ve even loved the film if Snyder had held on to Romero’s old Leftist politics. Instead, the new
Dawn of the Dead was scripted by James Gunn—whose own right-thinking ways were recently discussed
here. Snyder certainly does a fine job of embracing all the most conservative moments from Gunn’s rewrite.
The plot mirrors the original’s tale of survivors who use a shopping mall to take refuge from a zombie horde. In the original, their relative safety is destroyed by a living biker gang that crashes through their barricades. In the remake, the survivors are inspired to move on by something much more believable—a post-9/11 mindset.
Ving Rhames plays a cop among the living, and he has a great speech where he announces that he’d rather die trying to live free than to survive in a consumerist biosphere. Neither the
Dead originals nor remakes have ever been feel-good films, so there’s no expectation of a happy ending there. That makes the sincerity all the more impressive.
Dawn of the Dead is also one of the few films where there’s a heroic gun nut. The only other survivor that the mall inhabitants can see is the owner of a nearby gun shop. Andy—played by Bruce Bohne—is first seen on the roof of his store, enjoying the benefits of being heavily armed in a zombie crisis. He and Rhames’ character forge a nice bond by communicating via signs, as they play long-distance chess and exchange information. (Andy seems to have learned early on that you have to shoot the zombies in the brain.)
Andy also entertains the mall denizens by killing zombies who look like celebrities. The survivors hold up a sign with a famous person’s name, and Andy guesses which of the walking dead is the intended victim. The audience we were with cheered when Andy took out the zombie that looked like Rosie O’Donnell.
You don’t want to become too attached to any of these characters. Like we said,
Dawn of the Dead isn’t exactly pleasant viewing. But if you really need a happy ending, then you can follow up with
Shaun of the Dead.
Make it your own: You’ll get a lot more of Andy on the
Unrated Director’s Cut DVD of
Dawn of the Dead, since it includes the bonus feature
The Lost Tape: Andy’s Terrifying Last Days Revealed. It consists of Andy videotaping himself while barricaded in his gun store. Bohne mainly seems to be improvising, and the whole thing is probably just an excuse to make up for the character barely getting any speaking lines in the film. It’s still always nice to visit with a gun shop owner.
