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DAWN OF THE DEAD by Tom McCurrie
Way back in 1978, George A. Romero delivered one of the few sequels to top its predecessor -- DAWN OF THE DEAD. The story of four people riding out a zombie holocaust in a shopping mall, DAWN was about a lot more than the undead chowing down on the living. A thinking man's zombie flick (how's that for a combination!), DAWN leavened its in-your-face gore with incisive satire and social commentary, earning this $1.5 million production over $40 million worldwide (and that's '78 dollars, folks). Now a quarter-century later, Universal somehow found the guts (heh, heh) to remake this classic. Does DAWN '04 improve on its 70s namesake? Well, in many ways, it's all a matter of taste (I promise, no more puns!).
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Directed by Zack Snyder (he of car commercial fame) and written by Troma alumnus James Gunn, the DAWN remake does outdo the original in some ways. One is the $28 million budget (which it made back the first weekend). This not only provides a slicker visual style, but more elaborate action as well. Especially kick-ass are Sarah Polley's wild escape from zombie-infested suburbia, and the final breakout through thousands of massed zombies in a mall parking lot (with a little help from some good old-fashioned propane). Scenes like this make the action in the original film seem positively lackluster.
Other benefits include a much shorter length -- the new DAWN's a lean 100 minutes compared to the original's drawn-out 126 (some prints run as long as 140). The acting's improved as well. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames and Jake Weber run rings around the wooden no-names in the earlier film.
Now much has been said of the new DAWN's real novelty: the zombies aren't the lumbering, stumbling jokes of the '78 version, creatures so slow you practically have to jump in their arms for them to catch you, but monsters capable of doing the 100-yard dash in ten-seconds flat. This makes them more threatening to the survivors (and more frightening to the audience), but this take on your Father's Flesh Eaters isn't new -- Danny Boyle got the jump on Zombies with the Need for Speed in 28 DAYS LATER (2003).
But as the saying goes, what the remake giveth, the remake taketh away. The new DAWN falls short of its predecessor in three pivotal ways: violence, character and satire. Though the '04 version is fairly violent (it certainly deserves its R rating), it's nowhere near as explicit as Romero's. Romero holds on zombies chewing away much longer than Snyder does, with the latter using rapid-fire editing and sound effects to sell the most extreme violence. This makes Romero's film the more horrible -- and I mean that in a good way. By lingering on the gore, by rubbing our faces in the guts, Romero achieves that union of dread and nausea, of panic and disgust, of absolute HORROR, that most movies in this genre strive for but never attain.
And though the actors have better chops than the original, the characters fall short of ?78. One reason: Gunn has way too many survivors, almost four times the original. This dilutes the emotional focus, keeping the audience at a distance. After all, it's hard to root for (or keep track of) so many characters at once, especially when some of them are given equal weight (Polley, Rhames, Weber). This brings up another problem: since there are so many characters fighting for screen time, very few of them get a chance to develop. They remain ciphers with little backstory or depth, making them hard to relate to -- or care about.
Most disappointingly, the new DEAD leaves its satire at the multiplex door. Except for one very brief montage, Gunn fails to use the location to poke fun at materialism like Romero did. Since the zombies don't break into the mall in this version, we don't see how little difference there is between the living and dead when it comes to shopping -- both are equally mindless consumers. In fact, for all the satirical use of location, the survivors might as well be holed up in a generic bunker. Ultimately, this makes the new DEAD just another action flick, one with little resonance emotionally or thematically.
So if you like your zombies straight-up and action-packed, see the new DEAD. But if you want a deeper, more satisfying cinematic meal (sorry, I couldn't resist!), check out the original. Bon Appetit!
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're now archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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