 Originally Posted by Yojimbo
Ok, so Land isn't Romero's best work. Please remember that unlike his other films he did not edit this one. A lot of good or damage can be done to a film at the editing stage, and if nothing else Romero is a master editor. Whoever edited Land, in my mind, is largely responsible for making it seem like a made for TV special.
For what it is worth, I did not detest Land, or Bruiser. Maybe not his best work, but far far better than a lot of the crap the studios are churning out with bigger budgets nowdays.
As far as Romero losing his edge, I will wait until I see Diary before I sound off on that.
Don't try to pass the buck on that. It's "George A Romero's Land of the Dead". Remember that.
One thing I've noticed is that, over the years, every fan has an excuse for every short coming of every GAR outing. And, of course, it's never the old man's fault.
It's his work. He has to take responsibility for it. Especially when HIS name is above the title.
Originally Posted by DubiousComforts
There's a lot wrong with E.T., the ham-fisted attempt to tug at the audience's heartstrings one of them. Like Jaws and Close Encounters, the film begins like a excellent B-movie, but unlike those former films, the second half quickly descends into Sappyville. My reaction was the exact opposite of yours -- I loved E.T. when I first saw it as a teenager and then wanted to kill myself upon the second viewing. I still don't know why I own the DVD.
Don't forget that this is the movie that basically sunk Carpenter's The Thing theatrically. It was the predecessor to all the sappy, feel-good 80s Reagan-era garbage that is best forgotten, which is ironic because Spielberg originally wanted to make a movie about hostile aliens following Close Encounters. The reason that he changed gears is odd, too; if I recall correctly, there was a lawsuit over it that was settled out of court.
Say what you will about E.T., but it succeeded on every level a film needs to succeed on.
It made audiences laugh, cry, and cheer. And, it made alot of money in the process. In fact, I'd lay five to one that it made more money in it's initial theatrical run than entire collective career has in the past forty years.
Originally Posted by Griff
Who said anything about "studio interference"?
You said that Romero "made the film he wanted to make" and that's the assertion I was addressing when I provided some pretty decent arguments for why that wasn't necessarily so.
No, Universal did not mandate any major story specifics or whatnot (though they did block Savini from getting cast in a larger part), but the undisputable fact is that LAND lost 25% of its budget in the final few weeks before filming, an unfathomably huge percentage for any movie, and Romero could either throw pages out of the script or par down what he kept.
He did have a third option which was to shut down the project and do a complete rewrite, which he said he opted not to do as it would have meant laying off hundreds of crew members and, with no guarantees, it could have potentially buried LAND forever.
I have heard - in person - Romero, Frumkes and Nicotero express a certain disatisfaction with the conditions and concessions under which the film was made and I know that, without a doubt, this idea that Romero was given carte blanche to make LAND is a fabrication. He had creative control, yes, but he was also abandoned by the studio. He wasn't "demanding" that Universal indulge him but when the production was obviousy suffering, he did request assistance and he was denied.
Romero "made the film he wanted to make"? No, he just tried to do the best that he could under the circumstances.
Actually, THE DARK HALF was also budgeted at $US15 million about 14 years prior - when it meant a whole lot more.
He did the best he could under the circumstances. Which is what any film maker is expected to do.
GAR has the rep for being a low budget mastermind. And, he's given a substantial budget. He should've given us something better with what he had.
You know what I think happened? I think that Universal was happy as a puppy with two peckers over the success of the Dawn remake. So, they got ahold of GAR....who was not doing much of anything. Hell, he was probably just happy that they were finally returning his phone calls. They gave him a substantial budget, and told him to make his zombie movie. Based on his rep in the genre, they probably figured that it'd be a sure bet. Then, they took a look at his record at the box office, and got cold feet. Understandable...since GAR is, for the most part, a more prolific bomb maker than Jokey Smurf.
The bottom line is: the old man choked on a film. As usual.
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