How did you feel when Ben died in Notld?

[zombie theo]

how did it make you feel?
Inside the house, the Negro hears help coming and looks out the window. He is shot through the forehead by the deputies. "That's one more for the bonfire," the sheriff says. End of movie.

The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying.

I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them. They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else. This was ghouls eating people up -- and you could actually see what they were eating. This was little girls killing their mothers. This was being set on fire. Worst of all, even the hero got killed.

source: The Night of the Living Dead

By Roger Ebert / January 5, 1967

[AcesandEights]

I felt cheated...it was absolutely brilliant!

[blind2d]

"...Pretty BAD!!" - Joe Strummer, some early Clash song.
Sums it up well, I think.
Lovely film, truly. Lovely. Wunderbar. Why none like it?

[ProfessorChaos]

i was very young when i saw night of the living dead for the first time, but i distinctly recall feeling totally shocked by the ending, and quite sad. poor guy made some bad calls that ended up getting a couple of people killed (more their fault than his, really), had to watch his plan fall to pieces, everyone in the house with him died, and he had to take the advice (regarding the cellar) that he'd been arguing against all night.

i always imagined he had a slight feeling of guilt waking the next morning and realizing he was safe in the cellar. then he goes upstairs to investigate the sounds, and whammo, bullet in the skull. pretty ironic, really.

i also recall wondering why the posse didn't call out, but then again, given how busted up the house was and how many ghouls were wandering around, they probably figured anyone (thing) inside was a ghoul and went ahead and didn't take any chances. i also thought that ben could've shouted or said something to let them know he was alive in there.

[BillyRay]

I remember watching it as the Late Movie as a kid, and I remember saying: "That's not fair.", then watching the credits with a chill down my spine.

I was young enough to believe that the Hero was supposed to live at the end of the story; especially since Ben had a good plan and kept a cool head.

And THAT's what made me a Romero fan, I can still feel that reaction in the back of my mind...

[JDFP]

Adding a little humor here ('cause c'mon, this is a depressing thread!)...

I've said in another thread and I'll say it again, nothing would be more situationally funny than hearing the guy who shot him yell:

"Hey, that's the guy who stole my truck!" before firing.

Of course, being 1968 he probably wouldn't have said "guy".

:p:D:elol:

j.p.

[Mr.G]

Completely shocked....total investment in Ben throughout the movie and then gone in an instant. Cheated is a good word too....similar to Spock (until part 3) giving up his life for the rest of the ship.

[JDFP]

Completely shocked....total investment in Ben throughout the movie and then gone in an instant. Cheated is a good word too....similar to Spock (until part 3) giving up his life for the rest of the ship.

But do you not agree that the good of the many outweigh the good of the one?

On a more serious note, I don't really recall my first experience with seeing NOTLD as I was about 7 when I watched it and was in mortal terror at the events happening (and the music terrified me too, still does). Looking back on it now, I commend Romero for taking the 'risk' of putting away John Wayne-American ideology where the "good guy always wins" and making an example of the world in a more realistic sense. Sometimes there are no winners, sometimes the worst case scenario does take place.

It was a courageous statement.

j.p.

[rongravy]

As I wasn't even born until 1972, I saw it as a elementary school kid. Not a big fan of Ebert but...
Since it was somewhere in the late 70's when I saw it, I wasn't thinking about what color he was, just that DAYUMN was he in the wrong place at the wrong time with a bunch of itchy trigger fingered hillbillies.
Actually, I was dwelling more on the fact that dead people were walking around and anyone, even your dear mama, could be munched on. It's weird that all my nightmares that stem from that movie were always in black and white, at least that's how I felt they were. NOTLD, and The Day After, used to terrorize my dreams. Zombies and nuclear war...

[MoonSylver]

I felt cheated...it was absolutely brilliant!


i was very young when i saw night of the living dead for the first time, but i distinctly recall feeling totally shocked by the ending, and quite sad. poor guy made some bad calls that ended up getting a couple of people killed (more their fault than his, really), had to watch his plan fall to pieces, everyone in the house with him died, and he had to take the advice (regarding the cellar) that he'd been arguing against all night.


I remember watching it as the Late Movie as a kid, and I remember saying: "That's not fair.", then watching the credits with a chill down my spine.

I was young enough to believe that the Hero was supposed to live at the end of the story; especially since Ben had a good plan and kept a cool head.

And THAT's what made me a Romero fan, I can still feel that reaction in the back of my mind...


Completely shocked....total investment in Ben throughout the movie and then gone in an instant.

Yeah, that's pretty much it right there. Shocked. Angry. Stunned. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, until I realized it was one of the greatest endings I'd ever seen.

[Gryphon]

I was 8 when I saw it... loved the whole movie, enraptured by it... and at the end when Ben was shot, I cried :( Now I just feel he should have called out, "Alive in here!" Ah, well...

[Wrong Number]

Geez thanks for posting a spoiler in the thread name! ;)

It was a complete shock and I was thinking about it for days after, heck even after a zillion views I feel a sense of dread when he heads upstairs.


WN

[BillyRay]

When Ben dies at the end of our puppet show version of NOTLD, there's usually an audible groan in the audience along the lines of "Awwww...Not him, too...."

Sometimes even from people who've seen the movie - no lie - We've been told: "I had hoped he would get out alive in your version."

So even when it's filtered through cheap comedy, Ben's death still shocks & affects people.

[clanglee]

I honestly can't remember my reaction to Ben's death when I first saw the movie. It was too long ago, and my memory is pretty bad. But, 2 years ago I attended the GAR film fest in Charlotte NC. And during the viewing of Night, I was surprised and pleased at the crowd reaction to Ben's death. There must have been a lot of first timers in the audience. There was an audible, collective gasp from the audience. I love how the movie still has power on today's young audiences. Also. . my Daughter was very upset when she watched the movie for the first time.

[bassman]

I honestly can't remember my reaction to Ben's death when I first saw the movie.

Same here. Night is one of those films that I've seen throughout my entire life, so I really have no idea how felt about it the first time I saw it. I imagine it was a shock, but there is no telling how young I was during my first viewing.

I still vividly remember my reactions to Dawn and Day, though.

[MoonSylver]

See, that's odd, Night is the one that stuck with me, probably because of its shocking, visceral impact. But Dawn & Day I can't remember...probably other than "ooooh cool...." :D

[Andy]

Adding a little humor here ('cause c'mon, this is a depressing thread!)...

I've said in another thread and I'll say it again, nothing would be more situationally funny than hearing the guy who shot him yell:

"Hey, that's the guy who stole my truck!" before firing.

Of course, being 1968 he probably wouldn't have said "guy".

:p:D:elol:

j.p.

Brilliant.. absolutly brilliant :D

Do us all a favour though, dont suggest that to russo, he may actually do it!

[JDFP]

Brilliant.. absolutly brilliant :D

Do us all a favour though, dont suggest that to russo, he may actually do it!

Andy, if he had it would have been the highlight of his, ahem, "homage".

j.p.

[Danny]

i believe my exact vernacular outburst was something along the lines of "WHAT IN THE FUCK?!" it was genius, superb. I had no goddamn idea it was coming which made it so much more powerful a climax for all the utterly fruitless and.or futile events that preceded it.

[Philly_SWAT]

I was definately surprised the first time I saw it as a kid...mainly shocked because the "hero" ended up getting killed in the end, and not even in a heroic act, just a senseless accident. I have seen it so many times, it is hard to remember thoughts from the first viewing or from subsequent viewings, but I remember thinking in an early viewing that perhaps Ben was trying to commit "suicide by posse". Maybe it was a weird bit of editing, but it seems to me that they were close enough to the house for Ben to hear them, so he would have known they were getting ready to shoot him. They even say that they hear something moving around in there...Ben seemed awfully quiet to me, so if they heard him, SURELY he would have heard them. He may have been a little insane, or just so distraught at the events of the previous night that he welcomed the sweet embrace of true death, and knowing he wouldnt be walking around "like that". He may have felt guilty because at that moment he realized that Cooper was in fact correct all along, the cellar WAS the safest place.

[Publius]

Sometimes there are no winners, sometimes the worst case scenario does take place.

I think the ending was harder to take because it wasn't exactly the worst case scenario. If Ben had been eaten by zombies and the undead ruled the Earth, I would have thought "well, I guess there was no way out, everyone was just doomed." But Ben died when things were getting better, he should have made it. Worse yet, he was killed not by the threat he had battling all through the movie but by what should have been his means of rescue. That was the suckerpunch.

[JDFP]

I think the ending was harder to take because it wasn't exactly the worst case scenario. If Ben had been eaten by zombies and the undead ruled the Earth, I would have thought "well, I guess there was no way out, everyone was just doomed." But Ben died when things were getting better, he should have made it. Worse yet, he was killed not by the threat he had battling all through the movie but by what should have been his means of rescue. That was the suckerpunch.

Yeah, but you have to also consider all those rednecks were probably all dead and zombies within a year or less as well. Things were temporarily improving, but when you factor what was happening in the rest of the country it was not a true representation of the dire nature of events (I think the opening of "Dawn" presented the true magnitude of it very well).

Perhaps if the rest of the country had been as organized at the beginning as they were at the end of NOTLD there could have been a chance that "Day" wouldn't have come, unfortunately there was piss poor management all around.

Things fall apart, the center doesn't hold.

j.p.

[AcesandEights]

Yeah, but you have to also consider all those rednecks were probably all dead and zombies within a year or less as well. Things were temporarily improving, but when you factor what was happening in the rest of the country it was not a true representation of the dire nature of events (I think the opening of "Dawn" presented the true magnitude of it very well).

That's not necessarily the way someone seeing the film for the first time would have felt, though. You're attaching a knowledge and familiarity you have with the completed(?) body of work. To see the next day that things were relatively under control--whether for the interim or not; whether in only that locale or not--was jarring, and then to have the protagonist die senselessly was a brilliant kick in the balls.


I think the ending was harder to take because it wasn't exactly the worst case scenario. If Ben had been eaten by zombies and the undead ruled the Earth, I would have thought "well, I guess there was no way out, everyone was just doomed." But Ben died when things were getting better, he should have made it. Worse yet, he was killed not by the threat he had battling all through the movie but by what should have been his means of rescue. That was the suckerpunch.

Agree completely!

[bassman]

I've always wondered if Romero intended for the situation to be over by the end of Night or if only that select group had their area under control. If you count out the things shown in the following films, Night has always felt like a resolved situation to me.

[ProfessorChaos]

@ bassman:

i kind of look at it as if the posse in night is a branch of the clean-up crew seen on the ground during the dawn gang's helicopter ride. things are for the most part under control in smaller rural areas, but all hell's broken loose in the cities and on a downhill slide.

[Frankenstein]

The first time I saw NOTLD I was very surprised by the ending. To end on such a down note was a bold move for Romero, but it definitely works. What bad luck for Ben though; Survive the onslaught of the dead the whole night, only to be killed by the living the next morning. What a bummer!