Just bought Dawn of the Dead 78' on Blue Ray... (thoughts)

[Thorn]

Well it looks really good in blue Ray, obviously. It seems it was cleaned up a lot or my VHS copy was just in "that bad" of shape from back in the day. I never owned it on DVD.

I liked the extras, it was to me interesting to see that a lot of Fran's character stemmed from her telling George she refused to scream or fall down or be the atypical female character he was looking for.

Now... on to the blasphemy.

Dawn was always my favorite in the series (close tie with Night), and it has actually been a while since I watched it. So I went into it with a fan boy's love and anticipation. I was shocked to see just how less feral the zombies were than in most other Romero films. These zombies are laughably placid, and show just a barest interest in eating the living. They could have one right in front of them and just slap at them. Ignore them as they are there behind the glass. Sit and look at a human through glass with no desire to eat them displayed at all.

In fact in many scenes our quartet of heroes just push them away when they are i na pack, punch them in the face (hello TEETH PEOPLE!) and essential treat the mas if they are not there.

In my opinion the mall scenes in most cases are exceedingly campy, which is fine but they also paint the undead as a laughable distraction, not a hungry killing machine.

I have a problem with this.

Anyone else walk away from Dawn feeling as if the Zombies are portrayed in a way that goes against Romero's usual way of having them act? That they are not only not frightening, but downright laughable?

[JDFP]

I love Dawn '78 but for very different reasons from Night '68 (or '90) or Day.

I think the frightening/darkness factor is still evident in the film - mostly from the excellent soundtrack by Goblin (the non-Goblin cues, etc. are so-so but many of them fit in fairly well except the completely inappropriate heroic charge music playing as Peter decides not to kill himself) and the atmosphere of the film created through it. It's a very spooky film to me. Others will call it dated for many of the reasons I like it best - the soundtrack, atmosphere, etc. Of course, the clothes are WAY out of fashion (currently, but these things come back and forth around) and entertaining but this is just even more endearing to me. There are little things I see in the film that I get a personal kick out of (and even nostalgia of being little again as I'm not far removed from 1978 in my younger days) such as: "Wow, they have ashcans in the mall! People could smoke there!".

I never had any problems with the zombies personally. There is a great deal more humor in Dawn as opposed to the other films in the original trilogy - but it's just a more light-hearted film (as far as zombies and the apocalypse go - because face it, you gotta have some humor in that type of situation!). I thought the zombies were scary enough in the film - they certainly aren't action-packed screeching raptor zombies with superhuman abilities though - and I think this serves to work in the film's benefit myself.

As far as the blu-ray of Dawn, I'm glad you enjoy it. I have the 4-disc Anchor Bay release that was done a few years back that has the extended version of the film along with all the great audio commentaries on the various versions of the film. I've personally been spoiled on the extended version of the film and I can't watch any other version of it. So, I'll probably eventually upgrade to blu-ray one day when/if an extended version of it comes out on blu-ray, but I don't see a reason to do so otherwise as I never watch the theatrical version of the film. Don't tell Bassman I said this though - he fusses at me when I mention it isn't worth it to me as I never watch the theatrical version. :p I just don't see a point of seeing an edited version of a film when there's a more complete version of it available.

Now if Romero pulls a Russo/Lucas and decides to go back and insert new material into it I would feel differently. Oh God, I hope he doesn't get this kind of idea!

j.p.

[bassman]

Don't tell Bassman I said this though - he fusses at me when I mention it isn't worth it to me as I never watch the theatrical version. :p I just don't see a point of seeing an edited version of a film when there's a more complete version of it available.


:lol:

To be fair....the US theatrical cut is technically the "complete" version, as the extended cut was Romero's work-in-progress. The previous title of "directors cut" is inaccurate. That being said, I really do hope they one day clean up the extended scenes and release it on blu ray. As it stands now, the drop in picture quality for the extra scenes just stands out as an eye sore.

As for how well Dawn has stood the test of time, well....I think my signature image just about says it. It has many poor and laughable moments, but I still absolutely adore the film. I'm not going to be one of those people that are blind to it's flaws simply because they enjoy it.

And yeah Thorn, the current Dawn Blu Ray is incredible. I love the picture quality. It's a regular Saturday night "fall asleep watching" blu ray. The special features ported over from the Ultimate Edition are great of course, I just really wished they had went the extra mile with the other commentaries and features. I strongly recommend the Dawn Blu Ray to anyone that doesn't yet have it. I mean c'mon....it's five bucks. :thumbsup:

[Ragnarr]

While the zombie make-up work was best (for obvious reasons) on Roger and Stephen, GAR saved an enormous amount of time just painting the general zombie horde blue as if they were corpsified smurfs or something. I liked that scene early on in the projects where the soldiers broke open that boarded up door and there were suddenly dozens of packed zed's with their arms flailing chasing the soldiers up the stairwell. Didn't matter to me that they were in blue make-up; they were creepy as hell!

[kidgloves]

Superb movie. Its why im here.

I may have mentioned this before, but my 20 year old nephew came to stay with me a few months back and the 1st thing he said to me was "Can we watch Dawn of the Dead in the cinema room?" I think i gave him the anniversary dvd a few years back. The kid loves it.

[Andy]

Superb movie. Its why im here.

I may have mentioned this before, but my 20 year old nephew came to stay with me a few months back and the 1st thing he said to me was "Can we watch Dawn of the Dead in the cinema room?" I think i gave him the anniversary dvd a few years back. The kid loves it.

You have a cinema room?..

Can i come to your house? :shifty:

[kidgloves]

You have a cinema room?..

Can i come to your house? :shifty:

Check my sig ;)

[JDFP]

Check my sig ;)

I'm a bachelor with my own apartment - my entire living room is a cinema room. :D

j.p.

[Legion2213]

Movie party at Kidgloves place next weekend then. :cool:

And JD just volunteered to take care of the American end of things. :D

[JDFP]

Movie party at Kidgloves place next weekend then. :cool:

And JD just volunteered to take care of the American end of things. :D

Ah, shit. I hope you Limey's enjoy Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Milwaukee's Best, and other cheap American piss-beer's as much as I do. :p:D

j.p.

[dynamitejim]

Now... on to the blasphemy.

Dawn was always my favorite in the series (close tie with Night), and it has actually been a while since I watched it. So I went into it with a fan boy's love and anticipation. I was shocked to see just how less feral the zombies were than in most other Romero films. These zombies are laughably placid, and show just a barest interest in eating the living. They could have one right in front of them and just slap at them. Ignore them as they are there behind the glass. Sit and look at a human through glass with no desire to eat them displayed at all.

In fact in many scenes our quartet of heroes just push them away when they are i na pack, punch them in the face (hello TEETH PEOPLE!) and essential treat the mas if they are not there.

In my opinion the mall scenes in most cases are exceedingly campy, which is fine but they also paint the undead as a laughable distraction, not a hungry killing machine.

I have a problem with this.

Anyone else walk away from Dawn feeling as if the Zombies are portrayed in a way that goes against Romero's usual way of having them act? That they are not only not frightening, but downright laughable?

It's actually very consistent with Romero's portrayal. If you remember in Day they say the zombies get more riled up the more the guys go up to the surface. Same here. The only time the zombies are really placid is when the main characters first get to the mall and start exploring. The zombies in the mall probably hadn't seen live people in MONTHS and their dead brains probably took some time to "warm up". The main characters keep as low profile as possible so as to not rile them up. It took some time for them to get vicious again but they definitely do as the movie goes on.

[Ragnarr]

It's actually very consistent with Romero's portrayal. If you remember in Day they say the zombies get more riled up the more the guys go up to the surface. Same here. The only time the zombies are really placid is when the main characters first get to the mall and start exploring. The zombies in the mall probably hadn't seen live people in MONTHS and their dead brains probably took some time to "warm up". The main characters keep as low profile as possible so as to not rile them up. It took some time for them to get vicious again but they definitely do as the movie goes on.

I'm going to have to agree with Thorn on this one. The zed's in Dawn just weren't as threatening most of the time as those in either NotLD or Day. For the majority of the movie, they seemed like bumbling baffoons that needed to be in the right place at the right time in order to be a threat, to deliver a bite to Roger's leg, to rush Stephen in the elevator or to stand completely still until someone (Roger) comes running along. The goofy mall music only added to their clownish feeling. The cream pies and seltzer spray didn't help much either. :duh:

[Mr. Blue]

Well it looks really good in blue Ray, obviously. It seems it was cleaned up a lot or my VHS copy was just in "that bad" of shape from back in the day. I never owned it on DVD.

I liked the extras, it was to me interesting to see that a lot of Fran's character stemmed from her telling George she refused to scream or fall down or be the atypical female character he was looking for.

Now... on to the blasphemy.

Dawn was always my favorite in the series (close tie with Night), and it has actually been a while since I watched it. So I went into it with a fan boy's love and anticipation. I was shocked to see just how less feral the zombies were than in most other Romero films. These zombies are laughably placid, and show just a barest interest in eating the living. They could have one right in front of them and just slap at them. Ignore them as they are there behind the glass. Sit and look at a human through glass with no desire to eat them displayed at all.

In fact in many scenes our quartet of heroes just push them away when they are i na pack, punch them in the face (hello TEETH PEOPLE!) and essential treat the mas if they are not there.

In my opinion the mall scenes in most cases are exceedingly campy, which is fine but they also paint the undead as a laughable distraction, not a hungry killing machine.

I have a problem with this.

Anyone else walk away from Dawn feeling as if the Zombies are portrayed in a way that goes against Romero's usual way of having them act? That they are not only not frightening, but downright laughable?

We also picked up the blue-ray of Dawn. I too have not seen this movie in quite a few years. I do have a VHS edition that has two tapes; part one and part two. When I watched the blue-ray, I wasn't as into it as I was back in the day. I also picked up Day of the Dead on blue-ray. I found I enjoyed that one more than I did originally when I watched the VHS back about the same time as Dawn.

[bassman]

I also picked up Day of the Dead on blue-ray. I found I enjoyed that one more than I did originally when I watched the VHS back about the same time as Dawn.

Probably because you can actually SEE the film on dvd/blu ray. I remember my VHS copy was soooo dark that for years I expected that's just how the movie was filmed. It wasn't until dvd that I realised something was wrong with those crummy vhs transfers. Someone once posted a comparison between the vhs and dvd picture quality that really showed off how much difference there is.

[rongravy]

Probably because you can actually SEE the film on dvd/blu ray. I remember my VHS copy was soooo dark that for years I expected that's just how the movie was filmed. It wasn't until dvd that I realised something was wrong with those crummy vhs transfers. Someone once posted a comparison between the vhs and dvd picture quality that really showed off how much difference there is.
I'd like to see the difference out of curiosity myself. I have only ever owned the dvd, but I've seen my fair share of VHS copies through the years.