Thoughts on Teamwork & Bonding

[Wyldwraith]

Something I'd like to point out, Ever notice how there's only really ever *1* single "everyman/jack-of-all-trades" type like Michael in Dawn '04, or Ben in Night? They're just regular guys, without any special training, but what makes them great is that they stay calm in a crisis and use common sense and compromise to develop a rapport with the others they encounter. Why oh why is there never more than one of these guys in a movie? I mean, people with these personality characteristics are EXACTLY the type to survive the crazy chaos-filled early hours of the zombie uprising. They're also the ones most likely to want to/work towards trying to reach out to other survivors. Yes, I realize that from a movie plot standpoint that it doesn't serve the interests of making the point about how mankind is its own worst enemy, but to be honest, in my lifetime I've met a LOT of people just like Michael and Ben. I'd just like to see a scriptwriter take a chance on a different "message" than the pessimistic "Man is incapable of uniting for the common good" and see if it could work. It could be explained in the plot easily enough. With so many thousands of people displaced and on the run in the early hours of the crisis sheer dumb luck could bring a majority of unusually reasonable/cooperative individuals together. ::shrugs:: I just think it might make for an interesting change. Seeing the survivors making good decisions and pulling together during this hopelessly grim situation. Maybe such a movie would lack the popular/trendy air of painting humanity as a pack of self-destructive idiots, but it could have other entertaining aspects, couldn't it? I mean, look at how much time all of us spend debating the optimal means of handling a zombie apocalypse. Yes, the chances are exceptionally long against more than two people who've ever given such an "impossible" eventuality extensive thought meeting up, but people win the lottery and get struck by lightning multiple times. Events that are absurdly improbable DO happen. Maybe it would be interesting to see how two such improbabilities interact. (The dead returning to life to attack the living, and 6-10 sensible, cooperative and adaptable individuals finding each other during such a crisis) Just a thought.

[RustyHicks]

As Romero once said in an interview, he likes putting his characters in exterme conflicts and makes for a more interesting movie

[Trin]

It's this conflict that makes it interesting. It's not so much that Romero's films don't have a strong teamwork theme, but rather they demonstrate what happens when there is lack of teamwork. In comparison, the living dead are shown to have no problems working towards a common goal. Kinda ironic, ain't it? This is an excellent point. I'm with you that the conflict makes it more interesting, but I don't think the movies are successful because of the conflict. Imho if there's nothing but conflict the movie just runs flat. There's no one and nothing to root for. Dawn would be a snooze-fest if there were no conflict. They take the mall and live happily ever after. I agree there's no fun in that. But contrary to some of the opinions expressed here, the core group pulled together amazingly and did some incredible things to get that mall secured. Those were the best moments in the movie for me - watching them work together. In contrast Land and Diary showed little or no teamwork. Everyone was pulling in different directions and in the end I just couldn't get behind any of the characters. I kept wanting to shout, "Why can't you lift a finger for each other!?!" As Wyldwraith says, you're going to find people who are level headed and willing to pull together. I'd love to see a movie where the zombies provided the main conflict and the humans worked reasonably well together. I think that movie could work. I don't begrude Romero his take on man's failings, and he has scored hits with his take on man vs. man. But in the earlier movies he seemed to hit the nail on the head moreso than lately.

[Danny]

all i can say is its gonna be interesting when all the 360 owners on here get together online in left 4 dead lets put it that way.

[bassman]

all i can say is its gonna be interesting when all the 360 owners on here get together online in left 4 dead lets put it that way. *looks over at the 360, remembers there's no internet connection and sighs*

[JasonEdw]

What i do like about these living dead movies is the whole social breakdown thing that happens, in both micro and macro.It's not that I'm a nihlist or an anarchist, but it's been fascinating to see all the building blocks come tumbling down in the face of some horrific zombie apocalypse. The institutions that are supposed to protect the public fall into disarray, from the police to the government, and all they care about is saving their own asses. All our social values we learn deteriorate into selfish survival actions...I dunno, maybe I get some sort of morbid entertainment in watching people lose it...