1968 Barbara vs 1990 Barbara

**LivingDeadGuy** · 07-Apr-2017

Which version of Night of the Living Dead's leading female character do you guys perfer best?

I like the 1990 version of her character better because of the fact that she knew how to fight and defend herself from zombies and because she was the only character who was thinking rational about the situation they were in. In the original her character gave up on surviving too quickly and basically sat around being a burden for the other characters.

**MinionZombie** · 11-Apr-2017

It's an interesting one. We were discussing this a little bit in the thread about the 'Doctor of the Dead' podcast.

It's probably fair to say that the 1990 version of Barbara works well, but her growth is at the expense of many of the characters around her. The 1968 version works well for the time - and there would be people in a situation like that who would fold into catatonia and confusion. O'Dea is undoubtedly my favourite as she's the most iconic, although the 1990 version is a more rounded character. It was definitely the right idea to reflect the times in the 1990 version, but it's a shame that a bunch of the other characters descended into more 'one note' territory.

There are characters who worked far better in the 1968 version than in the 1990 version - Ben and Cooper, for two - and Judy Rose was an exceptionally annoying arse in the 1990 version. I know I've said it a few times before, but blimey, the 1990 version of that character was intensely irritating. I'm not sure what Romero was thinking with that element of the script...

**LivingDeadGuy** · 11-Apr-2017

I think maybe Romero was intending for Judy to replace Barbara from the original movie as the hysterical panicking female character. Also I admit I liked the original Helen Cooper over the remake one because she was like the voice of reason in that one while in the remake she was more mousy but it did make sense because Harry was portrayed as being abusive towards her in the remake (he really wasnt abusive in the original they were portrayed as just an unhappy bickering married couple).

**LivingDeadGuy** · 13-May-2017

Also I agree that the original Barbara had a lot of realism to her character. Most people would probably react the same way she did in a crisis. I guess I actually liked both versions of the character to be honest.

Edit: Also speaking in Judy Rose's defence I didn't find her to be that annoying. If anything I found her to be realistic in the 1990 remake because she and Tom were just a young couple terrified by what was going on but they clearly wanted to help out any way they could. The problem was that they were both clueless and in a panicked state of mind and I think that is also how the majority of people died from the zombies.

Also I wanted to applaud Judy for calling Ben and Harry out on their pointless cockfighting. She made a good point that Tom and her didn't have to let anyone into their Uncle's house.

**Zombie Snack** · 20-Nov-2018

I prefer all the 1968 characters over the 1990 remake

***Neil*** · 20-Nov-2018

But...But... But... Patricia Tallman?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

**~~blind2d~~** · 22-Nov-2018

Originally Posted by Neil

But...But... But... Patricia Tallman?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

I'm with Neil on this one, surprise.

**Moon Knight** · 18-Dec-2018

Originally Posted by Neil

But...But... But... Patricia Tallman?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

This right here.

**bassman** · 20-Dec-2018

I enjoy both versions of the character because they’re reactions that you’d really see in such a situation. It really has nothing to do with her being female, but I can imagine lots of people losing their mind like the 68 version if something like this went down. I suppose if you had to pick one over the other, you gotta go with the more heroic version in Savini’s film.