How Romero Predicted 2020 with Dawn of the Dead

[deadhead412]

Greetings HPoTD: Today I had some office work from the post holidays lag to catch up. So I turned to my favorite flick for some background noise, Dawn of the Dead(1978) specifically the extended mall hours cut. Instead of doing what I was supposed I ended up getting drawn into the nightmarish details of Romero's apocalypse. But this watch was different for me. The movie was hitting me different than the previous 500 times I watched Dawn. I wasn't smiling at Rodger's cool one liners or cheering for the goriest Savini effects. All of a sudden this favorite of mine was more real and more prescient.I had to think to myself why I was reacting this way. It didn't take me long....it was this past year.....the shit that was 2020. After thinking about it more I was kind of shocked about how much Romero nailed a year that was over forty years in the future. First off there was obvious parallels between the undead phenomena driving the crisis in Romero's universe and COVID-19, not so much the virus but the pandemic and how it was dealt with. We have a rapidly spreading diseases but ones that can be pretty easily handled if you take a few steps. But instead people turn to politics and infighting. Dawn opens with a news debate(years before the talking heads and 24 hour cable networks would rise to prominence). We meet Doctor James Foster a government scientist struggling to explain the epidemiology of the undead outbreak and its threat. His on air opponent Sydney Berman seems to doubt that the dead are even coming back to attack people, suggesting government reports are fake. "Citizens must understand the dire . . . dire consequences of this phenomenon. Should we be unable to check the spread . . . because of the emotional attitudes of the citizenry . . . toward . . . these issues of . . . morality.” Foster pleads and is met with jeers and derision. Not unlike political attacks towards public health officials in our real world. On top of that chaos in the news station looked like countless videos of people fighting over wearing masks or social distancing. Another character, Givens is seen peddling outdated rescue station information to WGON's viewers just to ensure ratings success. Fran's "We're blowing it ourselves" line was haunting. Later another scientist Doctor Millard Rausch tries himself to explain the crisis and where it's going if people fail to address it. "This isn't the Republicans versus the Democrats, where we're in a hole economically or... or we're in another war. This is more crucial than that. This is down to the line, folks, this is down to the line. There can be no more divisions among the living!" Not so far from how our political leaders failed to take action or work together for basic relief from the public health crisis. It didn't just stop with COVID though. Regardless of how you view law enforcement in this country 2020 was certainly a year where police brutality became a major issue. Agree or disagree but many communities made their view of police well known. Dawn hit this issue hard too. Wooley violently takes advantage of his position as a police SWAT officer and the undead crisis to indulge his racist behavior. Prior to the raid he's less angry at the dead than he is at the black and hispanic residents of the housing project. It comes to having to shoot him to end his rampage throughout the building. The people in the housing project themselves seem to be holding onto their reanimated dead due to years of skepticism built up between the authorities. Their mistrust comes to a running gun battle only adding to the ranks of the dead and furthering the threat. Anyway I could ramble on forever on this but just wanted to through it out there. Let me know if I'm missing any other things, or share your thoughts, or criticisms!

[Harleydude666]

Greetings HPoTD: Today I had some office work from the post holidays lag to catch up. So I turned to my favorite flick for some background noise, Dawn of the Dead(1978) specifically the extended mall hours cut. Instead of doing what I was supposed I ended up getting drawn into the nightmarish details of Romero's apocalypse. But this watch was different for me. The movie was hitting me different than the previous 500 times I watched Dawn. I wasn't smiling at Rodger's cool one liners or cheering for the goriest Savini effects. All of a sudden this favorite of mine was more real and more prescient.I had to think to myself why I was reacting this way. It didn't take me long....it was this past year.....the shit that was 2020. After thinking about it more I was kind of shocked about how much Romero nailed a year that was over forty years in the future. First off there was obvious parallels between the undead phenomena driving the crisis in Romero's universe and COVID-19, not so much the virus but the pandemic and how it was dealt with. We have a rapidly spreading diseases but ones that can be pretty easily handled if you take a few steps. But instead people turn to politics and infighting. Dawn opens with a news debate(years before the talking heads and 24 hour cable networks would rise to prominence). We meet Doctor James Foster a government scientist struggling to explain the epidemiology of the undead outbreak and its threat. His on air opponent Sydney Berman seems to doubt that the dead are even coming back to attack people, suggesting government reports are fake. "Citizens must understand the dire . . . dire consequences of this phenomenon. Should we be unable to check the spread . . . because of the emotional attitudes of the citizenry . . . toward . . . these issues of . . . morality.” Foster pleads and is met with jeers and derision. Not unlike political attacks towards public health officials in our real world. On top of that chaos in the news station looked like countless videos of people fighting over wearing masks or social distancing. Another character, Givens is seen peddling outdated rescue station information to WGON's viewers just to ensure ratings success. Fran's "We're blowing it ourselves" line was haunting. Later another scientist Doctor Millard Rausch tries himself to explain the crisis and where it's going if people fail to address it. "This isn't the Republicans versus the Democrats, where we're in a hole economically or... or we're in another war. This is more crucial than that. This is down to the line, folks, this is down to the line. There can be no more divisions among the living!" Not so far from how our political leaders failed to take action or work together for basic relief from the public health crisis. It didn't just stop with COVID though. Regardless of how you view law enforcement in this country 2020 was certainly a year where police brutality became a major issue. Agree or disagree but many communities made their view of police well known. Dawn hit this issue hard too. Wooley violently takes advantage of his position as a police SWAT officer and the undead crisis to indulge his racist behavior. Prior to the raid he's less angry at the dead than he is at the black and hispanic residents of the housing project. It comes to having to shoot him to end his rampage throughout the building. The people in the housing project themselves seem to be holding onto their reanimated dead due to years of skepticism built up between the authorities. Their mistrust comes to a running gun battle only adding to the ranks of the dead and furthering the threat. Anyway I could ramble on forever on this but just wanted to through it out there. Let me know if I'm missing any other things, or share your thoughts, or criticisms! No, really don’t see the parallels