Some good stuff in there, although it would have been nice if the other guy had chimed in a little more (but the main host had many fascinating points and readings, even if I didn't agree with all of them). It would have been nice if there'd been an opposing voice in there - e.g. them talking about not liking the third act of the film.
I'd counter-argue that it actually works well within the film. For one, you need a payoff to what has come before - you have to go out big - but also, it plays directly into the consumerist themes of the whole movie,
plus it says something about the state of the nation. In the beginning of the movie the place is just there for them to take - but there's a solid form of government working - by the end, when the bikers turn up, there is no government. The TV stations have all gone down - now everyone is out there for themselves - there is no police force or national guard to stop that gang doing whatever it is they wanted.
It also speaks to the consumerist theme compared to the zombies. We start out seeing these zombies coming back to the mall - "an important place in their lives" - with this dead-eyed need for stuff, and yet the lull of it still exists in humans despite all that's going on around them. Steven is furious that the gang would come and try and take it from him "it's ours, we took it, it's ours" ... so we see that Steven, after having realised in that 'angry dinner' scene that yes 'what have we done to ourselves' is right (and after having trained Fran to fly the chopper - something of which he's very proud and happy, which additionally shows growth for him as a man and partner to Fran), he falls back on his weakness and it all comes crumbling down. Much like with the bikers - they see this sparkly gem and want to take it. Nobody's going to stop them, or no force worth worrying about at least, and they go tear-assing around taking, taking,
taking. It's madness writ large, even the handsome young biker recognises this - yelling at his comrades to stop fucking around when "someone's up there shooting at us!" - but it shows a crumbling of mankind and provides a great big full stop (or, more fittingly, an exclamation point) for the entire movie.
I also whole-heartedly disagree with their assessment of the Dawn remake. Get rid of the name and you only get rid of that one single problem - the use of the name for a cheap bit of MTV-esque flashiness - all the other numerous problems with it remain.
Other than that, there was some fascinating points - the Fran/Steven relationship in regards to women's growing power in society at that time was a really good assessment. Steven's like the old guard in a way, albeit one of the young ones. He'll have known only women in kitchens as he grew up, and while he's worked besides women at WGON, that image will have no doubt persisted in his mind as the default. With Fran he's struggling with issues of emasculation and finding his place in this new world (both in terms of women's lib and the zombies). Peter and Roger are much quicker to pick up on Fran's strengths, even if they prefer to go hooning around blocking doors with trucks (and, likewise, gawp at all the shiny things down in the mall). It's interesting to see Steven change throughout the movie, and the host's comments on Emge's performance are all excellent. It really flagged up and drew attention to what a great job he did in the flick. I also had no idea that Emge had military training (unlike the others), and yet his character is the one who's rubbish with a gun, hehe.
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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Originally Posted by kidgloves
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