day of the dead

filmmaker george a. romero has settled on the zombie sub-genre in recent years with films such as land of the dead [a bigger budget film starring dennis hopper and john leguizamo] and diary of the dead [a film that hearkens back to the good director's small-budget indie films. yet romero is a social satirist at heart. his landmark masterpiece night of the living dead was made and released during a period of social upheaval. times-were-a-changing, indeed. night was the essence of a new social order rising from the tomb and literally eating the flesh of the establishment. it is a riveting document of violence and change in a society exhausted by an un-winnable war in southeast asia. the new world order, as coined by bush sr almost 20 years from the release of romero's vision of change, is neither voted on or decreed by those in power but enacted from the pressures made upon those who rise and in this case, eat. the new world order is neither from the world nor very orderly. it is a consummation upon the flesh of the power complex, and in this reading romero was, at least for a brief period in u.s. and world history, prescient.

still, the old does not give up so easily. and revolutionary change is also subject to the debilitation of entropy. of all of romero's zombie flicks day of the dead is my favorite for in this film romero captures entropy in all its horrifying banality. released in 1985 the movie is about a scientific research team protected by a small group of army regulars who take shelter in an abandoned mine in the state of florida. they've no contact with any survivors for months and the research is rather left vague to us the viewers. 1985 was the height of the reagan years when the u.s. wished to go back to a more innocent time, a time personified by reagan as 'the city on the hill'. gone was the revolutionary actions of the 1960s and in its place were the trappings of greed and power. wall street became the icon of success. it still is, i suppose, but romero is not oliver stone and is more subtle than stone's film wall street. instead, here in romero's zombie universe the power structure is crumbling without any illusory trappings of being safe residing in the 'city on the hill'.

the scientists lose touch with the nature of their research and the soldiers lose their sense of common boundaries. it was an inspired idea to set the action below ground for it gives the action and the performers an intensity of restriction. i mean, there is no where for these folks to go except to turn on each other as the zombies proliferate above-ground. does that suggest romero believes revolution will ultimately prevail? that is the scope of another essay, i think. rather, this film is the bleakest of a bleak bunch and even the ending, which features 3 survivors fishing on a florida beach, suggests that their time is also running out. the film begins with scientist sarah [lori cardille] looking at a calendar and ends with her marking time on a calendar. such imagery does not bode well for the survivors for the end is a prelude to the beginning. in other words, they have only so much time before they are consumed as well.

perhaps day is the summation of romero at his most pessimistic. there is little humor in the movie in the way of social satire, much as it was for dawn of the dead dealing with our consumer culture. the characters are memorable and powerful, esp. joe pilato as sgt. rhodes, and the editing and photography enhance what might be the last stance of the power structure in the face of unfathomable change. okay, that might be a stretch calling zombies 'unfathomable change' in consideration of the socio-political remarks of this little review. however, this flick is well-made and is perfect vehicle for a master satirist to tell his tale. i watched this movie again this afternoon and come away with unbridled enthusiasm for it. romero is unique in genre filmmakers. his vision is born of the revolutionary 1960s and his films often express a horror and disgust of the existing power structures. what might seem a trifle to cineastes, zombie ficiton in particular, is actually a wealth of enormous details and energies transfiguring our contemporary socio-economic-political existences. what dreams may come, indeed, might bite you on your ass. times are always a'changing.