Thursday, May 10, 2007

survival

If Romero skewers anyone in this film, it's the hunting, fishing, Iron City-drinking types who respond so indifferently to what has become of humanity. (Though he does this scene with some humor.)

What struck me is how much safer they seemed, sticking together out in the countryside. What do you think of the foursome's decision to go it alone? Granted, I think they had to protect a precious commodity -- the helicopter -- but otherwise, survival instinct would be safety in numbers.

On the other hand, look what happens when law deteriorates to a point where Wally can butcher people according to his personal, bigoted agenda. Or what if they settled into a mini-theocracy or some other form of rule? That's one of the reasons I like films or books ("The Stand," "Lord of the Flies") with a survival setting. Maybe the undead aren't the scariest threat a character deals with.

2 comments:

Erin said...

That's interesting. I read something about how the biggest threat wasn't really the zombies but was the people's reactions to the situation. People probably could have handled the zombies -- they were awfully slow and dim-witted -- if everyone had worked together and remained calm and quit fighting amongst themselves. That's really the case in a lot of emergency situations, though.

kc said...

Definitely. There was a message of this plodding, rotten scourge (substitute any social ill here) needlessly devouring civil society.