Dawn of the Dead wasn’t the game changer that Night of the Living Dead was, but it is a fantastic movie!

It made a lot more money than Night did, and it received a much better critical reception. The technical mastery played a role in that, but so did the central theme — while the central theme of Night ended up being racism and civil rights, that wasn’t something that was going to resonate with critics in the sixties. It was too early for that message to be one that was popular universally.

The Plot

Spoilers ahead. Seriously, if you want to watch this movie (you do) and you haven’t yet (it’s okay… no judgement), I will be writing out the entire plot.

So, the zombie apocalypse is in full swing. The movie opens in a news station, everyone is freaking out, and a blonde woman is sleeping against the wall. There is chaos. The blonde woman is Fran. She confronts a producer about sending people to inoperative rescue stations. One of the most famous lines from the genre comes up about here. “Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of those things. It gets up, and it kills. The people it kills get up and they kill.”

The crew abandons the station. Fran and Stephen (a chopper pilot) plan to meet on the roof and escape in the chopper.

The police are going building to building in the inner cities trying to get rid of gang members. There is a lot of racism going on. Gang members are holed up in the buildings and shooting the police. The police make it inside the building and kill a ton of people. Zombies happen, and the cops start losing pretty quickly. The basement turns out to be full of zombies. A couple of the police start killing them. The two cops are Roger and Peter.

Roger and Peter join Fran and Stephen in the chopper. Peter was unexpected, so they worry about the fuel. After failing to refuel the group decides to land on the roof of a shopping mall. They discover a back area that the zombies can’t reach. Mostly storage rooms.

Roger and Peter decide that they need to reconnoitre the mall proper. Mostly so they can loot it for things they can use to survive. Roger and Peter start looting, killing many zombies as they go.

Steve joins them, and they manage to loot a large quantity of stuff from the mall. Fran gets ambushed by a zombie. The group comes back and deals with the zombie. Afterwards, Steve reveals that Fran is pregnant and the group decides to stay in the mall.

They barricade the doors using semi trucks. During the operation, Roger has a close call due to lack of attention. He becomes increasingly reckless. Fairly soon, he gets bitten. This is a Romero world, so bites suck because they get infected easily, but they aren’t what makes zombies. You become a zombie if you die, end of story.

The group clears the mall and goes a bit wild. Roger slowly dies of the infection caused by his wounds. He turns, and the group shoots him instantly. It’s emotional, not threatening.

Stephen trains Fran and Peter on how to fly the chopper. Several months pass and Fran is eager to leave the mall. She is very, very pregnant at this point. Civilization has collapsed. A group of nomadic bikers spot the chopper and follow it back to the mall. They remove the barricades allowing zombies to get inside. Stephen gets into a gunfight with them, and he loses. Peter contemplates suicide but follows Fran to the chopper. The pair make it out with limited fuel and no idea where they are going. Roll credits.

What Makes it Great

Intelligence

The characters don’t die because of plot based stupidity. Everything they do is tactically sound. If they make a mistake, it’s a natural one that you could make due to lack of information, lack of resources, etc. Sometimes it’s as simple as emotion overwhelming logic, but always in a way that I can see a real person doing. They die, when they do, because the world is incredibly dangerous.

Social commentary

The core commentary is about consumerism. The movie features scenes of the zombies walking through the mall. They look like zombies, but they also look exactly like shoppers.

There are also bits about racism, greed, feminism, social acceptance, violence. It’s a pretty intense movie. Gaylen Ross, who played Fran told Romero she wouldn’t scream when he asked her too. She wanted her character to be strong and thought that screaming would take away from that. He agreed and didn’t ask her again. Her character arc is of someone who started out strong and gets stronger. It’s a compelling arc for a female character because it’s so rare.

The music

Dario Argento and the band Goblin did the soundtrack to the movie. It’s kind of a creepy upbeat seventies mall music thing. There’s nothing quite like it elsewhere. This is only for the international version; the domestic version only features some short pieces by Goblin.

The acting

All the actors are good. Not great maybe, but consistently believable. At least all of the main cast. There are some in the early parts of the movie that aren’t just great. The leads are very close to perfectly chosen.

The characters

You know that one annoying guy who dooms everyone by being a total douchebag? He isn’t in this movie. The closest we get is Stephen, and he turns out pretty decent by the end of things. Not even a redemption arc, he learns fast and is an asset to the group beyond his ability to fly the chopper.

Towards the end, the characters are having trouble getting along — as you would if you had been stuck in a mall with the same couple of people for months on end. Even then they work through it and improve. They are all decent people.

Special Effects

Tom Savini improvised a considerable portion of the FX on the spot during filming. Several innovative things were done on a much smaller budget than would have seemed possible.

Failures

Special Effects

Tom Savini did the FX work. For the most part, it’s excellent, but he decided to make the zombie’s skin grey. It looks blue frequently throughout the movie. He has stated that he views that as a mistake.

The bikers

The bikers are very over the top and to me seem overdone, at least at this point in my life. When I was younger, I liked them more.

That’s pretty much it in terms of issues. It’s an excellent movie.

Budget

You can see that the budget was low, much lower than the Zach Snyder remake later, and Romero’s direction is typically very workmanlike. He isn’t doing anything incredibly in terms of shots or angles for most of the movie. His strength has always been story, not visuals. This movie is no exception. The stuff with the zombies walking at the end might be Romero’s most inspired piece of visual direction.

The budget was initially reported to be around 1.5 million but was actually about a third of that. They lied to improve the chances of international distribution.

Conclusion

I don’t rate movies using a star system — I’m considering it. If I did, this movie would get a close to perfect score. The story is incredibly well told, and the whole thing works brilliantly.

This movie is a massive part of what made the zombie movie become what it became. If you like the genre, watch it.