Movie Guide: The Golden Years - 1968 – Night of the Living Dead
Recommendation: Ninth and second recommendation of the second part of this excellent year, 1968.
And, knowing from the beginning, that in this second part, we were first going to focus on the genre of "
Terror", the film in which, today, we have set our sights, is a B-series film. , but which, although with a very low budget, was an iconic and transgressive film for its time, since it can be considered the first Gore film. Its name "
Night of the Living Dead", let's gut it.
And we are going to take advantage of this second recommendation to pay homage to the iconic horror film director
George A. Romero of course, recommending tonight, "
Night of the Living Dead" and that we can well consider the first film in the horror subgenre called
Gore cinema, and that we could define: as the cinema that focuses on visceral graphics tinged with extreme graphic violence, through the use of special effects and excessive artificial blood.
Regarding the production of this, "
Night of the Living Dead", it can be considered as one of the first films financed by the crowdfunding method, being the promoters themselves and even the actors who financed the film, founding, together to the director
George A. Romero himself and the one who would be the screenwriter of the film itself
John Russo and, to his friend
Russell Streiner, the production company
Image Ten Productions itself.
A producer, then, among friends, who with the idea of putting together a B-movie and with a gore theme, created a horror film in which, with a sublime social criticism, and a low budget of $114,000, it obtained a collection neither more nor less than $33M. "
A whole ball" And, if we do a simple calculation, we will realize that the box office collected multiplied the initial investment by almost 300, making it one of the most profitable film productions ever made. "
Absolutely nothing"
In addition, the evaluation of the film is an excellent score of 7.1 and, according to the prestigious evaluation platform (
Filmaffinity) in its section: Ranking of zombie movies and series, it ranks number 1 and, in the section of Best Horror Movies ranks at number 57. "
Good credentials, huh?"
Its director, and a character honored in our recommendation today, is the great
George Andrew Romero born in New York City and, more specifically, raised in the Bronx district. His training was carried out at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the directors who have most influenced him being:
Michael Powell and
Orson Welles. If you don't look at the film that concerns us today, its influence is clear and, with clear influences on "
The War of the Worlds" by
Orson Welles, which is permanently drawn, in the figure of the radio that broadcasts throughout the tape a radio station, which creates an atmosphere of more than remarkable tension. Therefore, the radio itself became a more than essential character in the film. "
A complete success"
Finally, I am simply going to relate the films that, with this monotheme and in the form of a saga, the small, but great New York director made: 1968 - "
Night of the Living Dead", 1978 - "
Dawn of the Dead", 1985 - "
Day of the Dead", 2005 - "
The Land of the Living Dead", 2007 - "
The Diary of the Dead", 2009 "
The Resistance of the Dead".
With respect to its main performers, above all, New York actor
Duane Jones stands out who, curiously, is listed as the first black actor to star in a Horror movie. And, accompanying him, we have Pittsburgh-born actress
Judith O'Deam. In both cases, this "
Night of the Living Dead" is undoubtedly his most charismatic film. While, in turn, they were accompanied by supporting actors:
Karl Hardman,
Tony Todd and actresses
Marilyn Eastman and
Judith Ridley.
And so we leave the interpretative aspect of this, to, with the thread of writing, tell you that the idea of "
Night of the Living Dead" was born from the novel published in 1954 and written by the American writer born in New Jersey,
Richard Matheson, "
I am Legend"
So, based on this original idea,
John Russo and the director
George A. Romero himself created the script for this "
Night of the Living Dead", as we said a B-series tape and with the theme of gore, they created a horror film in which a subliminal social criticism is diluted and, where the end of the film, shocking and not at all expected, denotes even more, that social criticism.
And now, to finish, simply mention its soundtrack which, in this case, was composed by the American composer and born in Michigan,
William Loose.
And, finally, with this "
Night of the Living Dead" dissected, it is time for us to enjoy it, fixing our gaze, on this, extraordinary, protagonist of a certain
Ben, a man of color played by
Duane Jones and, on that
Judith O'Deam who, for her role playing
Barbara, a rather passive woman and archetypically feminine emotional vulnerability, received much criticism from feminist circles. Let's see how much truth there is in this film, where an impersonal radio station gets on your nerves.
To do this, you know, you just have to take into account that, as always under the cover, we have left the post published on
Ok.ru and, under its trailer, the link to the full film in the original version with subtitles. Therefore, you just have to click on any of these links, to be able to enjoy the chosen option.
Synopsis: Radiations from a satellite cause a terrifying phenomenon: the dead come out of their graves and attack men to feed themselves. The action begins in a Pennsylvania cemetery, where
Barbara, after being attacked by an undead, flees to a farm.
Ben has also taken refuge there. Both will build barricades to defend themselves against a multitude of ruthless zombies that can only be defeated with a blow to the head. (
Filmaffinity)
Нет комментариев