On Saturday night Mindy & I attended a screening of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead at the Loews Landmark Cinema in Jersey City. The Loews is a gorgeous cathedral of cinema built in 1929. It’s a little beat up, but they’re constantly renovating it. Having survived a rough history, it’s still beautiful inside. Even without the zombies, it's worth a trip to New Jersey to experience.
Before the movie there was a Q&A with some of the actors who played zombies in the movie (notably the tall helicopter zombie, and the Hare Krishna Zombie), and a re-enactment of the opening scene's TV segment.
A few things we noticed when Dawn is up on the big screen:
The eerie priest at the beginning is completely missing his leg, but moves around swiftly with the crutch tucked under his arm.
Several shots are out of focus. (Seriously, George?)
A lady zombie in the mall has a lollypop stuck in her hair.
Stacking zombies in a freezer with your food doesn’t make any sense.
Ken Foree, who plays Peter is great, and delivers the great monologue about his Haitian grandfather saying, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." A great actor, who I just saw pop up in a great Season 3 episode (“The List) of the X-Files with JT Walsh.
There are some pretty progressive, and feminist conversations about abortion (consider this was 1978), where Gaylen Ross (as Fran) asserts herself. She goes on to tell the men that she’s not going to be their den-mother and cook and clean up after the men.
Overall the experience of watching the film with a crowd, on the big screen intensified the gore, and the suspense, making it more effective overall. Not being a huge fan of this Romero installment, I found I enjoyed it way more than I have in the past.
