Post Apocalypse Week: Dawn of the Dead

Welcome back to Day 4 of Post Apocalypse Week kids and I thought we would step away from the nice neat nuclear holocaust section for a spell and let's dig in an effect of a comet passing the outer atmosphere of our planet instead.  I hear it has adverse effect on the dead in that it cause them to rise up from it.  In 1968,  writer/director George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies, Martin, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, Monkey Shines, The Dark Half and Land of the Dead)  altered the course of what a zombie film means by creating  risen ghouls from the dead to dine upon the living's flesh.  This was titled Night of the Living Dead and made waves in the Horror community given a dismal view of these creatures that were once friends or family now hunger for our flesh and organs.  Breaking further ground unintentionally was casting our lead actor Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead, Losing Ground, Beast Street, To Die For, Fright House and Living Dead) a black man in the primary cast and before the 1970's this was apparently unheard of.    But that was all that night, what happens in at dawn?   This is Dawn of the Dead.


Francine Parker: What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Stephen: Some kind of spoiler. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.

Black Friday at Wal-Mart!

The US is becoming overrun with the living dead as a massive epidemic.  In the rural and small town areas, Government and local law enforcement seem to be handling the issue but the metropolitan cities are simply being swept up by the steadily increasing wave of unliving biting others and infecting them to add to the fold.  An argument during a telecast was the scientist screaming for nuclear deterrents to level the cities because the dead will never run out of food until they are all dead.    The zombie plague is taking over Philadelphia as martial law is declared. National Guard and SWAT teams break into a building to eradicate the zombies their former loved ones may be hiding.   A national demand that the dead must be given to the military for burning.

Hair smells great. New conditioner?

Helicopter pilot Stephen (David Emge of The Booby Hatch, Basket Case 2 and Hellmaster) and news switchboard staff Francine (Gaylen Ross of Dawn of the Dead, Madman and Creepshow) proceed to get the hell out of Dodge or Philly with a stolen helicopter.  Stephen is waiting for their SWAT buddy Roger (Scott H. Reiniger of Danny, Knightriders, Falcon Crest and Dawn of the Dead) who meets up with them along his newfound buddy and fellow SWAT member Peter (Ken Foree of The Wanderers, Knightriders, From Beyond, Viper, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, The Devil's Rejects, Halloween and Brotherhood of Blood) as they whisk themselves to safety.  From the sky they see the insanity and question humanity's survival but fuel is an issue and they want to make sure to top off as they land in a rural area rather than a big city cluster.

Barely escaping the fuel pump and its plethora of zombies our quartet make their way to a massive shopping mall which has plenty of supplies and ammo (1970's malls had many a gun and blade shops) so they decide to give it a looky loo.   Finding that the zombies are slow on their feet the four think to claim the mall for themselves and remove the zombies outright by locking the shatterproof windows, dropping the gates and leaving big rig semis in front of the doors.

Is this the Utopia to live out the Apocalypse in?   Are our heroes safe from harm or is it only a matter of time before it all comes to an end?

A quick few comments about this movie now.  SFX makeup artist/stuntman/actor Tom Savini had cut his teeth under Romero with the deranged vampire movie Martin that he just showed Romero all his skins he could and the two were bonded at the hip from there on.  Savini tutored the company that became KNB EFFX in Day of the Dead and they later have had more than 40 years of Special Make-up, prostethics and gore effects.  I just now notice Joseph Pilato (Knightriders, Day of the Dead, Gung Ho, Shooters, Alienator and Pulp Fiction) who had the antagonist role in Day of the Dead had a bit part in Dawn of the Dead but that was just an observation.   The End.

Carter administration takes more flack again!

Superhero Film Week: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan

Well kiddies it is that time again when the week is up, the curtain runs down and the show is over. As we already had a pulp fiction hero prior it is only fair that we get one of Gold Key Comics a shot at the title as well.  Originated from the mind of Edgar Rice Burroughs I speak of his most famous of characters; The Lord of the Apes, Tarzan.   So grab your machete, tip your native guide well and do not start nothing with a silverback.  This is Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan.

 

But bananas are currency for all!

Sixth Earl of Greystoke: If he’s a Greystoke, I’ll know him at a spoiler!

A ship is thrashed about in the high seas leaving a nobleman and his wife stranded in the wilds of Africa.  Our nobleman is not a fop or does nothing as he builds his lady a home up in the far trees where she gives birth to their son.   But a handful of days later a family of apes encounter the couple and panic ensues on both sides and the young boy has become an orphan.  A large silverback gorilla takes the boy as a surrogate son to replace her own lost infant.

Dammit dad I said it was a black tie event!

Twenty years later, a Frenchman Capitaine Phillippe D’Arnot (Ian Holm of The Man in the Iron Mask, Alien, Time Bandits, Brazil, Fifth Element and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) leads a band of English sportsmen and is deeply disgusted at their wanton need of blood sports as they shot Tarzan’s adopted mother.  Tarzan (Christopher Lambert of Highlander, Knight Movies, Fortress, The Hunted, Mortal Kombat and Mean Guns) stalks and kills them all but D’Arnot who was injured in a fall during this gun battle.  Tarzan takes D’Arnot to the tree house and nurses him back to health.  After examining documents and pictures D’Arnot realizes the young ape man is actually of royal birth and heir to the Earl of Greystoke.  The young man adapts quite quickly and even understands English in a few short months.  Will a man of nature be able to flourish in the land of civility, clothes and proper manners or will he long for the hills of Africa once more and renounce his title?

I had but a few comments to be made on this film.  This is Andie MacDowell’s first feature film and she was redubbed by Glenn Close because they felt her Southern accent was a bit much for the English teacher her character is.  I have heard countless ridicule aimed at the puppeteers of the Apes and that there was not enough real ape footage to balance the two. This was deeming FX prosthetics and animatronics guru Daniel Parker (Lifeforce, Little Shop of Horrors, Empire of the Sun and Hamlet) and EFX artist Rick Baker (The Howling, American Werewolf in London, Starman, Gorillas in the Mist,  Wolf and Escape from L.A.) some unjust comments.

THERE CAN BE ONLY...oh wait, wrong role. Sorry.

 What really dumbfounds me is how little people see of Christopher Lambert’s performance as the proclaimed lord of the apes.   His eyes and body language speaks volumes of a man taken from his normal element no matter how dangerous it may be and left to these strangers with their culture and mannerisms that are not his to speak of.   This man who spent almost his entire life learning of the ways of the jungle must now comport himself as a proper gentleman and be mindful of not only his surroundings but how others will view and judge him.   To me this is one of the better portrayals of Tarzan as well as one of the best interpretations of the written works.