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Stars:
Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer
Writer:
James Gunn
Based
On A Screenplay By: George A. Romero
Director:
Zach Snyder
Feature
length: 1 hour and 50 minutes
Extras:
Splitting Headaches: Anatomy Of Exploding Heads, Attack Of The Living Dead,
Raising The Dead, The Lost Tape: Over 15 Minutes Of Terrifying Footage Revealed,
Special Report: Zombie Invasion, Deleted Scenes, Director’s Commentary
Languages:
English, French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case Within A Cardboard Slip
Chapter
Stops: 20
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2004/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
It
is a given in modern society that like it or not, films are remade over and over
again for a new generation. Sometimes it is a character or story that has become
a part of the public domain that is reworked every ten or twenty years and other
times it is merely the concept that is borrowed with little similarity between
the previous version and the new one. Depending on one’s point of view,
Hollywood through both the big screen and small has had a lot of success lately
with reinventing the old. Big screen films like New Line Cinema’s “The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre” and Paramount’s “The Manchurian Candidate” are good
examples of remakes that stand well on their own merits. On the small screen,
Universal and the SCI FI Channel has had some success in bringing original
miniseries remakes of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Frank Herbert’s
Dune” to fruition. That is not to say that they are better than their original
counterparts, but they beat audience and critical expectations. New Line is
producing a prequel to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” while a new
“Battlestar Galactica” TV series will premiere on SCI FI in January of 2005.
New Amsterdam Entertainment, Producer Richard P. Rubinstein’s company that
helped bring the 2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead” to the big screen,
developed a miniseries sequel to “Frank Herbert’s Dune” based on the
second and third novels in the “Dune Chronicles” and is developing films
based on Brian Herbert’s prequel novels for the big screen. Sometimes a remake
is not fully appreciated at the time of theatrical release, but develops a
strong following on home video. “John Carpenter’s The Thing” is in my
opinion one of the best sci-fi horror hybrids ever produced, but back in 1982
audiences were more inclined to see “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” over and
over again. Sometimes it is simply a manner of timing.
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I
remember after seeing the 2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead” on the big
screen, a friend of mine in England mused to me about how Hollywood cannibalizes
itself for lack of any original ideas. I laughed not so much because I agreed or
disagreed with his statement, but because I thought “Now that would be a great
idea for a setting. Why not have survivors hold up in a Hollywood studio back
lot and then the underlying subtext regarding remakes in general could be
explored without sacrificing any action since the characters would have to
contend with zombies in makeup literally as well as other hardships.” I still
feel there is potential in that idea for some filmmaker to really explore and
have fun with though like the “slasher” craze that “Scream” briefly
ignited in the 1990s, I think that in about a year or two, probably after George
Romero’s fourth entry in his own series “Land Of The Dead” hits theaters,
the interest in the zombie subgenre will have begun to wane. Some might argue
that it already has.
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With
the exception of the basic premise, “Dawn Of The Dead” has little in common
with its predecessor. The film does stand well enough alone though as both a
horror film and a general homage to Romero’s films that pioneered the genre.
For reasons never explained other than the old tagline “When there’s no more
room in Hell. The dead will walk the Earth,” a zombie plague sweeps all over
the world and within days decimates society. A few human survivors hold up in a
shopping mall seeking salvation, but soon enough realize their shopper’s
sanctuary will become their tomb if they don’t find a way to escape ravenous
hordes of the undead clamoring outside. Like the “infected” in “28 Days
Later,” these zombies are vicious creatures that have an inhuman ability to
run at speeds that makes groups of them nearly impossible to pass. This makes
them all the more dangerous since all it takes is one bite to infect the living
with disease that reanimates the dead. In many ways the 2004 version of “Dawn
Of The Dead” is a far more bleak film than the original 1978 classic, but it
also lacks some of the elements that made Romero’s film so much fun to watch.
I think fast zombies are scary, but what was frightening about Romero’s
creatures was that they lulled both the characters and the viewers at times into
thinking that these lumbering ghouls are no match for a few of the living with
some guns. That was their power in a sense because in all three of Romero’s
“Dead” films, part of the reason why the dead always end up breaking into
the living’s stronghold is because of humanity’s inability to band together
in the face of a crisis. Not that recent events in the last few years have not
proved the heroism others have had in facing the unknown to save others in the
face of great calamity, but as a species we have yet to reconcile our self
destructive nature with out altruistic nature and that in many ways is the
reason why people behave irrationally at times at least in part.
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Cameos
from original “Dawn Of The Dead” stars Ken Foree, Scott H, Reiniger, and Tom
Savini are sure to make fans of the original smile at least a little even if
they still refuse to give this remake a chance to stand alone. Perhaps it is
because I watch movies and write about them for a living and I have seen so many
horror films that what is considered gory by contemporary standards does not
really bother me, but despite the extra scenes of bloody zombies attacking the
living, I do not think there is any image in this film that is any more
disturbing or hardcore than the brilliant work Tom Savini produced for both
George A. Romero’s “Dawn Of The Dead” and “Day Of The Dead.” However I
do think that the “Unrated Director’s Cut” of “Dawn Of The Dead” is
better than the theatrical version not because of any extra scenes of carnage,
but rather because it restores scenes that help to explain the background of the
characters and how certain action in the film took place. For example, in the
theatrical version we see a toilet breaking through the glass doors of one of
the mall stores allowing our protagonists entrance inside, but I’m sure a few
people who saw it on the big screen wondered, “If that’s how they got in,
what prevents the zombies from coming right behind them?” That question is
answered in the “Unrated Director’s Cut.” As a whole the “Unrated
Director’s Cut” of “Dawn Of The Dead” is approximately 9 minutes longer
than the theatrical version.
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The
theatrical and “Unrated Director’s Cut” of “Dawn Of The Dead” are
being released day and date of each other on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 in both
anamorphic widescreen and full screen versions sold separately so in other
words, depending on one’s preference, there will be four variations of the
2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead” to choose from on DVD. I watched both the
widescreen and full screen versions of the film in part because I received both
so I reviewed both. The extra value features of both the widescreen and full
screen editions of the Unrated Director’s Cut of “Dawn Of The Dead” are
exactly the same. Obviously I prefer the anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1)
presentation of the film because it preserves the manner in which the film was
exhibited theatrically as close as possible for home video users to enjoy, but
while it is more than clear that the full screen version suffers from cutting
off parts of the screen compositions, the full screen version definitely is
easier to watch if you are using a small TV or laptop like device in transit
somewhere. Picture wise there is a bit more visible onscreen grain on the
widescreen version, but the full screen (1.33:1) version also revealed a bit of
grain and seemed a shade or two lighter in color as compared to the widescreen
version so I definitely think the picture quality as a whole on the widescreen
version is better than the full screen edition because even with the fine grain,
the colors seem more accurate and natural.
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Click On The Photo Above To View A Trailer.
Everything
else commented upon from here on holds true for both the widescreen and full
screen versions of the Unrated Director’s Cut of “Dawn Of The Dead.” The
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix is very strong with a nice
discrete use of the multi-channel audio to create a distinct three-dimensional
home theater experience. The music and sound effects at times jump out at the
listener and intensify the onscreen action as a result and yet there are lulls
so that one does not feel overwhelmed by the soundtrack. The music cues come off
quite nicely too. As a whole the sound mix makes up some for the somewhat grainy
image quality present on both the widescreen and full screen versions of the
film on DVD. French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks
are also encoded onto the dual layered disc along with English Captions for the
hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles as options too.
Director
Zach Snyder and Producer Eric Newman provide optional feature length audio
commentary that is screen specific and insightful. They also provide optional
audio comments for a reel of 11 letterboxed deleted scenes (11:29) and Mr.
Snyder also provides an optional videotaped Director’s Introduction (1:16)
before the start of the film detailing briefly his reasons for the “Unrated
Director’s Cut” and the differences therein between the theatrical and
unrated versions. Produced exclusively for the DVD are “The Lost Tape: Over 15
Minutes Of Terrifying Footage Revealed,” which details the character of Andy,
the gun shop owner’s last month of life as it correlates to the events that
take place during the film. “Special Bulletin: Zombie Invasion!” (21:04) is
a collection of videotaped new coverage of the first 26 hours of the zombie
epidemic complete with a few clips featuring a hapless jackass wrestling a
zombie for fun in a basement while his dumb buddies watch, a survivalist
demonstrating various “controlled” scenarios of how to survive a zombie
attack from multiple directions, and some gory hospital and mortuary footage
that expands the horror of the film in a somewhat pseudo gonzo style. The late
Richard Biggs is the troubled New Anchorman throughout announcing the news while
fellow “Babylon 5” alumni Bruce Boxleitner appropriately delivers the voice
of the final broadcast by the President of the United States.
Exclusive
to the “Unrated Director’s Cut” are three behind-the-scenes featurettes
detailing the gory exploding head effects (5:37), dissecting how some of the
zombie kills in the film were executed-no pun intended (7:25), and the
three stages of zombie makeup developed for the film (7:54). Unfortunately none
of the theatrical trailers for the film are included on the Unrated Director’s
Cut,” which is a shame since I thought they were especially well produced.
Previews for Universal Studios Home Video’s “Van Helsing,” “John
Carpenter’s The Thing: Enhanced Widescreen Collector’s Edition,” “They
Live,” “The Prince Of Darkness,” “Village Of The Damned,” and Wes
Craven’s “Shocker,” “The Serpent And The Rainbow,” “The People
Underneath The Stairs,” as well as Sam Raimi’s “Army Of Darkness” are
included along with teaser trailers for “Shaun Of The Dead” and “Seed Of
Chucky” (4:10). The main menu is animated with motion transitions to standard
interactive still frame menus and all are easy to navigate.
“Dawn
Of The Dead: Unrated Director’s Cut: Widescreen” and “Full Screen” will
debut on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline day and date of each other, but
sold separately on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 courtesy of Universal Studios Home
Video.
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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