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Stars:
Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joe Pilato, and Richard Liberty
Writer:
George A. Romero
Director:
George A. Romero
Feature
length: 101 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Commentary By Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer David
Ball, Special Make-UP Effects Artist Tom Savini, Production Designer Cletus
Anderson, And Actress Lori Cardille, Audio Commentary With Filmmaker Roger Avary,
“The Many Days Of Day Of The Dead” Documentary, “Day Of The Dead: Behind
The Scenes” Production Featurette, Audio Interview With Actor Richard Liberty,
Wampum Mine Production Video, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, Still Galleries,
George A. Romero Bio, Original Screenplay & Production Memos On DVD-ROM
Languages:
English DTS Digital 6.1 ES Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions
Packaging:
Two-Disc Digipack Gatefold
Chapter
Stops: 19
Sound:
DTS Digital 6.1 ES Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround
Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1985/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: United Film Distribution Company
Home
Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Going
by the opening on the original screenplay that George A. Romero wrote and is
included as a PDF file on the second DVD of this two-disc set, five years have
past since the bodies of the recently dead began to rise and feed upon the flesh
of the living. In Florida, a ragtag group of scientists and soldiers have been
desperately trying to find survivors aboveground in the now lifeless cities
overrun with the living dead while belowground grisly experiments are being
performed by an insane scientist, who has been trying to find a way of
controlling the zombies from a behavioral standpoint so that they can be trained
not to attack and devour human beings. Tension between the survivors comes to a
boiling point as the root method behind behaviorally controlling a zombie is
revealed and soon the missile silo complex they have held up in becomes a tomb
for those not so fortunate to escape the onslaught of zombies who are finally
given entrance into the compound on the darkest day of horror the world is ever
known.
“Day
Of The Dead” carries over many of the themes developed from “Night Of The
Living Dead” and “Dawn Of The Dead” to its logical conclusion in as much
as one can in a film series like this. While the original film offered some
strange form of radiation bought back by a satellite returning from Venus that
was remotely destructed as it was entering the Earth’s orbit as the reason for
the sudden reanimation of the recently dead. This was dropped or at least never
mentioned again for “Dawn Of The Dead,” “Day Of The Dead,” and the 1990
remake of “Night Of The Living Dead” in favor of something more esoteric
involving a curse or plague visited upon humanity by God for our misdeeds or
whatnot and well that is as good a reason as any for something that truly is
beyond our normal range of comprehension. The things we learn about the zombies
that were gradually theorized in the first two installments is that they are
driven only by their most primal instincts and that is why they eat the living
flesh though there seems to be some residual memory or ability to learn as
demonstrated in certain cases like “Bub” (Howard Sherman), but since these
beings are still dead, their continual decay will eventually halt their undead
life much the way the living will die from old age. So in time this plague will
past, which makes the advice of just leaving the old world and going to some
secure isolated place like an island not a bad idea. Characters encountered
early in “Dawn Of The Dead” at the dock are stealing a boat to get to an
island. “Any island” as one of the characters states while our heroes, who
were taking the weather helicopter up north to find sanctuary end up making the
mistake of trying to secure a life for themselves in a mall. How ironic is it
that the going to an island for salvation turns out to be the best thing left to
do by the time “Day Of The Dead” ends.
Like
many “Romero” fans, I saw “Day Of The Dead” with a friend when I was a
teenager in high school and I found myself both compelled and repulsed by the
state of the art gore effects by Tom Savini and yet I was unhappy because I
wanted both a happier and more definitive ending at the time though now I think
the film provides an ending that fits and pretty much gives the viewers a sense
of how things will end. In my opinion eventually over the course of many years
the zombies will cease to function because the part of the brain that compels
them would have succumbed to decomposition and if there are any surviving humans
left, hopefully they will have learned something will remake the world in a
better way than before. There are lots of elements developed in the first two
films that carry themselves out through the third film that include the
possibility of beating the infection by severing a bitten limb fast enough from
the zombie victim and there are a few dialogue nods as well as a music nod to
“Dawn Of The Dead” in one of the film’s scenes involving a zombie being
punished by Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty) by being locked in a room with the
lights off.
While
many of the characters exhibit the darker nature of human behavior in the film,
it is not necessarily so over the top as some reviewers have labeled the film in
the past. I mean Rhoades (Joe Pilato) is painted out to be the villain of the
film and indeed he is villainous, but he is understandably upset and while his
actions are ultimately both destructive to himself and others in the film, I am
not sure anyone in his predicament might not react the same way. In fact much of
the reasons why the humans fail in the “Dead Series” is because they react
when they should have thought things through. However if the dead were rising
right now to feed on the living I am not sure if I would be able to think things
through before taking action and so depending on the level of stress one can
handle I think we are all capable of reacting in manners that do not best serve
our needs or purposes. This fact makes even the most loathsome characters in
“Day Of The Dead” believable because they are all to human and we all have
flaws, except for all of you who are reading this review! ;)
This
is a big DVD release for Anchor Bay Entertainment and perhaps their most highly
anticipated DVD release of the year. George A. Romero’s “Day Of The Dead”
has been released as a part of Anchor Bay Entertainment’s “Divimax
Series,” which is a high definition film to media transfer process that is
supposed to deliver state-of-the-art picture quality that can be enjoyed on any
home entertainment system. Unfortunately they do not go into any specifics
regarding how the film was restored so what I have detailed above is just a
slight rewording of how they describe what the “Divimax Series” entails on
the back of the packaging. This is the third “Divimax Series” release and
the first one to made from a film that did not previously get an anamorphic
widescreen THX certified release like “Manhunter” and “Halloween” had
previously so the only point of comparison for region one DVD users is the
original release, which featured a letterboxed transfer with mono sound, a
trailer and some old behind-the-scenes filmed footage that has not been carried
over to the new release.
You
do not even have to see the original DVD release to appreciate this new
“Divimax Series” presentation of “Day Of The Dead.” I do not even think
the film looked this good when I saw it on the big screen back in 1985. This is
a vast improvement over both the previous DVD release by Anchor Bay as well as
the VHS tape presentations I have seen over the years. The level of detail is
truly astonishing. The textures of the drab interiors and clothes are only
surpassed by the level of clarity the gore effects reveal with the crimson red
blood spurting out to reveal many levels of guts and bones in even the most
smallest of bites sustained by the characters in the film. “Day Of The Dead”
is presented in an anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio, which preserves
the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically as close as possible for
home video viewers. The English DTS Digital 6.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack
is a surprisingly well-mixed atmospheric sound experience. The English Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX Surround Soundtrack is also quite outstanding though it doesn’t
have as much punch as the DTS Soundtrack. I was not expecting either remix to
sound as good as they do so I was pleasantly surprised. Overall this is a great
example of how a cult film can be refurbished and restored to equal many
contemporary film presentations on DVD. I cannot wait to see how Anchor Bay
Entertainment’s “Dawn Of The Dead” set will look and sound when it is
released next year. English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired are also
encoded. There is one mistake on the captioning that I noticed. Without being
too specific when a character is yelling “Choke on it!” the caption reads
some person’s name instead. Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer David
Ball, Special Make-UP Effects Artist Tom Savini, Production Designer Cletus
Anderson, and Actress Lori Cardille participate in feature length audio
commentary that is both screen specific and retrospective. Savini and Romero
share lots of great information regarding the making of the film and a few
anecdotes regarding the special effects. Lori Cardille’s father appeared in
the original 1968 version of “Night Of The Living Dead” and early in the
commentary she adds a bit of perspective to her role in the film, but later all
she seems to do is react to what’s going on in the film without adding any
input to the conversation. Academy Award® winning filmmaker Roger Avary
delivers his own feature length commentary despite having no connection to he
film other than he is a fan, but he does make a some interesting observations
about the film and while I may not agree with everything he says, I cannot deny
that he makes some valid points.
The
second DVD contains the balance of the bonus features beginning with an
excellent documentary entitled “The Many Days Of Day Of The Dead” (38:40),
which features brand new videotaped interviews with Writer/Director George A.
Romero, Producer David Ball, Special Make-Up Effects Artists Tom Savini and Greg
Nicotero, Production Designer Cletus Anderson, Assistant Director Chris Romero,
and Actors Lori Cardille, Joe Pilato, and Howard Sherman. This is supported by
videotaped behind the scenes footage from the production where much of the
mechanical effects are tested and viewers can see zombie make-up tests and how
the action scenes were produced before their eyes (30:50). Both documentaries
contain spoilers and should not be viewed before seeing the feature even by
those who have seen the film before many times. Next is an audio interview from
March 7, 2000 with Actor Richard Liberty, who seems to have been quite a nice
person judging by his demeanor toward answering the questions in the interview
(16:08). The promotional reel for the Gateway Center “Wampum Mine” storage
facility where the film was shot (8:12) is also included along with extensive
still galleries containing production stills, behind-the-scenes photos, posters
and advertising art, memorabilia, make-up, and continuity and biographical
information and film credits for Writer/Director George A. Romero.
There
are three theatrical trailers presented in (1.85:1) aspect ratios that have
running times of (1:59), (2:04), and (1:10) respectively. The one with the
zombie in the theater is my favorite. Three 32-second TV spots wrap up the DVD-Video
extras available to set-top users. DVD-ROM users will have access to the
complete original version of the screenplay and production memos as PDF files.
Within
the Digipack packaging is an insert made to look like a little blood stained
legal pad used by the character of Dr. Logan from the film complete with
illustrations, bloody handwriting, the scene selection listing, and an essay by
Michael Felscher.
The
interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. “George A.
Romero’s Day Of The Dead: Divimax Series” two disc set is available on DVD-Video
now at retailers on and offline from Anchor Bay Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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