In this shot we see two of the main characters;
Stephen and Roger who is about to shoot a zombie in the head, leading to Tom
Savini utilising some gore effects which the movie is well known for. It is
also one of the first times we notice how useless Stephen is when we discover
that he is poor with a rifle, and this goes against the usual conventions of
films especially for the time it was made. Stephen conventionally should be the
male hero as he is in a relationship with a good job as a news reporter and is
handsome and overall he is the stereotype of a male hero. But instead the male heroes
end up being Peter and Roger which was a bit of a shock for people at the time
because in the context of 1970s audiences, they weren’t as used to the idea of
a black hero either. The rifle can also be seen as a phallic symbol which
connotes the higher male power of roger rather than Stephen.
In this shot we can see a medium shot of Fran with
Stephen being attacked in the background again showing that he is largely
useless. Fran goes against conventions because she didn’t scream showing to the
audience that she is a strong female character that isn’t always holding the
group back and causing trouble, instead that role went to Stephen. However I
wasn’t sure why she didn’t help Stephen. Maybe it was because see was focusing
on the zombie coming the other way and wondering what to do. Another thing about
Fran is that she is blonde and this characteristic normally belongs to the
female victim however Fran is the final girl so again this film challenges a
lot of stereotypes and this is something that the director George Romero is
known for and is part of his Auteur style. He also uses a strong female
character in Day of the Dead as well as some other unconventional heroes.
This shot is from the beginning of the film where a team of military police or
something similar raid a block of apartments occupied by some Puerto Rican
immigrants and zombies. There is one particular member of the team called Wooley
who goes in and shoots anyone he can he comes across. Wooley a racist and generally a horrible person and
is a representation of everything that is wrong with society, but we are put at
ease when the male hero Peter shoots him in the back and that could be seen as
a symbol of black, non-racist power. This is Romero’s auteur style at work
again and due to being half Cuban he hated racism and this reflects in his
films. The exploding head effect used in this scene is now a well-known effect
in action and horror films alike and DOTD is well known for effects such as
these.
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