Moral-Flexibility.Net

Dawn of the Dead (1978) directed by George Romero.
Starring Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, David Emge and David Crawford.
Zombie Film Rating:

Summary: In the broad strokes this movie takes up roughly where “Night of the Living Dead” left off, we’re introduced to SWAT members (Roger and Peter) who are fighting what appears to be a losing battle against the zombie hordes. Tasked with the forcible removal of the dead from citizens that don’t want to see the remains of their loved ones unceremoniously burned, they find themselves fighting both the living and the dead.

Both are sickened with what they are doing, and despite having just met they decide to escape the city. Fortunately friends of Ron (Francine a journalist and Stephen, a helicopter pilot) have decided to flee in a helicopter, and a few experienced armed men is just what the situation calls for. The group boards the helicopter as we see scenes of assorted authority figures (cops and soldiers) fleeing the city in whatever mode of transportation they can find. None of these escapees has any specific destination in mind, just “away”.

The group flies over numerous ad-hoc zombie hunting parties, and it’s difficult to tell whether the living are winning or losing, discussion is made as to the morality and legality of their flight, and its assumed that should the living win our group will face some punishment. They are criminals and fugitives now.

With the helicopter running low on fuel they stop at a hobby airport (small aircraft only) to fuel the helicopter, now it just wouldn’t be a zombie movie if everyone didn’t split up and wander around on their own, would it? Predictably they all run into problems and narrowly escape zombification (watch here for the cool accidental rotor induced zombie decapitation scene). With the helicopter fueled and the zombie body count increased a little, the group takes off again, still with no firm destination.

After a significant amount of flying, the group passes near a mega-mall and decides to see if they can set up home within the mall. Fortunately this mall has a landing pad on the roof, and they discover an isolated Civil Defence storage location accessible from the roof, where they set up a temporary operating base.

Living so close to luxury consumer goods gets the better of them soon enough, and first they explore the mall, and then they seek to control it. This involves a long series of exercises to secure the entry points, and then clear the interior of zombies. Unfortunately Roger gets bitten during these exercises, and although he sees the completion of the “clearing”, he soon turns into a zombie and is put down.

Their moment of rest and relaxation in a consumers paradise surrounded by zombies is brought to an early close, as a pack of post-apocalyptic bikers observe the helicopter on the roof, and decide that they want a piece of the pie. The bikers break through the perimeter and rampage through the interior.

Stephen takes this invasion personally, and puts himself in an exposed position, resulting first in his being wounded, and then in his becoming zombie fodder. Peter takes a more pragmatic course, and snipes the bikers from the ductwork running through the ceilings.

After some random looting and destruction the bikers withdraw, but the defences have been breached and Stephen has joined the ranks of the undead wandering the mall, worse he has retained some memory of the hidden stairwell to the groups lair, and their survival is now in question.

With Roger dead and Stephen now a zombie it’s time for our group to make some serious decisions. Fortunately Francine has put her time in the mall to good use, and can now fly the helicopter, but Peter doubts whether he wants to continue living in a zombie infested world, and contemplates suicide…changing his mind at the last minute and joining Francine in the helicopter, on a flight to god knows where.

Critique: My all time favorite zombie movie since I was a kid, it involves lots of zombies, a jab at consumer culture and sufficiently strange and wonderful gore (thanks to Savini) to keep you entertained.

In my not so humble opinion this is THE zombie movie.

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