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Trailer here. (http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1357274&sdm=web&qtw=480&qth=300)
Release Date: June 24th, 2005 (wide)
Cast: Asia Argento (Slack), Simon Baker (Riley), Dennis Hopper (Kaufman), John Leguizamo (Cholo), Robert Joy (Charlie), Pedro Miguel Arce (Pillsbury), Krista Bridges (Teahouse), Phil Fondacaro (Chihuahua), Jason Gautreau (Gus), Max McCabe (Mouse), Sasha Roiz (Manolete), Christopher Russell (Barrett), Alan Van Sprang (Brubaker), Jonathan Walker (Cliff Woods)
Director: George A. Romero (the Night of the Living Dead films, Monkey Shines, The Dark Half, Creepshow, Bruiser)
Screenwriter: George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Dark Half, Monkey Shines, Knightriders)
Premise: In a modern-day world where the walking dead roam an uninhabited wasteland, the living try to lead "normal" lives behind the walls of a fortified city. A new society has been built by a handful of enterprising, ruthless opportunists, who live in the towers of a skyscraper, high above the hard-scrabble existence on the streets below. But outside the city walls, an army of the dead is evolving. Inside, anarchy is on the rise. With the very survival of the city at stake, a group of hardened mercenaries is called into action to protect the living from an army of the dead.
aw shoot
Ah, yummy. Another zombie flick from one of the greats.
and that's how trailers work on the average american viewer, ladies and germs.
you know, after seeing the trailer i was skeptical. but then upon second viewing i realized what i didn't like about it: the editing. George romero and John Carpenter have a similar style (which Romero established and Carpenter took on). they like static shots with quick cutting to create action. whomever cut the trailer doesn't understand their style and is trying to garner the same crowd as all the other zombie films that have come out in the last couple years. fair enough, but barely representative of the film. this is apparent in the trailer, the camera isn't moving all fast and ramping every fucking second like any other film made these days. (including 28 days later and the remake of dawn of the dead, both of which i enjoyed but dislike the style)
so even though the trailer looks shitty-modern, we still don't know what to expect. I trust Romero more than any other with this genre. Like the trailer says, he created it, so i can't wait to see it.
I think it's going to have the romero style through and through and i can't wait until the opening. maybe he's over the hill, but i will only think so when he fails to create a great zombie film. 3 for 3 are good numbers, so i won't judge him quite yet.
-sl-
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New Trailer here. (http://www.lotdunseen.com/qt/trailer_l.mov)
Romero Tribute Featurette here. (http://www.landofthedeadmovie.net/media/lotd_george_romero_tribute_700k.mov)
Those aren't really dead people. You can't fool me.
Quote from: matt35mmThose aren't really dead people. You can't fool me.
Actually, the bald lead zombie really was dead.
Everyone else was just terminally ill.
man i hate movies that overrate themselves before anyone's even seen them.
at best, this will be unintentionally hilarious.
As long as it contains Asias nizzos, i'm downloading it.
I saw this tonight and I liked it.
It's about as good as if not better than (I'm thinking probably "better than") Day of the Dead.
People should obviously not expect another Dawn of the Dead. I feel sorry for those who are. I wasn't.
The gore is great and pretty old-school (though Savini wasn't working behind the camera on this one). There was some use of CG, but not much and what was used mostly worked.
The story starts out great and the tone is set up pretty quickly and is quite engaging, but it doesn't really keep up in the end.
Overall, it keeps the traditional Romero Zombie spirit and adds a few new small things.
Romero seems to have been very mildly influenced by those that he influenced in the past, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it kind of feels strange at some points.
Quote from: RegularKaratePeople should obviously not expect another Dawn of the Dead. I feel sorry for those who are.
I didn't realize until you said that, that I
was expecting another Dawn of the Dead. Thank you very much; my expectations have been lowered accordingly.
'Dead' Head Romero Brings Zombies to Life
George Romero lurches among us again, doing what he does best: Creating a combustible microcosm of society, then besieging it with zombies who just can't get enough of tasty human flesh.
The director, whose 1968 chiller "Night of the Living Dead" established an entire horror subgenre, is back with "George Romero's Land of the Dead," a tale of survivors coping with legions of walking corpses outside their walled city.
It's zombie king Romero's first big film in 12 years, following a cinematic exile when he and producing colleague Peter Grunwald were unable to get their projects off the ground.
"I missed the '90s," Romero, 65, told The Associated Press. "My partner and I were in development hell for about eight years and never got anything done."
Along with 1978's "Dawn of the Dead" and 1985's "Day of the Dead," Romero's films include the '70s cult flicks "Martin" and "Season of the Witch" and bigger studio fare such as 1982's horror anthology "Creepshow" and 1993's "The Dark Half" both in collaboration with Stephen King.
But zombies have been his calling card. Countless imitators have adhered to the rules Romero laid down. The creatures move slowly and stiffly, as if struggling with rigor mortis. They hunger for living human flesh. If bitten, a person inevitably dies and comes back as a zombie. And the only way to kill a zombie is to shoot it in the head.
"There were zombie films prior to George, but he pretty much invented the cannibalistic aspect," said Edgar Wright, director and co-writer of the affectionate Romero homage "Shaun of the Dead." "What we now think of as zombies really are Romero zombies."
For all the larger-than-life terrors such as Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster, Romero's zombies arguably are the most frightening because they're just plain folks, albeit decomposing ones.
"Land of the Dead" features a zombie in a cheerleader outfit. Three zombies holding musical instruments hang out on a bandstand, one brainlessly tooting its tuba. Another zombie in a gas station attendant's outfit has a vestigial desire to pump fuel for vehicles that will never arrive.
"It's the neighbors, man," Romero said. "That's the scariest thing in life, the neighbors. Who am I going to move in next to?
"I don't think metaphysically about this. It's not about death or an afterlife or anything like that. This is a new situation, it's a change. A new species that just happens to be related to us."
After "The Dark Half," film after film fell through for Romero. The only movie he had managed to make was 2000's low-budget thriller "Bruiser," which virtually no one saw.
The recent onslaught of zombie copycats including the "Resident Evil" flicks, "28 Days Later" and a remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" made the time ripe for the creator himself to resurrect his franchise.
"Land of the Dead" stars Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper and Asia Argento.
Like Romero's previous zombie tales, "Land of the Dead" offers gore galore yet transcends the blood-and-guts genre with heavy doses of satire and social commentary.
"It's a very clever thing to use horror as a metaphor, and George does that very well, like dealing with people's fears and insecurities amid the blood and gore," said Simon Pegg, star and co-writer of "Shaun of the Dead," about two London slackers bumbling their way through a zombie invasion. "He manages to combine the visceral and the splatter with real brains."
Pegg and "Shaun" director Wright had cameo roles in "Land of the Dead" as zombies at a photo booth.
The new movie is the most expansive of Romero's zombie tales and features his biggest cast yet, both living and dead. When it comes to directing his zombie players, Romero continues to take a hands-off approach.
"George is a great believer of not giving you too much direction when you turn into a zombie, because he wants you to find your inner zombie," co-star Leguizamo said. "He wants you to really find your own tics and mannerisms ... So everybody's not doing the same thing."
Each film has been a product of its times.
After an early career in commercials and industrial films, Romero shot "Night of the Living Dead" in stark black and white with a documentary style that fit the naturalism overtaking American cinema in the 1960s. The tale of bickering people trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by hungry zombies reflected the decade's social unrest.
"Collapse of the family unit, lack of communication, people not being able to get it together. `Should we stay upstairs or go down to the basement?' Instead of trying to really sort of pull together and address the problem," Romero said. "Just missed opportunities. The '60s in a nutshell."
"Dawn of the Dead" was a perversely funny condemnation of mall culture, featuring survivors who take refuge against zombies in a shopping center. When zombies manage to get inside, they passively ride escalators and mindlessly window shop for savory morsels essentially, the same thing they did while living.
"`Dawn of the Dead' is bawdy. It's this comic book, and it's in your face with the criticism of consumerism," Romero said. "It was the beginning of logo shirts and murder for Nikes. It was that period in time."
"Day of the Dead" reflects the cold opportunism of the 1980s, centering on scientists and military officers performing experiments on zombies in a bunker, where humans begin devolving amid the new world order of the undead.
"Land of the Dead" is a have and have-not story timely, given the current focus on the chasm among classes in the United States. An elite few live the good life in a skyscraper while the masses suffer in squalor. Mercenaries scour the suburbs, gunning down zombies and foraging for groceries for the urban privileged.
The wealthy use fear of zombies to control the living population, an angle Romero uses to comment on the post-Sept. 11 world.
"Since 9/11, a fear came into it, and people have capitalized on how productive fear can be as a device," co-star Baker said.
Romero doubts he ever will do a movie resolving his zombie-vs.-human scenario but he thinks his films have been moving toward some degree of peaceful co-existence between the living and dead.
"When you think about how do you solve this problem, there has to be some degree of that," Romero said. "But the zombies also have to cooperate with that. I think one of the things is, they have to learn to eat something else."
Knight of the living dead
Zombies are George Romero's specialty, and he's about to unleash them for the first time in 20 years.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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As he sips iced coffee in the restaurant of the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, filmmaker George Romero — the father or, at 65, the grandfather of modern horror films — admits what's scaring him these days: June 24.
"It's terrifying to be opening up in summer," says Romero of his latest zombie opus, "Land of the Dead." It hits theaters Friday — 37 years after the debut of his seminal flesh-eating flick "Night of the Living Dead" and 20 years since his last undead venture, "Day of the Dead."
Originally planned for a Halloween release, Universal bumped up the $18-million film as a sign of confidence in the highly anticipated gorefest. And although early reviews have been raves, Romero says, "I just hope it's not too much of a specialty niche thing. We're sandwiched between 'Batman' and 'War of the Worlds.' Gulp."
Romero, a gangly, soft-spoken man with mad scientist-like black horn-rimmed glasses, has never had the rep of a journeyman scaremeister or no-holds-barred stylist, but instead that of a painterly satirist, a cinematic Bosch.
His zombie sagas, which also include the critically lauded 1979 masterpiece "Dawn of the Dead" (the remake of which was a hit last year), are splatter-happy and sweat-inducing survival dramas, but, as Romero says modestly, he likes "to throw in some observations about what's going on in the world."
"Night" evoked Vietnam-era bloodshed and, with its black male lead trapped in a farmhouse, echoed civil rights hysteria. "Dawn" poked fun at soul-deadening consumerism. And "Day" addressed ethics in science. With "Land," Romero tackles issues of safety and boundaries, showing a community fortifying itself against a murderous horde while its wealthiest keep alive class divisions separating them from the powerless.
"It's the folly of saying, 'Everything's OK, don't worry about it,' " says Romero, who wrote "Land" before the events of Sept. 11. Its focus then was about "ignoring social ills, setting up a synthetic sense of comfort."
He says he didn't have to tweak it much to reflect new fears of terrorism. When told that it's hard not to think of Iraq watching an armored car of trigger-happy humans roll through a zombiefied suburb shooting anything they see, Romero smiles. "That's one of the things I put in there afterward."
Producer Mark Canton, who quickly secured a deal at Universal for "Land" after it had languished at 20th Century Fox, says, "Once again, George has a lot of layers to this movie. It's thoughtful, it's societal, it's political, and it's very cool.... It's the return of the master."
There were the pilgrimages of fans trekking to Toronto last winter for the freezing, all-nights "Land" shoot to fulfill lifelong dreams of being a Romero zombie. Two of those were Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, who created last year's respectful zombie spoof "Shaun of the Dead," which Romero loved. "They're the zombies at the photo booth," tips Romero to their cameo in the film. "They shot their own little film [while] on set, and it's going to be on the DVD."
Romero is busily assembling the unrated DVD edition, so although the R-rated theatrical release has plenty of the crunchy, squishy, visceral extravagance that is the hallmark of a "Dead" movie, the carnage will linger a bit longer for home video.
Until "Land," Romero's MPAA dealings were few — his zombie movies typically go out unrated. And when the MPAA did get involved, it inevitably became about frame counts, something Romero is still puzzled by. "An old film I made called 'Martin,' there's a scene where Martin cuts a woman's wrist, and it took 28 frames. They said, 'Make it 17 frames.' Is that going to protect anyone's innocence?... Either take it out or leave it in."
His is an old-fashioned soul, though, when it comes to what he calls "the personality of horror." "Land" even opens with Universal's '30s-era black-and-white logo, a touch Romero requested as a signal that he aligns himself with the studio's heyday of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy, pictures he first saw as a kid in Bronx movie theaters. (He's lived in Pittsburgh since college.)
And although he found last year's "Dawn" remake "pretty well-made," he dismisses the new vogue of sprinting zombies, a feature of "28 Days Later," the 2003 movie that sparked the zombie resurgence.
"I grew up on these slow-mov-ing-but-you-can't-stop-them[creatures], where you've got to find the Achilles' heel, or in this case, the Achilles' brain," he says, referring to the organ whose destruction waylays a zombie. "In [the remake] they're just dervishes, you don't recognize any of them, there's nothing to characterize them.... [But] I like to give even incidental zombies a bit of identification. I just think it's a nice reminder that they're us. They walked out of one life and into this." (One of the lead zombies in "Land" is a former gas station attendant.)
In Romero's world, the extras are the leads, and the scariest idea in "Land" might be just how much he doesn't take them for granted.
"I'm focused on advancing them mentally," he adds, referring to ways he envisions the franchise continuing. "I say jokingly that my guys will take out library cards before they join a gym."
I was going to go see this at midnight tonight with some of my friends but then I was too lazy. I fucking love Romero.
He's kind of creepy looking now. I can't remember, did he have anything on the directing side to do with the Dawn remake?
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watch out, george, it's count olaf!
You'd think those glasses would double as rear view mirrors they're so god damned big.
Quote from: deathnotronicI can't remember, did he have anything on the directing side to do with the Dawn remake?
No.
Between me and you guys, I think it's really fucking rad that today I will be able to walk into a big fucking multiplex and see Land of the Dead. A few months ago I was reading Ghost of Mars reviews and someone said "Probably the last b-movie that will get a major theatrical release." Psh, fuck that guy and his wrongness (prior incidents which have already proven this prophecy wrong are not to be brought into this current celebration of Land of the Dead).
For 93 minutes I am going to pretend that Herbie: Fully Loaded isn't playing with Lindsay Lohan, that the Bewitched movie didn't actually happen, that The Longest Yard remake is lolz, that Madagascar is hand drawn, that The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D wasn't written by a seven year old, and that the rest of the movies didn't cost over 100 million to make.
I'm going to fucking sit there and remember how fun movies are. Because Land of the Dead isn't going to blow me away, I'm not going to come back here and tell everyone it's my favorite movie - I have no such notions for the movie, but I know there's going to be some fucking goddamn fun. Today I am going to be twelve again, and I am going to enjoy cinema at a pure level we just don't get anymore.
Stoked.
Quote from: Losing the Horse:rad
Quote from: Losing the Horse:Stoked.
Gnarly.
If that doesn't get conversation rolling, nothing will.
tubular.
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Is it the epic, new gold standard in zombie films? No, but it is very good. It fits perfectly within the Dead universe continuing to develop the social themes the series is known for, as well as the Romero zombie progression.
All in all, an excellent Romero zombie movie. All the trademarks are here. A+
Quote from: analogzombieIs it the epic, new gold standard in zombie films? No, but it is very good. It fits perfectly within the Dead universe continuing to develop the social themes the series is known for, as well as the Romero zombie progression.
All in all, an excellent Romero zombie movie. All the trademarks are here. A+
Fuck yeah.
Though, was anyone else reminded of Birth of a Nation or am I that fucked up?
I enjoyed the hell out of it. I don't think it's as good as any of the other three films (maybe on par with Day), but it's still really damn enjoyable, and a lot of fun. I sort of wish it were a little more than fun - I think a certain scene with a certain building could have been taken much further to really great effect, especially after the parallels already established - but I have no trouble placing it alongside the previous three films.
It's unfortunately never actually scary - the remake of Dawn Of The Dead is actually a lot more intense - but it's got a good head on it's shoulders, and it's still the best zombie movie since - well, since Shaun Of The Dead, I guess. Speaking of, it was cool to see Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in this.
liked it, but i think romero has lost a bit in his old age. i'm a huge fan of the other films but i think this ranks lowest for me.
it wasn't bleak enough. SPOILER....
too many of the main characters lived at the end. they should have all parished. the whole bit, "leave them, they're just trying to find a place like how we are" at the end was bullshit. I wanted everyone to die, and i like the idea about the building that was mentioned in one of the previous posts. fuck that would have been kick ass but i'm sure universal would never have released it.
And fuck i'm Canadian and i thought the "let's go to Canada" message was said too many times that the point became a little too obvious.
each of the other dead movies were very specific to the time they were released, this one just had broad topics.
-sl-
that said it did kick some ass and it was a lot of fun
it looked just like a carpenter film. classic romero, no flashy bullshit camera work.
I'll be interested to see the inevitable Unrated Director's Cut. I got the feeling this was Romero cutting his film to fit somewhat, with the 90 mintue horror action genre. His trademarkl character development and dialogue seemed a bit muted in places. Some of Riley's lines seemed cut off almost in mid thought.
Quote from: analogzombieSome of Riley's lines seemed cut off almost in mid thought.
spoilers...
i thought that john leg was getting ready to make a big long speech when he started to say 'i've always wanted to see how the other side lived...' and then he was practically interrupted by a cut to riley and whatever was going on w/ him. i mean, you could almost hear him take a breath as if he was getting ready for a long monologue.
i was a little disappointed, but it was decent fun. i expected more chaos at the end...i felt as though there was like thousands of zombies in the city...and when they fired those missles into the fence i thought the shit was just getting started...and then it was over. were they leaving a shitload of zombies in the city or were they all supposed to be killed by the explosion?
Quote from: abuck1220
spoilers...
i was a little disappointed, but it was decent fun. i expected more chaos at the end...i felt as though there was like thousands of zombies in the city...and when they fired those missles into the fence i thought the shit was just getting started...and then it was over. were they leaving a shitload of zombies in the city or were they all supposed to be killed by the explosion?
***SPOILERS***
I think that while there were a lot of zombies with Big Daddy it wasn't the usual ROmero ending where 1,000 undead swarm and totally destroy the human settlement. I got the impression that the Underground Faction, once they showed up with their guns, were going to mop up the last of the zombies. I totally agree that it seems as though there was more to Cholo's end and the ending of the film than what was presented. I really think Romero's director's cut will end up being a half hour longer.
spoiler:
get down!
(bullet to the head)
you guys seem to know there is going to be a director's cut? was there word on this or something?
-sl-
He briefly mentioned something about it on the IFC special.
Quote from: socketlevelyou guys seem to know there is going to be a director's cut? was there word on this or something?
-sl-
*Sigh* No one reads the articles I post.
Quote from: On Page 1, MacGuffinRomero is busily assembling the unrated DVD edition, so although the R-rated theatrical release has plenty of the crunchy, squishy, visceral extravagance that is the hallmark of a "Dead" movie, the carnage will linger a bit longer for home video.
Quote from: MacGuffinQuote from: socketlevelyou guys seem to know there is going to be a director's cut? was there word on this or something?
-sl-
*Sigh* No one reads the articles I post.
i try to man, i try too...
i'm just too lazy to find it...
-sl-
Interview: George A. Romero
We talk to the horror auteur about Land of the Dead.
George A. Romero doesn't merely make zombie movies; he invented them. His cult-classic debut Night of the Living Dead remains one of the landmark horror films in the history of cinema, and earned hordes of imitators, three sequels (including this weekend's Land of the Dead) and an official remake. But when it comes to making movies, the filmmaker hardly sounds like the self-important auteur one might expect of an industry elder statesman. Rather, he's still the same even-headed guy who struggles to get his movies made, fights to maintain creative control, and then modestly enjoys their spoils when they succeed; and after an impressive $10 million opening this weekend at the box office, the 65-year-old Romero still has much to celebrate.
On the eve of Land of the Dead's release in theaters nationwide, Romero spoke to IGN to discuss his latest project, which follows in the estimable footsteps of its predecessors as gory, good fun that also happens to be smarter than your average post-apocalyptic zombie flick. As Romero reveals, the process of getting his latest opus to the screen proved even more difficult than with previous efforts; but he says that the commercial-minded timbre of contemporary moviemaking, as much as the larger cultural context, made this Dead one far more worth reviving.
Q: Hi George. Was there any pressure for you, returning to the Dead series after such a long time away from it?
GEORGE A. ROMERO: This is the pressure right here (laughs). There wasn't so much pressure; sort of few and far between. I actually started the idea for this before 9/11. I had this conceit that I did one in the '60s, '70s and then '80s and I missed the '90s because my partner Peter and I wound up in development hell out here. There was about eight years where nothing happened and we couldn't get a movie made. I wound up making more money during that period because I wound up working on all of these high profile projects but they never happened. So I fled and we raised five million bucks and I made a little move called Bruiser that nobody saw, and so I missed the '90s. After licking my wounds from Bruiser I started to write this. I wound up having something I thought was presentable so I sent it around literally a few days before 9/11 and then everybody just wanted to make soft fuzzy movies so I put it on the shelf for about a year and a half and then came back to it with the idea of reflecting this idea of the new normal and the war.
In a way I think it is a much more interesting film now. Initially it was about ignoring the problem and there was [Dennis Hopper's] Kaufman character in there and it was Fiddler's Green and it was more about ignoring social ills like homelessness and AIDS and just telling people, 'Don't worry about it, that's their problem', [but] I think this is more impactful. I don't try to put it right in your face I just try to get it in there. Maybe it's a little too on the nose when he says, 'We don't negotiate with terrorists.' I have to say somebody noticed. A reporter I talked to earlier today said, 'Boy, that truck – when it comes down that little street in that town you just can't help but think of Iraq.' So I guess the stuff does get noticed, but I try not to put it right up in there.
Q: How much pressure did you face trying to update this for modern audiences, and how tough was it to maintain the integrity of the series after so many decades of personal and professional changes?
ROMERO: I don't think necessarily in those terms. The scope of this film was much bigger than anything else so it needed money, although still we weren't rich. We were under twenty million after they threw money at it in order to get it finished after they changed the date. They wound up having to spend more money having everybody working overtime from sound mixers to CG guys, but it's still under twenty and it was still pretty much guerilla filmmaking. On the set there was basically not a big difference; in fact, we were much more relaxed shooting Dawn. We had forty-two days to make this film. The crews were fabulous; the cast were great. Nobody finked out. Everybody was there to do it and it was all night. I think of the forty-two, we only had eight days indoors and it was all night in freezing Toronto weather. So it was very, very hard.
As far as the sensibility, I've sort of made slight stylistic changes in all of them to more reflect the cinematic style of the decade as well as the politics or the social. So that was a conscious decision too. I had a wonderful DP. As far as it fitting into the group, I haven't really changed my attitude toward the zombies. They don't run. I always say that my guys will take out library cards before they join health clubs; I'm more interested in their mental evolution. I also don't find them as threatening when they are running at you. It's like a first person shooter game or something, and I don't find that as threatening. I grew up on the Frankenstein monster and the Mummy, these things that sort of move at you slowly but their hard to stop. You have to find their Achilles' heel. That's just my personal take.
Q: You have always had a distinctive take on zombies. What do you see in them that others might not?
ROMERO: I don't think that I necessarily see anything in them. As I say, I like them being personalities. I think that what maybe I've done that I have seen in some other films is that they are not just a pack of people in clothes from The Gap. You can give them personalities with wardrobe. One of the first things that I asked the wardrobe designer to do was to make sure we know who they are, because they're us; they come from different walks of life. I started really doing that with Dawn. It's that but I've always had sort of real characters, real zombie characters from Dawn on. In this case it's shooting them [and] giving them close ups, treating them like real players – which they are. They're not just masses and I was really trying to work with that on this with Big Daddy, and particularly his central core of people that come from the town all have distinct personalities. But I don't know exactly what works and doesn't work. I prefer to let them do their own thing and sometimes you get some outrageous way over the top stuff. So I'll say that's too much or that doesn't work, [but] I don't know. It's all about believability. It's a ridiculous premise to begin with, so how do you keep people from laughing.
Q: Given the illustrious history of this series, there must have been a lot of people eager to work with you like Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Can you talk about the process of assembling this cast?
ROMERO: Well Asia [Argento], I've always thought of Asia because I've known her since she was knee high through her dad, so I went in saying that I would love to use Asia and the studio went along with that. Simon [Baker,] I had never met. He shot a series in Pittsburgh called the Guardian. He was there for three years so we at least had some commonality there. Dennis [Hopper] I'd never worked with or never met either. Again we had that '60s commonality, you know, that frustration. Guess it's too bad it didn't work out (laughs). Easy Rider and Night came out within a year of each other so we had a lot to talk about. Robert Joy I had worked with before. [John] Leguizamo again I was saying right at the beginning of casting, "If we could get someone like John Leguizamo..." Mark Canton arranged a call and it turned out that John knew my work and said 'Yes' right away. I was in hog heaven. This cast really came to work. Nobody was hiding in their trailer. It was a rough, rough shoot. Everybody was right out there crawling around in the mud and doing it. Everybody took it quite seriously. Got it and got the point of it.
Q: What sparked your interest in filmmaking to begin with?
ROMERO: I used to paint. I went to college to study painting and design and found out I wasn't good enough. It was at Carnegie-Mellon and they had a wonderful theater school there so I transferred into that department, but all the while I thought you had to be born into royalty to make movies, even though I had an uncle when I was a kid who had an 8mm camera and I tried to make a couple of little movies of my own but never taking it that seriously. It was just sort of a hobby. And when I was in college schools like Carnegie-Mellon, very few schools had equipment. The class just sat down and watched The Battleship Potemkin and talked about it a lot and that was pretty much it. So I never had any hands-on but I always loved movies forever since I was a kid. Influences I would have to say Michael Powell – probably he's my man – and Orson [Welles].
When I came out of school I left without ever graduating and in those days cities the size of Pittsburgh had film labs. So I just went down and hung out at one of these film labs. My first job as a PA was literally bicycling news; news was on film. These journeyman guys splicing this s**t together while smoking cigarettes over flammable glue pots (laughs). It was like a press room. It was in one of those labs that I learned the basics. Then we started a company to do commercials on film and that's how our little group got together. I always loved movies I just thought that we would never try to do it. I didn't approach it, I didn't try to go out and get a job or anything I guess I always had that audacity to say, "Come on guys!" You know the old thing, 'Hey we can have the dance right here?' And that's how Night of the Living Dead happened.
Q: What do you think you know now as an older filmmaker that maybe you didn't when you made Night of the Living Dead?
ROMERO: Mostly what I have learned has been about craft. I still feel like I am learning. You develop a lot of tricks that you can keep in your hip pocket. I think I know how to move the camera better. I'm more sure of myself. I know if we are pressed for time that I can eliminate this shot or that shot so it still tells a story. It's mostly that and it's also as you get older you get less intimidated. You feel more like you can do what you want to do and worry a little bit less about protocols. You feel more free to just be yourself, which is just something that comes with age.
It's not the greatest movie ever. But-- all considering, I can't give many gripes. I got multiple head shots, social critisicism, B-movie goodness, gore galore, plus a mish-mash of all three movies. Why the flick was released now, and not Halloween-ish is beyond me.
Quote from: Weak2ndActWhy the flick was released now, and not Halloween-ish is beyond me.
Quote from: On Page 1, MacGuffinOriginally planned for a Halloween release, Universal bumped up the $18-million film as a sign of confidence in the highly anticipated gorefest. And although early reviews have been raves, Romero says, "I just hope it's not too much of a specialty niche thing. We're sandwiched between 'Batman' and 'War of the Worlds.' Gulp."
Quote from: analogzombieI'll be interested to see the inevitable Unrated Director's Cut. I got the feeling this was Romero cutting his film to fit somewhat, with the 90 mintue horror action genre. His trademarkl character development and dialogue seemed a bit muted in places. Some of Riley's lines seemed cut off almost in mid thought.
Land of the Dead on DVDRomero promises more character development and effects on DVD. George Romero's Land of the Dead opened this week to a respectable $10 million in box office receipts, so it comes as little surprise that the director is already discussing opportunities not only for the forthcoming DVD, but potential sequels. Describing the inevitable unrated version that will appear on DVD, he confesses that much of the material will be character-building content rather than simply extra gore. "There's a few things," he says. "There is one scene in particular where [John Leguizamo's] Cholo, before he meets [Dennis Hopper's] Kaufman, he goes into a neighboring penthouse and finds a human that hung himself and has to kill him. That was a scene that we felt didn't turn out as effectively as it could have and we didn't think it was necessary so that's really the only major scene from the original script that's gone."
"The DVD version, we are working on it now," he reveals. "I think it's about six minutes longer, but it's all just adding back or putting in some effects that were excised and putting in some little things like little bits of dialogue in existing scenes that we cut out just to tighten the pace. It's mostly that, and that penthouse scene."
Romero says that he employed a few CGI tricks to bypass some of the MPAA's objections to the film's gore for the theatrical cut, but did not indicate whether the shots would be restored for the DVD. "Universal was more willing to pony up a little more dough, [so] we got an extra few days to try and improve on some of the gore things and dance around the MPAA a little bit by doing the shadow thing and smoke thing to indicate what was going on without actually having it in your face."
"I used Kubrick's trick on green screen," he explains. "I shot figures walking by so if there was a particular gory shot I could composite it and walk someone in front of it." He marvels at the MPAA's vigilance when it comes to excising or editing questionable footage. "It's amazing sometimes that the MPAA will do a frame count."
"Like nobody knows what's going on here? If it's eight frames shorter it's okay? But I guess they have to be diligent and that's the only way that they measure it. 'Make that a little shorter so it will be alright'," he says, imitating their response.
Beyond the DVD and its many iterations, Romero says he has a few projects on deck, including the Showtime series Masters of Horror and a potential Dead sequel. "Masters of Horror is something I am hoping to do," he says. "It's going to depend, I guess; it's sort of related to what happens with this. If this opens strong, I might be in a situation where I might have to do another one of these or would be asked to do another one of these right away, in which case I've sort of left the [story open-ended]."
"I'd almost want to make chapter two of the same movie if that happens," he continues. "Just sort of finish the story and I have an idea of where to go with and in my mind just think of them both as one movie. So if that happens I may not be able to do the Masters of Horror."
Although Masters enlisted other horror greats such as John Carpenter, he says that simple timing may prohibit Romero's involvement. "I've been so tied up on this thing that I haven't been able to write a script for [the show], he confesses. "Mick sent me a couple of scripts and a couple of them are pretty nice. I'm still hoping that I can get a couple of weeks and still be able to do that." At the same time, the independent-minded moviemaker reveals he has a few other ideas up his sleeve, even if neither of his immediate interests play out.
"I have a couple of other things that we are working on, but everything would get trumped if they want to do a sequel to this."
a sequel?
Land of the Dead 2: Night of the Living Dead Part V
On the one hand I'd like to see Twilight of the Dead be the title, on the hand I'd like to not see a movie with 'of the Dead' in the title again.
a direct sequel with the same actors would suck dick. he shouldn't give in to popularity and fuck up the format. Even if it means another 20 years and he's then 100.
That's scene in mac's post sounds fucking great though. I hope the director's cut he removes that stupid line "they're looking for a place to live, just like us."
but i'm with you horsey, it should have been dusk of the dead to begin with.
-sl-
Twilight of the Dead already happened. It was in the 90s, the movie just never got made.
The line that you guys hate so much lends itself towards the future of Zombie-land and is very necessary.
The living won't ever defeat the dead, they'll just have to learn how to coexist. That's the point of that line.
Quote from: RegularKarateTwilight of the Dead already happened. It was in the 90s, the movie just never got made.
That's what I was saying, I'd like to see that title get used, but at the same time I'd like a new title. I think we're on the same page.
Also, I don't know why I never came in here and said that this movie was kick ass and exactly what I was hoping for. I think some of you might be being a little hard on Romero. It's true that he's in a business that people are hard on, but I wouldn't say that Romero is like most filmmakers, he's more layed back and it makes me want to be more layed back. That's the trade off, and that's what's pleasurable for me.
Quote from: RegularKarateTwilight of the Dead already happened. It was in the 90s, the movie just never got made.
The line that you guys hate so much lends itself towards the future of Zombie-land and is very necessary.
The living won't ever defeat the dead, they'll just have to learn how to coexist. That's the point of that line.
obviously... i'm an idiot but not a total fucking idiot.
doesn't mean it was written well, or needed at all.
that could have played out with no dialog. the girl is about to shoot the zombie (the main black guy), and buddy (the protagonist) lifts his hand up and pushes the gun off her mark.
could even be edited, i'm more than sure, from the existing footage.
the way it plays now is too heavy handed, and the lead zombie looks over and they exchange a look of melodramatic appreciation. not needed.
-sl-
[edit] if romero is laid back and we all give him indie cred (which is good) and he just so happens to change the series into something it's not then you can no longer say, hey it's up to him. i'm just saying, i love the stand-alone films. follow a chronology but not specific characters. the temptation to do this is always the trend, and they try to churn out the same thing to milk it as much as possible. if any of you are video game fans then you'll know exactly what i mean with final fantasy X, never in the history did square make a direct sequel [like the possibility with land of the dead] to a final fantasy game. and now, because they did, the series doesn't hold the same classic feel of being happier than a pig in shit when the new final fantasy game comes out.
there are various different kinds of final fantasy games now because it's a cash grab. they ruined the title's stigma in the process. look at 2010, arthur c. clarke starts pimping new ones out and a shitty film is made and before you know it it's no longer the strength it once was.
not that it holds any weight (more so that you just don't think i'm rambling for the sake of it) i'm a huge romero fan. and i liked the film. not as good as the others but it fills the void i had for so long. i started the romero thread cause i fucking love this guy's independence and attitude. it would break my heart to see him bend over a bit so the studios can fuck him a little. just for a little cash money. paranoid, yeah maybe i am a little, and by nature a little pessimistic, but alas i see it happen time and time again...
Oh man... I just saw this tonight (at a drive-in (http://www.starlightdrivein.com/), no less) and fucking loved it. I'd deliberately read nothing about it in advance, so I couldn't believe it when I saw Dennis Hopper's name in the opening credits. He wasn't the best thing in the movie, but he was still awesome.
It seemed a little weird seeing a Romero pic with some actual money on the screen, but not (as I'd feared before seeing it) in a bad way. He's still got it... a little social commentary, a lot of squishy chewy gore scenes, a straight-ahead style, and bits of humor that don't turn the whole movie into a joke (something a lot of directors never get about the mixing of horror and comedy.... it's easier to do a comedy with a little horror than to do a horror movie with a little comedy, apparently).
Also SPOILER BELOW
the "headless" zombie that turned out to have a head after all, attached on a bit of spinal cord, was just fucking brilliant. :D
2LB
I love Romero's films, I loved Land of the Dead. However in all honesty, I'm really bummed that nothing will ever live up to 78's Dawn of the Dead. I mean honestly, how great was that fucking film?
I'm kinda bummed Romero didn't get to do the resident evil film he was promised years ago and that they decided to go more main stream by hiring Paul Anderson.
::sigh::
what could've been...
So could Land of the Dead be considered a success? I was checking out the IMDB page and well here are the numbers.
Apparently, the Budget was estimated at $18,000,000
To this date it's grosseds $19,954,230
Almost a 2 million dollar profit.
I know it's not a HUGE profit, but a profit is a profit right? Could this movie be considered a success? Also, would it mean more possible zombie films from Romero?
Does that budget figure factor in all of the promotion they did for the film?
Quote from: God Damn Im Da ManSo could Land of the Dead be considered a success? I was checking out the IMDB page and well here are the numbers.
Apparently, the Budget was estimated at $18,000,000
To this date it's grosseds $19,954,230
Almost a 2 million dollar profit.
I know it's not a HUGE profit, but a profit is a profit right? Could this movie be considered a success? Also, would it mean more possible zombie films from Romero?
He's stated that he'd like to do a direct sequel, characters intact, to "Land of the Dead."
with ads they probably havent quite made their money back yet but will do really well on dvd so it will then be a success.
Quote from: themodernage02with ads they probably havent quite made their money back yet but will do really well on dvd so it will then be a success.
Along with foreign BO and cable sales.
Don't forget the "Land of the Dead" cereal flakes!
Quote from: 72teethDon't forget the "Land of the Dead" cereal flakes!
I hate you all.
Quote from: God Damn Im Da ManI love Romero's films, I loved Land of the Dead. However in all honesty, I'm really bummed that nothing will ever live up to 78's Dawn of the Dead. I mean honestly, how great was that fucking film?
it's the greatest!
agreed.
-sl-
Universal has announced George A. Romero's Land of the Dead for release on 10/18. There will be three different versions of the film on disc (SRP $29.98 each). Look for the R-rated theatrical cut in full frame only, while an Unrated director's cut will be released in both full frame and anamorphic widescreen. Audio on all three versions will be available in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1. There's no word yet on extras.
sweet. i guess it's better to have waited to get the FULL ON experience when i watch it. actually, no i'm still pissed i missed this in the theatre.
I liked the old green faced zombies with pink blood...
I think it's very weird to have the theatrical cut be available in full screen only... I've never really seen a major film be released in full screen (that was shot in widescreen) only. I know they just assume that the majority of the people would want the director's cut anyway, including the people that would demand a widescreen DVD, but still... the theatrical cut will now never be seen as intended again.
The only thing I can think of that's even close is when Willy Wonka was going to be released in full screen only and people got mad and got the studio to release a widescreen edition as well.
Full Screen only for the theatrical? I guess this'll be the Blockbuster Video edition. This seems like another in Universal's long line of missteps with this film. Putting it out inbetween Batman begins and War of the Worlds, was sheer stupidity.
anyone know the running time of the Director's cut? I heard it's not that much different from theatrical.
The rated edition (runtime 1 hour 33 minutes) will be available in full frame only, whereas the unrated edition (1 hour 37 minutes) will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedigitalbits.com%2Farticles%2Fmiscgfx%2Fcovers4%2Flandofthedeadunrateddvd.jpg&hash=89a4dd26784447cb49a288f0fd49af9459a421e9)
they could've done better than that.
Quote from: modageThe rated edition (runtime 1 hour 33 minutes) will be available in full frame only, whereas the unrated edition (1 hour 37 minutes) will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
SUCK! so any word on a "Director's Cut"? Romero said something about how he had plans to do one all along. Or is this emasly 4 minutes more the director's cut? if so that'll make Land of the Dead as short as Night.
Quote from: analogzombieSUCK! so any word on a "Director's Cut"? Romero said something about how he had plans to do one all along. Or is this emasly 4 minutes more the director's cut? if so that'll make Land of the Dead as short as Night.
Already asked, already answered:
http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=192557#192557
mac looks pretty today. your redirects are so... perky with cameron diaz smiling at me like that.
Quote from: macageQuote from: analogzombieSUCK! so any word on a "Director's Cut"? Romero said something about how he had plans to do one all along. Or is this emasly 4 minutes more the director's cut? if so that'll make Land of the Dead as short as Night.
Already asked, already answered:
http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=192557#192557
hmmmm, maybe i should start reading posts that are longer than 3 lines.
oh well, that's depressing about it only being an additional 4 minutes. i was hoping there would be enough of a change to make it a good movie. Looks like the Romero dead films will have to end on a lacklustre side note instead of a exclamation.
It's been months since i've seen this movie and I still can't come to a conclusion if I liked the film or not...
I love Zombies, LOVE Romero, Loved Night, Dawn, and Day...
Someone tell me what to think of this film.
think that it's sexy. you want to fuck it.
Quote from: MPAAmaterials (that) display dismembered fingers . . . is unacceptable under Advertising Administration standards.
REVISED UNRATED ARTWORK HERE: http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=0&s=1&c=7475&n=1&burl=
TAKE
THAT MPAA!!!
Uncut Dead in Theaters
Romero's uncut version to enjoy one-night-only theatrical exhibition the night before being released on DVD.
On October 17, 2005, one night before George Romero's Land of the Dead is released on DVD in both R and unrated versions, Universal Studios and Fangoria Entertainment scheduled a once-in-a-lifetime (if you're alive, anyway) opportunity to see Romero's film in its uncut form. 36 Regal, United Artists and Edwards movie theaters will offer high-definition, cinema surround sound exhibition of the feature, which features four minutes of additional gore not seen in the original theatrical release, as well as an exclusive interview with Romero himself that will not be shown anywhere else after this special event.
Interview: George Romero
The master of horror speaks about Land of the Dead, the MPAA and how he'd fare in an all-out zombie war.
After a hiatus of over 20 years, the original zombie guru George A. Romero got an opportunity to revisit the genre he almost single-handedly launched with the groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead. Following that in the Seventies with Dawn of the Dead, a film which many consider to be the best horror film of all time, and then in the Eighties with Day of the Dead, Romero had made a habit of creating one amazing zombie film per decade.
While events in the Nineties prevented him from a fourth film, he returned this year with the latest, Land of the Dead, hailed by many critics as a return to the form and style that made the previous three so influential. We recently got an opportunity to talk with the horror master about the DVD release, why the MPAA isn't all that bad, and how he would fare against a zombie apocalypse.
IGN DVD: What is going into the unrated cut that didn't make the theatrical?
George Romero: Well, I guess everyone is expecting miles more gore. It's not that… The movie itself is only about five minutes longer than the theatrical release, and half of that is a scene that we cut, a story scene, not a gore scene, because I just didn't think it came off as well as it might have. Obviously, there are some things that [Greg] Nicotero did, a few gore moments that we didn't even try to get past the MPAA. But by and large, I got away with murder with the MPAA. I don't say that facetiously; I used tricks. I walked zombies in front of a green screen so that I could have them walk in front of some of the gory stuff and that would cut frames out of it and we would be able to keep the stuff in the movie, so the film itself has very much the same intention as a theatrical release.
Usually when they talk about "oh, director's cut," it's supposed to be wildly different and it's supposed to be as if I had a battle with the studio and I wasn't allowed to put stuff in the movie. It's not true at all in this case. Universal, across the board, was wonderful to me and very respectful and let me make the movie that I wanted to make, so this cut is not that different. It's a little harder and I think that the most fun, and the stuff that the fans will dig, will be the commentary track and the extras. John Leguizamo made his own little film and the guys from Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, made their own little movie while they were on the set shooting this. And I think that's the most fun. It's really sort of behind-the-scenes stuff.
IGN: How aware are you of the MPAA when you're shooting? When you go to plan gore effects and such… With the green screen stuff, it sounds like you had a back-up plan.
Romero: Well, yeah. I actually came up with that later. The studio gave us three more days to shoot after we finished the regular schedule and were basically editing the film, and we showed cuts of it to the studio and they were diggin' it, and so they said, okay go back and shoot for a couple more days. That's when I came up with that idea, that "boy, I can do this and then I can keep some of this stuff in there." That way, nobody will notice naturally what it was. So that was just a sort of after-the-fact kind of deal.
When you're shooting the film, I don't know. We just shot it. Nicotero came and did his thing and we just shot it and then you worry about it later, and you hope that you can get as much of it in as you can. They don't want to be censors, and in fact, in all fairness, they're not. They don't want to spoil anybody's work or anything like that. They just have to… due diligence or whatever. You know, it's just the way it is.
IGN: When you go to do a commentary track, what's the process for you?
Romero: It's usually made very easy by the people that do it. The process is what? They set up some equipment, and you sit down and just chat. I dig it. Part of me says, "Why does anybody wanna see this?" But, at the same time, I remember when I was a kid loving movies. The movie that made me wanna make movies is—everybody always says "what?" when I say this, but it was a movie called The Tales of Hoffman, which Michael Powell made. Years later, I got to meet him and I just was enthralled. I mean, I was a fan; just a total geek sitting down with the cat that made the movie that I loved most in my life. So I guess there's a part of me that figures, well, I like letting people in on it. Just being able to chat about what's going on behind the scenes. And it's totally fun because there's usually other people around; you know people who worked on the film, and it's always fun to reminisce.
IGN: Does it go in one take or do you do multiple viewings and they piece it together.
Romero: No. We did this one in one take with a break. There was a break; a cigarette break. I'm a smoker. So there was a cigarette break over there but we just went on from where we were. We didn't stop and go back or erase or anything like that. Pretty much straight ahead and most of the ones that I've done have been really straight ahead. The one I did for Knight Riders, I mean we all sat there and we were crying, you know, remembering. So, it usually goes pretty much straight ahead.
IGN: When you look at all of the zombie movies that are being made, do you ever think, "Man, look what I've started here?"
Romero: [Laughs] Well, started? I don't know. Did I start something?
IGN: I think you did start something.
Romero: I don't know. I think of it as not having started something. You don't think of yourself that way. You don't think that, "Jesus, I'm an innovator," or I did this or I did that. I don't think that, anyway. I honestly feel like I'm a guy who's still learning how to make movies. It's very hard to think of yourself as somebody that was influential in that way; the way that you're talking about… so, no. I don't think of it that way.
IGN: If zombies began to walk the Earth, you'd be better equipped to handle them than an average person?
Romero: [Laughs] No, I don't think so. I'm a wimpy guy, man. No, I don't think so. Just give me a big Uzi or something.
IGN: I think you would get the honorary rocket launcher or shotgun.
Romero: [Laughs] Well, I hope so. Give me some kind of weapon.
IGN: Land of the Dead was a full twenty years after doing Day of the Dead. In the time in between those movies, how many times did you think of revisiting the genre?
Romero: Almost constantly. I never felt that I'd left it. This has been a platform for me. I do one of these every once in awhile, love doing them. I missed the Nineties. I did Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and I developed this conceit that I wanted to do one every decade, and then I missed the Nineties because my partner and I got involved in Hollywood development deals that never went anywhere; made a lot of bread, didn't make any flicks and was just frustrated as hell, and basically fled and made a little movie called Bruiser that hardly anybody has seen.
As soon as I finished that, I sat down to write a script for this and it was called Dead Reckoning and it was not that different, but it was pre-9/11 and when I sent it around, it was literally a couple of days before 9/11. Nobody wanted to make hard-ass flicks then, they wanted to make soft, fuzzy popcorn flicks. So, I put it away and then took it back out sometime after the Iraqi invasion, and I found that I didn't have to change that much of it. A lot of it just stood up; a scene with a hundred people driving through a village blowing people down, and wondering why they're pissed off. It just sort of resonated for me after 9/11. I didn't have to change that much. I made the tower taller; you know, a few things like that. Threw in some junky dialogue about "we don't negotiate with terrorists," and that was it.
IGN: In this movie, the zombies have the ability to organize…
Romero: Well, I don't know if they're organized. They're just sort of imitating each other. I think in Day of the Dead I had this character named Bud, who I think in the end, was further advanced than Big Daddy. I mean the cat damn near spoke. But, Bud was basically all imitative behavior. He was imitating the scientists' behavior. Now, it's just that the zombies are imitating Big Daddy's behavior which makes them that much more dangerous from a human perspective. And so, I think that's really all. What I did was I made him—in the other films the lead male, the lead human, was African-American, and this time, I made the lead zombie African-American, to sorta say, "Hey, it's about time we should completely switch allegiances here, because they don't lie, they're the straight shooters. They're just victims of circumstance."
IGN: How long have you known Greg Nicotero?
Romero: I've known Greg since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. I mean I knew an uncle of his, Sam Nicotero, was in a film I made called The Crazies. So I knew about Greg, but I'd never met him. Then I was over in Rome, actually writing the script for Dawn of the Dead and I was at Alfredo Restaurant and this kid came over to me and he said, "Hi. My name is Greg Nicotero. You know my Uncle Sam. I live in Pittsburgh," ba-da-boom, all that. And that's how I met him. He was a kid, and I thought his dad was gonna kill me, because he said, "I'd really like to work in movies," and I said, "Okay, why don't you go over and see Tom Savini," and he did. His dad was a physician and wanted Greg to be a doctor, and I swear, for years I thought Greg's dad was gonna come after me with a shotgun or something for steering him wrong. But he went out and made it. He built that company and he's just terrific.
IGN: You steered him right.
Romero: I don't know. I don't know if it's right, but at least he's making a few dollars. [Laughs]
IGN: Well, that's kinda what it's all about.
Romero: Yeah. Except I have to tell you. He invested money in this project. He wanted to do this project so badly because of the other ones and the history that we have together; he actually wound up investing. We didn't have near enough money to make this movie. But, somehow we did it, and it was thanks to guys like Greg, who… I mean, the crew was just [an] unbelievable crew and everybody just put in 120%, and I'm telling you, Greg invested bread in this.
IGN: So you have him to thank for the movie turning out so good.
Romero: I have a lot of people, man. There's about 50 people to thank for the way the movie turned out, and, I don't know. You say it's good, some other people say it's good. Who knows? Whatever it is, it's there because of a lot of work by a lot of people.
I watched the director's cut, and it's an improvement over the theatrical version. Some extra nasty bits of gore, more blood. The most dramatic-- and best-- change was the addition of two scenes with Leguizamo in the first reel. They really give a better sense of what his real role is in this society (the guy who takes out the dirtiest garbage). Cholo makes a whole lot more sense. I don't know what Romero was thinking, not including them in the first place. Oh well. Great flick, better than I remembered it. Commentary's a snooze.