Monday, June 17, 2013
Most of what has been shown in this class has been dominated by the popular Hayes Code. Clearly the Hayes Code was not in effect for this movie, and cinema had already moved to the current rating system. However, my question is, How did the general public handle Dawn of the Dead? Now I realize that this is a thirty year time lapse from some of the movies we watched, as opposed to a Tuesday/Thursday difference, but the movies are polar opposites in what they are able (and do) show. Was this a slow transition from no blood and gore to Dawn of the Dead? Or did one movie set a new trend, and if so what was that movie?
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I think Night of the Living Dead is a mentionable movie for the transition. I read that Roger Ebert first saw the film in a theater that was full of kids maybe ages 6-14. The theater played a bunch of movies in a row that people could sit in on, and when Night of the Living Dead came on the kids started crying and really freaking out. To this day I will have some nightmares after watching that movie, something about it just stays with you.
ReplyDeleteNotLD, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, many Wes Craven movies, and the grindhouse style movies of the late sixties and seventies paved the way for the intensified gore and violence shown (and parodied) in Dawn.
ReplyDeleteThe MPAA sought to give the film an X rating before it was released and Romero actually had trouble finding a distributer who would release it before it was brought down to an R rating. He managed to obtain an unrated film, that meant limited release and advertising. The interesting thing about DotD though is that it is presented in a playful manner with much of the violence. You can even note the versions with the fluorescent blood as making it a little less serious. Romero and Savini actually fought over the blood, as Savini wanted it to be more realistic, but Romero liked the idea of it adding a comic like feel to the film. While very bloody and violent, the public obviously received the film well, as it went on to make $55 million in box office sales.
ReplyDelete-Aaron Swaidner
It's interesting and surprising what I said about Ebert seeing the movie with a bunch of young kids. When I was younger (during the 70's) you couldn't get into a lot of movies like this because of the violence and language too. The ratings then were G, PG, R, and even X (rarely seen at regular theaters) so you couldn't even get into a movie like this. More interesting was that it didn't really have a rating it just said "No one under 17 allowed". Although some movies like this allowed you if your parent or someone older than 17 chaperoned you. PG- 13 hadn't been an option then either.
ReplyDeleteI really think that Dawn of the Dead attempted to set a new trend within Horror Noir films. At one point in the film I thought that the blood and gore might slow down within the film but it kept coming. I was shocked because as a very unexperienced horror noir film watcher I didn't expect what I was seeing. I do recall 20 minutes into the movie a older couple sitting in front of me got up and walked out. I don't think these films are for everybody but the gore and violence didn't bother me. From a noir standpoint was this the first horror noir that was this gory?
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