In my opinion, George Romero's Day of
the Dead contains an effective story. Upon analysis, I was surprised
to find out exactly what that story was. I believe that it's a story
of letting go of fear, your past, human corruption, hatred and
cowardice and letting love be your only motivating force.
The main protagonist is Sarah. She
is accompanied by fellow protagonists John, who represents sloth and
Billy, who represents gluttony. Their ultimate goal is to let love
survive and let go of everything else. The antagonists are many. The
zombies represent time, mortality and the inevitability of death.
Sarah's husband represents fear. He is a part of Sarah that she must
let go of in order for love to survive. Rhodes represents cowardice.
The rest of his soldiers represent hatred, anger, ignorance, lust and
greed. Dr. Logan represents a form of love, but tarnished with a
tortured past that he can't seem to escape. He puts his hope and love
into Bub who is also a protagonist. Bub is a zombie who represents
the fact that death is not evil and does not lack love. It is merely
shackled by our twisted understanding of it. Bub is literally chained
by Dr. Logan. It is only once he is free of his chains that he is
able to destroy Steel and his cowardice.
Since Day of the Dead is the last
of a trilogy of films, the status quo actually took place in the
first film, Night of the Living Dead. It was the world before
zombies. The inciting incident actually happens in the very first
scene. Sarah is in a white room. There is a calender on the wall.
This is one of the human constructions that must be left behind in
order for love to conquer. When she approaches the calender, zombie
hands penetrate the seemingly solid wall and reach out to grab her.
The call to action takes place in
the scene where Rhodes almost has Steel shoot Sarah for disobeying an
order. What this starts is a chain of action in which the research
that Sarah and her fellow scientists begins to crumble. They are
trying to figure out if there's a way to get the world back to the
way it used to be. The obstacles are many as the soldiers continue to
threaten the scientists. All the soldiers want to do is get out of
the underground facility and escape to safety.
The midpoint is a scene where
Sarah, John and Billy sit around in lawn chairs sipping drinks and
talking about what's going on. John points out that this underground
facility is a storage place for all of humanity's junk from the past.
It has historical files, every movie, book, song and records of all
of humanity's accomplishments. He suggests that we should start
society afresh and forget the past. Sarah chides him for not helping
her accomplish what she is trying to do. He doesn't want to figure
everything out. He just wants to relax and enjoy life. The crisis
occurs when Sarah's husband brings the zombies into the underground
facility.
Each of the protagonists has a
moment of transformation. Sarah has a scene in which she apologizes
to John for complaining to him about not helping her in her research.
It is at this point that she gains the freedom to escape the facility
and move on with her life. She has forsaken her fear and her reliance
upon science. John has a scene in which he decides to take a stand
against the soldiers who want him to fly them out of there in the
helicopter that he pilots. He overpowers them, takes their weapons
and goes to help Sarah and Billy who have been stuck in a cavern with
the zombies. He has forsaken his slothfullness. Billy, who has done
nothing but drink throughout the movie, drops his flask when a zombie
attacks him. When the zombie is killed, Billy retrieves the flask,
but it is now empty. He leaves it behind without a second thought. He
has forsaken his gluttony.
Bub's chain becomes detached from
the wall. He goes to show Dr. Logan, who he finds to have been shot.
Throughout the movie, Dr. Logan has been secretly feeding Bub human
flesh in order to pacify him. It is thought by Dr. Logan that this
"reward" for good behavior is what keeps Bub from wanting
to eat him. When Bub discovers that Dr. Logan is dead, he actually
weeps in mourning for the loss of his friend. We find that he has
actually developed a capacity for love. He then goes on to avenge his
friend's death by killing Rhodes.
The climax is when Sarah, John and
Billy reunite and make their way to the helicopter in order to fly
off to freedom. They will start a new world in which the seven deadly
sins are no longer an encumbrance to love. The restoration of the
status quo is when Sarah wakes up to find herself on an island with
John and Billy fishing. She is holding a calender, but looks at the
two men and smiles. She is no longer a slave to human conventions.
She can now relax and enjoy life.
Each of the characters exhibits
gestic actions. Sarah tries to help her husband survive a zombie bite
by amputating his arm. John refuses to fly the soldiers to safety,
despite threats of violence. Billy helps Sarah to get clear of some
fighting soldiers and brings her to the mock island paradise that he
and John have constructed in their little corner of the underground
facility. Rhodes shows his cowardice by locking a door to keep the
zombies away from him even though his soldiers are still in there
with the zombies. Dr. Logan keeps talking about "rewards"
for good behavior and there is even a scene where a tape recording of
his voice shows him having an imaginary conversation with his mother
in which he whimpers that he will "be a good boy." Sarah's
husband has a scene in which his guts literally fall out of his
abdomen and he is depicted as gutless. Bub has a scene in which he
interacts with Dr. Logan, listening to music, reading a book and even
talking on a phone. It doesn't even occur to him to attack the
doctor. Sarah even comments that Bub doesn't look at the doc as food.
The setting of the underground
facility is appropriate because humanity's past is to be left buried
and never dug up again. The theme of the movie is love vs the seven
deadly sins. The question is which will survive? The climax answers
that by showing each of the characters either sticking with their
sins and dying or letting them go and living.
The scene with the mock island
paradise shows that even John and Billy don't fully understand what
freedom means. This is a symbol being used to reinforce the theme of
love vs the sins. They mistake sloth and gluttony for freedom. It is
not until their love for Sarah and for each other motivates them to
fight against the soldiers and the zombies and gain their actual
freedom. The island they go to is no mockup. It is a genuine island
paradise. It is freedom that has been fought for and won. It is true
freedom.
There is also the symbol of Bub's
chain. He wears it throughout the movie. The chain is what is thought
to be keeping him from going and killing people and eating them. When
it comes loose, he does in fact, shoot a man, but it is out of
vengeance for his friend and not in order to eat him. Love is his
motivation. Now that he is free of his chains, he can show himself to
be of stronger character than the soldiers. He doesn't actually kill
Rhodes. He just shoots him and lets the zombies, which represent the
inevitability of death, kill him.
This story is not a tragedy or a
comedy. Yes, it ends with a lot of death, but this is symbolic of the
passing of negativity so that positive energy can live on. The
protagonists have set aside their tragic flaws. This movie does not
experiment with form. There are dream sequences, but those are fairly
commonplace in cinematic as well as theatrical productions.
Day of the Dead was the least
popular of the Dead trilogy, but it has always been my favorite. It
is, in fact, my favorite movie of all time. I never understood why
until now. It is a movie about the human flaws that we all have. What
it shows me, however, is that we can each overcome our flaws and that
we each have the capacity for love. Other than Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory, which has almost the exact same plot line, I don't
know of another movie that has depicted that theme so clearly. By the
way, Willy Wonka is my other favorite movie.
