Analysis of The Dead Trilogy directed by George Romero essays

Analysis of The Dead Trilogy directed by George Romero essays The trilogy begins with 'Night of The Living Dead', this was released in 1968. It had a very small budget ($114,000). The main character is black, which was a huge break-through in those days. All of the main characters are killed in this film, including the black man; he is killed at the very end by a redneck. In the end credits we see the black man lying on the floor, dead, with a meat hook over his head, this is highly symbolic. This shows how mise-en-scene aids directors to get their message across. The second part of the trilogy is 'Dawn of The Dead', this was released in 1978. This film takes place inside a shopping mall. This supposed to exemplify normality and the everyday boring life of an American shopper, in contrast to the hundreds of zombies. The final part of the trilogy is 'Day of The Dead' this was released in 1985. This takes place inside a military base, whilst zombies are running wild and free above ground. This shows humans slightly as caged animals, even though they have some zombies caged up whilst they do experiments on them. However its clear that the zombies are in charge. In all three films the humans are trapped inside somewhere for the duration of the film, be it a house, shopping mall or military base. This shows how powerful the zombies are in comparison to the humans, as the zombies are free to do as they will, whilst the humans are stuck in one place with lack of food, water, communication etc. All three films have hidden messages which comment on George Romero's view of the state of the world at the time. 'Night of The Living Dead' conveys how racism was quite a problem then. The techniques he uses to show this are; the ways other characters interacted with him, they didn't treat him with as much respect as the other white characters, and how he was killed at the end instead of being hailed as ...