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Dawn of the Dead [Blu-ray] [1978]

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I must admit, I only just noticed it had its own commentary whilst writing this review, so didn’t get around to listening to that. Also moderated and effectively fed by Perry Martin for the same Anchor Bay DVD release, this is a worthwhile companion to the above, with Rubenstein's openly confessed lack of artistic input to the project giving him a different perspective on the production to Romero and his colleagues.

If you're coming to Dawn of the Dead for the first time from a modern horror perspective, then it's important to remember that all of those zombie films you've seen since its release are effectively bastard offspring of Romero's original.From what I can gather, this cut omits much of the relationship drama and comedy elements (though surprisingly keeps the infamous pie scene) and amps up the bleak tone. It was retitled Zombies and rated 'X' with 5m 05s of BBFC cuts to the violence and gore, running at 2h 00m 20s. Compression artefacts are occasionally visible on the DVDs, but usually confined to large areas of single colour.

And The Argento cut, which, again, some prefer due to its much faster pacing and musical score, but this is offset by missing huge swathes of characterisation, some of the best gags and some, what appear to be, indiscriminate cuts to action scenes – for me the worst of the presentations; but at least everyone has something. Jake Weber was always the husband in Medium to me, but he is a fully fleshed out hero in Dawn of the Dead, employing a believable mix of naive newbie with a strong sense of determination . Inevitably there's more emphasis on the budgetary and business elements, but these are a lot more interesting than you might expect, and he also covers aspects of the production itself, including the genesis of the project, Romero's directorial style and lack of business acumen, the working environment ("controlled chaos"), the specifics of using the mall, and the success the film enjoyed following its release.

There is not much that can be said about Dawn of the Dead that hasn’t already been drawn and dissected. They performed a full restoration and remaster of those elements while under the supervision and final approval by the director of photography, Michael Gornick. Surrounds get a good workout with all of the zombie munching and craziness that ensues from the escape, right down to the battle to get away from the mall at the end.

Another Dawn Of The Dead version I thought worth preserving was the 1981 UK Intervision pre-cert VHS, although I've never owned that myself. The old Blu-ray always crushed like crazy with black levels, but here you can actually see all of the details that you were missing in those dark spots. The Dead Will Walk’ takes a largely chronological approach, starting with Romero’s career and how it took him to Dawn.Both are BD-50 with the first disc housing the theatrical version (a high-def debut) and the second including the previously released unrated version. A lively commentary, moderated by Perry Martin for Anchor Bay's 2004 4-disc Ultimate DVD edition, that provides a wealth of detailed and revealing background information and covers a lot of ground, including the make-up effects, the Argento cut, the lighting, the social and subtextual elements, the biker raid, the original ending, and a whole lot more.

We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our site, provide personalised content and advertising, analyse our traffic, and ensure you see more of what you love. The extended ‘Cannes’ cut may be the longest version of the film here but, by all accounts, it was a version that was hastily assembled for an early screening at the Cannes film festival, so is something of an advanced workprint. Turn your back on a corpse and it'll take a bite out of your arm or crawl towards you and chew on your leg, and anyone bitten by a zombie is quickly transformed into one themselves. Colours are bright when they need to be (the helicopter paintwork is a good example) and naturalistic in the right lighting, though many scenes have a brown/green hue that may well be down to location lighting and/or colour balance on the original neg.Raising the Dead: The Production Logistics – 20 minute feature with contributions from Michael Gornick, Christine Forrest, John Amplas and Tom Dubensky. This was first released in a cardboard box in 1981, and re-released with a clamshell box and sleeve in 1983 (both Cat no: A-A 0358).

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