Andrew Williams writes:
>Jitka, it sounds like you've got the right movie, or maybe not. Made in 196=
8
>or so by George Romero and a cast nobody had ever heard of (or would again)=
,
>in B&W, and on a budget that would not feed a cat,
The budget was in the neighborhood of $100,000 ... what does your cat eat??
the original Night of the
>Living Dead is considered by many to be a classic American horror movie. Un=
til
>that time, Romero's career had primarily been making television commercials
>for the local Pittsburgh market. It is possible the version you saw was the
>vastly inferior remake Romero did some years later in color. He did not wan=
t
>to do it, but it was necessary to protect his copyright, which someone had
>neglected to file on the original production.
Not exactly. The copyright line was accidentally left off the print of the
original production, leaving many to assume that the film was in the public
domain, so many pirated copies were produced. The Walter Reade Organization
made a mint on the original film, but went bankrupt before Image Ten, the
group that produced the film, had made any money. The remake, directed by
makeup artist Tom Savini, was an attempt to use the property to generate
revenue for the unreimbursed original investors. The original film is still
in copyright, and those who use its likeness without permission are subject
to possible lawsuits.
>
>Not being a horror movie aficionado, I saw this at a film conference in 197=
1.
>The professor who led the discussion after the screening thought Romero was=
a
>genius. The biggest problem with the film, he said, was that Romero had
>allowed his mostly amateur cast to open their mouths too much and say dialo=
g.
>He said it had been the number one grossing (no pun intended) American film=
in
>France the previous year, as the French considered it an existentialist
>statement. The man who almost survives spends the entire film making
>intelligent decisions, none of which quite work out, and he still dies in t=
he
>end. This seemed to fit in with what most Americans generally think of the
>French, who also think Jerry Lewis is high art.
At the time of production, Romero expressed his intention of simply
creating the greatest zombie film ever made. Other claims for the film came
later. Maybe it's time we stop putting the French down for some of them
liking Jerry Lewis--afterall, the American public goes for Jim Carrey in a
big way, and when it comes to comic mugging, I fail to see much difference.
(So what is Lewis' science fiction films, WAY=8AWAY OUT, VISIT TO A SMALL
PLANET, and SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND are three of the worst SF comedies of
all time, though there are cineastes such as Martin Scorsese who seem
redeeming qualities to the NUTTY PROFESSOR with its Buddy Love/Dean Martin
imitation)....
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