Dawn of the Dead

The Original Director's Cut

SYNOPSIS

Panic reigns in cities across the US as legions of Zombies stagger clumsily in search of the living on whom to feed. As debates rage on TV about what should be done, Francine a young TV controller, is persuaded by her boyfriend Stephen that they should look out for themselves & escape by helicopter.

During a tense dockside stand off with looters dressed as police men they are joined by two SWAT sharpshooters, Roger & Peter, who have just taken part in a raid on a Puerto Rican ghetto (where the cellars were found to be full of the zombies in varying stages of mutilation & decay).

The site of well armed SWAT officers gets the looters on their way & the group flies out over the countryside, where they see hunting parties gleefully picking off the shambling zombies (who can be stopped if their brains are destroyed).

After one or two narrow encounters with the ghouls, they land on top of a huge shopping mall in Pennsylvania, where a self contained civil defence shelter provides them with sanctuary & a store of supplies. Peter & Roger venture down to the store itself, where they are tempted to raid the glittering merchandise despite the zombies freely roaming the floors. Gradually setting themselves up in greater luxury, the four decide to seal off the mall (by parking huge trucks in front of the doors) & then hunt down all the zombies inside. And so, the action really begins...

INFO/DETAILS

OK lets clear up this ‘Directors Cut’ mislabelling!

Romero’s first rough cut ran about 170mins, during the editing process it was decided "Dawn" would be entered into the 1978 Cannes film festival. With a running time of about 140min and an unfinished music track, it became a festival hit.

Meanwhile Romero continued whittling down the zombies in the mall epic to his preferred final (directors) cut of 126mins, it was this version that splattered across US screens sans MPAA rating, becoming a critical & financial success.

Once available only for 16mm film rental in the US in the early Eighties, when the Cannes rough cut was licensed to Elite Entertainment and then Anchor Bay for It’s long overdue LD & DVD releases, the US producer dishonestly labelled It ‘The Directors Cut’, end of story!

There is another version available, though not legally in the US as yet (Feb ‘2000). One of the producers Dario Argento edited "Dawn" to suit European tastes; renamed "Zombie" it ran about 119mins, dropping the library music score, mixing the Goblin music almost wall to wall, deleting the helicopter chop top zombie & using alternate dialogue scenes, while adding yet more snippets of gore.

The Italians never ones to miss a quick buck, released their own prequel of sorts, directed by Lucio Fulci, the excellent "Zombi 2" (1980) attempted to explain the origins of the undead & how they got to America. Ironically It was renamed "Zombie" in the US, confused? you will be, years later Fulci partly directed "Zombi 3" but the less said about that one the better.

WHAT’S THE EXTRA FOOTAGE?

OK gore hounds, even I was surprised to learn Romero pulled back on the red stuff for his unrated 126min cut, The 139min Cannes print contains an extended Puerto Rican cellar cull, heaps more splattery bullet in the head shots from the mall clear up, an arm ripped off under a truck, doorway hand decapitation, longer views of the bikers bashing the zombies, inc a machete through the throat & showing their guts at the climax.

Some of you may not be so keen on the slower pace due to extended dialogue sequences, most notable is an extended TV studio opening, a dockside stand-off with looters (lead by a pre-"Day of the Dead" Joe Pilato) & more domestic bliss in the mall.

Personally I adore this longer version & found revisiting the shorter theatrical cut left me wanting more of the red stuff.

THE TRANSFER

As per Romero’s instructions Anchor Bay’s ‘97 DVD is matted to 1:79:1 & looks better for It. Anyone expecting a Warner Bros quality transfer - WAKE UP & SMELL THE CORPSES, this was an independent low budget movie from ’78!, the image looks fine to me, sharper than the Elite LD’s, while the colour looks the same. The mono sound (badly in need of a 5:1 remix) is bearable with little distortion.

It is a shame that dual layer & RSDL pressing facilities were not as plentiful in ’97, hence "Dawn" is split over two sides of the disc, As this is the only way to get the longer cut It’s a small price to pay.

Admittedly Anchor Bay’s recent one sided 126min DVD does improve on colour & sharpness, but that’s to be expected from a 1999 pressing.

The recently released (Dec ‘99) Japanese region 2 dvd of Argento’s cut was by the looks of it taken from the same dirty, worn out print used for the Japanese Perfect Collection LD box set from ’96. It’s full screen, poorly transfered, grainy as hell & the mono sound is quite rough in parts.

The UK R2 dvd has suffered pointless BBFC cuts totalling about 7 seconds (the head explosion, an arm biting blood spurt & the zombie kids getting it) while leaving more explicit gore intact, go figure!

Even with a world exclusive Tom Savini running commentary, It ain’t worth discussing here.