The movie is mocking the consumerist society, the fact that so many of us would live in the mall if we could. We wake, we consume, we sleep.
But I don't care.
I actually would love living in a mall during a zombie apocalypse. It would be awesome.
I most definitely do not care about any social commentary and it does nothing to improve my enjoyment of the movie.
Or fighting over getting the last toilet paper off the shelf when you have two trolleys full already.
Just imagine a zombie apocalypse. Things would get darker than the movies could ever imagine where its human mistakes be it greed or cowardice that get people killed or the 1 or 2 assholes but most people get along and stick together.
in reality the humans would be a way worse threat than the zombies and once the law system breaks down all bets are off.
Itd be like The Purge on steroids. Just look at whats happening now with COVID and the selfishness and craziness on display.
You got that right, and its a lot more likely.
all it takes is an oil shortage , either manufactured or genuine scarcity of oil in the ground , and the trucks dont fill the shelves in the shops.
Then it falls apart in days.
In the movies when someone gets bit/infected. They usually take it like a champ, cooperate with the group and wait it out until they die and are reborn as a zombie then someone puts a bullet in their head. End scene.
In our world people would be running around coughing in faces, trying to bite people, burning and destroying so they don't go down alone.
Without the mall and the consumer critique you wouldn't have the same film and story. They would live in the mall forever and live happily ever after; kinda ridiculous...
I doubt you would really be happy living in a mall for the rest of your life, without a wider world to be in contact with, but I guess unlimited material goods and isolation is the "American Dream" for many...Romero recognised that.
"Each to their own and fuck the world, I've got what I need"....
Everyone bangs on about this "sharp commentary on society" in the movie . i didnt really see it.
they went there out of neccesity for food and defense.
then there was the one line about zombies coming to the mall becasue "they remembered liking it" or somehthing.
one line!
I think the line was something like "they're drawn here...This (mall) was an important place in their lives."
There's quite a bit to unpack there.
Firstly, a mall is what they're drawn to in their life after death...
Their remaining instinct is not to seek out their loved ones or clamber for pictures of their loved ones and moan in grief, but to feast on warm bodies and attempt entry into a shopping mall that's completely useless to them.
They're only remaining instinct is materialism and consumption, which was intended as metaphor on American capitalism and consumerist culture: feast and indulge.
The zombies also lumber around and mindlessy bump into each other in the shopping mall as many humans do.
This consumerist theme is prevalent throughout the film.
We see society disintergrate and people resorting to turning on each other and battling one another to consume supplies. The human behaviour mirrors the behaviour of the zombies on a more brutal level.
We see zombies fighting over pieces of flesh, and we see humans blowing each other away in housing projects and fighting with bikers over a shopping mall.
Again, this all reflects the theme of materialism, consumer culture, and greed.
Towards the climatic biker raid, we see the remaining survivors holed up in the mall becoming shiftless, depressed, and devoid of purpose, despite all their material needs being meet - this signifies materialism and the "American Dream" leaving us unfulfilled.
In the end, instead of fighting to clear the zombies out once again, the survivors decide to just fly away to an uncertain future. What is conveyed there is that materalism was not their answer; their purpose is something else that they must seek.
Romero himself was uncertain as to what this purpose might be since the world has ended.
His original ending was to have the survivors commit suicide, with Peter shooting himself in the office instead of firing his way out and Gaylen Ross jumping into the propeller blades of their escape copter, but Romero relented and shot the more upbeat ending - deciding there was some remaining purpose to life out there.
Well , we're all 'consumers' to some degree.
I dont consider myself materialistic , I've barely ever been to a mall , but all the things in the movie looked like necessary survival strategies to me.
"they're drawn here...This (mall) was an important place in their lives."
Like i said that one line, is kind of a comment on consumerism
The rest , your just inferring things that arnt necessarily there
Their remaining instinct is not to seek out their loved ones or clamber for pictures of their loved ones and moan in grief, but to feast on warm bodies and attempt entry into a shopping mall that's completely useless to them.
All zombies do that , i think theyre hungry (except the Billy connolly one)
people resorting to turning on each other and battling one another to consume supplies.
people gotta eat, thats what thats about. Wanting food to prevent death is hardly "a consumerist materialistic society"
Again, this all reflects the theme of materialism, consumer culture, and greed.
No that just illustrates that humans are animals and will kill each other TO SURVIVE , not to the lateast fashionable jeans.
devoid of purpose, despite all their material needs being meet
Standard desert island marooned behavior
I'm not sure why they left at the end i guess the movie had to "go somewhere" . Were the bikers still alive?
Maybe they knew there was only a weeks worth of tinned food left - they were always going to have to move on when the food ran out
I'm not simply inferring things; these are the general themes of the film as described by film critics and Romero himself - who was a socially conscious filmmaker who's work was steeped in social commentary regarding American society.
Countless zombies were drawn to the mall while it was uninhabited. Again: that in itself is a commentary on consumer behaviour.
If the film was just about survival, then the survivors would have been happy to simply survive inside the mall. It was made abundantly clear that they weren't happy despite having all their material needs and consumer comforts. That was not survival.
If it was just about survival, then the bikers would have been ransacking the mall looking only for food. Instead, they were stealing useless TV's and trying to use the Love Tester machine.
No the food had not run out by the end. There was no shortage of food and goods and the bikers had left empty-handed and/or were killed by zombies.
You must watch the film again and read up on it.
I'll add that during the biker raid, Peter and Stephen where not planning to have a full on fight. They where just going to make it hard for them. Stephen however gets jealous that they are taking their stuff.
It's the whole consumerism side, the fact people often want the latest thing and get it and a new one comes out and then they get jealous because others have a newer better one. Often people don't appreciate what they have till they lose it.
They could have hidden it out and maybe they wouldn't have found the entrance to where they had hidden or they may of but they would of been able to fly off in time if required. They may have even been able to have secured the mall again.
I've seen people post that Zombie invasions would never happen if they where real as the army etc. Would deal with the situation too quickly. However as people have seen COVID proved this untrue. People would ignore rules and put everyone in danger and fight for stuff they didn't even need.
I've heard of people trying to get full trollies of pasta and when an old lady asked for one packet they refused. Humanity is greedy
It would be one of the better places to live in that situation. Keeping it secure would be the problem, like we saw in the movie.
My one criticism of the film (or the characters) is that they didn't spend every waking moment preparing for the inevitable gang to arrive.
Maybe some explosives, some booby traps, some methods for ensuring the trucks couldn't be moved. Even some planning for dealing with a new breach of zombies. To get them out effectively a second time, etc.
Rich people are apart of the lodge and stuff.
100% agree. A massive part of the appeal of this movie is the wish-fulfilment factor- just thinking about 'what-would-I-do-in-that-situation' really let's you put yourselves in the main character's shoes. Obviously it's a horrendous situation, but there's something so alluring about securing yourself inside the vast space of a shopping mall while an outside threat is (temporarily) unable to get to you.
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