DAWN OF THE DEAD ***1/2
DIRECTED BY Zack Snyder
STARRING Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
US 2004 99 mins.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS ***
DIRECTED BY Frank Coraci
STARRING Steve Coogan, Jackie Chan, Cécile De France, Jim Broadbent
US 2004 125 mins.
Remakes are annoying. If the people behind Dawn of the Dead had just called it Zombie Invasion or something, I could simply have recommended it as a first-rate action movie, maybe noting its incidental similarities to the 1978 Dawn of the Dead – above all that survivors of a mysterious zombie plague hole up in a deserted shopping mall, besieged by the living dead. And that would’ve been that.
Instead I have to hold it up to a mirror, comparing it to George A. Romero’s classic original – at least I think I do. It’s hard to tell with these horror remakes. A couple of months ago The Texas Chainsaw Massacre re-created a chilling, not-especially-graphic 70s original as an MTV charnel-house of horror, incidentally dropping its deeper meanings as vegetarian tract and/or satire of the all-American family; now here comes Dawn of the Dead, reducing one of the most fascinating films of the 70s to a will-they-make-it nail-biter stuffed with shoot-outs and chase scenes.
One might infer the makers of these new films just don’t realise how complex the originals were; but I don’t think so. The films are too well-made, too skilful and intelligent. I think it must be that they just don’t care. For one thing, even in the age of video, not many viewers are likely to have seen the ’78 Dawn. For another, this new version is much, much scarier.
Romero’s version wasn’t really scary at all. There was gore, to be sure, but his zombies made pitiful monsters, shuffling around slowly and pathetically. A single zombie could never catch one of the ‘living’; what made them lethal were their sheer numbers – and the film, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, became a parable for the Individual’s fear of being swallowed up by the Crowd. Yet Romero brought another layer too: the zombies were actually quite sympathetic, primordially intent only on food – whereas our heroes weren’t always very likeable, preening and gloating as they fought, and totally addicted to the joys of consumerism. “Let’s go shopping!” was their motto, and the shopping-mall setting was significant. The zombies, standing forlornly outside the glass doors, were the poor and disenfranchised – a point made explicit in the opening scene when cops raided a housing estate looking for zombies, making little distinction between them and the ethnic-minority inhabitants.
Most of this is lost in the remake – but the zombies are much better monsters. They don’t shuffle, for a start; they run, like the infected in last year’s 28 Days Later. The film is full of thrilling scenes – above all the opening 10 minutes, with working girl Sarah Polley waking up to discover the world has gone mad. A little girl turns cannibal, walking with a hint of the spider-shuffle from The Exorcist; Sarah’s husband tries to kill her; then she runs out into the street to find pandemonium erupting from every house, people screaming, cars crashing – and the camera looks down on it all from a God’s-eye view. Cut to credits (and Johnny Cash).
The film never quite matches the grand hysteria of its opening, but it’s very effective. The climax is a chase to get the pulse racing, Polley and her friends pressing through the mob in fortified monster trucks; a shot of a truck in the glare of headlights, hemmed in by a swarm of zombies on all sides, is the kind of image you remember days later. The scenes in the deserted mall are often tense.
But the mall has no resonance here – it could just as well have been a hospital, or a factory. An early montage shows our heroes looting shops and trying on clothes, but they’re only doing it to pass the time; their materialism (such as it is) never connects with the zombies standing outside, pawing at the doors. “Why are they coming here?” asks one hero; “Memory, maybe…” offers another. It’s an exchange taken almost verbatim from the original, yet it makes no sense here. The zombies aren’t coming to the mall out of some vestigial memory of being human; they’re coming to the mall because they’re Evil, and out to kill.
I’m afraid my take on Dawn of the Dead won’t be much help to those who haven’t seen the Romero (though surely it makes sense to measure a remake against its original). To those people, I can only say: it’s a good action movie. It’s exciting, and it never lets up. But you owe it to yourself to check out the original Dawn at some point: a luxury 4-disc DVD set comes out in September.
Around the World in 80 Days has a much easier task. This is also a remake, and in fact the 1956 version of the Jules Verne classic (starring David Niven as Phileas Fogg) won the Best Picture Oscar. Yet that film was inexcusably dull, full of dated jokes about stiff-upper-lip Britishers, and Mexican comic Cantinflas – with his weird moustache looking like a rat’s whiskers – made an unappealing Passepartout.
Jackie Chan, on the other hand, may be the most genial presence in modern movies, and milks easy laughs as the French – though actually Chinese – valet who accompanies his eccentric Victorian master around the world. He’s also credited as Stunt Choreographer, and obviously understands that kind of slapstick: the action scenes are unusually witty, whether Jackie’s using cans of paint to fell opponents or stopping to save a mother and baby from a burning house en route to leaping for the rope of a hot-air balloon (don’t ask).
Steve Coogan also scores as Fogg, though the concept of the man is very different now: Niven (and Jules Verne) played him as an imperturbable imperialist, making his wager over a game of whist – the whole set-up is much more aggressive now – and never once flinching at those foreigners and their savage ways. Coogan’s more like one of those goofy Disney inventors, his upper lip nowhere near as stiff as his predecessor’s. “I’m a British citizen!” he declares; “I have nothing to fear!” – then cringes at the sound of a gunshot. “… Except bullets,” he adds hastily, running for cover.
Around the World is a perfectly pleasant, family-friendly comedy (unaccountably, it’s been rated ‘12’ in Cyprus), spicing the familiar adventures with celebrity cameos, like they did in the 1956 version. Richard Branson turns up to declare “Ils sont fous!” in the Paris sequence, and Chan’s old partner Sammo Hung makes an appearance in China – but best of all is Arnold Schwarzenegger as a fun-loving (and polygamous) Turkish prince. In a role obviously filmed before he became Governor of California, he lounges around in a hot tub and regales his guests with risqué anecdotes. “I’m always embarrassing myself in front of visiting dignitaries,” he admits with a chuckle. It was worth a remake just to hear him say that.
SUMMER OPEN-AIR MOVIE MARATHON
At last! The fifth annual Open-Air Marathon, held every year under the auspices of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Culture (with Theatro Ena and the Friends of the Cinema Society), starts on Tuesday, ending on August 14. For us classic-movie buffs it’s one of the few chances available in Cyprus to see old(er) films on a big screen, the way they should be seen – and may also hopefully convert a few multiplex types to the joys of classics, though the programmes have been slightly too daunting in years past.
This year’s programme is more accessible, focusing on three directors – Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut and Charlie Chaplin – who between them account for 7 of the 11 films on show. The remaining 4 range from The Scar (1976), Krysztof Kieslowski’s first film and perhaps the ‘artiest’ of this year’s offerings – though it’s made in the gritty, naturalistic style of his Polish films, not the more ethereal style he developed in the 90s – to Blood Simple, the stylish debut from the Coen Brothers.
Some of the selections are strange: if you’re going to show a Hitchcock, Stage Fright (1950) is an unexpected choice, a murder mystery with a theatre setting, made in Britain when he was at his lowest ebb as a director. The film was another in a series of flops, and things looked bleak for the Fat Man – till he bounced back with Strangers on a Train the following year, inaugurating his great 50s period. Fortunately, this creaky Hitchcock is paired with his most fluid film – The Lady Vanishes (1938), a miraculous blend of mystery, comedy and (yes) a little drama. I can’t imagine anyone not loving The Lady Vanishes.
The Truffauts and Chaplins are less of a mixed bunch. The French master is represented by two of his lightest, most beguiling films – New Wave classic Jules and Jim (1961), with Jeanne Moreau at the fulcrum of a romantic triangle, and the delightful Day for Night (1973), about the making of a movie. Chaplin has three films, supposedly ‘for the kids’ (they show mostly on Sundays): parents may prefer to go for The Great Dictator (1940) as it’s the only ‘Talkie’, but this satire – with Chaplin as Hitler – is actually the least of the three. They may only have music, sound effects and a single gibberish song, but City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) are the true masterpieces. I only hope they’re showing in good prints.
That won’t be a problem for the most recent film on the programme – Eric Rohmer’s talky but delightful A Summer’s Tale (1996), one of his loveliest romantic comedies (which is saying a lot). Don’t miss it. Don’t miss any of them!
Here’s the programme in full. Screenings are at the Constantia Open-Air Cinema at 9pm; call 22-348203 or 22-806512 for more information.
July 13, 27: THE LADY VANISHES
July 14, 21: DAY FOR NIGHT
July 15, 22: STAGE FRIGHT
July 18: THE GREAT DICTATOR
July 20, 28: A SUMMER’S TALE
July 25, 29: MODERN TIMES
August 1, 12: CITY LIGHTS
August 3, 13: JULES AND JIM
August 4, 8: THE SCAR
August 5, 11: BLOOD SIMPLE
August 10, 14: MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY
