This screenshot comes
from the final scene of the film in which the two remaining characters are
planning to escape: Fran and Peter. Challenging all horror conventions with
this ending, George Romero kills off the two characters most likely to survive:
the young, white, male heroes (Stephen and Roger). Instead, we have Fran, the
typical female victim, who is also pregnant, survive. Although she began the
film as a helpless character, she quickly builds up a strong defence and learns
how to fly the helicopter which will lead them to safety. Throughout, she has
been the one least affected by the consumerism and at one point even voices these
fears when she asks, “What have we done to ourselves?” Although she was often
told not to strain herself she showed independence by caring for Roger when he
was bitten and setting up their ‘home’ inside the mall.
The character of Peter has always been shown to be the cool, laid back type (e.g. hitting the coffee machine at the hangar) and at the end he continues this by giving himself up to help Fran escape. However, through his good decision making and precision with a gun, he is able to escape. At the time of this film having a black hero was completely going against convention and Romero was determined to show that being either female or black did not put you at a disadvantage or mean you deserved to die. Throughout all of his films, this is a common part of his auteur style as a director: making the underdog the hero. Although the pair does escape, they are running low on fuel. This means that the ending is unhappy (the deaths of their friends) and also very open (did they ever make it out of the country?).
No comments:
Post a Comment