Blogcritics: Comments on How To Let Politics Ruin A Movie

Comment by jadester

Wed, 5 Nov 2003 18:22:37 EST

lol, true, altho if you believe our tabloids the opposite is the case. Then again, i wouldn't call the drug and prostitution gangs "regular people"...

Comment by JIm C.

Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:01:06 EST

As James Lileks noted last week, there's not a single firearm in the hands of "regular people" for self defense, either. This is the nanny state UK, after all.

Comment by jadester

Tue, 4 Nov 2003 12:16:22 EST

day of the dead just shows how one guy who's been catapulted into a position of command under extreme pressure can be turned...well, crazy. To be expected really, in the situation in which they were in. Even the doctor, with his good intentions, was going a little crazy. Although i like the under-pinning story part of the Living Dead series where the groups of rednecks are loving it. They could be said to be acting barbarically, except the things they are fighting are dead, and if they don't fight them they'll take over the world. Also, even tho you might not realise it, the Living Dead series is pretty clever - they show a wide range of peoples' reactions to such a doomsday situation. Have you ever thought how you might react if something like that WERE to happen? would you give up and kill yourself? run away to some secret hiding place and barricade yousrelf in? go hunting zombies? try and tame them? etc. Some of the films also play with your "traditional" expectations e.g. of who survives. I won't say which in case anyone yet to see them can then guess what i mean.

Comment by sean t. collins

Mon, 3 Nov 2003 21:54:58 EST

I'll second Alex's comment: What with the entire plague being unleashed by militant E.L.F./PETA types, heroes of the traditional left are being skewered here as well as heroes of the traditional right. I'll also go one step further by pointing out that unlike in, say, Day of the Dead, not all the military men are portrayed as unthinking vicious bastards--even the man in charge is essentially acting out of concern for what he feels is the good of his men. There's more nuance to be found here than just "we hate the army." I wrote about this movie, and many of these issues, here--for the record, I dug it overall.

Comment by Michelle

Mon, 3 Nov 2003 13:30:33 EST

i disliked the movie for the cheap production and the low innovation concerning the zombie topic. this movie was nothing new and purely just an ode to the love of zombies.

Comment by jadester

Mon, 3 Nov 2003 12:46:57 EST

pfah, why can't they come up with a slightly more original twist on the zombie movie genre? Resident Evil (the game series first of course) and 28 Days Later both ripped off the Living dead series' overall plot of a plague of zombies having been caused by a strange virus. Also, Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of The Dead are far superior films.

Comment by Craig Lyndall

Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:22:09 EST

I didn't think it was all that political. I thought it had more to do with the isolation that would be felt by a group of people, in this case men who are soldiers, if the whole world basically disappeared. I think maybe you have let your cynicism get the better of you. I don't think this guy was making any sort of a political statement about soldiers, just on people who are left to their own devices, kind of like Lord of the Flies, only a bit older. Also, you might want to keep in mind that this movie is about Zombies who get infected with a disease ambiguously titled "rage." Why is it that you need these small details of believability when we are talking about a bunch of zombies running around?

Comment by Alex

Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:18:20 EST

I just watched 28 Days Later this weekend and I'm as prone as anyone to notice lefty bias in movies, but I don't agree. Maybe I'm just used to making excuses for movies (or books or comics) that I enjoy, but I interpreted it as a dozen or so soldiers who truly believed they were among the last uninfected people in entire world and just went crazy. A couple of the individual soldiers may have been scumbags just looking to get off, but the leader seemed like someone who really believed that repopulating the world trumped any morality from the pre-zombie world. They were all nuts (except the one soldier who wouldn't go along with it and also figured out the infection probably wasn't global), but I don't think it was a shot at the military in general. And remember, the whole thing was caused by self righteous animal rights activists.