The iconic Zack Snyder film George A. Romero hated
For many film fans who frequent online meme forums, Zack Snyder is nothing short of a modern messiah. Especially after last year’s release of the director’s cut for Justice League, many superhero movie enthusiasts claimed that Snyder was the chosen filmmaker to inject artistic purpose into the empty commercialism.
One of the films that helped establish Snyder as an important voice of his generation was the 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 masterpiece Dawn of the Dead. The film was an unprecedented commercial success, grossing over $100 million. In addition, it was well-received by many critics who claimed that Snyder’s remake was better than the original.
However, Romero did not share the same enthusiasm about the production, even though he claimed that Snyder’s vision was better than he expected. The pioneering filmmaker described the remake as a “good action film” but only liked the opening 20 minutes. In an interview with The Telegraph, Romero explained: “I sort of thought it lost its reason for being. I know a lot of people really like it very much – Stephen King, for example.”
According to Romero, the symbolism of zombies had a very specific meaning within the context of American capitalism and the 1970s. The original Dawn of the Dead was a reaction to the emerging constructions of a new American institution – the shopping mall – which is why the film’s sociopolitical subtext was so effective.
Romero explained: “I didn’t like it very much. Basically, because I was using the idea for satire. My film needed to be done right when it was done, because that sort of shopping mall was completely new. It was the first one in Pennsylvania that we had ever seen. The heart of the story is based in that. And I didn’t think the remake had it.”
Retrospective analyses of Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead have pointed out that the film was so successful because it came at a time when the American market was ready for the re-emergence of zombie films. In many ways, Snyder revitalised the genre, but Romero insisted that the reconceptualisation of Dawn of the Dead as an action flick didn’t work.
“In my film, the zombies are in there to start with,” Romero added. “But most of it is a siege film, where the humans have taken it over. And it’s similar to that extent. But you change the meaning of it, which is just something that I don’t particularly like. And I don’t buy running zombies. There was just so much about it that I couldn’t buy at all.”
