I used to show it to my class back when I taught American literature. It fit in really well with the American gothic literary tradtion - Poe, Hawthorne, etc. At the time, I wrote up five critical interpretations to Night of the Living Dead. Two use what we call the formalist approach (all you look at is the text or film itself; you pay no mind to the author, the time in which it was written, who's reading it, etc.) One uses what we call the biographical approach (looking at the life and experiences of the author/filmmaker and determining to what extent those experiences influenced him or her in the creation of the text). And two use the psychoanalytic approach (looking at a character motivations and symbolic meanings of events in the text). Here are the five interpretations I came up with:
The Formalist Approach
2. Even on such a limited budget, Romero was effectively able to create tension, unrest, and uncertainty through his use of such camera angles and techniques as oblique angles, handheld camera shots, wide-angle close-ups, and low-angle framing.
The Biographical Approach
A genre film, Night of the Living Dead contains moments of horror and grotesque oddness; however, because of Romero’s professional ambitions it also contains moments of dark humor, romance, and tragedy. Born in the Bronx in 1939, Romero began making his first films in 8mm while still in his teens. He later studied art, design, and theater at the Carnegie-Mellon Institute of Art in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1961 with a B.A. Subsequently, he formed his own Pittsburgh-based company, Latent Image, to produce industrial films and television commercials. Then, in 1967, he teamed up with another Pittsburgh advertising firm, Hardman Associates, to produce a low-budget feature-length horror film that he hoped would serve as his ticket into the film industry. As a result, Night of the Living Dead took shape more as a portfolio piece than as a self-conscious entry into fear film. Owing to its popularity and marketability, the horror film has traditionally been the proving ground for unknown directors, since it's much easier to find a distributor for horror movies than it might be for a drama or a comedy. Romero's first film was a demonstration not only that he could direct a film but also that his direction was versatile.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
1. Perhaps the dilemma most central to the success of any horror film is simply the question: “Is it scary?” A question more central to the success of horror films as a genre, however, is the question: “What do we fear?” Romero might answer that query, by means of his Night of the Living Dead, threefold. First, we fear the "undiscovered country" – death. That is to say, we fear that waiting for us on the other side of the grave is, simply, nothing. Or, even worse, mindless misery and unfulfillment. We fear that we will be taken by the darkness and left to an existence of wandering the wasteland searching for unattainable contentment. Second, we fear our own potential for violence and horror. Once attacked and killed, the victims of Romero’s film – in other words, us – become the antagonists, lifeless zombies inflicting pain and death on the innocent and hurting the ones they love. And third, we fear exactly what Romero so bluntly states in the closing sequence of the film: no matter how hard we try, no matter how strong or smart we are, no matter how good or valiantly we strive to do good, it is all ultimately left to chance and we will most likely be shot in the head for our efforts by a hillbilly sheriff hunting for zombies.
2. Romero suggests that by our very nature we are, regardless of how high the risk to ourselves and to our loved ones may be, ultimately unable to put aside out petty differences and to act selflessly enough even to survive. In other words, we allow our selfishness and bitterness towards others to ultimately destroy the very behaviors and values that make us human.
So here's the question: Which of these five interpretations do you feel best gets at the heart (or brain) of Night of the Living Dead? In other words, which interpretation best helps you as a member of Romero's audience best appreciate the film?
I believe that the second Psychoanalytic response, gets at the heart the best while watching the movie. Whenever you watch a movie, most people become connected emotionally to a character and begins to picture them self in their position. If the viewer does this while watching The Night Of The Living Dead, they will become deeply connected and have internal conflicts and thoughts running through their heads.In the movie, everyone feels as if they need to protect their loved ones before them and they end up not taking care or worrying about them selves. When the audience is watching this movie, they immediately put themselves in the position and ask their self if they would have done the same thing? Would I have saved her? would I put my life before hers? Because of our flaw of the fear of being selfish, we have to ask these things even in the hardest of times. So I think that this interpretation helps me appreciate the film because it really makes you realize how our own self is what keeps us from surviving in these dangerous situations.
ReplyDeleteI agree most with the first formalist approach. Firstly, I believe it's great how Romero is able to weave in a sub-plot of the posse killing zombies all across the countryside. This adds to the audience's emotions. They see that these monsters can be stopped. It also takes us away temporarily from the protagonists locked in the house to show what's going on outside of their backyard. Secondly, I think the first formalist approach makes a very dramatic statement. Even if our heroes miraculously exit the house and escape, they truly have nowhere left to go; this whole fraction of the state is almost like a prison due to the undead. Ironically, the posse seems to have such an easy time killing the horde and our protagonists are the ones suffering. How many posse members have you seen get killed?
ReplyDeleteDmitriy - I never really considered the ease with which the posse kills the zombies. Good point. Of course, if you watch the follow up sequal - Dawn of the Dead - you're left with the conclusion that perhaps the law enforcement posses across the nation were less successul than depicted in Night.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, though. Perhaps the scariest thing about a zombie movie is that there's no place to run.
Firstly, I gotta throw it out there, last night I had a dream about this movie. totally threw me off. anyways..
ReplyDeleteI definitely think the psychoanalyctic approach is the best approach to this movie. Overall I think it elaborates on the subject of fear itself, whether it be artificial fear created by the media, or internal fear of the unknown. Also, the internal battle that one would have when deciding whether to save themself or one they love, or to hurt others, is a large factor and theme in Night. Sure, I can see the Biological approach being pretty accurate, but even the Formalist approach seems a little ignorant, since you're not taking anything into consideration but the picture itself. Psychoanalyctic definitely has my vote.
Brandon Stark
ReplyDeleteI agree it's definitely the Psychoanalytic Approach. When I watch films like this it always keeps my attention. It always gets me thinking what i would do in those situations. What would you would do to survive, is it your life first before people or the other way around? Also when you react with what the characters do in certain situations. You start thinking and questioning why the character did one wrong thing in a situation instead of doing the right thing. What over-powers a situation the greedy part or the heroic part? With the drama and filming angles in the movie it gets you even deeper into the cinematic effect it causes on your mind.
Brandon - You're a bit vague. How about some examples? "With the drama and filming angles in the movie it gets you even deeper into the cinematic effect it causes on your mind." You lose me here. Help me out.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with the Psychoanalytic approach, and I think most, MOST, people will. I think this, because when you're watching the movie you really get the feel for the characters and who they are. Ex. when we were in class and Ben slaps Barbra because she won't calm down. When Mr. Cowlin asked us why we all laughed at that one scene the majority answered, "because she was getting annoying," or, "she had it coming to her." Stuff like that. It was obvious that Ben was getting pretty annoyed with her to, hence the slap in the face, but isn't that what the whole audience felt. It is because of how attached, or intertwined our feelings are to the characters that make us feel the way we do. Such as, when the characters are in a suspenseful moment we feel suspense. When the characters are in a soothing calming moment, we feel calm and relaxed with them. I personally think it all depends on how attached we feel to the characters, and how much we like the characters as a whole.
ReplyDeleteAnd who did not feel a sense of "awww man" at the end of the film. We just felt as if how Ben felt, but probably in different words.
I think that the best description of the film is that of Psychoanalytic Approach 2. Throughout the evolution of humanity we have been distanced by our ability to communicate and co-operate. If we lose this ability we ar eno better than the zombies who just are mindlessly trying to pursue their sole objective. And if this breakdown in communication occurs then those who are unwilling to co-operate become the zombies who don't even bother with teamwork.
ReplyDeleteCaleb - You said "it all depends on how attached we feel to the characters, and how much we like the characters as a whole." I have a question for you, and for whomever: Do we have to like a character to feel attached to him or her? Feel free to venture outside the horror genre for examples to support your response...
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is the first Psychoanalytic approach. When I think about it, when ever I ask someone about a horror film, I ask "Is it scary?" But really, that may vary from person to person. I think a lot of horror and scary movies are psychological, making you really think about what you are scared of. There is no doubt that a lot of people fear death. For the most part we are comfortable with our lives and don't like to change the way things are unless it is necessary. No one really knows what happens when you die. Religious people may believe in some kind of afterlife, heaven, hell, reincarnation, etc. Other people believe that you are done with and your body just lies in a grave. But in Night of the Living Dead, not only do you have to fear death, you fear what you become after dying and what you do. When watching this movie, you fear that you will loose all sense of emotion. Its terrifying to know that if you become one of these creatures, everyone you care about is at risk. And I do believe that a lot of our efforts are left to chance. For example, I'm usually very cautious in what I do, but who's to say that I'll walk across the street tomorrow without getting hit by a car. You just can't know for sure. In the movie, there were many zombies in that one area and the fact that there still could have been a living person in the house may have not occurred to the police officers. Although, I think that the second psychoanalytic approach applies here as well because some of the characters in the movie were very selfish and bitter (that one man with the daughter- sorry I can't recall the name). He only cared about protecting himself and his family and didn't care about anyone else. The black man (or hero in a way) seemed like he wanted everyone to be safe but in the end when the zombies were pulling everyone else, he didn't help them, he stood there and watched for a minute and then went to hide. And in the end it may have been that his selfishness did get him killed. Thats what I think applies to this film.
ReplyDeleteOwen Moynihan
ReplyDeleteI feel that the last one made the most sense to me. The movie was a starting point for the director but he probably wanted to put a message into it. HIs message was that even under dire circumstances humans will find pointless things to argue about and get themselves killed. Throughout the movie the main characters argued over small petty things and could not get past these things to help each other and survive. Also throughout the movie I was screaming, in my head, to them what they should be doing, focusing on SURVIVAL! This description made the most sense to me.
To answer you question Mr. Cowlin. I think it does help a lot if you feel mentally attached to a character, but we don't usually like the bad guys in the movie do we? And we can still feel attached to them in some sort of way. Bad guys are always great examples of liking a character and feeling attached to them. We usually don't like them, but yet sometimes we do feel attached to them. For example, in Star Wars episode V, spoiler alert if you haven't seen it, when Darth Vader says to Luke, "I am your father!" Everyone is gasping and feeling like Luke "Nooooo! That's not true! That's IMPOSSIBLE!" Most people in the audience feel for Luke, and feel attached to him, but if you've seen the movie a couple of thousand times (like me) you can kind of feel attached to Darth Vader in some way. Now you may not like him at all, but you know where he's coming from. Even though, it's probably just some dirty trick that he has planned, but what if you felt it in a fathers sense. Somewhat like, you haven't seen you're son ever (like Darth Vader) and you find him, and he hates you, and you just have to bring it out. You can feel emotionally attached to Darth, because you know he has probably been wanting to say that to him. If anyone sees that in a fathers perspective then you could feel more attached to Darth rather than Luke.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the Psychoanalytic Approach helps me appreciate the film the most. To me, the whole movie is one big struggle against fear. This movie shows a lot of fears that humans have. The biggest shown being death. Death can also be called the fear of the unknown since no one can know what it is. I think he does a great job of doing this because obviously the characters don't want to die but when they do they turn into antagonists. To me, psychologically this makes the characters feel like they are up against themselves. They are in the sense that their fighting themselves when their dead. Also even if one of them dies, they'll eventually become an antagonist to the rest of the characters because they'll be turned into a zombie.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the film the most through the psychoanalytic approach. It could be because I'm taking the class World East Religions this semester and it's really opened up my mind about death and what happens after you die, but I've noticed that even though religions stress the beauty of heaven or the "after-life" with the divine, or any other figure others believe in, humans continue to fear death the most. "Night of the Living Dead" presents a whole new scary view of death. If you look at the whole zombie idea in a metaphorical way, it really does show the inner fear of each human - that in the end our soul will be trapped in darkness. Just like the zombies roam the empty grounds, humans fear that in the end they, too, might be left with no answers or no purpose.
ReplyDeleteStephanie - "But in Night of the Living Dead, not only do you have to fear death, you fear what you become after dying and what you do. When watching this movie, you fear that you will loose all sense of emotion." Fear of losing emotion. When you put it that way, it is pretty horrifying.
ReplyDeleteOwen - Zombie movies do have that "what would YOU do?" head-game they play with the audience. Almost like a logic puzzle.
Caleb - Interesting that you should bring up Star Wars (the original trilogy). I've been sitting here, considering what you said, and something came to me...As a kid, I always liked Han Solo the best. He was cool, tough, funny. Luke, on the other hand, always kind of bugged me. Whiny, immature, simple. But within the context that you've framed it, I realize something: Even though I LIKED Han better, I felt more ATTACHED to Luke. I'm guessing because I had so much more in common with him. Insecurities, nerdiness, overbearing guardians. I wanted to be Han because - I suspect - I was in reality Luke. Did anyone have a similar response to Star Wars?
ReplyDeleteBen - "Death can also be called the fear of the unknown since no one can know what it is." Hamlet called death "the undiscovered country." (This is where Star Trek XI got it's title.)
ReplyDeleteI think that the psychoanalytic approach definitely helps us appreciate the film best because it pretty much just tells us what to expect. It really elaborates on what the film is really about. This really grabs your attention and gets you eager to see the movie. It brings up the question are we just destined to die if not how we can possibly survive. It just creates a huge amount a fear and suspense and we just become so curious.
ReplyDeleteSylwia - Beauty vs. ugly. Nice. You're right. All the religions I can think of portray the afterlife as peaceful, beautiful, and pleasant - at least if you've lived a righteous life. Society promises us beauty in death, while Night of the Living Dead questions that founding construct. So, is Night of the Living Dead a philisophical statement against the religion? Is the movie a atheist treatise? Is it asking us to question the very existance of God (or a god)?
ReplyDeleteWowzers. Pretty heavy for a zombie flick. Anyone else have an opinion on this one?
You could argue that it might be a statement against religion since the soul is basically stuck in its body again.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, the zombies still DO die in the end...well, "die" a second time. So there might be a meaning behind that? Maybe they're actually some evil spirit that lives in each human and humans finally have the chance to destroy the evil on the night of the living "evil" dead? Haha, who knows!
I'd love to know what a priest, or monk, athiest, etc, thinks of this movie.
I think this movie is very scary. who wants to be eatin alive by a hundred flesh eating ghouls and then return back to the dead only to be shot in the head burned and die again.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn Nash
ReplyDeleteI think that the psychoanalytic approach is the best because it lets the audience know before even seeing this movie, that people/zombies are coming and the people are frightened. By the moon there are shadows of dark and scary looking people. the shadows seem to be coming toward the person screaming in the corner. the girl screaming is in the corner which i think is suppose to represent that there is no escaping the zombies or the dead people.
I believe the first interpretation for the psychoanalytic approach helped me to appreciate Romero's work in 'Night of the Living Dead'. The film was scary because it used people's fears of death/afterlife and the human potential for evil. These fears are often used in war stories, these stories tell of the soldier's fear of death, and their fear of giving into their violent nature. These fears are fears that people have had for thousands of years, and which are still dominant today. I think because 'Night of the Living Dead' focuses on these big phobias, the film remains frightening still in this modern era. But most of all, the film was frightening because the character's life was up to fate - much like real life; there wasn't a guaranteed happy ending. It most films, the protaganist goes on a crazy adventure and survives against all odds. But that isn't real life. The fact that guy gets shot after surviving the zombie attack, is truly scary, because that is reality. Real life has no guarantees; it's random, and that's what makes it scary.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the first one also helped me best appreciate the film and the story line of what actually happens because when first looking at the poster it anstills a feeling of fear in you and makes you feel curious about what else may be happening in the film. It also shows you the main characters in the film an therefore you will be able to know who is important when watching the film. It aslo not only makes you feel scared because of the look of fear on everyones face but for many people who had never seen a zombie movie before it makes them even more scared because the monsters look the same as people and with the title that says "they wont stay dead" this makes you question how the heroes will ever be able to defeat the monster and be able to overcome their problems in the film. It is over just more appealing to the eye.
ReplyDelete