Sunday 21 December 2014

[Documentary] Birth Of The Living Dead (2014) Review

A couple of weeks ago I was walking around HMV looking for Carl Sagan's Cosmos and by chance I managed to spot this new release titled 'Birth Of The Living Dead.' It's a really cool documentary about the origins of Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead.'

The documentary gives insight into the history of the sixties regarding the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. This shows what the audience of the sixties felt about this film and especially when it came to a black man being the hero. The meaning behind this film goes so much deeper into the social context of the time. There's a political aspect to this sub-culture, underground film. As Romero states, the main character, Ben, was not written with a race in mind, they purely hired Duane  because he was a great guy.

Romero has a good sense of humour in this documentary and he made me laugh a lot, making me so glad I met him as he's obviously a decent bloke. I love is hippyish use of the word 'man' and he explains how ten of them chucked in $600 each and managed to make a movie. All cast members being family and friends and people they have previously worked with. They managed to beat the odds - budget, being a black and white film and not being well known film makers.

A mad fact is that nobody knows how much money it has made. They received no royalties for this film due to copyright issues. Somebody forgot the copyright sign in the opening credits!

If you get this, there's still scenes after the credits. It's a great companion alongside the film, definitely recommend it.


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