It’s hard to imagine how shocking this film was when it first broke on the film scene in 1968. There’s never been anything quite like it, though it’s inspired numerous pale imitations. Part of the terror lies in the fact that this one’s shot in such a raw, unadorned fashion it feels like a home movie, and all the more authentic for that. Another is that it draws us into its world gradually, content to establish a merely spooky atmosphere before leading us through a horrifically logical progression that we could hardly have anticipated. The story is simple. Radiation from a fallen satellite has caused the dead to walk and hunger for human flesh. Once bitten, you become one of them. And the only way to kill one is by a shot or blow to the head. We follow a group holed up in a small farmhouse to fend off the inevitable onslaught of the dead. And it’s the tensions between the members of this unstable, makeshift community that drive the film. Night of the Living Dead establishes its savagery as a necessary condition of life. Marked by fatality and a grim humour, it gnaws through to the bone, then proceeds on to the marrow.–Jim GayGeorge Romero’s classic 1968 zombie-fest Night of the Living Dead (shot in black and white) offers some disturbing images, even decades later. In a Pittsburgh suburb people are being stalked by zombies ravenous for human flesh. In a house whose occupant has already been slain, two separate groups of people unite and board themselves in, hoping to fend off the advancing ghouls. Through radio and TV reports they learn that radiation from outer space is thought to be responsible for the wave of zombie attacks all over the eastern United States. Once the humans are trapped, Romero shifts the focus to the internal feuding between them as they decide how to handle their dreadful situation. What unfolds is an examination of human nature, and of the fear and selfishness that keep many citizens from getting involved in the world’s problems. Appropriately, both the zombies, and the authorities who later hunt them, are equally soulless. This film could also be read as a criticism of white males–it is not merely a coincidence that the film’s two most rational, constructive characters are a woman and a black man. It is also no coincidence that the sequel Dawn of the Dead (1978) takes place in a mall infested by the undead–a perfect analogy for consumer culture. –Bryan Reeseman, Amazon.com

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Product Description
The laconic private eye…the corrupt cop…the heist that goes wrong…the Femme Fatale with the rich husband and dim lover – all are trademark characters of the movement known as film noir, that elusive mixture of stark lighting and even starker emotions. Noir explores the dark side of post-war society – gangsters, hoodlums, prostitutes and killers – and showed how it corrupted the good and the beautiful. Many of these films are now touchstones of what we regard as ‘classic’ Hollywood – The Maltese Falcon(1941), The Big Sleep(1946), Double Indemnity(1944) and The Postman Always Rings Twice(1946). This Pocket Essential charts the progression of the noir style as a vehicle for film-makers who wanted to record the darkness at the heart of American society as it emerged from World War into Cold War. As well as an introductory essay on the origins of Film Noir, this Pocket Essential discusses all the classics from the heyday of the movement in detail and includes a handy reference section for readers who want to know more.

Film Noir – The Pocket Essential Guide

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