Dawn of the Dead (continued)

Mall montage and turning on the power

kitschy music (ironizes the space)

reckless with resources

diegetic with fun slide whistles

shots of clumsy zombies (we're not scared of them) (funny zombies on escalator) slapstick comedy

montage compares mannequins to zombies

making fun of people who go to the mall for no reason: pointless consumption

making fun of middle america and class

questions of lifelessness; approximating humanness; mannequins as PRODUCTS of consumerism and appeal to buying

emergency supplies

comfort items; TV, chocolate

What does the post-apocalypse do for sociality

no one's around, so it's wish fullfillment and a space for play (ROger in the mall)

allows Roger to go back to a childhood masculinity/boyhood

Francine and the domestic space: does Frannie get locked back into gendered roles

maybe a fantasy of post-racial politics? (Peter in charge as stark contrast to the highly racist violence of the opening act)

The Zombie Body

The Hare Krishna zombie (comments on concerns about racial other, immigrants, and global political spaces?) Does asatire/comedy make xenbophobia a laughable thing?

slap in the face about limits of capitalism and consumerism

raises questions of who has a grievable life/which lives deserve mourning

Francine

wants equal input and ability

"not going to be your den mother"

pregnancy and rights

tries to revise history of using pregnancy to lock women into biologically inferior roles

1:18:11: Francine and empathy, recognizing humanness (esp in light of her peers shooting the zombies in the mall "hunting"); reflecting on trauma

gendered implications of empathy

Peter

also empathetic and makes death grievable/respectable in gov't subsidized housing; questions meanings of violence in zombie spaces

race casting suggests difference between pleasure in committing violence

Peter and Stephen waving at the bank camera but then following the velvet lines (tongue in cheek about rules, law, and order)

what is the killing for?

click to edit

but also fantasy of free for all shopping (shopping montage post zombie deaths)

talks about forms of learned discipline

montages show the excess of the mall--IT HAS EVERYTHING

satirizes consumerism through that excess

"we whipped em and we got it all"

questions the purpose of violence: shows the meaninglessness

related to post-Vietnam concerns with the meanings of violence

Roger and questions of masculinity: fantasies of autonomy/capability

Roger's use of "wheelchair" prop and the wagon

the biker attacks for fun and pleasure: again, meaning of violence

sympathy for the zombies during the hedonistic "looting" and violence scene

Fran and Peter don't belong in that system of white, middle class consumerism, so just fly out. But the future isn't certain, still precarious