High-minded apologists frequently defend George A. Romero's zombie movies by pointing out the underlying social commentary found in the films.
For example, 1968's "Night of the Living Dead" supposedly pontificates on themes such as racism and paranoia. Likewise, the recently released "Land of the Dead" is supposedly a symbolic take on issues of class and security in the modern world.
All of Romero's films, the most recent included, approach their stories from an old-school, left-wing perspective, frequently portraying the underclass as sympathetic characters and established civil authority as violent, irrational monsters.
White males are usually the bad guys, women and minorities are usually the good guys, and questions of authority and enfranchisement are of paramount importance.
Although nearly 40 years separate the first and latest installments of Romero's film series, somehow we're always back in the late 1960s when the zombies attack.
But as the survivor of a recent Romero movie marathon, I have this to say: If this is what passes for social criticism among today's left wing, the movement is doomed.
Romero's first sin in "Land of the Dead" is that the film's symbolism is deeply muddled. For example, it's clear that the zombies in the film are supposed to represent a type of lower class. Strange as it sounds, Romero portrays his zombies as having a tranquil, small-town existence, which is cruelly disrupted by the living and their raids on the zombie towns for food and supplies.
However, given that the undead have eaten and assimilated virtually the entire country in Romero's world, portraying zombies as oppressed is questionable, at best.
In addition to the oppressed zombie underclass, Romero also sketches out an oppressed human underclass trapped in a miserable, squalid existence by a bourgeois overclass, who lounge about in a polished, Trump Tower-like setting.
But does Romero really need to show us two underclasses in the same 90 minute film? Wouldn't he have done better to show the overclass as actually being evil, as opposed to merely obsessed with shopping, fine dining and the art of living well?
The conclusion of the film seems to suggest that the way forward to a socialist utopia is for oppressed zombies and humans both to rise up, storm the nearest skyscraper and eat the rich found therein.
Perhaps the oddest flaw in Romero's films is that he increasingly comes to sympathize with the zombies as time goes on. This isn't entirely surprising, given that he owes much of his career to the cinematic appeal of the undead, but it does seem a bit much to ask moviegoers to actually treat zombie cannibals as warm and cuddly protagonists.
The greatest irony here is that, were Romero not obsessed with having the zombies be the underdog heroes of his story, there are several other prime targets in today's political world just begging for the kind of rich, symbolic commentary that only zombie movies can provide.
For example, consider the rhetorical position of many in the right wing who feel oppressed by the tattered remnants of the left. Republican politicians claim their agenda is being thwarted, despite the fact that they control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and a soon-to-be-increasing majority on the Supreme Court. Hawkish neocons claim that, despite getting their way in every key decision related to the Iraq war, it will be liberal dissent that dooms the mission. Conservative Christians, despite being spectacularly influential in the government and society at large, claim they're being persecuted by secular liberals.
Like the zombies of "Land of the Dead," the right wing seems content to live out an empty parody of American life, happily pursuing the surface appearance of days gone by until disturbed by outside forces. Then they unite, marching forward, becoming better organized, smarter and more dangerous, until at last they overwhelm all those who foolishly place themselves above the fray.
Only once all resistance has been destroyed do they return to their former state of existence, a vast monoculture that stretches from sea to shining sea. (Except for a few wacko holdouts in Canada.)
Now that's what I'd call a real horror story.
Jones is an electrical and computer engineering graduate student.
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