Dawn Of The Dead Consumerism

Dawn of Consumerism: A Critical Analysis of Dawn of the Dead

George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) initially comes across as a horror zombie film, however, with a deeper look at the plot, as well as the different film techniques, the film presents itself as a warning to the dangers of consumerism and it all-encompassing properties. The film does this by various camera angles that challenge the audience, along with thought-provoking character dialogue. The film brings forward the idea of commodity fetishism, hegemony, and reification. A brief paragraph will be dedicated to the zombies and what they represent, in addition to the exoticization of the mall. All of these techniques put the focus on the audience when deciding

By allowing ourselves to fall victim to consumerism it in turn changes us into an active object while turning object into subjects. If you consider reification as being able to describe the effects of consumer culture on people, the films viewpoint is very troubling. “There us that’s all” claims Peter in reference to the zombies. This quote clearly shows the close link between the humans and zombies and paints the picture of a very fine line between the two. Two of the main characters Roger and Stephen, who in the mall, and its parking lot, succumb to reification and turn into zombies, cross this line. The film foreshadows the turning of these two characters as Roger is the most enthusiastic when inside the mall coupled with the fact that he is the first person to consume within the mall, stealing the previously mentioned track jacket, an item that almost brings him to his death. Stephen while discussing the mall with Francine says “this place is terrific, it really is perfect”. All of the prior mention thematic devices used in the film lead the audience to the final question of what side of the consumerism spectrum do they

In the project building basement when Peter and Roger are killing the zombies, Peter points his gun directly down into the camera giving the audience the feeling that they have fallen to consumerism, of course Peter runs out of bullets so it is Roger who fires a shot right into the audience. This serves as a warning shot to the audience to wake up and realize what is going on around them, a piece of advice Roger does not take himself. As the film progresses camera angles that let the audience see through the scope of Peter’s gun put the audience above consumerism. This presents them with the notion that they are able to become part of the solution in shooting down consumerism and the evils within it. The scientists interviewed in the film's beginning and near its end both work respectively to issue a warning of how to reason and deal with consumerism. The first scientist begs the audience to “deal with it without emotion” and that it is an “issue of morality”. These two quotes convey the message that the emotional attachment the consumer has made to objects will not help save them, the only way is to treat consumerism is as an issue of proper human behavior. This point is further made by the latter scientist who urges the audience to stay “rational, logical, got to remain logical”. The film presents these pieces of advice to the audience as a way to rid themselves