George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007)

George Romero is creative, talented, influential, critical, etc.; any positive attribute that can be bestowed upon a film maker, Romero earns it. His Dawn of the Dead (1978) is unequivocally my all-time favorite film, and I would certainly list the man very high, if I were to do so, in my all-time favorite directors. When I purchased his Diary of the Dead (2007) on DVD (on its release day, no less, and I missed its theatrical run), I didn't finish watching it, stopping around the forty-five minute mark, during the "72, 000 hits on YouTube" sequence. To be candid, I had no desire at the time to ever finish it, but lately I've been fascinated with directors' later works, made during periods in their artistic career when both viewers and critics feel they have little left to contribute to their craft.

Diary begins with a static shot of a street scene in front of an apartment building. Two police officers are radioing into the station, describing a murder of a family, by one of its own. The police officers seem to not "give a fuck" really about the murder and are less impressed to hurry, because it appears the victims and perpetrator were immigrants. Photo-journalists are also present, and they are as indifferent to the crime as the police officers. One cameraman asks the paramedics to move their ambulance, because it is blocking his shot. A news reporter is prepping her hair. Presumably the same cameraman who asks the ambulance to move is heard by the viewer off-camera remark on the ambulance driver's behavior: he's eating a sandwich while corpses are being rolled out on gurneys. How insensitive.

The next notable sequence involves voice-over narration by arguably Diary's main character, Debra (Michelle Morgan) who is going to do the viewing audience a favor by telling us what we are going to see and, more importantly, why we are going to see it. Her boyfriend, Jason (Joshua Close) was a film student making a student film with future hopes of being a documentary film maker. When a zombie outbreak occurred, Jason began filming the events. Apparently, Debra's character has edited the footage into a coherent feature and added dramatic music during particular scenes to scare the viewer (which is always appreciated and thank you). Kudos to Debra for having a specific motivation; however with Romero's street scene opening of Diary, Debra has to answer one more question (which she does not directly) for the viewer: "Hey lady, every one in the beginning of this movie is portrayed as being full of shit. What makes you any different?"

Romero's previous four zombie films have always had social criticism, but it rarely came off as finger-pointing. There was always at least one character who imbued the film with humility and humanity; because each film is, in a very general sense, a story about people who attempt to survive in a crisis and are ultimately undone not by the source of the crisis (e.g. the zombies) but by their own doings while trying to survive. Diary is also a survival story but lacking any humility with any of its characters. There is little faith in humanity to be had in Diary, and by the film's conclusion that point is painfully reiterated and overdone.

Here's an example with small sequences in which creative directors utilize to their maximum potential to enrich their films. Both Dawn and Diary have an eerily similar scene, but their differences speak loudly. In the first act of Dawn, Roger and Peter meet for the first time in the basement of a tenement building. They quickly bond and make a plan to escape and they are interrupted by a disabled priest who enters the basement to escape the tear gas. The old priest only wants a moment to rest and catch his breath, and Roger and Peter don't impede him. The priest shares with the two some real insights (and delivers some of Dawn's famous lines). Roger and Peter both show their intelligence by being silent and listening. In Diary, the desperate crew of main characters, on the road in their Winnie, break down. They stop at a farm in rural Pennsylvania to repair the Winnie. The main characters also encounter a disabled person who is not a religious figure but a person traditionally and typically associated specifically with his religion: a deaf/mute Amish farmer. The main characters immediately start talking (asking to use the farmhouse to repair the Winnie); but become frustrated and roll their eyes, because the farmer is slow in communicating. He has to write using a chalkboard to answer their questions. The farmer, in a would-be humorous touch, pulls dynamite from his shed and takes out some oncoming zombies. Unfortunately, this flourish is undermined by one of Diary's many bad lines: (after zombies explode) "Hey, aren't Amish supposed to be peaceful?"

Diary of the Dead is really well filmed with some effective lighting and handheld camerawork. Romero even drops in quite a few audacious compositions, such as when a soldier points his rifle directly at the camera. Unfortunately, the pacing, the characters, the acting, and the dialogue are extremely poor. These deficiencies are fascinating, because I have no idea what Romero was trying to say or do in Diary. One sequence stands out and perhaps hides his intentions (if Romero had any): in the first act, Jason, his friends, and teacher are making a student film. The characters share a lot of bad meta dialogue about horror films and even take on the debate of "walking versus running" monsters. Clever. The "walking versus running" debate, however, even more cleverly, hides another argument that the characters are having. Jason says that viewers like "believability" in their horror films with their characters and their actions (assuming the viewer does not insist on believability with the films' premises, e.g. a zombie apocalypse).

So is that what Romero is giving his audience with Diary? Believability? I suppose that Romero is successful with his film in some fashion. Nearly all of the characters in Diary after the outbreak only want to return to their hometowns to be with their families. This is a very understandable human sentiment. However, some of the other characters and their motivations become confused (instead of becoming complex characters). For example, Debra is depicted as having a relationship with Jason, but save the open sequence, these two are depicted as totally annoyed with each other's presence: Debra cannot stand Jason's continuous filming while Jason (even behind his camera) cannot get Debra to show any other emotion than defiance. When these two have a would-be tender moment in the final act, it stands out as totally incredulous (and it also confuses Debra's whole motivation with her initial narration). When the bad joke pops up (quite a bit) or the characters take time to pontificate (which should really only be done here on this blog), Diary just falls apart.

I do not know what the alternative is to believability in Diary. I do know that it is a grating film, really mean-spirited and angry. Being mean-spirited or angry is fine, but there is no discernible energy driving it. Diary of the Dead is a zombie film motivated by little faith in humanity. A really creative, socially-critical, playful, and talented film maker, like George A. Romero, could have made a great film out of it.