From: primeaux@wham-o.cs.utk.edu (David Primeaux)
Newsgroups: alt.cult-movies
Subject: Re: George Romero's "Martin"; SPOILERS
Date: 2 Sep 92 12:49:13 GMT
Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville - Department of Computer Science
Distribution: world
Reply-To: primeaux@wham-o.cs.utk.edu (David Primeaux)
NNTP-Posting-Host: wham-o.cs.utk.edu

In article <1992Sep01.235312.20010@bnr.ca>, labiche@crchh561.BNR.CA (Maurice LaBiche) writes:
|> In article <la7sqvINNcr6@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>, primeaux@wham-o.cs.utk.edu
|> (David Primeaux) writes:
|> |>Just saw this 70's film last night.  Any comments?
|> |>
|>  
|> yes, what's the movie about?  should we watch it?  what did you think?
|> oh, and please include spoilers next time! 
|> 
|> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> Maurice LaBiche (Mo.L.)         |   labiche@bnr.ca
|> Bell Northern Research          |   Part of Northern Telecom 
|> Richardson, Texas               |   i'm really in Texas
|> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> No opinions herein expressed have anything to do with the opinions 
|> of Bell Northern Research or Northern Telecom or CIA or NSA ...
|> These statements are mine and mine alone, well i guess my wife 
|> agrees with some of them?

Martin is a low, low budget film written and directed by George Romero.
I did not recognize any of the actors and cannot remember their names.
The film is shot in color, for the most part, although flashbacks are
presented in black and white.  Romero's use of flashbacks here is IMHO
quite interesting  (More about this later.).  I rented a copy of Martin
from Pharmore and the audio/video quality was bad -- I can't speak about
the quality of the original or other copies.

Plot.  Martin is the name of an (apparently) young man who is, or thinks
he is, a vampire.  He has a cousin, named Cuda, who runs a butcher shop
(but Romero does not take advantage of this coincidence).  Cuda is also 
grandfather to a "modern" thinking young woman (modern by his standards)
who lives with him.  Cuda takes Martin into his home (from where is unclear,
as is the impetus to do so).  It is Cuda's mission to save Martin's soul
and then to dispatch this to eternal life;  he claims that failing the 
first, he will not fail the latter.

Images.  Cuda is dressed completely in white at the beginning and througout 
most of the film.  There is much religious imagery -- crosses, candles,
priests, holy water, etc, as well as the usual garlic.

I found a number of aspects of the film interesting, but before going into 
them, I should first issue a

		*SPOILER ALERT*



























Of course much of what follows is my opinion;  it could very well be reading
more into Romero's work than he intended, but I don't care.  Flames to 
art.philosophy.of.

The film discloses the narrow border between normalcy and abnormalcy.  Martin
is supposed to be abnormal (wouldn't you call an 84 year old who looks younger
thna 20, abnormal?  wouldn't you call being a vampire abnormal?)  Yet it is
Cuda, the cousin who is disturbing to me.  He has the traditional hero's role 
of vampire-slayer, but he is not a pleasant person.  Clinging to the old ways,
the old traditions, he smothers and dominates his granddaughter.  

Cuda begins to wear other non-white clothes when the distinctions between
normalcy and abnormalcy begin to get really fuzzy.  Martin has had his 
first (relatively) normal sexual encounter, seems (to me) to be losing
his lust for blood, is expressing himself more -- even to the point of 
explaining his condition to a phone in radio show diskjockey.  But the 
"normal" people in the film:  the smoking priest who seems too interested in the 
quality of the wine at the church, the housewife having an affair,  Martin's
lover who drinks perhaps too much and perhaps too often and who eventually,  
commits suicide, Cuda who finally drives his granddaughter away, the 
grandaughter who promises Martin she will call but never does;  and the 
signs of a decaying society: the church congregation meeting in a makeshift
church because theirs has been burned down,  the fact that the older priest 
is dying of cancer, the winos in the alley, the gang in the warehouse
who have a shootout with police ---  all these hint that normal might not be 
so good after all.

The black and white flashbacks mentioned above are interesting to me.  As
certain events occur, very similar past events are interleaved with the 
present ones.  Perhaps the point here is plus ca change -- things never 
change (or at least the dark side of humankind never changes).

This is the first movie I recall where the vampire is living in a 
supposedly normal family.  He has a job.  He seeks relationships.
He wants a phone.  Garlic does not phase him, nor does the usual collection
of Christian fetishes.  He cannot control the thoughts and desires of
the beautiful women he wants to have.  All in all, many things add up
to pose the question of whether Martin actually is a vampire.  Or maybe
Romero is saying that our culture is so decrepit that being a vampire
"ain't what it used to be."

The sexual component of vampirism is evident as well.   

Question:  One thing I just did not understand.  When Martin has killed the
wino he breaks into some sort of clothing store to change his clothes.  OK,
I got that.  But why does he take so much time that the police are able to
find him there?  Why not take the clothes and just walk around the corner 
to change into them?



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