A look at the bigger picture

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2006)

It was in this one episode of "The X-Files" called Hollywood A.D., where Agents Mulder and Scully are discussing the true nature of zombies. Mulder asks why is it that when the dead come back to life they only want to hurt people. The more skeptical Scully mentions that ghosts and zombies are a representation of our own repressed violent and sexual urges, that zombies are what we fear most about our identity: deep down, we are mindless automatons that only kill and eat. There's a horrific truth to that kind of deadly simplicity. Zombies are traditionally impulsive, acting only on hunger.
Which is why the mall setting in both versions of Dawn of the Dead is so appropriate. Where once malls were a place for consumers to empty their wallets, it is now a target for LITERAL consumers to fill their stomachs. There may be an underlying morbid humor behind commercialism saving us from ourselves. That perhaps the only thing that separates us from them is our rationale to succeed.
Each character represents a generalized version of ourselves placed in emergency situations. Once we become gripped with fear, how we lose faith, how we feel helpless, how we learn the hard meaning of sacrifice, how much we change, how much we learn about ourselves, and only very rarely are we ever rational beings toward one another begins to show. There was a message behind the scene where Andre (Mekhi Phifer) shoots Norma (Jayne Eastwood) after she discovers his pregnant wife is now a member of the living dead. It said something about man's capability to murder each other out of desperation, whereas zombies never seem to harm other zombies. In fact, because of human flaws like petty arrogance and personality differences, the zombies are actually better coordinated and work more efficiently together than we do. That could be the reason why the undead were able to score such a swift victory over the living.
I'm convinced that the film could have started right after Ana (Sarah Polley) awakens from crashing her vehicle. Obviously the movie isn't perfect, but the scenes where the survivors in the mall are engaging in basically everyday activities (playing chess, having sex, hitting golf balls) shows that the people haven't forgotten their past, familiar lives, and that amidst all of the carnage they have a way to remember life before the end of the world.