This scene from Dawn
of the Dead (DOTD 1979) follows the characters as they land the helicopter
to refuel and defend each other as a small number of zombies try to attack.
Stephen, or “Flyboy”, tries to kill a zombie attacking Peter but is shoved
aside by Roger. This is because he can’t aim straight with his phallic weapon gun which connotes his lack of masculinity and
bravery in the situation. This ideology
also carries on in the rest of the film as Stephen is represented to be weak, clumsy and cowardly. This goes against the stereotypical character roles as
Stephen should be the male hero as
he was established to be quite good looking and is dressed I clothing that would
fulfil the role. However, the fact he goes against the stereotype shows how Romero, the Auteur (based on the theories of
Andrew Sarris set out in his essay “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”), goes
against the norm of the horror genre
and the cultural dominant ideology to
portray Stephen as a weak male character.
In contrast to Stephen, there’s Roger who could be classed
as a male hero. He’s connoted to be strong, confident and
good with a gun as he can shoot straight which represents his masculinity. However he also gets carried away with
killing zombies in a sadistic way, which is outside the cultural dominant ideology, and therefore represents he can’t be the true male hero, if we apply Propp’s character archetypes
established in “Morphology of the Folktale” (1928) as he doesn’t act within
this archetypal framework.
Romero uses a wide
shot here to show the empty and open background which connotes loneliness and isolation that is also outside of the cultural dominant ideology. The
emptiness of the shot and isolation from society represent a sense of hopelessness and abandonment as if they’ve
been left to die.
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