This scene takes place during the group’s
outing around the mall, here we have Peter and 'Flyboy' roaming around the mall
and taking money under the watch of the security camera. The cinematography used within this scene is
a tilted high angle towards the two men, and this is used to make other
characters seem inferior and slightly odd. The duo's obsession with getting the
money during such a crisis is strange behaviour. This is Romero's way of
commenting on consumerism and portraying how silly people look, and showing priorities
of America post the great depression. The costume
of Peter is also interesting as he 's wearing a bright yellow t-shirt which
stands out in the scene, this portrays his happiness with the taking of the money and how he feels
about the situation as a whole. Also Peter is a black male character who turns
out to be the main hero which was uncommon in the context of the time. However
this isn't the first time within a movie by Romero that the main hero is a
black male. In Night of the living(1968)
the character Ben was the main hero in that movie, which really undercuts the
racism of the time. The racial diversity in this scene is different to the historical
context, and it opposes a lot of
racism happening during the 1970’s and the early 1980’s.
High
key lighting is used here to illuminate the scene
but also to reflect the mood of the scene, when the camera cuts to Francine and
Stephen their scene is lit using low key
lighting, these scenes are reflective of the contrasting moods of the
survivors. The mise en scene of the
shot is quite interesting, the characters are surrounded by new technology of
the time and money, and this is a way of Romero commenting on consumerism of the time. This established Romero as an auteur with this
movie as he was one of the only people to attack the idea of consumerism and
take it to the big screen. This was unheard of during the time which helps to
relate Andrew Sarris's auteur theory.
What was so interesting about Romero was that he liked to challenge the CDI of
the time, hence why he used a black male as the main hero and why he chose to
challenge consumerism whilst most other people went along with it and treated
it as an escape from what was happening at the time. It was this kind of
behaviour that helped to depict Romero as an auteur, because nobody else would
challenge the CDI of America in such a way.
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