David Vining

2 months ago | bleedingfool.com | David Vining

#1 in my ranking of George A. Romero’s filmography. Presumed lost for decades, this informational film from George Romero, commissioned by the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania, is nominally a plea for help in tending to the elderly, the added bookends of the film making it explicit.

2 months ago | bleedingfool.com | David Vining

#2 in my ranking of George A. Romero’s filmography. There’s something key in understanding an artist when they take up a project after a big success. Dawn of the Dead was the film that finally got George Romero out of debt and the ability to command decent budgets, and what did he do with that success first? He made a kind of goofy retelling of the Arthurian legend with knights on motorcycles that’s still deeply earnest in its depiction of its characters.

2 months ago | bleedingfool.com | David Vining

#3 in my ranking of George A. Romero’s filmography. Probably George Romero’s best regarded and most well-known film, Dawn of the Dead is the movie that got him out of heavy debt and brought his first real success that he could actually participate in (his previous successes, namely Night of the Living Dead, being marred by distribution deals that got him nothing).

2 months ago | bleedingfool.com | David Vining

#4 in my ranking of George A. Romero’s filmography. George A. Romero, partner in the company The Latent Image, a filmmaking firm that specialized in commercials and industrial films, pulled together the minimal funds for a horror film, something purely marketable, and worked over nine months to film the script he cowrote with John Russo.

2 months ago | bleedingfool.com | David Vining

#5 in my ranking of George A. Romero’s filmography. Reportedly George Romero’s favorite of his own films, Martin is more Season of the Witch and less Dawn of the Dead. It’s obvious that Romero’s heart was in character-based dramas that blended the worlds of the real and horror. He also said that his early films, in particular, were more products of their times than efforts at social commentary, despite his reputation.