Search - The Crazies on DVD

Things Fall Apart

General Zombie | the West | 02/02/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"George Romero's non-'Dead' films are, as a whole, under appreciated, but probably none of them is in more dire need of greater recognition than 'The Crazies'. It's not a perfect film, by any means, but it's well done, considering the budgetary restraints, and ranks as perhaps his bleakest and most ambitious film, and is an interesting bridge between his inital masterpiece `Night of the Living Dead' and the later ones `Martin' and `Dawn of the Dead'. (The equally obscure `Season of the Witch' is also found in this era. It's a heavily flawed film, but better than you might think.)



The film involves the unintended contamination of Evans City with an experimental bio-weapon named Trixie. Needless to say, the virus causes the victims to go insane, though this can mean a lot of things ranging from homicidal rage to suicide to sheer goofiness. The military is called in to keep things contained, but the situation is clearly out of hand. 'The Crazies' is particularly ambitious because it shows the tragedy from a variety of angles: We primarily identify with a lone group of towns people who just wanna get the hell out of there, but we also get to know the central military command of the operation, the leadership on the ground, the scientists who both created the virus and are trying to now find a sort of cure, all while seeing plenty of conflict between the ill-informed soldiers and the other towns people, both crazy and normal. The film is particularly interesting in that it has no real villains. The military people are not overwhelmingly scrupulous in their conduct, but they are rarely truly malevolent either. (And the head of the operation proves to be one of the most likable characters in the film.) Furthermore, though they largely botch the operation, they aren't really portrayed as especially incompetent either. It's just a bad, bad situation, and a lotta people are gonna end up dead no matter how you go about it. (This, in the end, actually makes the film more bleak, as it seems likely that things would've gone very badly no matter what anyone did.) Conversely, though we more naturally identify with the civilians, they are partially to blame for the extreme difficulty of the situation as they are so utterly defensive and untrusting. Thru all this a major theme from `Night of the Living Dead' recurs: lack of and inability to communicate, which leads to virtual war between the military and the remaining civilians.



This movie was really made on the cheap, but it's sufficiently competent from a technical standpoint. The acting isn't fantastic, but as far as the low-budget 70's horror goes, it ain't bad. It's also ahead of its time, with lots of frantic, rapid fire editing, though it never becomes irritating and incoherent, as modern films so often do. The film has quite a few action scenes, and they're often pretty primitive but effective in their way. These scenes are more about violence and destruction rather than excitement, so they don't really need to work in the way that these kind of scenes traditionally do. As is typical of early Romero, he pulls no punches and defies traditional rules of what you can and can't do in a movie. (To wit: In the opening scene of the film a little girl pulls down the sheets on a bed to discover the blood stained corpse of her mother, and it's all downhill from their, culminating in some really rather inappropriate behavior between father and daughter in a scene late in the film.) This sorta thing works especially well because it never feels self-conscious. Romero doesn't seem to be aware of what would or would not be considered appropriate, nor does he seem to be being actively transgressive. He's just showing it the way it happened. (Compare this to `Outbreak' which some accuse of being a knockoff. Notice all the lame Hollywood crap in that movie and the hilariously EVIL government dude. I dunno whether or not that movie ripped `The Crazies' off, but I do know that it totally sucked. By the way, they are currently planning on remaking `The Crazies'. Many people are opposed to this, but I'm glad. First of all, it'll allow this movie to get greater exposure, as it is really quite obscure right now, and it's apparently gonna be directed by the obviously talented Brad Anderson, so it has a good chance of turning out well, provided that they are reasonably faithful to the tone and themes of the original. Which, of course, they may not.)



The film has an odd soundtrack, largely marching snare drums and `When Johnny Comes Marching Home', no doubt inspired by `Dr. Strangelove'. While thematically appropriate, the music does get a little tiresome after a while. Still, not to big of a deal.



The Blue Underground DVD is pretty nice. The transfer looks a lot better than you'll usually get for a film of this sort, and the commentary track was rather entertaining and interesting, as it typically is from Romero films. Anyway, I like this movie. Check it out.



Grade: B+

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