I came into "Document of the Dead" expecting more about "Dawn of the Dead, to be completely honest. This being an extra on the "Dawn of the Dead" DVD set, and titled like a play on words (say, documenting the dead) it seemed like an on-set making-of showing the actual production. It does have such footage, and said material is the centerpiece of the documentary, but it's part of a larger examination of George Romero's career.
Understandably, we kick things off with a look at Romero's name-making movie, "Night of the Living Dead", specifically to highlight the director's shooting and cutting style. Same thing for his next movie, "Martin".
And then we get to "Dawn", which featured candid interviews with the cast and crew (Foree, Emgee, Reiniger, Savini) and plenty of unseen additional footage of the mall (paydirt). Even some time-lapse photography covering the process of turning an extra from human to full- on zombie. It's during this stage of the film that such challenges as distribution rights (for independent films), taking on the MPAA, and various cost factors are discussed, which does shed plenty of light on what goes into making a non-Hollywood movie (at least as of 1978). They also go into Romero's editing style, using one of his Calgon commercials from the '60s to show how he cut his teeth.
But that's the last of the archival footage, as "Document" abruptly cuts to behind-the-scenes material of Romero's new film ('89), "Two Evil Eyes". Admittedly, I was in it for "Dawn", so my attention started to go. A better segue might've also helped, but there you go.
6/10
Understandably, we kick things off with a look at Romero's name-making movie, "Night of the Living Dead", specifically to highlight the director's shooting and cutting style. Same thing for his next movie, "Martin".
And then we get to "Dawn", which featured candid interviews with the cast and crew (Foree, Emgee, Reiniger, Savini) and plenty of unseen additional footage of the mall (paydirt). Even some time-lapse photography covering the process of turning an extra from human to full- on zombie. It's during this stage of the film that such challenges as distribution rights (for independent films), taking on the MPAA, and various cost factors are discussed, which does shed plenty of light on what goes into making a non-Hollywood movie (at least as of 1978). They also go into Romero's editing style, using one of his Calgon commercials from the '60s to show how he cut his teeth.
But that's the last of the archival footage, as "Document" abruptly cuts to behind-the-scenes material of Romero's new film ('89), "Two Evil Eyes". Admittedly, I was in it for "Dawn", so my attention started to go. A better segue might've also helped, but there you go.
6/10