Word: malle
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...forceful style and short temper provoked controversy, as did the projects that he backed. One was the renovation of the historic French Market and the construction of a riverside mall, inevitably nicknamed the Moon Walk. He was also a staunch advocate of the controversial $163 million Louisiana Superdome. Argued Moon: "They called King Ludwig of Bavaria mad for building all those elaborate castles. But now thousands of tourists come to see the castles. So Bavaria's rich, and old Ludwig's a hero again...
...flung settings of the book are straightforward. A suburb of Auckland, N.Z., is dominated by a North American-style shopping mall called Heaven-field-"a huge windowless pretence, as much an insinuation of Elsewhere as its own name or that of the city or the restaurant, Manhattan, as its entrance." Baltimore, Md., death place of Edgar Allan Poe, is recognizable, with its gray asphalt, red brick and black iron gratings, as are the affluent hills of Berkeley. "passing through a 'wilderness' phase where it was fashionable to let meadow grass and herbs grow as they pleased...
...violent political disagreement about how to handle the zombies. In the pandemoniun, four people--a technician, his stage manager-girlfriend, and two armed guards--decide to take off (quite literally--they leave in a helicopter) and find a safer area. They eventually land in a large, abandoned shopping mall outside Pittsburgh and decide to stay there. Much of the film's remaining time is spent mowing down these jerky, green zombies, running them over, blasting their heads off, bashing them in, etc. It's fun. It's also gory enough to earn the film an X rating...
...FILM has things to say about our consumer society. Although there are heavy-handed (though valid) references to the mall as a much-beloved place, which explains the zombies' attraction to it--flickers of pleasurable memories in otherwise dead brains--Romero's satirical jabs are more skillfully displayed by the four heroes' eventual life-style and by our acceptance and enjoyment of it. Once they flush out the zombies and barricade the entrances, they have all the stores to themselves--think of it! They set up house with the finest stereo equipment, unlimited gourmet foods and wine, chic, expensive clothing...
Romero's artistic glory is his ability to add a further dimension. He gives us our fun and then holds up the mirror so that we can see the blood dripping from our lips. Towards the end of the film, when a militant hippie motorcycle gang invades the shopping mall disrupting our heroes' idyllic existence and attempting to steal merchandise, we root for the zombies to eat them. When this low-life scum begins to dispatch zombies with startling efficiency and even more startling relish, we think "God damn sadists," and then: "Wait a minute--weren't we cheering this...