Review of Night of the Living Dead (1990) by Gordon T — 21 Apr 2010

"They're us and we're them" is the best line from all of the ROMERO ZOMBIE MOVIES. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD the remake covers the same ground as the original and then branches off into insightful depictions of the zombies post-DAWN OF THE DEAD.

Tom Savini has since said the the producers GOLAN-GLOBUS and JOHN RUSSO kept second-guessing all of Tom Savini's directorial decisions and that messed-up the film.

I guess you have to have the "JAMES CAMERON I-AM-GOD complex" to truly direct a movie without Producers and Studio-suits screwing-up your movie.

RICHARD DONNER says a director has to be like a General directing an army: Do as I say or you'll be executed.

The guy who directed PRECIOUS said he had to fire 3 quarters of his crew because they wouldn't do what he'd ask them to do;.

A DIRECTOR has to be THE MAN because its The Director's Name that will be ultimately held accountable for the degree of the movie's success:

That's why we can only name about 10 Good directors working today because most directors can't be A GENERAL or A GOD when directing a movie; success in directing has something to do with POSSESSING a very STRONG WILL and being able to SUBDUE all personalities from the STUDIO HEADS down to the actors.

. . . and STEPHEN KING, after directing MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, said he would NEVER direct again because the crew was SCREWING him over as well.

GEORGE ROMERO got fired from directing THE MUMMY because the STUDIO-EXECUTIVES had stronger wills than Romero had.

MICHAEL HANCOCK got fired from JAWS 2 because the producers didn't see eye-to-eye with him.

TOBE HOOPER got walked-all-over by STEVEN SPIELBERG on POLTERGEIST 2 and GOLAN-GLOBUS wrecked-up TOBE HOOPER'S ability to make decisions on TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2.

GEORGE LUCAS got THX-1138 and American Grafetti taken away from him ("fired" [basically] from two films in two different studios--20TH CENTURY FOX became George Lucas' only hope). George Lucas didn't THROW IN THE TOWEL, he kept right-on going.

RICHARD DONNER got fired from SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN 2 (both films were shooting back to back and simultaneously).

Even JAMES CAMERON got fired from PIRANHA 2 and JAMES CAMERON didn't GIVE-UP.

DIRECTING a movie MUST be very difficult;.

The point: DO NOT GIVE UP--because you don't know how God's going to Bless you down the road if you "tire-out" and turn-back.

TOM SAVINI wanted to make THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME as a movie and that idea apparently fizzled.

I was thinking THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (based on the short story by Richard Connell) would make a GREAT 2-PART miniseries for TNT-CABLE or something with the first night's action taking place in the jungle with Zaroff hunting-down the humans and then having ZAROFF captured himself at the end.

The second-night would have ZAROFF being hunted-down by authorities in a huge teeming METROPOLIS that would be just as ALIEN to ZAROFF as THE JUNGLE was as ALIEN to ZAROFF'S prey: the humans in the PART ONE.

Figure the two-part MOST DANGEROUS GAME would test the audience's ability to sympathize with ZAROFF'S victims in THE JUNGLE during PART ONE and then there would be a plot-mechanism in place to make the audience empathize with ZAROFF'S plight to escape in the SECOND-PART.

As a two-part miniseries, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME would introduce the viewers to the aspects of survival in both floral and concrete jungles.

Tom Savini shouldn't abandon the idea of making a MOST DANGEROUS GAME movie to say the least.