Revolutionary Romero

So according to my electives tutor Kim, we're not required to write a blog in semester B, hence I've barely posted anything in months. I quite enjoyed having the blog last semester though and so I was thinking I could keep it going for a bit just as a means of commenting on the different sources which are inspiring my study.

At the moment I am undergoing the research stage of my essay for the Death, Diners and Dancing module. I've decided to answer essay question 5 - the representation of women in horror films (not much surprise in that choice is there really!).
Each lecture we have on the DDD module relates to one of the essay questions and the other week we had a lecture on the representation of women in George Romero's zombie films. I absolutely love Romero and his films are the reason I wanted to get into the SFX industry in the first place. Tom Savini who created all the (then) ground-breaking effects in Romero's zombie films, is an absolute genius and Savini and Romero are, in my opinion, one of the best teams in the business.

The legendary George Romero and Tom Savini

Kim's lecture on the topic was great and she brought to light some really interesting analysis on Romero's movies which made me understand his work on another, deeper level. I was able to see that his movies are more than entertainment. They have an underlying social commentary, addressing the likes of black & female rights which were of particular relevance during the '70s when his movies were first released.
Characters like Fran (Dawn of the Dead) and Sarah (Day of the Dead) are independent, determined women who disregard convention by surviving. These strong female characters who out-live the men and fight the plague of zombies are a reflection upon women during the era who were rebelling housewife conventions to enter the working world and pave their own way, often in male dominated industries.

Fran - Dawn of the Dead

Sarah - Day of the Dead

It could be argues that the female characters within Romero's films were an inspiration for the strong female protagonists that came to follow in cinema, such as Ripley (Alien) and Clarice (Silence of the Lambs).
The characteristics of the female protagonist have become conventional in themselves as in contemporary cinema we more frequently see the strong, self-dependent woman than we do the helpless damsel in distress.
The latter is now considered inappropriate and somewhat offensive in a society where women, although not quite equal to, are certainly striving to exist on a parallel with men.
This therefore must raise the question of the influence which cinema and other media forms has upon its audience and whether the depiction of inspirational women in film has helped with the women's rights movement to any extent? I'm not claiming that Romero and other film makers of the era caused such change, but I certainly believe that female audiences would have been empowered by his female characters and perhaps this may have strengthened their views on society and its response to gender.