That really is the only answer: Willful ignorance. Those people had the tools to just go an survive in their own community. The second they walked away, that society would collapse, because the Mall Walkers(reversed from Dawn) would have no protection. There's no border, no cops, no owners of anything in the rest…

My only quibble with what you say is that Cooper didn't seem that rich to me. He was a city guy, but he and Ben were dressed exactly the same. Other than that, I agree. Cooper fucked EVERY plan up.

I'll look for him saying that….but I've never read him saying that ever. That might be Land's theory

Yes. That is true. That doesn't mean Ben's plan was bad. The TV actually told them to go to the shelters on the screen. Cooper and, Marilyn, I think?, could have gone down into the cellar any time. But they were down there with a zombie. I agree that it turns out they just could have waited it out. I don't…

Sort of? We need the movie NOT to say that the authorities have arrived and are competently cleaning up. Dawn's connection idea is really good. Romero found a good place to start. But again I say: The sequels can't be considered while watching this movie. Romero had no plans for a series and never indicated,…

I imagine this movie will be on a few screens tonight.

If you're referring to me, I shrug. The reporter didn't do her research. We get to call her on it. Look down the comments, that's not all everybody is saying. Squat on your stool all smug and righteous if you must, but shit.

I disagree. I think it was a good plan fucked up by a guy who doesn't know how to gas a truck properly.

Ben's plan DOESN'T get everybody killed, though. The plan, to escape the beseiged farmhouse, DOES fail. But that's because an idiot doesn't know how to use a fucking gas hose. Had he figured out how NOT to spray gas all over the place, we got a winner.
Cooper IS right. They can go down and wait out the crisis. …

What are you calling a celebration? There's no exultant cheer after Ben dies. The sheriff has his guys gather up the bodies and burn them. They don't shoot rounds off into the sky hopping on one foot. It's all stills by then, but it looked all business to me.

But that group that shoots Ben in Night is not the same kind of group that Romero adopts later, after his straight movie gets filled up with other people's ideas of social commentary. The Dawn bumpkins, and the slovenly military of Day are ridiculous.

No. To all of the above folks too.

I think we should recoin it to be a Sufferage of Nerds.

It's fair to say that I actively disliked Land(though I watch it from time to time) The central idea that the Dead should just be left alone to do their Dead thing is fucking bullshit. I despise the idea. There's no way the real Big Daddy would want this undead abomination still shambling through the world slowly…

The author should know better if they are a fan of Romero's work. Patriarchal gate keeping?…..Oh, the author is a woman, I just checked. So she gets a pass on shoddy reporting?

One reporter floats a "Venus Probe" connection, but that's it.

I read I Am Legend years ago because of this connection, and I call bullshit on Matheson's claim. Romero said it was a consideration, but the stories don't jibe.

I am just having this same discussion at the Top(Bottom?) of the comments. In NOTLD, the world goes back to normal. When Romero got goaded into another, he started the dystopia angle, but the first one, the humans win.

Nope. The final scenes have hunters, calmly in a line, walking forward and just picking off sparse numbers of ghouls in fields. There is no tension in their gait or mien. The sheriff we see on the news is the guy who gives the order to shoot Ben. His hat is been pushed back on his head and he's drinking what i…

Romero has said that the racial thing picked up traction only after the movie started playing in inner city theaters….I agree, though, that art is in the eye of the beholder, and if it resonates that Ben got shot that morning because he was black,….er….great?(wrote myself into a corner there). I never took it that…