The town of Centerville. Very nice place. The scene of Jim Jarmusch’s latest film Dead Don’t Die (2019). One day the world dislocated a joint. And the film The Dead don’t Die is quite a topical satire with black humor. Here is an entertaining classification of dead people: zombies who are fanatical about coffee; zombies who require a Wi-Fi password and stick in mobiles; zombies who adore Chardonnay; and even zombies carrying a guitar. In the role of a zombie guitarist, the author of Bill Murray’s country-style title song is Sturgell Simpson.
Sturgill Simpson – The Dead Don’t Die
Some of the jokes are based on constant repetition. For example, the hero of Adam Driver repeats that “all this will not end well.” All policemen have funny surnames. Their names are Minerva “Mindy” Morrison, Cliff Robertson, Ronnie Peterson (a reference to Paterson). And all policemen wear glasses. Ronnie drives a Smart Car, and Mindy drives a Prius – such hipster cars. Absolutely not superhero. And just not heroic. Yes, in general, the younger generation of policemen themselves is anti-cool.
Zombies are actually slow and relatively harmless, it’s just that humanity, represented by our heroes, behaves very stupidly in the face of problems. It is possible to deny the problem, as the government and their experts do.
Instead of solving the problem, you can do it like policemen: drive aimlessly around the city, do not come to the aid of citizens, come to the place where the zombies are most (in the cemetery), get stuck in a stationary car, run over by zombies, and sit in it for a long time, chatting, and wait until the zombies surround it the ring.
Instead of uniting, as Hank and Frodo suggested to everyone, you can ignore this offer and try to cope alone. Have no strategy, no plan, no tactics.
From the credits, then I realized that the pretty girl dressed in the style of the 70s is Selena Gomez. The company of teenagers did not show themselves in any way, except that they looked cool. They did not listen to the elders, did not close the door in the motel. But pretty Zoey drives a rare 1968 Pontiac. The car is cool, but the girl is not. Well, I mean, she’s beautiful and sexy, but also not a hero at all.
“How do you know that?”
– I have an attraction to Mexican women.
The music for the film was written by the SQURL group, this is Jim Jarmusch’s band. The Toxic Moon instrumental is especially good, it’s so melancholically surfy, and it resembles the soundtrack to Deadman.
SQURL – Toxic Moon
And yet, did hermit Bob steal a chicken after all?
The meaning of the film is simple. Zombies are not the risen dead, but the majority of people living on Earth. Jarmusch divides the population into two camps: the materialistic consumers and the spiritually enlightened. In the film, only the second ones survive, or rather, the second one. Tilda Swinton’s character, Zelda Winston, is the only one in the entire film who has nothing to do with consumer society. She appreciates smart cars rather than expensive cars, is fond of Buddhism, owns a funeral home rather than a store, and she also expertly kills all zombies. The rest of the city’s residents are the most ordinary consumers. They are the ones who turn into zombies. Even after death, the risen dead want to do the same things they did in life: drink coffee, play with toys, and use their phones. They are doomed to a boring and monotonous life. Well, Tilda Swinton calmly leaves Earth in a flying saucer at the end, which once again emphasizes her elevation above the “zombies”. She’s like a superhero, a superhuman who sees no point in saving humanity that has already died. And the most important thing is that this is not my understanding of the meaning of the tape, but the only understanding of the meaning of the tape, because the idea is chewed by one of the characters at the end of the tape. It’s like we haven’t watched a movie, but have read a fable or a tale with a deep moral. By the way, this is a very ironic move on the part of Jarmusch, who would never use words to reveal the meaning of his film. I think this is done so that even the stupidest materialistic viewer will understand that Jim Jarmusch was laughing at him.
I think the 2nd semantic row is outrageously clear, the architects are just shouting, and this is not the 1st film.No one is hiding anything.Already, right *** in the eyes, the dew of God! Smiley face)))))))))
What is this? Is that a comment? From a living person? Oh, Mom, this is such a miracle. It was like seeing a snowman.
Tell me, Alice, are you sure you’re not a spam bot? Maybe you just forgot to insert the link? To be honest, I still can hardly believe that someone decided to comment on something.
It’s just a pity that I can’t develop a discussion about the film, because I still haven’t watched it. I really want to, but I don’t have time.
and how someone announced delicious treats for the best quality! And here he is!
How mercantile! But all questions about this are for the second admin, I’m just writing articles here for thanks.
That’s right, the contest was held until August 1, 2019. The terms of the competition were set out here: https://vk.com/wall-19740920_1074
Unfortunately, during this time, no one added a single comment and did not fulfill the basic conditions for reposting and commenting set out in the post.
apatamushta summer! the traditional decrease in activity. Be strong, winter is coming soon. maybe everything will get better.
Well, finally looked. The film, of course, is very good. Extremely stylish, sometimes deliberately cheap (referring to old movies about zombies) and intriguing.
The message, of course, is extremely clear – from the very moment the zombie asks for the Wi-Fi password. I’m not even sure if it was worth it at the end of the film to state everything so plainly. This excessive directness is generally stretched throughout the timing – and, frankly, I want to say that this is more of a minus of the film than a plus. You can’t argue about it with a friend, you can’t really discuss it from different points of view – as is the case with many other good works of art.
But in this movie everything is extremely straightforward. References to Romero? They will tell you about them so that you don’t miss them. A song playing in the background? Everyone will explain about her. Well, the meaning of the whole film at the end will also be chewed up in all the details. Why it was necessary to do this is unclear, especially given the fact that everything is already extremely transparent and not veiled.
The message of the film is simple and clear: zombies are consumers, victims of large companies in the modern world, and we are all undead to some extent. This fact can be avoided only either by completely leaving the world, or by being completely beaten off to the edge. Everyone else, one way or another, is doomed.
Against this background, the presence of many famous musicians in the film looks very interesting: we have Iggy Pop as the first zombie, Tom Waits as the hermit narrator, RZA as the WU-PS courier with a very specific letter W, as well as the performer of the title song Sturgill Simpson, who momentarily appears on the screen as a wheezer pulling a guitar with the words “Guitar… guitar…”
The only characters that remain incomprehensible to me are a trio of teenagers sitting in a juvenile correctional center. Either they are supposed to symbolize the rebels, or the director simply could not finish their storyline for some reason – and given the overall transparency of the rest of the film, I’m leaning towards the second version.
But summing up, it is worth saying that the film The Dead Don’tDie seemed to me quite a successful social satire, and besides, a good comedy. There are a lot of very geek jokes here, which I always treat warmly, but people who haven’t watched Psycho Hitchcock and don’t know which Pontiac LeMans was at the beginning of the movie Night of the Living Dead ’68 will have something to smile about. Plot-wise, despite its excessive openness, the film is able to capture the viewer and present a couple of surprises. The characters are spelled out well, the apathetic dialogues of the Driver and Murray are beyond praise.
And, after all the above, I want to note that I was somewhat surprised by the very low ratings of the film. But after reading specifically the reviews of critics, I came to the conclusion that they rated this film more like a horror. Well, then it’s very fair to say that horror is really not enough here. But for some reason, after watching the trailer, I somehow didn’t tune in to horror – and I was extremely pleased with what I saw. So just don’t be alarmed to see something terrible. Just get ready to smile sadly and accept the inevitable – and then this movie will not disappoint you.