This is the worst kind of entry for any lifelong movie-buff blogger to write......when we lose, in multiples, masterful artists whose work has made them cultural touchstones.....
George A. Romero (1940-2017) The creator and Godfather of the modern day Zombie Apocalypse.....which has become such a omnipresent cultural mainstay, some people have made Civil Defense preparations for the expected hordes of undead flesh-chompers.....
In 1968, he shook the movie world to its core with "Night Of The Living Dead".....a perfect year to depict a dystopian America steeped in wanton mutilation and self-destruction. In Romero's fractured zombie-infected universe, he held up a social satirist's mirror to a society gone mad, where law enforcement, government and the military are no less lethal than the zombies.....(they end up mistakenly killing the film's groundbreaking leading hero.....a black man.)
Romero continued his zombie saga in more films, to mixed results......but for many, including the BQ, his masterwork remains 1978's "Dawn Of The Dead", where he wickedly placed his shuffling zombies in the one comfort zone their dead brains still held on to......a shopping mall. You could almost picture Romero taking a delicious, zombie-sized bite out of the country's rampant consumerism and self-absorbtion.....
And a special shout-out for his 1981 epic "Knightriders", a modern-day deconstruction of the Arthurian-Camelot legends, with Ed Harris as the leader of Renaissance Fair motorcycle jousters....one of the first movies we gobbled up when we finally moved into an apartment with cable and HBO.....
From "Night Of The Living Dead" through the rest of his filmography, Romero foresaw a world in which all institutions, the bedrocks of civilized society, would fail us miserably as we descended into savagery. Look no further than current events to know what a visionary he was.....and one who'll be missed.
Martin Landau (1928-2017) This actor's actor leaves us a lifetime of unforgettable performances.....including an iconic supporting role in one of Hitchcock's masterworks, "North By Northwest". Landau, in something of a subtle but daring move for conservative 1959, turned Leonard, the creepy minion of villain James Mason, into a barely closeted, jealous lover.....of Mason. ("Call it my woman's intuition," he warns Mason, suspecting Eva Marie Saint of not only being a double agent, but even worse..... keeping Mason a heterosexual....)
Like all journeyman actors, he struggled through the years in films and TV shows of varying quality.......and fanboys and fangirls forever admire him for his starring roles in the original "Mission Impossible" TV series and the sci-fi "Space 1999"
But it took him until 1994 to encounter every actor's dream come true.....the role of a lifetime in which to pour his entire lifetime of experience, craft and talent. Landau found it playing the drug addled, melancholic and close to dying Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's underappreciated "Ed Wood". His mesmerizing work earned him a well deserved Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
A brilliant talent, Landau's presence and acting skill automatically lifted the quality of whatever project he found himself in...and someone that gifted, will always be missed.....
Rest in peace, gentlemen.........
In case you needed any more proof that life is horribly unfair.....we endure a weekend where we've lost these two creative giants, these gems........and yet Donald Trump lives on. Sad.
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