In this last shot from Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero’s
illustrates the idea of flipping character stereotypes. As Fran takes control
and flies the helicopter to safety, she saves Peter from the zombies. Being
blonde with blue eyes and sexually active, a character such as Fran would
usually be classed as the female victim but instead she is the final girl.
Through this scene, I feel that George A. Romero is portraying feminism and
showing how women can be strong, emotionally and physically as well as
attractive.
When focusing on Vladimir Propp’s theory of a film always
being broken down into seven different categories of characters, Fran acts as
the helper for Peter, who is the hero and last male survivor. When linking this
to Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of a classical Hollywood narrative having a
beginning, middle and an end and being broken down into; an equilibrium, a
disturbance of the equilibrium, attempting to repair the equilibrium to then the
a sense of equilibrium again. The ending to Dawn of the Dead relates to this by
the sudden relief that both characters have, having got away from the zombie
invaded mall and being safe (at least until their fuel runs out) in the
helicopter, marking a rare positive ending to a horror film.
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