Remember the Peasants

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Peasants' Revolt: the King crosses the river to address rebels water is reminiscent of a similar struggle.

The main political lesson is worthy tribute to the peasants' that any oppressed class must struggle. At present, no paperrely on its own strength to back version is available, so l obtain its liberation, and not to urge readers to order it from place trust in other forces which their local library. gang f what appear to b in America.

1981 marks the 600th anniversary of the Peasants' Revolt and plans are already afoot to produce suitably rough-hewn commemorative plates to remind the working class of this important but discredited aspect of their history.

Bourgeois historians have continually written off the events of 1381 as a flash in the pan', ', an aberration by a handful of foolhardy yokels who apparently didn't realise that the class struggle wasn't invented until the Industrial Dr. Haward's novel traces the history of Geoffrey Litter, the leader of the revolt in Norfolk, and less well-known than his Kentish counterpart Wat Tyler.

This vivid reconstruction of The German Marxist philosopher Theodor Adorno once observed that the American "King Kong" movies-and "monster" movies in general-represented a projection of the nation's collective unconscious in the face of totalitarian capitalism.

And, having seen the remarkable Zombies: Dawn of the Dead-now on current releaseone is tempted to say that its, author/director George A. Konero nas eecteo to aTiTISe this particular "monster" movie, at least one aspect of contemporary American capitalism: namely, that of consumerism run riot.

The action of the film takes place almost entirely in a "shopping mall"-a kind of gigantic supermarket for luxury goods, such as can be found, surrounded by huge car parks for its customers, within easy driving distance of most American towns and cities.

The place has been occupied by the four humans who are the film's central characters: a black man, a white man, and a white couple.

Sustenance Outside, the entire country is slowly being taken over by "zombies"-the dead reborn, and stripped of all human characteristics except that of basic "instinct" and the desire for human flesh, which is their only means of sustenance.

For the four humans, the shopping mall represents not only a reasonably secure hideout, but also an endless supply of the commodities they will need for survival.

Unfortunately, there is a vast, mindlessly-milling population of zombies even here. As one of the humans puts it: They keep coming here, just as they used to do.

The only difference is, now they can't remember why.

Romero gains splendid satiric effect from the scenes of the listless, catatonic zombies moving among the escalators and covered gardens and sales counters of the huge shopping the development of the insurrection illustrates not only the political significance of the revolt, but places it firmly in the context of the social and religious ambience of the Middle Ages.

Brutal

These were brutal and bloodthirsty times. Whilst the Bishops and aristocracy enjoyed good food and drink and mused over gold treasures nicked from the Crusades, your average peasant, if lucky enough to survive the Black Death and/or childbirth, was likely to lose various limbs or be decapitated in battle or for not bringing forth the relevant dues to the feudal lord.

And it's no comfort to know that roughly the same conditions still obtain in large areas of the world today.

Dr. Haward's serious and precinct, while in the background, «muzak"_piped music ground, the cheerful, omnimeant originally to encourage spending. in the way that larmers have discovered that i radio in the cow-shed increases milk production-plays on and on with glorious incongruity.

The point is obvious: they may be dead, but this is also how they were in life.

Romero also, however, most interestingly combines with the "monster" movie a use of the "gang" motif: a theme familiar from such recent commercial successes as The Warriors and The Wanderers.

The mall is stormed by Hell's Angels-a mercenary army ot humans which is roaming the countryside on motorbikes and looting unchallenged everywhere, except by the slowmoving zombies: who represent, anywa for sadistic impulses, an ally way: little more than an endless series of almost-human victims for target-practice.

The popularity of the recent spate of gang-movies is worth commenting on, for it is deeply reactionary in its implications, however much these films may offend middle class audiences.

In Adorno's terms, this trend might be seen, in fact, represent a projected collective

BANNERS AGAIN

Haward (New • HO SOCIALIS PRESS scholarly approach combined with her obvious admiration for.

the bravery of the participants in the revolt brings out sharply the way in which the crisis of feudalism with its extortionate taxes brought about a stirring of class forces with disaffected sections of the rising bourgeoisie, lending assistance to Litster and others of the "great commonwealth" in order to unsettle still further the shaky regime of Richard II.

One interesting aspect of the consciousness of the peasants is their view of God as a liberating force as opposed to the corrupt and oppressive manifestations of the feudal Church.

One of the leaders of the revolt was John Ball who preached the then seditious text that men and women should stand free and equal under God.

peasants' faith DUNCAN BUSH r Dead', directed by bourgeois fear of the teeming urban sub-proletariat or lumpen element: a huge, disaffected, multi-racial urban population whose frustration and aggression Is, however, always sately contamed by being turned against those in its own predicamentother gangs-rather than against authority (which seems, in fact, and significantly, to inspire an almost mystical fear in these cult "rebels" as they are portrayed on the screen).

Romero seems fully aware of these reactionary tendencies in the genre: the very first shot we have of the Hell's Angels is a close-up of the brutal face of one of its leaders in a Nazi helmet.

The film is above all, in fact, one that remains very conscious of the genres in which it works: how much it aims to subvert these genres through the deliberate use of satire or parody is, clearly, open to debate.

But the whole point is that not only is Zombies: Dawn of the Dead one of the very best of the "horror" movies or "gang" movies, but that it clearly refers to things in real life outside the structures of these cinematic conventions: Adorno's "unconscious" projection has become in this horror movie, highly conscious, and that is at least a step towards criticism of the ST rize by God /IND, 30)

Frencl eviews "Zombies:Dawn of Zombies:D George Romero. Romero.

society that determines how original repression operates nese points THE I n, 19 reviewed for Nendy was linked to their faith in the King, whom they saw as their friend and ally against the nobility.

The principal tragedy of the revolt is the inevitable betrayal of this trust by Richard II, who, after agreeing • to concede to their demands had the leaders of the revolt butchered and imposed more rigorous oppression on the peasantry.

Needless to say, the peasants' bourgeois allies cut their losses and withdrew their support, having exerted their pressure on the King and established themselves, not the peasantry, as the emergent class of economic power.

The novel contains many fine characterisations and passages of powerful writing.

The death of Skerritt, one of the peasants' leaders, as he gives way to delusions induced by fatigue and lack of food and Thus, not the least signifi cant aspect of the film is the fact that it is the black man who is the acknowledged, "natural" leader of the group and one of its ultimate survivors, and that the other survivor, the white woman, emerges clearly as the stronget, more competent member of the couple she is part of.

stressed, and indeed should not be: but they are there, as the role of blacks and women hav always been there-though usually in subservient or dependent roles-in tllt oreyeu. history of the capitalist cinema Zombies: Dawn of the Dead seems to be one of those titles that might have come from stock.

But don't be deluded into thinking that the film itself is one of those-like the Hammer horrors, for example-that is made of some more-or-less familiar mixture of entirely interchangeable parts.

It is not a film for the squeamish, as they say; but it is nevertheless one that is, perhaps, ultimately concerned not to reinforce assumptionssocial or cinematic-but to challenge them. incident in Zola's Germinal.

will ultimately betray the Banners in the Wind is a

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ombies who love shopping