The past week I’ve been “researching” a feature story I’m writing
on the “I Am Legend” mini-genre of Last Man on Earth flicks by watching
DVDs featuring plagues, cosmic
catastrophes, climactic disasters, devastating technological snafus, nuclear
warfare and, of course, rampaging zombies. I watched “Omega Man” again, with a
hip Charlton Heston, now senile NRA spokesman, blasting away at black-robed ghouls
with a tommy gun. What fun, and what a great guy to have around in a pinch.
Next I watched the remake of Robert Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” in
which heavily armed survivors hole up in a mall blasting away at the
undead out for their blood. I noted what a fetishistic filmmaker Zak Snyder is
(what’s with all these slow-motion, close-up shots of discharged cartridge
casings hitting the floor?) and how much the reptitious head shots look like a
video game. So I turned on CNN only to tune into a press conference with
authorities in Omaha, Nebraska
answering questions about the
19-year-old who went on a shooting rampage with an AK-47 in a local shopping
mall, killing eight innocent strangers before turning the gun on himself.
What an interesting coincidence, I thought. Then two things
occurred to me:
1. It won’t be long before blowhard pundits and opportunistic political
candidates dismiss liberal weenie arguments that the perp was a victim of a
dehumanizing child care system and
put the blame squarely where it belongs, on violent video games and movies like
“Dawn of the Dead.”
2. True, access to assault rifles and other lethal weaponry might
result in the occasional whack-job laying waste to a shopping mall or
university campus. But when the ravenous zombie hordes start coming your way,
you’ll thank God and Charlton Heston for your right to bear arms.