I've been watching the recent boxed set, and saw for the first time the Argento cut. Since I didn't take notes on the differences between the versions, I have to be somewhat vague. However, I can honestly say that I prefer the way Argento handled several crucial scenes better than Romero.

Again, being vague, Argento's tenenment scene had far more shots of the SWAT team preparing, interacting with one another, and reacting to what is going on around them. It really worked well for me. I still wish the racsist cop's rant would have been trimmed. It's a little too cartoony -- too on-the-nose. We get it already...the guy's a racsist.

I especially liked the way Argento handled when the zombies break down the door, and flood the hallway -- overwhelming the police. Argento included several additional shots which really intensified the feeling of claustraphobia.

The opening TV studio scene also worked better for me in the Argento version -- it felt less cheesy. Some of the previous shots involving the principles are opened up a bit, and time is taken away from some of the non-actors screen time. Which is one of my gripes with any version of DOTD -- with the exception of the leads (and a select few others) all of the acting is horrible.

The fly-over of the rednecks hunting seems less over the top in Argento's. Romero's version (again) is too obvious. He's got an interesting point to make, but then beats us over the head with it using (overly) cartoonish stereotypes accompanied by hillbilly music. Argento's version has been trimmed in overall time, but adds many new shots that work better for me.

I'm running out of time, so briefly -- I didn't notice many significant differences in the second half of the movie, other than additional biker and mayhem shots in Argento's. I liked the goblin score most of the time. I couldn't really understand why Romero feels that Argento didn't understand the movie (when Argento cut his version). None of the social commentary was lost -- merely trimmed. The only comedic bit I missed was when Peter smashes the skylight on the roof ("how are we going to get in?").

Keep in mind that I saw DOTD in its intial run, and consider it one of my top 10 all-time favorites. I was a suprised as anyone that I prefered Argento's. Simply put, he cut out a lot of the "hokey" stuff that always bothered me about Romero's -- which makes the movie's tone less cartoony, and more frightening. I'm aware that Romero intended the comic book tone, but I never liked it.

I'd like to see a definitve break-down of the differences between the two versions. Does one exist?

I'm a continental european and as I already wrote on the old Mobius board I've never met anybody in person who DOESN'T prefer the Argento version.

To me it is still a mystery why american and british horror-fans prefer Romero's over-the-top satire with bad library music to Argento's darker action-orientated version with a cool (but admittedly dated) Goblin score.

I prefer the Romero version to the Argento bversion because I think the satire is integral to the movie and without it I don't like it as much.

SPOILERS

The Argento edit I specifically don't like are his reduction of the ending in which the zombified fly-boy leads the others to uncover the humans' hiding place. This makes it difficult to follow.

he also removes the helicopter decapitation.

No "Gonk" on the soundtrack! I just can't get next to that!

I'd never seen the Argento cut until my Ultimate Edition box set arrived this year. I was somewhat disappointed. I agree with Tim... the satire is a very important aspect of the film. Without the humor and irony as a contrast to the grimness, the film loses much of it's character.

And a DAWN without "The Gonk" is just no DAWN at all! (Yes, I've been greatly enjoying my "Unreleased Music from DotD" CD that I got for Christmas this year!!)

Which satirical elements do you think Argento removed? They seem to be there, just in shorter versions. Are you referring to comedic elements?

Count me in the Argento camp. I love the Romero version, which was the only one I had ever seen until the 140 cut was released on laserdisc about a hundred years ago, and appreciate it on its own terms. When I did finally get my hands on the Argento cut and sat and watched it, something really clicked for me, and it became and remains my own preferred version. While Romero's cut feels very long and the satire heavy-handed and a bit obvious, Argento's feels tight and much more satisfying to me.

In this instance, we're lucky that we all have the version we prefer available to us, given all the different releases we have had on this title!

-Dean

Anybody know of someplace that outlines in excruciating detail (a la Geoff Malta's GODFATHER site) scene-by-scene differences between the three versions of DAWN OF THE DEAD?

It's ridiculous to complain about the 'bad library music' - it's supposed to be bad! It's exactly the kind of muzak one would expect to hear in an American shopping mall. I would guess that Argento simply didn't understand this, that he didn't understand why it was funny to see zombies walking through a shopping mall (much like 'normal' shoppers) to the accompaniment of bland muzak.

I much prefer Romero's cuts of the film. I don't quite get why people call Argento's cut "tighter". Yes, it is SHORTER than Romero's final cut, but actually, the editing in the Romero cut (BOTH Romero cuts) is much tighter. Shots that linger for no reason in Argento's cut are trimmed and the editing between shots is paced much faster and looks a lot more polished in Romero's cuts. To bring the running time down, it looks like Argento took Romero's nearly 3-hour rough cut and simply lopped off big sections of the film. Romero whittled his versions down by cutting within every scene, tightening them up, and the film feels much more complete and "finished" because of it. On the contrary, Argento's cut often feels rushed and sloppy, like the cut to the helicoptor suddenly on the ground at the gas station, or the complete removal of the first half of the truck-baricading-the-mall sequence.

I also don't quite get the "Argento used the Goblin music better" line. Scenes that go by completely score-less in the Argento cut are effectively completed with Goblin music in Romero's final cut, and the music Argento uses for the motorcycle raid is just plain awful. Romero was right to drop that track, and the cut to black with rolling credits in Argento's cut is awful, much less effective that Romero's final montage of credits over shots of the dead roaming the mall set to the Gonk.

There are a few dialogue extensions in the Argento cut that I like, and one bit that I feel he did edit more effectively was when Peter gets attacked by the zombie at the gas station (Argento removed the shots of Fran standing around doing nothing while Peter struggles on the ground with the zombie, which always bug me in the Romero versions), but on the whole, both of Romero's cuts feel like complete, polished works, whereas Argento's plays like an unpolished, fat-laden rough cut for much of its running time, with very blunt edits of large sections of footage to bring the running time down and little of the finissed, shot-to-shot tightening that the final Romero cuts exhibit.

Vincent

I agree with Vincent, except for the opening, which does feel tighter, more suspenseful and has better use of the Goblin score, the Argento version seems oddly aimless to me. Add to that the badly edited truck sequence, and I simply can't fathom what would make it preferable.

Or maybe he thought that the audience could make that connection without the aid of the music?

Argento cut much of Fran's (non) reaction, but not all, and the scene still is kind of awkward.

There's actually a fairly large editing mistake in this sequence. Peter is in the gas station office getting coffee, Roger is fueling the copter, while Fran and Steven inspect the hangars.

For some reason, Argento cut out Peter's original gun shot -- which is what causes Steven and Fran to rush in his direction -- and Steven runs right into a zombie. Without the original shot, Steven and Fran had no reason to rush out of the hangar.

And, slightly off this particular topic, no one else prefers the way Argento handled the tenement sequence?

Okay....here's a radical notion. Why not throw all the pieces TOGETHER. Let's get those pieces that Argento included <I really do think that his handling of the tenement was better, more realistic than Romero...though I think Romero shined in the 2nd half> and make one BIG film. I'm a little surprised that wasn't done. We got so many versions floating around...why not just stick what's been edited and shown throught the world together and let the fans <and it would be the hard core fans ...you'd probably want newcomers to watch the other versions> enjoy. I've seen the Romero film so many times that I was thrilled to see those little additions Argento had...yet dismayed to see what he cut out. End of radical notion

A composite using all available footage from the three versions has already been done. It was released in Germany, is probably not a legitimate release, and supposedly runs 156 minutes. That run time confuses me...the extended version is 139 minutes...can there really be an additional 17 minutes of footage unique to the Argento version?? Is there any footage in the US theatrical release that is not in the extended cut?

While I'm very pleased to finally have the Argento cut,and enjoy it extremely,Top Pick will always be Romero for me. "Spoilers Ahead!!" Why on earth did Dario cut the Helicopter chop? At the time of DOTD's original release,I remember that being one of the most talked about scenes. It certainly would have been up Argento's alley.

Personally, I believe the make up for that scene to be the most disappointing in the film. The way it was executed was very clever, but the guy's head is built up into this ridiculous looking "Frankenstein" cranium. He always reminded me of the oafish monster in CARRY ON SCREAMING. I like the Argento cut because it is tighter and the music is more up-front but I would say Romero's Theatrical cut is my favourite version. I'd need to watch the long cut again though.

Victor.

In his commentary, R. Rubenstein claims that Argento didn't like the quality of that special effect.

I recall reading an interview with Argento in which he claimed that he liked that shot, and left it in his cut. It was apparently removed by the Italian distributor.

There is actually one part of the Argento cut that I prefer...

When Tom Savini and Ridy Ricci spy the helicopter on the roof of the mall through binoculars... at the end of the scene, Savini flicks his comb switchblade and starts to comb his moustache. Ricci asks "is that a comb?". Romero cuts here, but the Euro cut extends with Savini saying "haven't you seen this?" and Ricci says "weird".

For some reason, I think that's really funny!