Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis 1

In this ending scene from Dawn of the Dead (1979), we have Fran and Peter leaving the mall in the helicopter and surviving. This scene holds both historical and institutional context because of the impact of the two survivors and who they are. Fran is a strong woman, who doesn’t scream and doesn’t need a man to save or protect her. At this point in time, female rights were still being fought for and women were seen as lesser than men. Peter is a black male, and at the time, racism was still active and present in society.  Because of this, there had been no movies in which a woman and a black man had been the heroes and survived at the end; instead it would be the white male hero who survived. This demonstrates the historical context of society seeing woman and black people as lesser and the institutional context of there having been no films with this outcome at the end before. Just one year after DotD (1979) came out, Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, was released and featured a strong, powerful female survivor in the form of Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.  This shows the effect of DotD’s ‘controversial’ heroes and the forward thinking attitude of the horror genre.