Dawn of The Dead (1979) image analysis (1)

This is the last scene of Dawn of the Dead (1979) with the only 2 survivors from the group. The auteur of the film (George A. Romero) commonly illustrated the stupidity and immorality of racism within his films. This was shown in the end of Night of the Living Dead (1968) where the rednecks killed the black hero (Ben) and burnt his body. He has shown his hatred towards racism in this film by having a black male hero. This also linked to his auteur signature of challenging horror conventions. He has gone against character stereotypes through having a black hero and a blonde final girl, as typically a blonde female would be the first to die. By having male and female survivors it hints towards an interracial relationship, which could have been quite a taboo in the 1970’s, but this was just another way for Romero to illustrate the stupidity of racism.  The use of a mid-close up shot captures them both as well as some of the background. This shows the interior of the helicopter, which reminds us of another heroic part of Fran’s personality as she has learnt to fly it; further distorting the conventions/stereotypes of a blonde female.