The Crazies

With “The Crazies”, Romero is at the top of his game directing one of his most openly political films. The theme of a bacteriological threat serves as a launching pad to embark on a cogent analysis that takes aim at the cynicism of power politics (the depiction of the control room filled with senior officials busily playing with others’ lives between a sandwich and an orange is terrifying in this respect), the obtuseness/irresponsibility of the military’s upper echelons, the stupidity and disorganization of the troops.

The director chooses to reveal the disaster’s causes fairly early, allowing him to focus on describing the methods for managing/containing the epidemic enacted by those we consider most responsible for it (consequently, the abundant dialogue takes on paramount importance).

Technically innovative and with high visual impact (the soldiers’ alienating white uniforms are unforgettable). Additionally, the film is characterized by a centrifugal narrative structure that reverses the centripetal style seen in the earlier “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).

Overall, we find ourselves looking at a caustic, angry work revealing practically zero faith in human behavior.