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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally, 
remembering filmmaker 
George Romero, the master 
of the zombie movie

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and a man whose influence 
in the business went further 
than many moviegoers realize.

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Jeffrey Brown has our look.

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ACTOR: Medical examination of 
victims bodies show conclusively 
that the killers are eating

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the flesh of the 
people they kill.

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JEFFREY BROWN: With a $100,000 
in 1968, George Romero brought 
the undead back to life in

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American culture.

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His "Night of the Living 
Dead" became a cult 
classic, and launched a 
modern zombie industry

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of soulless ghouls with 
a taste for human flesh 
popping up everywhere today.

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For Romero, his films were 
about more than just blood 
and graphic violence.

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GEORGE ROMERO, Director: 
This series of films have 
been sort of my platform.

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It's ripe for metaphor.

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And the zombies, to me, have 
always represented the people 
that are just unwilling to stand

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up.

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And, you know, there are a 
lot of living dead in America.

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JEFFREY BROWN: "Night of the 
Living Dead," starring an 
African-American actor, was seen

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as a kind of social 
commentary on racism and the 
paranoid mood of its time.

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A decade later, Romero's 
first sequel, "Dawn of 
the Dead," played on 
the excesses of American

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consumerism.

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Roger Ebert dubbed it one of 
the best horror films ever 
made, savagely merciless in its

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satiric view.

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Romero followed up with many 
other films, including four 
more in the "Dead" series,

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with varying degrees 
of box office success.

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But the zombie world he 
unleashed took on a massive 
multibillion-dollar life of its

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own in blockbuster films like 
"World War Z," video games, 
and AMC's "The Walking Dead."

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That, in turn, led Romero 
to sour a bit on the genre 
he helped popularize.

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He spoke on NPR in 2014.

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GEORGE ROMERO: It's, all of 
a sudden, you can't make a 
little zombie film anymore.

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Has to be special 
effects and big budget.

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And I'm not -- I'm just 
not interested in that.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Later in life, 
he shifted to different media, 
including teaming up with

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Marvel to publish a 
comic book series.

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George Romero died Sunday 
in Toronto from lung cancer.

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He was 77 years old.

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And for more on George Romero 
and his impact, I'm joined by 
Justin Chang, film critic for

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The Los Angeles Times.

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Welcome to you, Justin.

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Zombies, who would have thought?

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What explains the impact 
of those early films?

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JUSTIN CHANG, The Los Angeles 
Times: Well, I think when you 
have a film like "Night of

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the Living Dead," which is, I 
think, one of the great debut 
films that any director in

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or outside the horror genre 
has ever given us, you have to 
look at the context, you know,

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Vietnam, Martin Luther 
King Jr.'s assassination, 
the recent assassinations 
of the Kennedy brothers.

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It was a time of, obviously, 
great social unrest.

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And George Romero found, 
unwittingly or not, a perfect 
metaphor for that unrest.

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And I think it was about the 
primitiveness of the filmmaking, 
the very raw technique.

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It was shot on a $114,000 
budget, which is about 
$800,000 today, still 
a very small budget.

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And he achieved this kind 
of -- a film that was almost 
like a documentary nightmare.

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And it really captured, 
I think, a sense of rage 
and of pointlessness, 
a kind of senseless,

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arbitrary killing that 
was really unsettling for 
audiences at the time, 
and is still enormously

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unsettling today.

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JEFFREY BROWN: His films, of 
course, largely done on the 
cheap, but somehow a cult thing

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grew into a very large 
cultural phenomenon.

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He wasn't so crazy -- as 
we heard, he wasn't so 
crazy about what followed?

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JUSTIN CHANG: Absolutely.

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I mean, we live in a culture 
where zombies are proliferating 
on screens, whether it's

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"World War Z" or "The Walking 
Dead," which is still hugely 
popular, or the remake of

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"Dawn of the Dead" about 13 
years ago, and terrific spoofs 
like "Shaun of the Dead,"

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which I think is one of the 
few that George Romero has 
professed to actually liking.

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So, in a way, he was, I think, 
understandably disenchanted with 
the way that Hollywood really

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mainstreamed the zombie film and 
the zombie TV show, and in some 
ways took out that edginess,

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that political subtext that he 
was so good at putting in there.

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And I think he especially 
resented things like 
"The Walking Dead," 
because it made it

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very difficult for him to get 
his own zombie movies financed 
on an independent level.

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And he was a consummate 
independent filmmaker, 
and something of a 
Hollywood outsider and

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skeptic, I think, all his 
career, which makes his success 
all the more remarkable.

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JEFFREY BROWN: For a lot of 
people, this stuff goes way too 
far, right, the graphic violence

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that's part of our society 
and that's really part of 
our entertainment culture.

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Did he help create that, 
for better or for worse?

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JUSTIN CHANG: I don't think 
it's entirely fair to lay that 
as George Romero's doorstep.

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And I say that as someone who's 
on the more squeamish side of 
the spectrum as far as horror

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movie viewers goes.

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But I think you have to look 
at his films, a film like 
"Dawn of the Dead," which is,

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I think, as great a 
masterpiece as "Night 
of the Living Dead" is.

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There is always something more 
going on beneath the violence.

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If you're just there 
for the splatter and the 
viscera, you will get that.

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But he gives you -- he's 
always asking you to look a 
little closer, see what's going

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on, see who these zombies 
represent, see who the 
real monsters are in a way.

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And so I don't think 
it's entirely fair to 
say that he's responsible 
for the fetishization

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and exploitation of 
violence in our culture.

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He's using it -- I mean, he's 
exploiting violence in his own 
way, to very brilliant and very

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provocative ends.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Just briefly, I 
do want to mention the passing 
of another movie figure,

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the actor Martin Landau.

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He was known early on, on 
television, in "Mission: 
Impossible," later in 
films, including "Ed

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Wood," for which he won an 
Oscar for best supporting actor.

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Let's take a look at a short 
scene from Woody Allen's 1989 
film "Crimes and Misdemeanors."

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MARTIN LANDAU, Actor: This 
is what you plan on doing.

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You're going to hold on 
to me with threats, right, 
stupid threats and slander?

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This is your idea 
of love, right?

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ACTRESS: I will 
not be tossed out.

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I want to speak to Miriam.

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MARTIN LANDAU: Think.

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For Christ's sake, think 
what the hell you are 
doing to me, will you?

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Please.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Justin Chang, a 
brief thought on Martin Landau?

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JUSTIN CHANG: Martin Landau 
was such a wonderful actor.

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And that scene you play sort of, 
I think, captures his elegance 
and gravitas, his ability

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to play a silken villain 
that we feel for.

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In that film, he's an adulterous 
husband who contemplates 
the murder of his lover.

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And it's -- you know, I'm 
reminded, too, of his great 
performance many decades earlier

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in Alfred Hitchcock's "North 
By Northwest," where he took 
the role of a villain's number

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two and made it something 
really memorable and really 
incisive out of that.

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And so it's not that he could 
only play villains, certainly 
not, but he had, I think, a real

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talent for playing morally 
ambiguous characters, 
and doing it superbly.

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JEFFREY BROWN: All right, 
Justin Chang of The Los Angeles 
Times, thank you very much.

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JUSTIN CHANG: Thank you.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And 
we thank you, Jeff.

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And I was covering my eyes 
until we got to Martin Landau.