Sunday, January 18

Movie Review - Shaun of the Dead (2004)


After being dumped by his girlfriend and realizing that his life is slowly forming into a downward spiral of failure and regret, our everyday working-class hero Shaun wakes up the next morning into a world filled with zombies. No kidding... Together with his best bud Ed, they set off into zombie infested England to rescue Shaun's mom Barbara, EX-girlfriend Liz, and her friends, David & Dianne. The plan was simple, drive to Shaun's mom's house and save her from the infected stepdad, go to the loft where Liz, David, and Dianne reside and save them, then they would all head for "The Winchester," (a little pub in the heart of London) where they can seek refuge from the zombies. At first, the plan was going as planned. But due to miscommunications and things-that-were-left-unsaid, they all died in the pub :|. Well, everyone except for Shaun and Liz, they survived the horrible Z-day (as the movie called it at the end of the film). The movie ended with the world accepting the fact that there are now zombies in existance. Some zombies were even domesticated. And Shaun and Liz lived happily ever after :).

This is one of the most depressing movies ever! That's what I think anyway. Well, aside from the amusingly dry British humor and good acting, I find the whole story quite sad. Here are some scenes in the movie where the lack of human communication resulted into such a depressing story.

  1. The night Shaun got dumped, both Ed and him went to the Winchester to drink away his sorrows. On the way home, they were drunk and started singing a song. Then, a person from afar started to sing along with them. Only the person was moaning and they didn't realize that he was actually a zombie! This is the result of alcohol and its effects on miscommunication! The Transaction Model could not be followed because they couldn't properly decode what the zombie was singing. Damn alcohol, nothing but trouble..
  2. We all learned in Human Com that a "Competent Communicator" must have: a wide range & the ability to choose the appropriate behaviors, the skill at performing behaviors, empathy, cognitive complexity, self-monitoring ability, and commitment to a relationship. Based on this, we can say that Shaun is NOT a Competent Communicator. He only has insecurity and awkwardness as a behavior. In work, Shaun is always unsure and gets pushed around. He is also not self-monitoring for he forgot to reserve a table for his date with Liz, he is not exercising, and he hasn't quit smoking even if he promised to. He cannot perform and plan well as well because of the reliance with his sloth friend, Ed.
  3. In the pub, there was a revalation of the excess pragmatic (third-party) understandings between Shaun, Liz, David, and Dianne. It turns out that during their college days, they have misinterpreted a lot of signs towards each other and failed to do something about all of them. They just went along with what they heard and got on with life. This can also be percieved as lack of communication for they didn't take the appropriate time to sort everything out.
  4. Euphemisms were used a lot in the film too. At first, Shaun didn't want to call the reanimated dead "zombies" for he was afraid that they were in fact zombies! The newscaster called them "the attackers." Throughout the film, Shaun called his stepdad by his name, Philipp, instead of dad.
Yup, here are just some Human Communication concepts I wish to share about this movie.
So yes, I hope I did it right. :)

Peace and Love :)>-

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