is he really 84 years old?
those black and white scenes, what are they supposed to be?
at first i thought he was just a little crazy
but then i read a review somebody wrote on amazon and it said that
he's 84 years old and those scenes are flashbacks of events that happened
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I don't know if I would dismiss them so easily, that's the point of the movie, you're never supposed to know if it's all been beaten into his little awkward head by his family or if it is all true, you're not supposed to know, it's just one of those things. If you think he's a vampire the whole movie makes sense, if you think he's not a vampire, the movie still makes sense just in a different way.
share[deleted]
George should not have said that!
Still, I'm not going to let it sway my opinion on Martin's character. You know, sometimes I'm in the mood to believe he's a vampire, and other times I like to think it's all in his head, but just because George A. Romero stated that Martin is NOT a vampire, doesn't mean it's necessarily true...because:
A)George may have forgot due to his old age
B)And George has literally gone senile
Thank You.
"George should not have said that!"
lol! He wrote the thing - he can say what he wants!
Check out - www.cafepress.com/slipperyjacks - I deal in Zombies !
I forget the source of this, but once an art critic said about an artist's comment about the meaning of his painting:
"Why should he understand what it means? He only painted it."
Never trust the teller, trust the tale. - D.H. Lawrence
shareSimilar to what Mark Kermode, the film critic, said of Willem Defoe's views on AntiChrist - paraphrased "You're no expert on what the film means... You only acted in it whereas I've seen it."
shareI really think a lot of the meaning of the movie is lost if you don't lean
heavily toward believing that this is just a mixed up teenager.
This film is set in the real world. There are no vampires, only imperfect people.
To me, it is making a point about how the prejudices and superstitions of the older generations who believe 'they know best' lead to the alienation of
lonely youth like Martin. Brought up as a vampire-to-be, it is no wonder he
believes his family's tales, and clearly comes from an unstable background
which has led to his mental problems.
I think part of the reasons the flashbacks are in black and white and are
so repetitive is to give them a dream-like quality that suggests it is in
his imagination rather than an actual memory. WHat the flashbacks reflect more
than anything is Martin's sense of total detachment from and rejection by
every member of society.
i see this film as a metaphor for simply being a teenager...confused, ashamed
of his sexual urges, constantly bombarded with hateful criticism ... it is no
wonder that Martin turns out so muddled and disturbed. 'There's no magic' -
he's just a kid.
and rather than trying to guide him or help him, older figures just try
to confine and supress him, refusing to accept his being a normal human
being, twisted by his family's faults.
so no. he's not really 84.
That's incredibly insightful. I feel you've really cornered what Romero was trying to do with this picture. Kudos!
share[deleted]
Well, his cousin did say he was born in 1892 or something so I don't know why he would say that to cover up a family disease.
shareA)George may have forgot due to his old age
B)And George has literally gone senile
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the same reason? And yeah, he can say whatever he wants about his movie...
http://warofblades.proboards102.com/index.cgi?
The thing is, that was a joke and it was FUNNY. Least thats how I took it...
Anyway, haven't seem the picture yet but I have it in my blockbuster queue so I can't wait!
He's not 84. He wasn't born in the 19th century. He's not a vampire. He's just a messed-up homicidal kid. There is no evidence that he really is a vampire. All of the creepy flashback scenes being in black and white, with period clothing and furniture (including a girl carrying candles in the dark instead of electric lights) were not flashbacks in reality but what this screwed up little boy imagined he remembered after a lifetime of being raised by lunatics like the colonel sanders wannabe.
If he is a vampire, a nosferatu as his insane "cousin" insists, with the superhuman ability to live 8 decades yet appear only as a teenager or preteen, why then doesn't he have any other superhuman powers that vampires are endowed with? Why can't he control people's or wild animal's actions, grow fangs, turn into a bat or wolf, crawl around on walls, have super human strength that could wipe out any cops, motorcycle gang members, drug dealers etc. instead of running in fear? Why does he need to get his blood by drugging victims to sleep and then slicing their veins open?
As someone else said, George Romero can say whatever he wants. It's his story. Nonetheless, he still leaves it open. In this regard, his opinion isn't any more influential than our own. The question is still open, which is how it should be. It's like did Arnold really dream all that adventure in Total Recall or was it real? Is this kid really a vampire or just a mixed up kid made even more mixed up surrounded by kooky lunatics? I think that it's more likely that this is a case of severe mental illness running in a family, not vampirism.
I may be wrong, but I doubt it. I think that we are supposed to question for a moment the possibility that this kid may be a creature and not human, so we can empathize with the "cousin", understand life through his eyes. Clear proof is never generated for either side (although there are substantial clues) and that makes the ultimate outcome and overall theme of the film, all the more powerful and chilling. It's a case of superstition gone haywire, out of control, leading to one senseless death after another(culminating in the old man killing Martin). Martin was already unbalanced and the normal confusions of an adolescent combined with his mental instability AND being condemned as an evil beast created a culture of murder that continues with the patriarch of the family burying the corpse of a child in his backyard as if he were doing God's work.
In one of the "flashbacks", a priest is performing an exorcism in a bathroom. Martin is standing in front of a modern sink, and when the camera moves to the right, you see a modern toilet. For a movie as well-crafted as this one, that seems like a glaring oversight.
shareBut at the same time, if the flashback sequences are just fabrications in Martin's mind, maybe he himself had a slip in logic? Maybe just a hint at the flaw in his fantasy?
shareI watched this last night, and I gotta say it is a really interesting movie! I think the "family curse" was generational madness myself. I think there is much more proof to that end then there is of him actually being nosferatu. Anyway, I will definitely be watching this one again!
share
Aside from what Romero has supposedly said in an interview, I will say that he is (was) 84 years old and the whole point of the movie was that Martin was a real vampire but due to Hollywood's depiction of such creatures and Religious mania or old superstition manja, it has distorted the facts which make it easy for one (a vampire) to move about and kill people.
I also feel that the flash backs are real and Martin, a wierd looking kid who's detached is as normal as anybody else with no super powers and or because of his condition he suffers both emotionally and physically from it. Today, such cases could be look at as a rare blood condition but back then (31 years ago) hey...
and my point is,
how the hell can you not know 911 is the number to call if you have an emergency? But back then, in some small hokie-podunk Pennsylvanian town, who's to say?
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how the hell can you not know 911 is the number to call if you have an emergency? But back then, in some small hokie-podunk Pennsylvanian town, who's to say?
A vampire is a supernatural creature, and there's absolutely nothing supernatural happening in this film. He has flashbacks where he is chased by a bunch of angry people who thinks he's a vampire, and so what? They all seem crazy on his side of the family. Personally I hated the film, I thought it was really bad in many aspects and in particular the story. It's just a shallow serial killer movie with artsy pretentions, uninteresting empty characters, and a vampire flavour that seems here only to cash in on Romero's fame in the horror genre. Everyone seems to love the film on this board so I'll just disappear quietly... like a bat in the night. ;)
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Last watched: http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=7838626
And just to continue this thread...GREAT movie with an ending that came out of left field. Was he a vampire? If Romero said he wasn't, then he wasn't. Period.
share[deleted]
It's the ambiguity that makes Martin such a brillIant film.
I interpret that the characters are clearly emotionally unbalanced.
I love the argument of Old World superstition vs. New World reasoning.
"Your soul is damned, Nosferatu" vs. "There is no real magic"
Amazing film!
Sorry for rambling.
I don't think it's ambiguous at all, but I also don't think that Romero shoves the answer in our face.
Think about it, he's definitely familiar with gothic/mythical depictions of vampires (when he speaks to that DJ, when he scares Tada Cuda– a strange scene being that he's trying to convince Cuda of the lack of magic, but then again, he is unhinged), and from the countless old photos found in the house (which the camera often focuses on), he can create images of the mob and his victims. All of them were delusions; as people said before they came from his mental instability and Cuda's own ridiculous beliefs/Martin's environmental upbringing.
As an aside, I really appreciate this film, and I love the irony of the ending.
The real question should be 'what is a vampire'?
If liking to drink human blood is what defines a vampire, then yes, he is.
If fangs, magical powers, and a physical aversion (or uncontrollable repulsion) to crosses, garlic, and the sun make a vampire, then no, he's not.
It seems pretty clear that the film is open to interpretation. Are martin's flashbacks memory, or delusions? Are the voices that he hears his vampire instincts, or some form of insanity? Regardless, it provides us with something compelling to consider and contemplate.