The Crazies

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Year:	1973
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	George A. Romero
Genre:	Viral horror
Starring:	Will MacMillan, Lane Carroll, Harold Wayne Jones
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069895/
Tagline:	All hell is about to break loose.
Favourite line:	"Are we under Marshall Law?"

Romero takes a stab at the old 'disease overtakes a town, military must contain it' genre in the vain of, say, Outbreak, though this of course predates that movie by a good 22 years.
Very low budget, this tackles the human impact of such an eventuality, giving us a slew of characters who must confront the very real possibility that they are either going to be sent insane by the virus or, if that doesn't happen, be killed by their own government to facilitate containment.
Romero's trademark stark direction is correct and present, as is the political commentary, but somehow it lacks something in the way of teeth.
Coming some five years before uber-gorefest Dawn of the Dead, this feels somehow tame in comparison, though the subject matter is anything but.
Overlong, this really could have done with shaving maybe twenty minutes off the running time, but it is still an interesting watch, particularly for Romero enthusiasts.
Rumour has it a remake is in the offing, slated for 2010, and it will be interesting to see if they, as I predict, eliminate the human angle and go for an out and out gore-a-thon.
Didn't love this, but it was still an intriguing movie.