美国国家公共电台 NPR George Romero, Creator Of 'Night Of The Living Dead,' Dies At 77

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Hollywood lost two of its stars this weekend - George Romero and Martin Landau. More about Landau in a couple of minutes. First, director George Romero - he died at age 77 after a career in which he invented the modern zombie genre¹. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has this appreciation².

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD")

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE³: George A. Romero invented the modern zombie with his low-budget 1968 classic "Night Of The Living Dead." His zombies were dazed, flesh-devouring, marauding corpses⁴ that could only be obliterated⁵ with a shot to the head.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD")

DEL BARCO: The movie follows a panicked crew of survivors⁶ holed up in an abandoned house. They're led by a black man.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD")

DUANE JONES: (As Ben) Don't look at it.

DEL BARCO: Many fans saw the movie as exposing racial tensions in the country. Romero talked to NPR's Arun Rath in 2014 about the zeitgeist around casting Duane Jones as his lead character.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

GEORGE ROMERO: There was all that anger and, you know, race riots coming up. When we were driving it to New York to show it to potential distributors, that night in the car, we heard that Martin Luther King had been assassinated⁷.

ARUN RATH, BYLINE: Wow.

ROMERO: And here we had a black lead in this film. And so I think that that was largely what made the film noticeable.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD")

DEL BARCO: The New-York-City-born auteur went on to direct five other zombie movies set in shopping malls, underground bunkers and other locales. He wrote a Marvel⁸ comic book series about zombies set in New York City. Romero told NPR that his stories were always more concerned about real-life horrors than zombies.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ROMERO: You can't really get angry at them. They have no hidden agendas. They are what they are. And I sympathize with them. My stories have always been more about the humans and the mistakes that they make. And the zombies are just sort of out there. They're the disaster that everyone is facing.

DEL BARCO: Romero's films spawned⁹ the idea of a zombie apocalypse and influenced generations of horror enthusiasts¹⁰ and filmmakers. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

1 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

2 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

5 obliterated   

v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭

参考例句：

• The building was completely obliterated by the bomb. 炸弹把那座建筑物彻底摧毁了。
• He began to drink, drank himself to intoxication, till he slept obliterated. 他一直喝，喝到他快要迷糊地睡着了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

7 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

8 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

9 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

10 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册