| “ | They know we are in here now... | „ |
| ~ ~ Ben, telling Barbara about the living dead |
Ben is the male protagonist of the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and its 1990 remake. He was one of the people who were trapped by a horde of zombies in a Pennsylvanian farm house during the early stages of the undead apocalypse.
He was portrayed by Duane Jones in the 1968 film, and Tony Todd in the 1990 remake.
Biography[]
Night of the Living Dead (1968)[]
Ben is the male lead and protagonist of the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. When the undead outbreak occurred, Ben saw a diner besieged by zombies and fled in his truck to a farm house. There, he meets Barbra, and locks himself and her inside from an attacking zombie. When Ben sees two zombies destroying his truck, he goes out and successfully bludgeons both of them to death. He goes back into the house just in time to save Barbra from another zombie. As hordes of zombies besiege the house, Ben and a shock-stricken Barbra begin boarding up the doors and windows.
As Ben fortifies the house, he shares his first encounter with the zombies with Barbra, and Barbra recounts her experience with a zombie in the cemetery. Ben is struck by Barbra when he tries to prevent her from going to find her brother Johnny, as he is most likely dead or reanimated, and strikes her back to put some sense into her. Barbra is knocked unconscious and Ben puts her on the sofa before turning his attention to the zombies outside. Ben turns on the radio to hear reports of nationwide violence.
While Ben is searching the house for ammunition and supplies, he hears Barbra scream and rushes downstairs to help her, finding the cellar door is open. Upon looking in the cellar, the pair realize that there are no zombies, but more survivors; the Cooper family, consisting of Harry Cooper, his wife Helen and their young daughter Karen, and teen lovers Tom and Judy. Harry insists that they should hide in the cellar, but Tom and Ben disagree, causing more zombies to hear them and head for the house. A television is set up, and as Ben and the others listen to news reports and radio broadcasts, they discover that their attackers are the unburied dead brought back to life by a mysterious phenomenon. When Ben discovers that one of the refugee locations is the nearby town of Willard, he plans to leave with Tom and Judy.
The trio go out to refuel Ben's truck and escape to Willard, but Tom accidentally sets the truck on fire, destroying it and killing both Judy and himself. As the zombie hordes close in, Ben tries to flee back into the house, only to find Harry has locked him out. He breaks in and, after locking the hordes out, viciously attacks and beats Harry for leaving him to die. Listening to another news report, Ben and the others discover that posses are patrolling the countryside, killing the zombies roaming the area to restore order. The power then goes out and the zombies begin breaking in. While Ben tries to keep the zombies out, Harry turns Ben's rifle on him, prompting Ben to wrestle it away from him and shoot him.
As the undead finally break into the house and kill Barbra, Ben retreats into the cellar to find the corpses of Harry and Helen. As the two reanimate, Ben shoots them and waits for help to arrive. The next morning, Ben hears a posse arrive, and goes upstairs. However, he is mistaken for a zombie and is shot and killed. His body is cremated along with several dead zombies.[1]
Reboot franchise[]
Night of the Living Dead (1990)[]
To be added.[2]
Personality[]
1968 film[]
Duane Jones described Ben as a "comparatively calm and resourceful." Ben tried to remain calm and rational while leading his fellow survivors, and took instant dislike to the irrational and unpleasant Harry. However, Ben would still resort to violence on rare occasions, such as when he is aggravated, or when he is left to die. But despite his best, his plan to barricade the house they stayed in for the night proved to be flawed with his escalating feud with Harry, which blinded him to the fact that the latter's idea to hide in the basement being the best course of action.
1990 remake[]
In remake, his characterization basically same as with the original movie. The only difference being somewhat a mentor/role model for Barbara in surviving zombie horde, inspiring her to be proactive in surviving the first night of zombie apocalypse and even yelling some sense on Judy and Tom upon their protests and apparent denial over the prospect of their reanimated loved ones are indeed gone. Moreover, while Ben still doomed his fellow survivors as with in original film, he nonetheless had better success in ensuring Barbara's survival in the end.
Victims[]
- Harry Cooper (alive and undead)
- Helen Cooper (undead)
- Numerous zombies
Portrayal[]
In the original 1968 film, Ben was portrayed by African-American actor Duane Jones. The casting was potentially controversial in 1968, as it was rare for a black man to be cast as the hero of an American film primarily composed of white actors, but Romero said that Jones performed the best in his audition. He went on to appear in other films, including Ganja & Hess (1973) and Beat Street (1984). Jones was in charge of the literature department at Antioch College until 1976, when he became executive director of the Black Theatre Alliance, and continued working as a theater actor and director until his death in 1988. Despite his other film roles, Jones worried that people only recognized him as Ben.
Ben's role was initially written for a white actor, but upon casting Jones, Romero intentionally did not alter the script to reflect this. The film appeared in theaters at a time when very few black actors played leading roles. The rare exceptions, like the consciously-black heroes played by Sidney Poitier, were written as subservient to make those characters palatable to white audiences. When asked in a 2013 interview if he took inspiration from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that same year, Romero responded in the negative, noting that he only heard about the shooting when he was on his way to find distribution for the finished film.
Other Media[]
Into the dead 2-In the event of the game Ben becomes the protagonist of the prequel to the movie which takes place at the very-start of the zombie apocalypse. He then rushes to safety when he finds his first 'crazy' persons, in the town he finds Alice, after some time he decides to find girls parents in the diner, tagging along with sheriff along the way. After some time they find themselfs trapped in slaughterhouse. Sheriff decides to fight his way through hundreds of zombies which makes Ben question his sanity, after a short fight Sheriff accidently shoots Alice in the stomach and zombies break through the door, Ben and Alice take the way through the sewers leaving Sheriff to die. After arriving to the diner they find only livng dead, Ben finds the car and drives to Alice only to find her reanimated body. After credits we can see Ben arriving to farm house, with his trusty pipe.
Gallery[]
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Notes and References[]
- ↑ Night of the Living Dead (dir. George A. Romero; October 1, 1968)
- ↑ Night of the Living Dead (dir. Tom Savini; October 19, 1990)