The Ending.

[mrbasehart]

Was that the one with the hot redhead cast in the black guy's role?

Not quite.  Tony Todd was cast as the black guy, while off the top of my head, I think it's Patricia Tallman as the new Barbara.  She was also in Babylon 5 for a few years and is a stuntwoman.

[gbeenie]

I <3 Patricia Tallman.


Not to mention, HER Barbara puts on a pair of pants and SURVIVES. 

[Sharktopus]

Was that the one with the hot redhead cast in the black guy's role?

Not quite.  Tony Todd was cast as the black guy, while off the top of my head, I think it's Patricia Tallman as the new Barbara.  She was also in Babylon 5 for a few years and is a stuntwoman.

Yay for Tony Todd.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

yeah, I think all that "social commentary" stuff is completely accidental or purhaps "Rorschach"ed on to the film. I've heard in interviews that Romero didn't really have a black lead in mind when writing the script, Duane Jones just happened to be the best of the actors that auditioned for the part.

I've heard the same.  I suspect that at least some of the social commentary was accidental -- although the key statement on the breakdown of human relationships in times of extreme stress was clearly intentional.  Even so, it was a pretty ballsy move to cast Jones in the lead role-

I have a documentary from the Starz movie channel about Cult Films where Romero says that Duane Jones was the best actor to audtion, period.   That they didn't really write the part of Ben as any particular color or ethnic group so they didn't have to change anything.  And you'll notice there's nothing in the film that even approaches race being an issue.  Scuff-Head has problems with Ben but it never appears to be race based.

BTW, I just thought.....there weren't any African American zombies either, were there?

[Evan Waters]

One of the things that made NOTLD so innovative at the time was that it broke a lot of rules of who survives horror movies. The kid and the young couple would have been safe in most films prior, and the idea of everyone dying was almost unheard of.

The racial element was unintended, but they did have a general idea of a new society rising up and overthrowing the old.