The Amusement Park

Lincoln Maazel is besieged in The Amusement Park

George Romero's The Amusement Park, filmed in 1973 and then little seen over the years, has been hailed as a lost masterpiece in some quarters; a judgement I find befuddling. The film was shot in three days with a budget of $35,000 financed largely by the Lutheran Council of Western Pennsylvania. The Council must have been attracted by the anti-ageism message of Walton Cook's script, but it is an awfully flimsy basis for a 54 minute film. The film uses an old man's nightmarish visit to West View Amusement Park as a springboard to decry various American ills and isms. It is not a bad fit for Romero critical vision of America, but the end result is as shambolic as the zombies in Night of the Living Dead.

Lincoln Maazel, a mainstay of Pittsburgh theater and father of the noted conductor Lorin Maazel, does his best as the besieged elder. However, the net effect is that of a pretentious student film, well-meaning but ramshackle. Maazel would go on to appear in Romero's Martin, a much more effective vehicle for both their talents.