Day of the Dead-George Romero, Do You Even Know Any Soldiers?

I have seen the latter day George A. Romero zombie movies like City of the Dead. Sad to say, I think they are awful, dealing completely in caricature and social commentary that begins to feel like stereotypes rather than thoughtful observations.  That trend clearly started with Day of the Dead.  The scenario begins with a helicopter on some kind of recon mission.  You have a group of civilians, including a communications expert, a pilot and a "leader" whose skills remain undefined.  They are with a soldier who clearly drew the short straw that day, as he is coming apart at the seams, nerves-wise.  They are going up and down the coast, apparently seeking contact with living humans.  All they get is more zombies.

They go back to their base and find a group of probably some of the most unsoldierly soldiers since Stripes.  Just as undisciplined and slovenly, but they are supposedly veterans, not basic trainees and also some of the most brutal, bullying and borderline psychotic.  One could rationalize they are degenerating due to their circumstances and quality of leadership re. utter lack thereof.  More likely, George A. Romero didn't bother to do his homework on how troops tend to act and behave, even the "bad" ones, and went with the worst of ill-informed Hollywood stereotypes.  You want examples of "bad soldiers" still being convincing ones?  Check out Platoon, or Casualties of War or Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica.  Real military people, especially veterans, tend to carry themselves a certain way.  And on that score, Romero really didn't do his homework. 

The civilians hold up better, and bear up far better under the crisis than the troops do (which is silly, but again...).  Except for the scientist among them.  This cat they call Dr. Frankenstein  is convinced they can be tamed.  He has a pet one named "Bub" that he has made some breakthroughs with.  However, there are lots of crazy cat bizarres running under that hood as well.

It is a totally messed up situation, but very few of the characters come across as full characters.  They aren't archetypes, either.  Just stereotypes of a most ignorant, lazy sort.  The military stuff was distracting, even borderline insulting.

You so can't relate to the characters, that when the dying starts, you can't really care.  When it is all over, it is kind of, well, that's that, then.

What a step down.