An old, disheveled man in a dirty white suit sits dejected and alone in a sterile white room. A younger version of himself comes into the room and asks if he wants to go outside. The older version whins that there is nothing outside. The younger version says that he wants to see for himself. He opens the door and steps out into an amusement park.
The amusement park is full of people walking around and enjoying the rides. The old man gets in line to buy tickets. Most of the older people are selling their prized possessions in order to get tickets to the rides. After buying his tickets he begins going on some of the rides. On the roller coaster a woman becomes incapacitated and is taken off in a wheelchair. The old man then takes a train ride around the park. The man sitting behind him dies and is taken off in a coffin as death is seen sitting behind the body of the dead man. At the bumper cars, the old man sees a policeman giving an elderly man an eye test. The man fails and is not allowed to drive the bumper car. His elderly wife drives the bumper car until she gets into an accident with another car. The police are called, and a lawyer shows up. The old woman is berated by the man that caused the accident and the witnesses that contradict him are old, so they are not believed.
Everywhere the old man goes he comes up against some sort of discrimination. He either sees or experiences abuse firsthand. By the end of the day the old man is dirty and bloody. He has been beaten up and his tickets stolen. He walks with a stoop disheartened by the treatment of everyone around him. The only solace he experiences is when a young girl asks him to read her a story. When she is taken away by her mother the old man breaks down and cries, once again alone and forgotten. The cycle continues.
“The Amusement Park” was released in 1975 and was directed by George A. Romero. It is a drama and psychological horror film. The screenplay was written by Wally Cook. The film was created in 1973 but wasn’t premiered until the 1975 at the American Film Festival in New York. It had a limited release. Then the film sat for over forty years and was eventually considered lost. It ended up being shown at the Torino Film Festival in 2001 and then disappeared again. In 2017 the film was sent to Romero before he passed. The film was restored by the Romero family trust. The updated version premiered in 2019 in Pittsburg, PA. It was then finally released on home video in 2021.
Back in the 70’s the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania commissioned Romero to do an educational film as a commentary on elder abuse and ageism. The film opens and closes with an informational prologue and epilogue by Lincoln Maazel, who plays the old man. Maazel explains how the elderly are treated in society. The park is actually a metaphor for life. The rides are a surrealistic view of peoples’ lives, and the life changes they experience along the way. The film is just as relevant today as it was in 1973. The movie is not that great, but it does parody, in a surrealistic way, the challenges that older people face daily and the apathy and degradation they are subject to by society in general. The amusement park of life becomes a horror movie and a nightmare scenario.
The movie was shot at the West View Park in West View, Pennsylvania. The park officially closed in 1977. George Romero has a cameo as the bumper car driver that causes an accident. Maazel was 72 or 73 when the film was created. He died in 2009 at the age of 106.