Ben is an ordinary guy in an extreme circumstance, one of those rare few in whom adversity brings out (mostly) their best characteristics. We know very little of his past, before the dead started coming back to life, and he is deliberately obscure on his reasons for being in a vehicle that is not his ( I had jumped in to listen to the radio ). The Ben we see is persuasive, sensitive, determined, and seems convinced that, so long as a rational plan is formed, everything will work out in the end. His occasional losses of temper with others in the farmhouse echo our own frustrations with the situation. It is our conviction that the good will live and the bad will die, even in a horror movie, that makes the actual results so jarring. The classic Ben will always be the brilliant portrayal by Duane Jones, although Tony Todd also gives a sensitive and interesting performance in the role.