With the world infested by zombies, one city survives, sending out scavenging parties. Within the city, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) and the rich live in a luxury complex while the rest live in slums. Riley (Simon Baker), a retired scavenger, wants only to go off on his own, but is drafted into service, along with a mentally dim sharpshooter (Robert Joy) and a prostitute (Asia Argento), to stop Cholo (John Leguizamo) who has stolen the city’s armored vehicle. As the humans fight among themselves, the living dead have organized behind an uncommonly aware zombie, Big Daddy (Eugene Clark), and have found a way into the city.
This is why fantasy (that’s the all-inclusive term, including horror, SF, etc.) is a more important and interesting genre than any other. You can tell a story using the metaphors of fantasy that you could never tell otherwise. You can say things that no one would listen to if discussed directly. And that’s what George A. Romero, the originator of the modern zombie film, does. He peels away the jingoistic rhetoric and takes a look at the post-9/11 world, and what he sees is none too flattering. Unfortunately, the people who need to understand what he’s presenting are likely to miss the message behind the zombies. That’s the problem with being clever; it requires your audience to be clever too.
For anyone who isn’t up on the last forty years of zombie cinema, Romero changed everything (well, for zombies) with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. Made firstly as a graphic horror tale, it also contained a message of the times. It focused on racism and Vietnam-era anger. In 1978, after having learned a noticeable amount about filmmaking, he created the iconic, blood-soaked satire, Dawn of the Dead, which examined American consumerism. He followed that with ‘85’s disappointing Day of the Dead, which took a stab at Reagan-era militarism. The low budget forced him to simplify his original script, some of which was held over for Land of the Dead. The success of zombie films after 2000 created an interest (and the financing) for Romero to return to his Dead series, and to once again comment on American life.
So, what does his all-too-accurate vision see? An America (metaphorically represented by Pittsburg, but filmed in Canada) that’s isolated and paranoid. It is also split between the rich and the disenfranchised, and that division is growing. Those in charge, a combination of businessmen and conservative politicians, have no understanding and little care for the poor. In the film, that leadership is represented by Kaufman, a debonair and more intelligent version of George Bush, seeking to keep power, enrich himself and his friends, and maintain the status quo. That means keeping the poor in their place. This is relatively easy to do with the aid of the constant threat of zombies. It’s amazing how useful fear is in getting people to give up their rights.
And who are the zombies? They are the citizens of the third world, particularly the Middle East—the so-called terrorists. They have little, and understand less, but they do own the land. They know nothing of America (ummm, I mean the city), and if left alone, would probably never have been a threat. But it isn’t the city dwellers way to leave the outside alone. They travel into the countryside with armor and high tech weapons, taking the resources and shooting the locals. The zombies are also degraded and tortured (a vision of Abu Ghraib). Romero is no apologist for “terrorists” (a decaying, flesh-eating zombie is not exactly a positive portrayal), but he is saying that everyone has to own up to their responsibilities, and that’s not something that Americans have done.
He’s also saying that this is what you should expect of mankind. He doesn’t present any solutions. The hero isn’t trying to save the day, but just to leave all of humanity behind.
Land of the Dead is a daring look at current American society and a cynical statement on mankind. It is also a beautifully shot horror film that’s low on frights, but high on astounding gore. The walking dead look amazing, and any fan of flesh being ripped from bone will not be disappointed.
The characters are less interesting, with few getting enough screen time for any development. Riley is hardly a character at all, so I had no investment in his survival. Slack, the prostitute, played by an oddly clothed Asia Argento, could have been marked in the script as “generic film prostitute.” Kaufman and Cholo are the only humans with significant personalities, and they are both slimeballs. The only character who invokes any sympathy is Big John, the zombie. And that’s what makes Romero still king of the sub-genre. He shocks once again, not only with his theme, but by shifting to look at things through the eyes of the walking dead. Eugene Clark is the true star of the film, emoting through extensive makeup to create someone I want to help, but don’t want to be anywhere near. Romero’s mistake was in keeping a conventional hero in Riley—the film would have been better if everyone was a villain.
There are plenty of minor flaws that lessen the impact of the movie. Too much time is spent with Cholo’s revolution (thematically important, showing the rise of home-grown terrorists, but plot-wise a waste when there is zombie fun to dwell on). The economy of the city is hard to accept with people still caring about paper dollars. And a population used to seeing staged zombie fights with a cat as the prize should have been shocked with the sudden substitution of a person for the bait (sure, humans have proven they’ll go for such sport, but only with a solid belief in a us-verses-them world, and in this case, the victim is one of us.) But nitpicks aside, Land of the Dead is a fine addition to the world of zombies. It could easily have been better, but it will do.
A director’s cut adds four minutes to the runtime, mainly in minor extensions of the gore scenes and a nice moment where one of the rich hangs himself with obviously bad consequences for anyone getting too close to the body. It doesn’t make a lot of difference, but the director’s cut is the better version if given an option.