Review of Land of the Dead (2005) by Philip J — 25 Feb 2012

The dead have risen from their graves and are attacking the living, killing human beings and devouring their flesh with no remorse! For years, the living dead have waged war against mankind. Martial law has been declared and the world is in a state of emergency. Governments must put aside their differences and work together to stop the zombie epidemic...

Humanity has lost.

Zombies now rule the world. Pockets of humanity still remain, but each day, the ranks of the living dwindle further. One of the few sanctuaries left for mankind is an outpost located in Pittsburgh. Surrounded by rivers and protected by an electric fence, this outpost is one of the very few places where mankind can seek refuge. However, this prime piece of real estate is ruled with an iron fist by a brutal Donald Trump-esque businessman named Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). This land is conspicuously divided between the haves and the have nots. The rich and powerful live in relative luxury in a place called Fiddler's Green, a luxurious high-rise where the affluent can have all their material (and decadent) desires met. Meanwhile, everybody else is forced to survive and fend for themselves in poverty. Kinda like what's happening to many cities in society these days: the rich and affluent live in fancy suburban neighborhoods while the poor and indigent are relegated in urban squalor.

Fiddler's Green is under the protection of a badass heavily armored tank called Dead Reckoning. Dead Reckoning is equipped with immense firepower including machine guns, cannons, and rocket launchers. Dead Reckoning is also supplied with the most powerful weapon: fireworks, otherwise known as Skyflowers. You see, for some reason, zombies these days are fascinated with fireworks much like people are fascinated with garbage reality shows. When surrounded by hordes of zombies, all Dead Reckoning has to do is shoot fireworks into the sky and the zombies are instantly distracted, staring at the sky instead of focusing on their human feast. This gives people ample time to escape...

Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) runs the Dead Reckoning show. His responsibility is to enter the wastelands of the living dead and gather whatever resources he can including food and other important supplies to ensure that Fiddler's Green has everything it needs to survive. Meanwhile, Cholo (John Leguizamo), Denbo's assistant, who's been denied one of the more cushy apartments in Fiddler's Green despite years of loyalty and service to Kaufman, intends to hijack Dead Reckoning and use it to wage his own war against Kaufman and Fiddler's Green. Denbo and his crew must stop Cholo before he turns Fiddler's Green into a war zone because once all hell breaks loose, all the inhabitants at Fiddler's Green are zombie snack...

What about the zombies? The zombies have gained considerable insight and intelligence. They are now able to communicate with each other using basic grunts, groans, and screams. They know how to use weapons. And they are learning that Fiddler's Green isn't quite as impregnable as the humans thought...

Land of the Dead is the fourth entry in George A. Romero's legendary Living Dead series. Like Romero's other Living Dead films, Land of the Dead has a good amount of social commentary. Night of the Living Dead explored the breakdown of communication and the failure to work together at times of crises. Dawn of the Dead explored the theme of consumerism and greed. Day of the Dead addressed the complete collapse of society and what's it like to possibly be the last living human beings on this planet. Land of the Dead isn't quite as nihilistic as Day of the Dead, but it certainly pulls no punches in portraying a bleak world. This film addresses a lot of issues, particularly the economic disparity between the affluent and quite frankly, everybody else. The allusions to the growing gap in the real world between the rich and the poor with the declining middle class falling into the ranks of the poor isn't really quite subtle, but it works effectively. Even in the end, when we witness the zombie massacre in all its red glory, one can't help but think of it as a metaphor for the poor and disenfranchised rising up against the elite of society. This theme is even more relevant nowadays, particularly with all the revolutions and protests in various Middle East countries as well as America's own various Occupy protests...

Land of the Dead also explores the rather simplistic but important theme of survival in a post apocalyptic world. And interesting enough, Land of the Dead also takes time to explore the concept of having to learn to survive in a world where mankind is no longer the dominant, Alpha species...

Truth be told, Land of the Dead is my second favorite film in the Living Dead series, next to Dawn of the Dead. I enjoyed this film considerably more than the languid Day of the Dead. The problem with Day of the Dead was that the film was constantly bogged down due to the characters endlessly bickering. At least in Land of the Dead, the characters made an effort to get things done. Sure, there's significant conflict between the factions of the remaining human species, but at least the characters are taking action instead of just wasting time arguing, sometimes over trivial matters. In a post apocalyptic world where zombies outnumber humans 100,000 to 1, it's probably best not to argue with a fellow human being...

Romero also shows how the zombies are slowly evolving. In the first two living dead series, the zombies showed nothing but primal instinct though a couple were able to learn how to use basic objects as weapons for breaking windows and such. In Day of the Dead, we witness a very intelligent zombie named Bub show human emotions and signs that he remembered his former life. In Land, we witness several zombies being able to remember remnants of their past former human lives. And we witness these zombies learning . . . and it's frightening because as the zombies grow smarter, they can even learn to outwit their human prey.

Gore fans will be pleased with the blood splattered violence and zombie mayhem in Land of the Dead. Although Land in slightly less gruesome than Day of the Dead, the gore effects will leave fans satisfied. We have the usual head shots and zombie gut munching, but the unrated version actually delivers a few moments of extreme gore including a young man getting ripped apart rather graphically by zombies and the aftermath of a zombie massacre at an army post.

The production values are very slick. This is obviously George Romero's most expensive film in the Living Dead canon and it shows. The special effects are much more impressive and the Dead Reckoning tank is an amazing showstopper. The action choreography is much more exciting and the film overall has more of an epic scope with a large cast of solid character actors including legitimate Hollywood talent such as Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo.

Land of the Dead is bigger and badder than its predecessors. While it does not achieve the classic status of Dawn of the Dead, Land is a noteworthy entry in Romero's Living Dead series. It's worth a watch, even if you're not a fan of zombie movies. Check it out.