Films That Witness Madness

review

LAND OF THE DEAD

Haters be damned. LAND OF THE DEAD, George Romero's fourth film in his Dead series, is an absolute fucking blast. This is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD dressed up in an action film clothing, a balls to the wall extravaganza of shattered craniums, spilled guts and anthropophagy designed to get the blood and fists pumping. That it manages to carry a message of social concern shouldn't surprise anybody - this is a Romero film, after all - but the delivery of that message is a bit different than in previous Dead films. While all the previous films cloaked their messages in symbolism and metaphor - well, the anti-consumerism sentiment of DAWN OF THE DEAD is pretty obvious - LAND OF THE DEAD delivers it's message through brute force. This is a rebel yell, a double-fisted "fuck you" shot through with rage and contempt.

Much of the criticism leveled at the film has to do with the very different tone of the film. This is not the claustrophobic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the bloody Saturday morning cartoon DAWN OF THE DEAD or the pessimistic, lonely DAY OF THE DEAD. While none of the previous three films in the series were alike - as I just pointed out - some fans thought that Romero broke off in much too radical a direction with LAND OF THE DEAD. In LAND OF THE DEAD, the once bumbling zombies have begun to think, to communicate and to respond to the still living in a very tribal fashion. Romero places great emphasis on the zombies in this film. They are no longer the threat lurking in the streets. They are the angry masses, outcasts determined to stake their claim in the world and they are given equal weight in the film's plot - notably, Romero's signature African American hero is not one of the living this time around.

Romero also places great attention on action scenes in the film. Every ten minutes or so, the film erupts in a violent shoot-out of some kind or another. The tightly wound plot unravels at such a breakneck pace that the film sometimes struggles to keep up. If DAWN OF THE DEAD felt like an all-encompassing epic, LAND OF THE DEAD feels like a video game. It would have benefitted greatly from another 10 or 20 minutes of running time if only to allow the characters a chance to collect their breath.

The other main criticism of this film has to do with the protagonists. Many people say they don't hold up as well as the characters from the other films in the series. I don't agree with that at all. A few are under-written - like Asia Argento's Slack - while others are some of the most charismatic and well-developed characters ever to appear in a Dead film - like Simon Baker's Riley or Robert Joy's Charlie. While none of them approach the likability factor of Roger, Fran, Peter or Stephen, the characters in LAND OF THE DEAD all have distinct personalities and heavy-duty emotional baggage. They are interesting people with interesting pasts, beaten down by a world that seems to be desperate to get rid of them but have some hope of finding a place where they can be at peace. If there is a single character in LAND OF THE DEAD who fails to live up to expectations, it's the main villain of the piece, Kaufman. As played by Dennis Hopper, Kaufman fails to elicit contempt from the audience. Whether it's because Hopper plays him with a kind of campy detachment - "zombies, man... they creep me out" he says in that half-serious tone, all the while picking his nose - or whether it's because Kaufman never really does anything seriously evil through-out the entire picture, the character fails. The only reason we regard Kaufman as anything other than a rich prick is because of what he represents. And even that reaction can be muted by your political leaning.

LAND OF THE DEAD was one of the first horror films of the so-called "Post-9/11 Era" to deal directly with the state of American life under the Bush Administration. While I won't allow my own personal political opinions to run rampant here, I can say they fall mostly in line with Romero's own views on the matter. The setting of LAND OF THE DEAD is a gated community isolated on a peninsula. While the poor and the middle class scrape by on the streets, the wealthy and upper-class citizens reside in Fiddler's Green, a posh, extravagant tower that stands like a lighthouse before the poor and huddled masses. This is a fascist society where the rule of the people is determined by the wealthy with special interests winning out over the needs of the common people. Kaufman's disregard of the common people - he admits to providing these people with "games and vices" as a way of distracting them from the reality of their situation - and his utter lack of compassion and respect for the people who are living largely under his rule strikes a cord with those of us who grew tired and angry with the disenfranchisement and disrespect shown by the previous Administration to the poor and middle class minorities.

Not all of the plot points are designed to be blunt criticisms, though. Some are merely designed to take full advantage of our Post-9/11 fears and concerns. For example, Kaufman denies one of his henchmen access to Fiddler's Green, only to have the aforementioned henchman hijack a sophisticated piece of hardware with the intent of destroying Kaufman's ivory tower. The "who are the real terrorists" angle that was all the rage amongst talk radio pundits in the wake of the Iraq war is explored by having Kaufman's salvage crews reeking all sorts of havoc on a nightly basis in the stomping grounds of the zombies. This story - while not as entertaining as the go-for-broke action/adventure/drama/horror mishmash that is DAWN OF THE DEAD - is much more timely and much more important than anything Romero has ever made before.

LAND OF THE DEAD has become one of my favorite Romero films. I think it is a stronger piece of work than either DAY OF THE DEAD or DIARY OF THE DEAD, though both are tremendous films. Perhaps another five or six years is needed before it gets the large-scale reappraisal it deserves but for me it continually offers something new every time I watch it. The first time I saw it, I walked out of the theater with a genuine buzz. I returned the next day to see it again but this time my reaction was a bit different. I was a bit more intrigued by what I was seeing and hearing. By the time the film hit DVD, I had seen it two or three more times and was convinced that it was Romero's late career masterpiece. Having watched it again just the other day, I can say I'm now quite firm in that conviction.

Essential viewing.

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