Land Of The Dead Unrated Director’s Cut
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: The Dweeb
October 2005
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George Romero has probably inspired more horror film directors than any other person. His cult classic Night of the Living Dead allowed for the possibility that even in a gore filled film, higher intellectual meanings could be derived. The zombies, the human response to them, and our actions taken to survive, serve as telltale signs of problems within our society. In Night of the Living Dead the horror results when trapped humans refuse to communicate and work together, instead struggling for power and dominance. In Dawn of the Dead, which many consider Romero’s best work, a small group of survivors take residence in a shopping mall, horror ensuing when consumerism and greed get the better of them. Day of the Dead finds a group of humans holding out at a missile silo, and brings out a discussion about the military thought process. In Romero’s latest film Land of the Dead, the zombies have evolved now having the ability to communicate to each other and organize themselves, while the humans running a fortified city are blinded by wealth, greed, and power, have lost touch with their surroundings, and the ability to care for anyone but themselves. The few humans who actually still care about one another are the ones who survive the ordeal, for it is our emotions, our ability to express sympathy, grief, and empathize with others that make us human and separate us from the dead.
Land of the Dead, also can be read to present the current situation of the United States, The wealthy who run the city as representative of President Bush’s administration and his cronies, and the rest of the city’s populace living in crime, vice, and despair, as the American populace he cares not of, and looks down on. Indeed in one of the DVD-extras Dennis Hopper speaks about how he told Romero that he wanted to play his character (who owns the city) as Dick Cheney, and apparently Romero replied that that was his thinking when creating the character. The lead character who combats the zombies is just trying to get out of the city and head north to Canada, certainly a sentiment felt by many Americans after the last election.
Romero’s film has been a long time coming, dedicated fans had been waiting since the 1980s to see more zombies, and the anticipation and hype for Land of the Dead may have ruined the expectations of many who saw it in the theatre. If you do watch the film with little or no expectations, it’s a fun, action packed, gore filled horror film, with a few humorous moments thrown in for good measure. The film has the highest production value of any of Romero’s other zombie films and it was spent well on special effects and great makeup. The performances by the cast are effective; Dennis Hopper’s appearance as a cold and heartless tyrant is memorable, John Leguizamo’s high strung and agitated acting is believable, and Simon Baker was well cast as the philosophical, peace loving combater of zombies.
The DVD-extras are plentiful, but are not all worth watching. The featurettes: Undead Again: The Making of Land of the Dead, A Day with the Living Dead, and When Shaun Met George all have no real substance to them, they look like marketing materials to promote the film (and possibly were used to that effect). You would expect to get a lot of laughs with the personal tour provided by Leguizamo, or the visit from Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), but you will be lucky if you manage to get a chuckle out of it. The feature commentary provided by Romero as well as the producer and editor of the film is interesting from a technical standpoint. Also of interest to horror film fans is the featurette on make up artist Greg Nicotero’s abilities in making the dead come alive, and a gruesome video of pure gore which is pretty hard to stomach (especially when you are seeing one eaten).
As Halloween is approaching take the opportunity to rent and watch this film, it certainly can provide you with costume ideas. Those whose expectations were not met in theatres should watch it again and try to appreciate it as an enjoyable horror film with an intellectual subtext.
Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!
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