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Friday, June 24, 2005
Land of the Dead Review
We started this week with movies so let's end it there too. I caught a midnight showing of George A. Romero's Land of the Dead and figured I'd write a few words on the film, seeing as how some of you might catch it this weekend.
I saw this film with my zombie movie loving friends who were more than ready for this. Me, I have enjoyed both versions of Dawn of the Dead liked 28 Days Later and thought Shaun of the Dead was really funny (Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright get zombie cameos in this film) but that's about as far as my experience with zombie movies go (let's forget all about House of the Dead). From watching the first Dawn and reading up about the rest of Romero's career I remain impressed that he is someone who believes that gory horror movies are fertile grounds for social satire. After all, of the working class that Romero cares for what are they most likely to see, Land of the Dead or the latest Ken Loach film?
Land deals the neurosis of living in the "War on Terror" in a manner that goes along just fine with a movie that features plenty of horror violence and explosions. The land of the living is protected from the zombies by bodies of water (or at least they think they're protected). The "fat cats," that being Romero’s term, live in the high-rise tower of Fiddler's Green while the rest of the population are meant to be pacified with their vices and increasingly crueler entertainment, many of which employs captured zombies. The characters live in a bawdier Deadwood, driving home Ken’s point of the similarity between Westerns and zombie movies. Dennis Hopper is the cigar chompin’ fattest of the cats who isn’t too happy when John Leguizamo’s character Cholo hijacks “Dead Reckoning,” the big anti-zombie truck that can do all types of damage, especially when those stinger missiles are flying towards a certain tower. Simon Baker’s Riley, our rugged hero, and his gang (including Asia Argento, daughter of one of Romero’s collaborators) are brought in to get Cholo and Dead Reckoning but they have their own plans.
Romero uses plenty of broad strokes to make all his points clear. I was expecting the racial politics might remain relatively below the surface but even that doesn’t happen, as shown in Hopper’s last scene. Not that there’s any point to expect subtlety from Romero at this point. The man has his own style that he’s mastered it this point so why should he go changing a working formula? He’s setting the movie’s message to the same pitch as the gore in the film and that’s a high one. I was most interested in the idea of “blowback” that happens throughout the film. Hopper thinks that he has the proletariat in firm control only to find that some of them can be just as greedy and heartless as him. What’s even worse is when some of these soldiers, who are just expected to be cannon fodder while those much better off benefit from their accomplishments, prove to have a better sense of ethics and morals than the people ordering them around. That really throws some gears into the works.
Baker reminded of Dominic West from "The Wire" for the whole movie. That's not a bad thing, though
The zombies, as you can well imagine, play heavily into the allusions Romero is trying to make as well. The opening scene has Leguizamo, Baker and other foot soldiers on a mission to pick up supplies in a zombie infested town. These “stenches” (that’s what military slang has christened them) have been plenty dehumanized in the minds of these soldiers but it turns out these enemies are actually developing, rather renewing, their humanity. They have some sense of comradery and skills in weaponry use. It might be an odd thing to say but Eugene Clark’s turn as leader zombie Big Daddy was one of the best and most affecting performances in the film.
Side-by-side with the politics is a well done action/horror film. If you’re the kind that claps approvingly at the innovative zombie attacks that Romero and his crew come up with, as I certainly am, then this is a movie that will not disappoint. Romero creates better sick thrills than directors a half or a third his age. 99% of the effects are mechanical with CGI employed only to fill out crowds and present establishing shots of the Fiddler’s Green tower. The oppressive feel of living between the powerful and those they command is made clear throughout the film with its muted colors and crowded frames. There’s not much in the way of suspense but that makes thematic sense since these people have been living with zombies for many years.
With all the chaos going on there’s not much time for quiet, thoughtful scenes that showcase the actors’ skills. There’s a scene between Leguizamo and Baker early on that would fit the bill but it’s dragged down by dialogue that doesn’t benefit from Romero’s “bigfoot” style as much as other facets of the film. In the midst of all the zombie action the actors get their chance to spout quick phrases of dialogue and look cool to one another. The main players and many of the supporting cast (I really dug Pedro Miguel Arce as Pillsbury) achieve this rather well. Hopper has his intensity bubbling just below his exterior and turns out to be a great choice for this devious robber baron straight out of a 1900’s political cartoon.
Land of the Dead isn’t just a horror film done better than the rest. Decades from now it’s one you can point to when you want to tell the younger folk what life in the turn of the 21st Century was like. Like all great pieces of art, this movie holds the mirror right up to us and does it in a pretty exhilarating way.
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