Land of the Dead (2005)


One simple mistake - not properly applying a copyright notice to Night of the Living Dead - hamstrung George A. Romero throughout his career.  I'm sure he still would not have been handed huge budgets to do what he wanted but, with the ongoing success of that movie, it wouldn't have mattered as much.  There was also some unnecessary waywardness in his first couple films following his debut, and I don't think he had a clear vision on where to go with his series until he made Dawn of the Dead, but we may have been able to see a real end to his Living Dead saga. 

As it stands Land of the Dead is the true finale, with Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead being asides that happen concurrent with the events of the first two films.  This is not the ending that Romero desired; that is in the Living Dead novelization, which was completed after his death.  This is more a continuation of Day of the Dead, incorporating elements that had to be left out of that movie due to budget reasons.  It also continues the story of the zombies slowly regaining their memories and awareness, a situation hinted at with Bub in the previous film.  

It has been a few years since the dead have risen and survivors have fortified themselves within the large cities, using the surrounding areas for foraging.  In Pittsburgh the settlement is under the control of a man named Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) who runs everything, from commerce to vice, from his penthouse in a high rise called Fiddler's Green.  A forager named Cholo (John Leguizamo) hopes to earn enough money to move in but, facing a rebuke from Kaufman, decides that if he can't live there no one can.

Cholo's immediate commander is Riley (Simon Baker), the designer of an armored land vehicle called Dead Reckoning that is key to foraging.  Their activities get the attention of a zombie named Big Daddy (Eugene Clark) who has begun to regain some of his previous memories and has grown angry at the way he sees his fellow walkers being treated.  As Cholo begins his blackmail operation against Kaufman Big Daddy begins to lead the hoards from Uniontown into Pittsburgh to take revenge.  Riley and his partner Charlie (Robert Joy), along with a woman they rescued named Slack (Asia Argento), go along with a plan to stop Cholo but have plans of their own to get out from under Kaufman's thumb. 

A later movie, Warm Bodies, took the idea of zombies returning as far as it could go, and pretty much got that idea from Romero.  I don't think Romero ever meant for them to get to that point, but rather for them to evolve into something similar to us.  One thing I didn't notice before with Bub that carries through with Big Daddy as well as his follower Number 9 (Jennifer Baxter) and a number of the more aware creatures is that the more they regain some self awareness the less they eat humans.  Many of the hoard still do in the many different creative ways that these movies have become known for, but Big Daddy and Number 9 soon find it's a lot easier just to shoot anyone they don't like once they get the hang of guns.  Blades (Tom Savini), the leader of the biker gang from Dawn of the Dead, is among them, still using his machete even in his altered state. 

Leguizamo isn't terrible in this, Asia Argento does a halfway decent American accent, but Simon Baker and Robert Joy stand out as the usual quirky heroes in a Romero film.  Hopper isn't his usual wild and crazy self, which is a bit of a disappointment, but he was meant more of a caricature of Reagan-era greed than a fully developed villain.  

Land of the Dead was the last essential movie in the series and, sadly, the last essential movie of Romero's career.  I don't hate the other two as much as many people do, but at that point he was treading water, hoping to get the budget to finish off the series, which never happened.  For that satisfaction one needs to read The Living Dead which, even though the characters in it are not the ones from the movies, still shows where Romero had intended to go if money had allowed.

Land of the Dead (2005)
Time: 93 minutes
Starring: Simon Baker, Robert Joy, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Eugene Banks, Dennis Hopper
Director: George A. Romero



 

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