In Land Of The Dead, George A. Romero paints a picture of a world that has learned to cope with the fact that the dead will rise and eat you if you let them. This story takes place in Fiddler’s Green, a utopia for those that can afford it, dystopia for those who can’t. Where the elite are blissfully ignorant of the effects of death around them, while the poor masses are painfully aware. The story starts on Riley’s last day as the head of an official scavenging team that treks into the unprotected land of the dead for supplies and essential items. Cholo (John Leguizamo), his second in command , is scavenging for champagne and cigars to celebrate with his “new friends” as he plans to buy his way into the elite tower of Fiddler’s Green with the payments he’s earned being a scavenger. But, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), the big cheese at Fiddler’s Green soon dashes Cholo’s hopes by eluding to the fact that Cholo will not be able to buy his way in. Riley has no delusions of how thing work in “The Green” and desires only to get away to where there are no people: Canada. But, when Riley’s getaway car is stolen, he finds himself in jail for seeking revenge. Meanwhile, Cholo’s plan for revenge on Kaufman leads him to steal Dead Reckoning, a super truck outfitted with armor, guns and heavy artillery, everything that one would need to survive a zombie wasteland or hold a city ransom for 5 million dollars. Kaufman decides to use Riley and his intimate knowledge of Dead Reckoning and familiarity with Cholo to get back his expensive grocery-getter and to avoid paying ransom on the city. Riley uses this as leverage to himself and his friends out of jail. He also figures that Kaufman stole his car to keep him from leaving and plans to return the favor by stopping Cholo from shelling Fiddler’s Green and stealing Dead Reckoning for his own use to get to Canada. Did I mention that meanwhile the zombies have wised-up enough to attack Fiddler’s Green? Well, they did and Riley feels obligated to help out the poor huddled masses despite having to help the elite that take all the good stuff for themselves.

Land Of The Dead is an allegory for the consolidation of wealth that this country has seen and the inherent corruption that comes with it. Also the poor’s misconception of what it takes to be part of that wealthy elite. The allegory doesn’t quite stop there, but I don’t feel the need to spell it out for you. There are parts of the story that only serve to illustrate the allegory, like Cholo’s desire for the 5 Million dollar ransom for the Green that he would not be able to spend in the one civilized place known, Fiddler’s Green. Or Kaufman’s desire to pack up said millions to leave the one civilized place where it would be worth anything, Fiddler’s Green. But it’s possible this blind ambition was also purposefully implied in the story.

The zombie make-up was phenomenal! Greg Nicotero, who worked with Tom Savini and crew on Day Of The Dead, and his special effects team did a fantastic job of mixing special make-up effects, prosthetics, animatronics and CGI to create a very believable and cool looking army of walking dead. Since the story is full of zombies starting to learn, there are a handful of featured zombies that you see throughout the film that look spectacular.

Land Of The Dead is the fourth installment in George A. Romero’s “Dead Series” and popularly the least liked (although we’ll have to see how history treats Diary Of The Dead). I, for one, enjoyed seeing it in the theater, enjoyed watching this Unrated Director’s Cut when I bought it and enjoyed sitting down to take a long serious look at it to review it for this site. It easily stands up as one of the best zombie movies that I have reviewed for this site, but that doesn’t say a whole hell of a lot.

Land Of The Dead could fall into two sub-genres of film - zombie and post apocalyptic - and would most likely be enjoyed by true fans of either, barring, of course, those that like to call themselves fans but are nothing but nay-saying nit-pickers, referring to themselves as “purists”, but colloquially called “haters”. If by some chance you have not seen this film, I highly recommend that you pick it up.

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