Land of the Dead

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Land of the Dead
Original title George A. Romero’s
Land of the Dead
Land of the dead.svg
Country of production USA
France
Canada
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length Director's Cut approx. 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
JMK 16
Rod
Director George A. Romero
script George A. Romero
production Bernie Goldmann
Peter Grunwald
Steve Barnett
music Reinhold Heil
Johnny Klimek
camera Miroslaw Baszak
cut Michael Doherty
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Day of the Dead

Successor  →
Diary of the Dead

Land of the Dead is an American horror film by George A. Romero from 2005 and the fourth part in the director's so-called "Living Dead" series. The main difference between the film and traditional zombie films is the way in which the zombies are depicted . Having already been able to learn in Day of the Dead , Romero now gives them the ability to organize.

action

More than three years after the outbreak of a zombie epidemic, the last survivors live in a city separated by rivers and electric fences. Within these limits, a new social gap has opened up between rich and poor. The rich live in a luxurious high-rise called Fiddler's Green , protected by a powerful police force, while the poor eke out their existence in a ghetto and struggle to survive. This system is controlled by the corrupt Mayor Kaufman .

A group led by Riley uses the Dead Reckoning he developed , an armored car bursting with weapons , to loot the surrounding villages regularly to get food and luxury goods for the upper class. To distract the zombies, the Dead Reckoning fires fireworks rockets, as the undead always stare spellbound at the fireworks. During such a looting, Riley's group slaughtered many zombies. She is watched by the apparently more intelligent zombie Big Daddy , who saves other zombies by pushing them out of the line of fire of the looters. Big Daddy sees the Dead Reckoning drive away in the direction of Fiddler's Green, which can be seen from afar, and angrily starts his way there. Many of the aimlessly wandering zombies follow him, impressed by his determination.

Riley plans to make his way into the Canadian wilderness with his friend Charlie , where he hopes for a life of solitude and safety - without zombies and the fences of the isolated city. This mission with the Dead Reckoning and the supply team should be his last. However, when he wanted to pick up the car he had already bought from the workshop that evening, he didn't find it.

Together with Charlie he goes to the bar of Chihuahua , from whom he bought the car, to confront him. This bar is part of the “Kaufman system”: Here, the common people can use gambling , drugs and sex to distract themselves from the harsh everyday life so that they don't get the idea of ​​turning against the upper class . This evening there is a special attraction: two zombies fight in a cage over a young woman ( slack ), and you can place bets on who will be the first to tear a piece of meat out of her. Riley shoots the zombies and saves Slack. Panic arises in the bar . In the chaos, Chihuahua tries to shoot Riley. Charlie, whom Riley once rescued from the fire, has made it his life's mission to protect Riley and kills the Chihuahua with one aimed shot. Now Kaufman's police storm into the bar and take Riley, Charlie and Slack to jail.

Cholo , a member of Riley's group, has worked for Kaufman for years and dumps his trash (the corpses of Kaufman's opponents that vegetate as zombies on the town's dump ) in the hope of earning an apartment in Fiddler's Green - and thus access to the upper class. When Kaufman denies him and wants to have him killed, Cholo kidnaps the Dead Reckoning and blackmailed Kaufman with the threat of shooting with the guns of the armored car at Fiddler's Green if he does not receive five million US dollars.

Kaufman does not think of paying (“We are not negotiating with terrorists !”) And demands that Riley, whom he has taken out of prison, recapture the Dead Reckoning. Riley agrees on the condition that Slack and Charlie are also released and accompany him on the mission. He also demands a new car in order to flee to Canada later . However, this should distract from his actual plan: not to bring the Dead Reckoning back for Kaufman, but to flee with her to Canada himself.

In the meantime, the group of zombies, which has now grown enormously, has reached one of the rivers that had previously safely separated the human city from the land of the undead . Big Daddy sees the reflection of Fiddler's Green in the water and falls into the river. The zombies follow him, crossing the river in this way and reaching the city, where they attack the residents.

Riley has managed to bring the Dead Reckoning under his control. He lets Cholo go, who is shortly afterwards bitten by a zombie and, with certain death in mind, goes into town to get revenge on Kaufman. Riley sees the zombies attack the city and uses the Dead Reckoning to save many of its residents. However, he also finds that the zombies can no longer be distracted by the fireworks.

Kaufman prepares to flee the city in the midst of the ensuing chaos, but is prevented from doing so by Big Daddy. Cholo, meanwhile turned into a zombie, attacks Kaufman just as Big Daddy completes his revenge and lets Kaufman and his getaway car explode.

The survivors explain to Riley that they want to rebuild the city, this time with no class distinction. Riley doubts it and sets off for Canada with his friends and the Dead Reckoning. In one of the last scenes of the film, Riley has the opportunity to destroy Big Daddy and the train of zombies that followed him with the Dead Reckoning's tank guns. He doesn't: "They just want to live in peace somewhere, like us". Instead, he lets the armored car's fireworks fire into the air, knowing he will no longer need them.

Emergence

George A. Romero's script for the continuation of the Living Dead series (previously consisting of Night of the Living Dead , Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead ) was completed in 2001 under the title Dead Reckoning . Before Romero named the script Dead Reckoning , it was a draft script for the film Resident Evil that was rejected. After that, Romero changed the script a lot, gave it a different direction and redesigned it as his own project. However, after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, it was rejected by the studios as out of date.

A year and a half later, Romero revised his script again to incorporate the effects of the terrorist attack on society. After the 9/11 tensions subsided, initial negotiations with 20th Century Fox began in 2003 . The studio wanted the title to be changed to Night of the Living Dead: Dead Reckoning in order to re-roll the "Living Dead series" , but Romero refused.

After a year and a half of negotiations, Romero's agent reached out to ex- Warner Bros. President Mark Canton, who had just started the production company Atmosphere . Canton gave the project the green light overnight and a budget of approximately $ 15 million. Universal Pictures secured the distribution rights for the film.

Unusually for a project with this topic and size, Romero was guaranteed unlimited artistic freedom. There was only the requirement to moderate the depictions of violence if necessary in order to circumvent an excessively high age rating in accordance with the censorship behavior of the various countries. Romero used the trick of partially covering the scenes with elements in the foreground that were added later. He restored it in his Director's Cut .

Others

  • Romero called Land of the Dead is not a continuation of the first films of the Living Dead - Trilogy new, but as an independent project.
  • Asia Argento , who plays Slack in the film, is the daughter of the well-known director Dario Argento , who was the producer of the second zombie film Dawn of the Dead by Romero and who was also responsible for the European cut.
  • Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the makers of the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead , have cameo appearances as photo zombies. Romero was very enthusiastic about the film, which is considered an homage to his earlier films, which is why he invited both of them.
  • Tom Savini can be seen as a zombie (called "Machete Zombie" in the credits), a reference to his character 'Blades' from Dawn of the Dead , who has obviously become a zombie. This is the first time a character has appeared a second time in a Romero movie.
  • Dennis Hopper and George Romero took inspiration from the George W. Bush administration when it came to the Kaufman Society . Hopper said his portrayal of Mayor Kaufman was heavily influenced by Donald Rumsfeld .
  • With a budget of 15 million US dollars, the film grossed 46.8 million US dollars worldwide, the DVD exploitation brought in another 11 million US dollars.
  • With Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green , the games appeared implementation in October 2005 of the film for PC and X-Box on the market.
  • The scenario of the luxury residential complex "Fiddler's Green" is also taken up in the secondary quest "Tenpenny Tower" in the game Fallout 3 .
  • In the zombie video game State of Decay, there is an auto repair shop called Big Daddy's Garage.

Reviews

The magazine TV Spielfilm writes: "No frills zombie action with biting humor in every respect". And further: “George A. Romero wins the all too familiar horror subject from time (spirit) appropriate variations in his fourth Dead film. Under the rustic, entertaining surface of macho action, simply knitted social satire and grotesquely bloody cannibal splatter at the limit of what is currently shown in the cinema, the 65-year-old hides well-intentioned criticism of the American generals behavior this time. So open your eyes in Zombie Land! Worth it."

Awards

In 2006 the film was nominated for the Saturn Award for best horror film and for best make-up .

He also received a nomination for an Empire Award .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Land of the Dead . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2005 (PDF; test number: 102 852 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Land of the Dead . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Official Site Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green
  4. ↑ TV feature film: Land of the Dead

Web links