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Saw a great movie over the weekend, by Pittsburg filmmaker George A. Romero. In the past several years there has been this resurgence of walking dead movies feasting on the living that have hit theaters, a genre Romero virtually created. Such films as "28 Days Later," the remake of "Dawn of the Dead," and the irreverent and affectionate send-up "Sean of the Dead," have mined the territory pioneered by Romero. But there has always been one thing missing from these apocalyptic tales that sets Romero's vision apart: the biting social satire and commentary thinly veiled as a gore-fest horror show.
George Romero's zombie cycle began in the late '60's with "Night of the Living Dead," a movie about this sudden plague that resulted in the recently dead coming back to undead status to walk the earth and feast on the living. A tense allegory about racism, and a new social order arising and how it affects the status quo. Coming a few years after the civil rights movement, the film closed with this image that recalled the lynchings of that era, with a bunch of good ole' boys out taking shots at the zombies, and laughing. Who were the real monsters here?
"Dawn of the Dead," (not the fun remake, but the harrowing and far superior original) dealt with the futility of consumerism, and how it lulls society into a false sense of security. "Day of the Dead" was a bit of a muddled mess, but had themes about the nature of what happens to society once upheaval in the social order isolates a regimental order from a controlling force. It also had themes about trying to "domesticate" a social class to be useful to the ruling order, ie. to try to impose a cultural structure on another culture in order to make it more palatable to the established order. As I said, these themes were a bit muddled, and the film suffered from no likable characters, and absolutely the most horrifying gore I have ever seen in a film.
After over two decades of not doing anything in the zombie genre he virtually created, George Romero came back, wrote and directed "Land of the Dead." The film stars a very restrained but perfect Dennis Hopper as a Donald Trump-like developer/capitalist type. The remaining living humans have holed up in cities, and walled themselves in, isolating themselves from the walking dead plague outside. Taking a note from the classic Fritz Lang film "Metropolis," a ruling class has taken to living in a beautiful high-rise tower that overlooks the slums and run-down area of the city sprawled around it. Inside this tower are restaurants, boutiques, fountains, and living areas, beautifully controlled, maintained. Beautiful people wear fancy clothes and dine, go about their business, blissfully ignorant by choice of the realities of the world outside their "borders."
As with any good capitalist society, there must be someone to do the serving, wait the tables, take out the trash. Around the tower, in the "slums" are the working class, that live desperate lives of trying to survive and earn a meager buck by seeing to the needs of the upper class. It is these people that defend the city from the external threats. It is these that gather the supplies and resources needed to sustain not only themselves, but the ruling upper class.
Outside in what remains of the former civilization, the walking dead roam, going about the routines that they once did while living. Raiders from the cities come into these areas occupied by the undead, slaughter them and snag the "resources" contained in their land, such as food, gas, liquor, clothing, medicines.
The raiding supply parties launch fireworks into the air, and the zombies stand transfixed, gazing almost wistfully upward to the heavens, as if enraptured to some release from their worldly state. This is a metaphor for the downtrodden relying on religion, of looking upward for hope in a hopeless situation.
The seeds of revolution are planted when some of the undead start using tools, and communicating in a rudimentary fashion. The zombies mount an attack on the city from which their tormentors come. There comes a point where the fireworks just don't work anymore, showing that there comes a point where simple hope is no consolation for injustice.
Meanwhile amongst the lower serving class outside the ivory tower, there are seeds of dissent as well. John Leguizamo stars as a hispanic mercenary who hopes one day to accumulate enough wealth to live in the tower. When he realizes that regardless of any kind of success he may achieve, his role is always to be subservient to the entitled class, he decides to go "jihadist" on the tower.
Dennis Hopper's character perfectly reflects the logic and mindset of upper-class capitalists with a feeling of entitlement. People are to be used to serve the ruling class because it was the upper class that brought development and work in, and organized the fortification and protection of the populace. Never mind the fact that it was the under-class that actually DID the protecting. The soft upper class actually had no teeth nor tools other than their money against any sort of social uprising or threat. Hopper's character Kaufman talks about giving the little people a source of income and work, vices and entertainment keeps them happy and in control. Leguizamo's Cholo shows the problems with this. Vices, greed and acquisition of wealth are encouraged by the media and social order, yet class-ism is a barrier which prevents the working class from ever actually aspiring to the upper echelon.
Simon Baker of "The Shield" plays a weary mercenary who just wants to get away from everything. He wisely observes that the fences that we build to keep the outsiders out, hold us prisoners as well. He also says of the zombies, which are like the third world nations far from our borders whose societies we ravage to fuel our own society, are just looking for a place to exist and live, just like us. They are pretending to be human, just like everyone else is.
This is a gory flick, not overly scary, and there are a ton of explosions. These are all just window dressings for these heavy social themes. This film is actually pretty short, around 90 minutes. But in this condensed time, a lot of really heavy themes are sustained. The performances were all around GREAT.
Romero has always been a subversive sort. This film is such a movie for our times. If you can stand a little horror, a little gore, see this movie!
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