Land of the dead.
In a walled off area of central pittsburgh, a feudal society has arisen surviving on scavenging the zombie filled wasteland. The wealthy rulers led by Paul Kaufman ( Dennis Hopper) live in luxury in the high-rise fiddlers green, while at ground level, soldiers and workers and underworld that all keep things running . the main source of protection for the colony is Dead reckoning, a highly armoured vehicle used for foraging missions. After years of subservience to Kaufman, Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo) realises he'll never be allowed to rise above his station and claim a flat in fiddlers green so he steals dead reckoning and takes it into the wilderness, threatening to launch a missile at the building unless he's paid whats due. Kaufman in desperation turns to Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) the designer of Dead Reckoning and his team to prevent Cholo from taking vengence. Matters are complicated when Big Daddy, a zombie with Bub-like intelligence decides to launch a raid on the city and leads an army of the dead to the city.
Land was Romero's return to the genre after years in the wilderness writing scripts for Hollywood that never got developed. The success of Shaun of the Dead, a homage to Romeros work created an appetit for zombie flicks that has not gone away. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg even turn up briefly in one scene. Land was received comewhat cooly by fans, and its taken a while for people to warm to it. The studio's removal of lots of trademark gore probably didn't help much. A lot of it was reinstated for home video which explains why its reputation appears to have grown. I like it more and more each time I see it. As a 'state of the nation' commentary it works well as a critique of post 9/11 america, with Hoppers Kaufman making an admirable stand in for Donald Rumsfeld ( Hopper himself said he based his performance on him) Also late 20th century to early 20th century American Capitalism where the American dream of unfettered social mobility has been stymied by an elite ruling class determined to cling to wealth and privilidge.
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