One thing that just occured to me...

[AssassinFromHell]

One of the big highlights in the original trilogy was hiding from the problem. Isolating yourself in a secure area in order to survive the problem. In Night of the Living Dead, you had them hiding out in the farm house. In Dawn of the Dead, you had them hiding out in a mall. In Day of the Dead, you had them hiding out in an underground bunker. That was where a majority of the movie took place. It wasn't really out in the open, and going through the mess. In Land of the Dead, when the Dead Reckoning was hijacked, it took us out into the open. Even though the movie focused on an isolated city, we saw alot of the outside world. Through the guys exploring the ruins of civilization, and through the fight for the Dead Reckoning. It wasn't like the others, where the main characters were fighting the problem from within a building or isolation. Anyone ever think about this?

[MinionZombie]

Come to think of it, I'd never actually thought of it in that way...nice point there AFH. It's part of why I like Land so much - you see this ravaged world we've spent all this time hiding from, now we see what's become of it - and the simple topics of how they survive - by going out raiding. Yay "Land of the Dead"!!!

[bassman]

I don't think I ever thought of it that way. Personally, I really enjoy the zombies being the protagonists and the commentary on the film(although I think most around here didn't). Even the "They're just looking for a place to go" line that everyone whined about. It was a bit straight-forward but Romero's films have always been like that. It says something about the world today and I really dig it.

[AcesandEights]

That's one of the reasons that makes LOTD so refreshing, it takes that next ponderous step forward in the telling of the broader story. I mean, I know most people on these boards must have stopped and thought about the state of those who managed to survive for any real length of time in the Romeroverse, and, while LotD doesn't take as keen a look as I'd like into the workings of the survivor's society, it is a refreshing change to see this portrayed in a Romero film. And naturally you're not going to build much of a society in an underground bunker, or a shopping mall, so we finally got to see a little (more) daylight and some decent wreckage. It's what really got me enjoying the whole playing up of man's ability regarding, and self-proclaimed penchant for, survival, and how humanity has a way of hauling itself up from the edge of the abyss, just to spit in the eye of providence, take life for granted and forget how close death can truly be at hand. It reminded me a lot of that Robert Frost passage about Ararat, especially the scenes of the carefree raiders seemingly oblivious to the horror that surrounds them and the fact that they are, possibly, a hair's breadth away from extinction. Anyway, I hope we'll get to see more flicks that look at how the world at large fares and copes (or fails to cope) more than just a few days or weeks after the rising and the conflicts between those that only wish to survive off the bloated corpse of the old world and those who want to build anew.

[MinionZombie]

And a BIG plus in favour of Land - it wasn't another 'beginning of the plague' movie - none of that crap of a bunch of people shooting them in the chest and wondering why it's not working *argh!* All you ever see is the beginning of the plague *yawn - it's been done enough* - Land gave us 5 years down the track at essentially mankind's last chance for survival. I also really liked the "they're just looking for a place to go" thing - it was what GAR was going for, putting the zombies and the people on an even level - and occasionally making you feel sympathy for the zombies at times. AND - Land features "Number 9", the hottest zombie chick ever ... 'sick' perhaps, but it is just a woman in make up...but for a zombie she's pretty hot, lol.

[jdog]

i also like the fact that land takes place when society is just starting to rebuild and adapt to the zombie plague. and yes "number 9" is hot even as a zombie

[Adrenochrome]

i also like the fact that land takes place when society is just starting to rebuild and adapt to the zombie plague. and yes "number 9" is hot even as a zombie mmmmm #9

[Arcades057]

Don't like to see them getting shot in the chest? Nearly every shot from Land WAS in the chest! You'd think that after, what, three years the people would know one-shot-one-kill. What I want to see from a zombie movie (hopefully from Land 2 if it's given the green light) is a movie that expands more on the world. I want to see the first days, but from a wide perspective, not just on one group. Imagine Dawn 78, but expanded. I want to see zombies in NY, zombies on the white house lawn, the last plane leaving La Guardia as hundreds of civilians wait on the tarmac for another plane that will never come, I want to see the reaction of the Muslim world to the rising dead, I want to see the Pope's response to the rising, I want to see a scene reminiscent of War of the Worlds, where the army and air force throw everything they have at the zombies only to see thousands more coming. Admittedly, that's a lot to show, but it can be done. I watched a movie called "The day after" last night about a nuclear war. They used stock footage of ICBMs taking off and exposed film to mimic the thermonuclear clouds; low budget but it looked nice. A really good friggin movie that probably cost about a tenth of Land. Land left me wanting more. The things I liked most about the movie were the little things: Seeing the plane smashed through a wall when they leave the city, seeing the individual zombies and how they died, I liked seeing how the humans lived. But that was about it.

[MinionZombie]

Better to be left wanting more than sat looking at your watch is what I always say. As for that epic across America zombie tour you described...probably quite far beyond GAR's resources...and some of it would have been situated much earlier in the franchise, say around the time of Dawn of the Dead. But of course - not everyone's going to be capable of pulling off a head shot - e.g. Kaufman, who'd be too busy drinking champagne than taking time out on the shooting gallery. Plus he (and others) would be cakking their pants, lulled into a false sense of security that they were safe - they let their guard down - many didn't bother about learning how to use a gun. Also, getting a headshot with an M16, through a big fence, facing a HOARD of zombies you weren't expecting ... probably not the easiest thing. Plus, sometimes it just has to happen to keep the plot moving, if they shot them all in the head then the movie would grind to a halt. But there were still plenty of head shots throughout you have to admit.

[Arcades057]

The headshot I was mainly talking about was the one where the zombie gets stuck on the fence. The idiot shoots off a whole magazine to kill it.

[axlish]

Judging by the progression of the previous four films, part 5 should be about total all out war. Either we take it, or they do. In Land, we are no longer hiding, but they are getting smarter. In part 5, there will be more Big Daddy level zombies, training others. They'll all be carrying weapons. Part 5's name, WAR OF THE DEAD!!!! Big Daddy marches on Dead Reckoning and Cleveland... TONIGHT!

[AcesandEights]

The headshot I was mainly talking about was the one where the zombie gets stuck on the fence. The idiot shoots off a whole magazine to kill it. I always felt the "officer" on duty should have made that chick police up her brass after wasting so many shots. Then again, I would have had standing orders to collect any spent shells when not in the middle of an emergency (i.e. after target practice and in "controlled situations," such as what we saw at the perimeter fenceline shooting).

[bassman]

It might of just been some kind of scheme to get Romero's daughter on film a bit longer. The woman shooting the zombie on the fence is Romero's daughter. Romero says this on the commentary and he said that she loved shooting that gun so they probably just rolled on her for alittle while and then ended up editing in a bit more than needed into the final film.

[Scousezombie]

OOh that's an interesting bit of trivia, I hadn't realised she was his daughter. The film was a lot less static than Night or Day; I didn't feel that Dawn 78 was quite as limited, as we did get to see a few different locations, plus news and radio reports. As I was watching the film, in particular the street market scenes showing us the disaffected poor of the city, I kept thinking of that old series 'The Equaliser' although perhaps that was also because Charlie used to be in it...

[Tullaryx]

My brother and I talked about the godawful marksmanship from the soldiers employed by Kaufman and we boiled it down to two things. One, they were pretty much panicking once they realized the zombies had gotten in and an assault rifle is a kind of weapon that needs a steady hand for accuracy. Plus, they were spraying burst instead of taking steady single-shots. Second, the soldiers probably became so complacent with having the river and the electrified fence protect them from the zombies that they never had a chance to practice real life shooting. This could easily have been done by sending out not just raiding parties (and the raiders seemed to have better aim if one looked at the film), but by sending out patrols of soldiers to search and destroy pockets of zombies near the city.