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Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on October 6, 2005, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
It has been suggested that Universal pulled George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead out of its original October 2005 theatrical slot and rushed it onto big screens this past June in order for the DVD to come out during the lucrative Halloween season. Whatever the motivation, putting Land up against big summer competition did it no favors at the box office, and the Unrated Director’s Cut special-edition disc continues the disservice. While there are good tasty morsels scattered about the bonus features, this isn’t the feast it could (and should) have been, and it suffers in comparison to Universal’s DVD treatment of Shaun of the Dead and the Dawn of the Dead remake—not to mention Anchor Bay’s boxed set of Romero’s Dawn.
Under any circumstances, but especially here, the disc’s highlight would have to be the film itself (previously reviewed here). The studio has done its usual sterling job with the 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, which looks terrific from the very first scene—check out the way the green of the trees holds steady in the otherwise blue-tinged night—and bears perfect flesh (and blood) tones. The DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are equally fine. While the R-rated theatrical cut (also being issued on DVD) got away with a hell of a lot of grisliness, gorehounds will revel in the additional splatter that has been restored for the Unrated disc—not to mention that even more of the red stuff has been added via CGI especially for this edition! Also put back in is an early scene that gives extra shading to John Leguizamo’s character and a bit of business involving little person Phil Fondacaro. While hardly revelatory, the new material adds additional spice to the full meal of shocks, character and subtext Romero has whipped up for this latest chapter in his Dead chronicles.
Which is why it’s disappointing that so little of the film’s dramatic content is explored in the audio commentary by Romero, producer Peter Grunwald and editor Michael Doherty (whose name is misspelled on one of the menu screens). Given that three people are involved, there are a surprising number of, um, dead moments in the conversation, and precious little time devoted to the story development, the underlying themes or Land’s relationship to previous chapters (indeed, Romero insists early on that no narrative connection to them was intended). At around the two-thirds mark, the director even points out that “We should talk about the performances”—and is then back on the subject of locations within a minute or so.
We do learn quite a bit about where various scenes were filmed, which moments are new to this cut and which portions of the movie were digitally augmented, while Doherty makes a few interesting observations about his contributions to shaping both action and personal moments. Romero offers occasional fun tidbits, like his interest in exploring zombie animals in future Dead films (alluding to an undead-rat scene cut from an early draft of Land) and confirming this viewer’s suspicion that in the crossing-the-river sequence, he wanted to show his ghouls walking underwater—until he saw the similar tableaux in Pirates of the Caribbean.
One of the few acknowledgments of Land’s political allegory comes in the “Undead Again: The Making of Land of the Dead” featurette, when Romero refers to the villainous Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) and his underlings as “the Bush administration.” The 13-minute minidocumentary is too cursory to be fully satisfying, but has its moments, as when Asia Argento muses that “There’s a certain smell to fake blood…it reminds me of my childhood,” along with plenty of on-set footage. “The Remaining Bits” are just that: less than three minutes of deleted snippets, unremarkable save for a couple of amusing gore gags. “A Day With the Living Dead” is described on the package as Leguizamo’s “personal tour through an entire working day,” but the seven-minute running time hardly allows for an immersion in either the acting or production process. While Leguizamo’s goofing does result in a few good laughs, the whole thing feels too calculated.
“When Shaun Met George” is exactly the kind of spontaneous-feeling, off-the-cuff piece that Leguizamo’s should have been. It documents Shaun of the Dead creators Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s visit to the Land set to play zombies, offering the best you-are-there atmosphere of any of the disc’s supplements. The duo’s enthusiasm for Romero and his films, and their joy at basically living a Dead fan’s dream, is palpable and makes this lots of fun to watch.
There’s also a quintet of extras exclusive to the unrated DVD, and they’re as mixed a bag as the others. Best of the bunch is “Bringing the Dead to Life,” in which KNB’s Greg Nicotero shares the details of zombie creation, including a number of the notable individual ghouls. There’s plenty of juicy FX footage here, plus a fun anecdote by Romero, who recalls meeting a very young Nicotero for the first time—in a restaurant in Rome! Despite its title, “Zombie Effects: From Green Screen to Finished Scene” is devoted to CGI, not special makeup, offering interesting before-and-after comparisons of digitally altered setpieces. Similarly, “Bringing the Storyboards to Life” presents those drawings alongside their onscreen counterparts.
The other two supplements in this batch are musical throwaways. “Scenes of Carnage” simply sets a montage of gore shots to a minute and a half of classical music, while “Scream Tests: Zombie Casting Call”—which suggests a revealing peek at how the undead extras were chosen—is just a minute of rough-CGI ghouls dancing. Surely there were better ways to fill the DVD and honor the man whom Land’s trailer (sadly absent here, perhaps due to rights issues involving the use of Night of the Living Dead clips) and the disc packaging justifiably refer to as a “legendary filmmaker.”
