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Land Of Plenty (2005) DVD Review
Land Of Plenty (2005) DVD Credits:
Land Of Plenty (2005) Directed by:
Wim Wenders
Land Of Plenty (2005) Written by:
Not available at this time
Land Of Plenty (2005) Cast:
Michelle Williams
Land Of Plenty (2005) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Land Of Plenty (2005) DVD Release Date:
9th October 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Land Of Plenty (2005) Synopsis:

The Gospels, preached at a Skid-Row mission, contrast with images of LA's homeless, post-9/11 mistrust, and anti-Muslim violence. Lana cares about the poor - she's just come to LA from the West Bank, staying at a mission. She seeks her uncle Paul, a burned out Agent-Orange-addled Vietnam War vet, now a vigilante security cop, watching for terrorists two years after 9/11, suspicious of everything, including a Muslim carrying boxes of Borax. Lana and Paul drive to Death Valley, Lana to take the body of a murdered homeless Muslim to his brother, Paul to follow the Borax trail. Does family reconciliation resemble something larger?

Land Of Plenty (2005) DVD Review:

Post-9/11 films have become a genre of their own, struggling to find an artistic way of exploring how everyone is handling putting the pieces back together. Ideally they should challenge every American that watches them, and Land of Plenty is as successful as any have been. There are many great sequences which force you to think about the world we live in today and how frightening it must seem to some.

Lana is the daughter of a missionary and is extremely religious, but the depiction of faith is different than it is normally in films; it feels more authentic. The change is that Michele Williams plays Lana in such high spirits and friendly sensibility. Normally people of faith are not seen as happy as much as they are seen as brainwashed with a plastic smile carved into their face. It is a very brutal depiction making religious characters caricatures which seem like frightening robots, but Williams brings heart and soul into Lana. She doesn’t feel uptight or fake, but just soaring, filled with hope and faith. She dances on the rooftop as she listens to her headphones, lifting herself up to God and life while so many people below her are just angry and depressed by what life has given them.

The depiction of faith in general is well shot in Land of Plenty. There is a prayer sequence in which we hear in voiceover what she is thinking in her head, although she will occasionally say something out loud as well. Every once and a while the voice sound different, deeper somehow, and that is her voice of doubt in the back of her head. This examination of a person’s thought process, even in a peaceful time of prayer, is stunningly constructed.

Countering Lana’s ideals are her uncle Paul (John Diehl) and his post-9/11 paranoia. Paul spends his time driving around in his surveillance van videotaping citizens in Los Angeles that he suspects of terrorism. When he witnesses a Middle Eastern homeless man shot in a drive by outside of the shelter Lana works at, he begins a full blown conspiracy investigation to try and find out the truth. Intent on getting to know her long lost uncle Lana help him gather information and even arranges a cover for him.

The DVD has a feature commentary by the director Wim Wenders as well as a “Making of Land of Plenty” featurette and eight deleted scenes.

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Land Of Plenty (2005) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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