Land of Plenty (2004)

A drama that investigates anxiety and disillusionment in America.

Director:

Wim Wenders

Writers:

Wim Wenders (story), Scott Derrickson (story)

Stars:

Michelle Williams, John Diehl, Wendell Pierce

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michelle Williams	...	Lana
John Diehl	...	Paul
Shaun Toub	...	Hassan
Wendell Pierce	...	Henry
Richard Edson	...	Jimmy
Burt Young	...	Sherman
Yuri Elvin	...	Officer Elvin (as Yuri Z. Elvin)
Jeris Poindexter	...	Charles (as Jeris Lee Poindexter)
Rhonda Stubbins White	...	Dee Dee
Victoria Thomas	...	News Reporter
Matthew Kimbrough	...	News Anchor
Paul West	...	Policeman
Jeffrey Vincent Parise	...	Coroner's Assistant (as Jeff Parise)
Christa Lang	...	Trailer Park Woman
Warren Stearns	...	Mortician

Storyline

The American daughter of missionaries Lana returns to Los Angeles from Palestine to work in a mission helping homeless people. Lana was born in Ohio and raised in South Africa and Middle East, and she is an authentic citizen of the world, connected through Internet and aware of how other people see the lack of culture and knowledge and exaggerated patriotism of average American people. Her unique relative is her unknown uncle Paul, a veteran of Vietnam War that cut relationships with his family and is bigot and paranoid. Paul lives in a surveillance van, lives as if he were a secret agent, sees conspiracy and terrorist cells everywhere, and has a great prejudice against Arabs and other non-American breeds after the September, 11th. They meet each other, and when they see the murder of a poor Pakistanis nearby the mission, they travel together to the small town of Trone to deliver his corpse to the family, where Paul sees a different reality.

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Plot Keywords:

cigarette smoking | watching tv | vietnam war | borax | terrorist | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Manga Films [Spain] Océan Films [France]

Country:

USA Germany Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2004 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Angst and Alienation in America

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Emotion Pictures, InDigEnt (Independent Digital Entertainment), Reverse Angle International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At a public screening director Wim Wenders revealed that, just after his film Don't Come Knocking (2005) was delayed for a year, he found himself with plenty of time and the urge to shoot. He developed a treatment in just 3 days, worked on the screenplay for 3 weeks with the cast and crew and directly after that shot the entire movie in just 16 days.

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Goofs

When Henry picks Lana up from the airport, a member of the crew is visible in the rear window of his pickup truck, holding a bounce board to reflect light on the actors.

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Quotes

Paul: They're trying to destroy our country. They're trying to infect us. I'm not going to let them.

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Connections

References The Million Dollar Hotel (2000)

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Soundtracks

Expensive Being Poor
Written by T.V. Smith (as TV Smith)
Performed by T.V. Smith (as TV Smith)
Courtesy of JKP GmbH & Co. KG

User Reviews

Why so bad?

I really disagree with some American comments here, maybe just because I am European, I don't know, but anyway I liked that movie. It is stupid to think that Wenders wanted to represent into the main character a typical American, obviously it is just an extreme position about the fear of anything (common in USA), but it doesn't reflex the society, it is a product of it. It doesn't take a wonderful picture of USA, but at the same time it doesn't distruct it, it want just show the paradoxes of that land, it want to be watched like the "land of plenty" and it is not, but it doesn't mean to be the hell. I understand when Americans find only cliché inside, but some of them are true, your country has fear mania, not all of you but some. In Italy as well we say that everybody dislike Berlusconi, but he is prime minister. But now it's time to speak about the movie: it is nice, characters' work is well-made and elaborated, Location are incredible, they show another USA, different from other movies. I didn't like Michelle Williams because of dowson's creek, but here she is not bad, her character is understood by people, but I think it is the work of Wim.