Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Newer History, European Unification, grade: 2,0, University of California, Berkeley (Department of History), course: U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History: Global Contexts, language: English, abstract: Wim Wenders' ambiguity, the love hate relationship with the United States was the main force behind the production of Land of Plenty (2004). It was shot within three weeks with ä small digital amateur camera, and only because the production of his next film Don t come knocking (2005) got delayed. The entire production of the movie took not more than six weeks. Without ä doubt, it is Wenders most political film so far. As a Christian, one (or, as he stated once, even his initial) ideä for the film was to set ä radically contrary ideä of being Christian against the fundamentalist Christendom of the Bush administration. His ambition was to fight against the treason [on democracy and freedom and] on all what is left of my childhood myth. As stated in the press release for Land of Plenty , it is ä film about the country he has been concerned with for many years and which he loves , ä very personal and sanguine film about those who still stand for this country s possibilities [ ], ä political essay. Typical for his artistic approach, Wenders did not want to make an angry film, but one that could contribute to healing ; ä profound difference to films by Michael Moore, a name often dropped in Germany in the context of Land of Plenty . Wenders, as he stated himself, wanted to explore the same territory as Moore, but, of course, in his very own way. In direct comparison to Moore , the Süddeutsche Zeitung, for example, grants Wenders more complex, sadly beautiful, inconceivable images and an overall more convincing approach.
