World War Z-Z-Z-Zion?

[cali]

“World War Z” is shaping up to be a solid summer hit. Having seen it in preview a couple of weeks before it opened, I’m baffled that it has garnered mainly positive reviews and is cleaning up at the box office. Maybe my problem is that I paid too little attention to the formidable filmmaking skills on display and too much to the politics of the thing, which lurch alarmingly toward the audience, threatening to eat our brains.

It’s clear that the movie started out as an earnest attempt to use the zombie-apocalypse trope as a metaphor for the need to deal with looming dangers like global warming and uncontrolled pandemics through concerted international action. Nothing wrong with that! On the contrary, it’s the kind of traditional Hollywood-liberal “message” of which, in principle, one must heartily approve. The problem is that the details are so very weird.

Early in the film, for example, we learn that while the governments of the United States, Russia, and the big European powers have been pretty much obliterated (though their cable-TV news networks are still going strong), two countries, and only two, have managed to survive the onslaught of the undead: North Korea and Israel.

<snip>

What do the Israelis do? They build a wall. But they’re basically humane, civilized people, so in Jerusalem, where we join them, they keep a gate open to let in the as-yet-uninfected un-undead—Palestinian Arabs, by the look of them. All goes well until some Palestinians already in the city start singing too lustily, and the massed zombies, also seemingly Palestinian, decide that they want in, too. (Zombies are attracted by loud noises.) This leads to the most remarked-upon scene in the film, which takes place at what resembles the Western Wall. The scrambling West Bank zombies just keep coming, climbing on top of one another until they form a giant ex-human pyramid, a siege engine of the undead, stacking up and spilling over the barrier. We are left to infer that everything probably would have still been O.K. if only the gates had been kept shut.

<snip>

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2013/06/world-war-z-z-z-zion.html?mbid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true

[X_Digger]

1. Next up, how 'Casey at the Bat' is actually a treatise on the communist state of mind..

I hate deconstructionists who feel obligated to turn popular entertainment into an example of their favorite bugabear.

'Avatar'? Right-wing commentary on military dominance of the US. No, it's a left-wing attempt to highlight the plight of native peoples around the globe.

*sigh*

[zappaman]

3. I had a profesor tell us that PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON was a drug song.

"Puff"-he pretended he was smoking a joint...
"the magic dragon"-"magic dragon is acid" he nodded knowingly...
'lived by the sea"-here he pretended to snort a line and proclaimed "C!".

I could go on, but I think that's enough crazy for today.

[X_Digger]

4. Let me guess, lit prof?

I had one of those, too, hehe.

[zappaman]

5. Actually no...

He was a professor for a class about Laws in Media.
Looked like a hobbit, so maybe he tolkeined too much back in the day?

[X_Digger]

7. lol! 'tolkeined'.. love it. n/t

[trumad]

2. Pretty shitty defense on their part.

Hey---how about a few guards to watch the outside of the wall.

Pretty disappointed with the movie.

[MattFromKY]

6. They'll let anyone write for The New Yorker, apparently. nt

[cali]

8. are you kidding? Hertzberg is an iconic New Yorker writer

this may not be one of his best, but he's a wonderful writer and political commentator.

Hendrik Hertzberg (born 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for The New Yorker magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of The New Republic, and is the author of ¡Obámanos! The Rise of a New Political Era and Politics: Observations & Arguments. On January 22, 2009, Forbes named Hertzberg one of the "25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media", placing him at number seventeen.[1]

<snip>

Hertzberg was twice editor of The New Republic, from 1981 to 1985 and then from 1989 to 1992, alternating in that job with Michael Kinsley. In between his stints as editor he wrote for that and other magazines and was a fellow at two institutes at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government: the Institute of Politics and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. Under his editorship The New Republic twice won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the magazine world’s highest honor.[citation needed]

In 1992, when Tina Brown became editor of The New Yorker, she recruited Hertzberg as her executive editor, and he helped her redesign and revitalize the magazine. Under Brown's successor, David Remnick, Hertzberg is a senior editor and staff writer and is a main contributor to "Comment," the weekly essay on politics and society in "The Talk of the Town." In 2006, his articles won The New Yorker a National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary.[citation needed]
Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Hertzberg

Yeah, he's just anyone.

[hedgehog]

9. Spoiler alert -

I'll wait a little














........

in the book, the wall is built and works very well and eventually becomes a model for other governments. I know that there was also the South African plan - to draw as many people as could be protected in to a secure area and more or less abandon the rest in a terrible form of triage. The North Koreans seal themselves into tunnels. No one knows if any zombies were included, so no one knows if the tunnels are full of humans or zombies, and no one is willing to find out!

[Jessy169]

10. World War Z -- hard to not make associations to current events

Whether intended or not, there are a lot of events and situations in that film that are fair game for interpretation. My son and I watched the new Superman movie and World War Z this weekend, and we both agree -- World War Z won hands down. But that's just us.

One of the most meaningful moments in the film -- to me -- was when the character in Israel -- the "10th man" -- commented on how the Jewish people had all seen the holocaust coming and had done nothing, and they had seen other dangers clearly approaching and had done nothing -- because, according to this man, it is human nature to not want to believe.

The allegory -- or literary comparison -- or whatever you might want to call it is that here in today's world we see global warming effects creeping over the horizon, we see the whole world financial system rotting at the base, we see the populations exploding and the resources being rapidly depleted and yeah, we realize that at some point in the future that the shit is going to hit the fan -- but not today, and not tomorrow, maybe not even in "my" lifetime. But, that might just be wishful thinking.

Well, that was the pleasant comparison that my son and I came up with. I thought it was a really good movie -- well worth the entry fee!

[Buns_of_Fire]

11. Silly people. If they'd only read "The Zombie Survival Guide" (also by Max Brooks) --

who, for what it's worth, is the son of Mel (yes, THAT Mel Brooks) -- they'd know how to deal with these annoyances. My neighbors, who happen to be zombies, agree. I think. It's hard to tell, what with the incessant moaning and grabbing for my brains.

[longship]

12. ROFL!

You win the thread.