World War Z
Zombie pandemic
A frequent theme in the apocalyptic genre are the zombie movies, a human being who, after being infected by another zombie, returns to an unconscious life, where the only goal seems to be to attack other humans, who in turn will become new zombies. Although extremely exploited, the theme was used by writer Max Brooks in a very interesting book, which served vaguely as inspiration for the eponymous film, “World War Z” (USA, 2013).
If we think with some freedom, even Frankenstein, character created by writer Mary Shelley in 1818, could be classified as a zombie, since it was a being created with pieces of corpses that acquired life. Mas, the first zombie stories originate from the Afro-Caribbean Voodoo spiritual belief system, which tell about workers controlled by a powerful sorcerer. Reanimated with brain death they would remain in a catatonic state, creating fear and insecurity among the living.
The IMDB website lists more than 4,100 zombie-related films, several of them in the 1950s, including iconic titles such as “Plan 9 From Outer Space” (USA, 1957), by Ed Wood, dubbed “the world’s worst director”. But the film that revolutionized the theme was “Night of the Living Dead” (USA, 1968), by George A. Romero, showing them as beings who come back to life with hunger for human flesh.
From modern films, the Resident Evil series takes the famous video game to big screen, while the romantic comedy “Warm Bodies” (USA, 2013) brings a philosophical view of the zombie as the man “dehumanized” and devoid of emotions.
And what brings “World War Z”? Quite different from the book in which it was inspired, and which has a strong criticism about the human condition, the film shows the zombies as the result of an epidemic of unknown origin and cause, which reduces normal humans to a handful of trapped beings, in the face of an exponential number of undead.
On a day that seemed normal, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a former United Nations investigator goes out with his family for a walk, when the threat that was ignored or hidden by the rulers simply runs away from any control.
Lane and his family are rescued by UN soldiers, but he will have to get into the worst places to try to figure out how the epidemic arose, and help a scientist figure out a way to beat the undead.
This quest makes Lane go to places like South Korea, Israel and the United Kingdom, facing zombies of all kinds, and collecting fragments of knowledge that will help in the survival of the human species.
The production of “World War Z” went through several difficulties: changes in the script, recording new scenes, problems with special effects… Due to all these changes, the film had its premiere delayed by more than six months, with a budget of about 200 million dollars.
With all these setbacks, you’d expect the movie to be more of a millionaire trash, but what you see on screen is an incessant action movie, with a well-tied script, and absolutely fantastic special effects.
The studio’s concern was to avoid shocking scenes, so that a zombie is never shown devouring someone, or even some more violent action scene, keeping the horror at the subtended level.
Brad Pitt puts aside the figure of handsome heartthrob and embodies the conscious and concerned father of family, showing his maturing as an actor. The rest of the cast is very diverse, with little time to participate.
An additional curiosity is that this film seems to be premonitory, since we are experiencing a worldwide pandemic with the dangerous virus of intolerance that creates millions of extremist brainless zombies, who keep exposing themselves and harming other people with fake news and risky attitudes.
“World War Z” is an action film for teenagers and adults, without skidding for gore or other appeals, and undoubtedly remains to this day as a special attraction. The film can be watched on Amazon Prime Video, Telecine and Globo Play.