I saw the poster in the cinema a few months ago and I totally dismissed any interest in the movie. I was wrong, I guess it’s my bad, I shouldn’t judge a movie by its poster 😉 Having a good time viewing a movie sure is a good thing, but let me tell you this, having a good time commenting a movie is truly amazing.
Allow me to lay out what’s basically happening in the movie. A zombie epidemic forged a new world where humans, small in numbers, are barricaded behind fotified walls stiving to survive. Outside the walls, there are zombie whose body are cold, without a heart-beat and crave for human flesh and especially human brain. Only the body of a zombie is dead, the mind however is still conscious, although they pretty much eat humans against their own will because their body need it. “Boneys” are zombie that succombed to their inhuman desires and became monsters that terrify even zombies although they sahre the same interest, eating the livings. The main plot concerns the relationship between a male zombie called “R” and a human girl whose name is “Julie”.
To this point, the review was spoiler-free. The following content will contain spoilers of different scale. So if you are sure you’ll be watching the movie, go watch it before reading. If not, you might read this because it will be an analysis in majority and it doesn’t explicitly unveil the major parts of the plot. Your call.
“Warm Bodies” suggests a strong reference to the tale of Romeo and Juliet. Most explicitly with the name of the main protagonists : R & Julie. They each come from different worlds : the world of the living and the world of the dead. This incompatibilty between the two kind retells the family feud depicted in Shakespeare’s work. And of course, we find the famous balcony scene where Romeo (in this case, “R”) speaks to Juliet from beneath the balcony.
In addition to the reference to Romeo & Juliet, “Warm Bodies” originality shines out from the perspective. The story is told from the point of view of a zombie. We have access to his train of thoughts, which isn’t only consisted of “Brains, brains, brains …” like it is typically depicted in most zombie movies.
Beyond these two points, what I admired in the movie was its symbolism. This part of the review will solely be based on personal interpretation so you make what you want of it. The movie is a metaphor portraying today’s social interactions. On one side we have the living caracterised by their warmth and aliveness, as opposed to the cold bunch whose hearts are dead. I believe the movie praises the greatness of warmth, notice the insistence through the title itself. Passion is what makes a zombie’s heart beat again. That image of transcendental love was sublime. The zombie’s features criticizes the cold attitude of people nowadays : words are spoken without being used for real communication, people bump into each other and it doesn’t matter, the zombies are narrow-minded with a conscience perverted by carnal desires. This coldness that emanates from these characters also suggeststhe fatality of routine, boredom, emptiness and hollowness. Their existence seems to have lost its meaning. This image of zombies is strong in our world where people are obsessed with technology (phones, TV, computers), we always seem to have things to do while never actually have time to spare and we hardly interact with random people for the sake of talking. Everything seems to be motivated by personal interests and advantageous opportunities.
One aspect of the movie I really enjoyed was the concept elaborated around the notion of brain-eating. Each time the hero eats brain, he is drawn into a colorful world of images. Eating these memories seem to be the only way a zombie has to enjoy himself, his only road to happiness. I presumed that Brain-eating is a visual metaphor of taking drugs. It is a mean of escaping the cold reality in order to access an artificial paradise filled with colors and bliss. People truly feel happy when they take drugs (even be it marijuana for those that don’t consider it a drug) like a zombie truly enjoys eating a brain because it makes him forget the harsh truth of his existence as a zombie that relies on eating flesh as the sole purpose. However, it doesn’t only make the zombie forget the stone-cold reality, it also makes him forget the pleasure of simply living. This is not an essay aiming to criticize drugs. The drugs as portrayed in the movie, is a mean of transportation to explore other horizons, but it still isn’t one’s true self. I think that the given image of Brain-eating corresponds quite well with the reality of drugs in our world.
The zombie aspire so much to acquire brain because it lets them feel. This is important for creatures that once knew how to feel but now lost the touch of it. But they still possess the capacity of thinking ; that’s the thing that differenciates the zombies from the Boneys. Zombie, like humans trapped in this world of consumerism, frivolity and fake honesty, are still able to think. However the thinking is put to use for making excuses. The zombies, like “R” did in the beginning, justify their brain-eating by saying it is a way to spare the humans from the torment of going through the nightmare of being an undead. By eating their brain they prevent the human from resurrecting in the form of a zombie. Although it is only natural to sugar-coat one’s carnal desire, the zombies aren’t different from humans in some aspects I guess.
All in all, it was a movie I seriously enjoyed both for its renewal of the zombie myth and the Romeo & Juliet scenario, but also for its ideas. Especially the way it defends the importance of warmth, something that today’s society tends to lack. Also, the music in the movie plays such a huge role in creating feeling, which is one of the main themes of the movie itself. The music as used in this movie is a good example of how music can be put to good use in a movie. Hope you enjoyed my comment and above all, I hope you enjoy the movie.
Movie Melody 