Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Is One Braaaaaaainy Mashup

Jack Huston"s Action Flick Marries Pride and Prejudice with Zombies

When it was published in 2009,Pride and Prejudice and Zombieswas like nothing people had seen before, infusingJane Austens classicnovel ofsubversion with ahealthy dose of shambling undead zeitgeist. Pre-release attention from the likes of NPR led topublic curiosity, whichmadeSeth Grahame-Smiths novel hugely popularand in turn led to a cottage industry of public-domain-literature-plus-monsters mashup fiction.

Now, almost seven years after the books release, director Burr Steers film adaptation of PPZis hitting theaters. In those intervening years, so many other genre mashup movies have come along thatZombies original concept seems almost rote. (The adaptation of Grahame-Smiths Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, for example, made it to theaters in 2012.) But Steers film stands out;unlike other high-low pulp cocktails, this one happens toalso the most fiercely feminist version of Jane Austens novel ever filmed.

Pumping Up Prides Feminist Message

For his part, Grahame-Smith is quick to reject the idea that Austens novel didnt have those elements to begin with. No feminism has been added to the book that wasnt there in the original, he says. Its just taking what Austen already did and injecting it with steroids.

But its undeniable that themonstrous conceit of Zombies doesnt change the stakes for the Bennett sistersand, in fact, give them more agency. In Austens novel, Mrs. Bennett frets constantly about marrying off her daughters, because as women they cannot inherit any property. In the movie version of events, England is a beleaguered shell of a country in the midst of a zombie outbreak, with small outposts holding out against the walking dead. Mr. Bennett (played by Tywin Lannister himself, Charles Dance) has raised his daughters to be fierce warriors, insisting they are trained for battle, not cooking.

In a world where survival is a daily struggle against a supernatural phenomenon, the Bennetts dont need men to protect them, so they can afford to seek a partner based on genuine affection.

Zombies roam the countryside, and any carriage ride or public ball could turn into a brain feast, so survival is the number one concern for everyone. Theres still a streak of classismCharles Bingleys sisters, for example, look down on the Bennetts for receiving their training from a Shaolin temple in China instead of in Japan like the upper classes. But the sisters arent simplycompetent survivors like the rest oftheir peerstheyre superwarriors, slicing apart zombie hordes and rescuing men left and right. In a world where survival is a daily struggle against a supernatural phenomenon, the Bennetts dont need men to protect them; they can afford to seek a partner based on genuine affection.

And in this telling, second daughter Lizzie (Lily James, in a role thats the polar opposite of her turn as Cinderella last year) doesnt just verbally spar with monster hunter Fitzwilliam Darcy (Sam Riley). She out-duels him with a sword, and even impresses Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Lena Headey, another Game of Thrones veteran) with her strength. In Pride and Prejudice, Lizzie stoodout because her wit and outspokenness is at odds with the way society insisted women act. In Zombies, shes even more extreme, finding that her courage increases with every attempt to intimidate her.

Zombies Most Empowering Change

As with any novel-to-film adaptation, there were many changes to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the most significant being that it turns the otherwise languid third act into a battle royale. But its what happens in the midst of that scrum that might be the movies most female-empowering change.Austens novel ended with Lizzie giving in to the feelings that had takenhold of her the first moment she saw Darcygoingfrom being repulsed by Darcys words to being impressed by his actions to help her family, and ultimately to falling for him. Its as confusing as it iscontroversial, coming as it does after she so completely demonstrates her independence.

Lizzie and elder sister Jane are the leading warriors in the films largest zombie battle. They are the agents of their own destinies.

The book ofZombiesfollowed Austens original footsteps, having Lizzie give up her sword in order to marry Darcy.Steers film, though, rejects that ambiguity outright:The climactic battleseesLizzie and hersister Jane leading the charge inthe films largest battle against the zombies. Jane saves her beloved Bingleya capable but frightened officerand during the ensuing wedding ceremony, the officiant asks the brides if they take their respective men to be their husbandsbut not the other way around. This time around, the womenare the agents of their own destinies.

Smith says his goal was staying as close to Austens story as possible, to see how closely I could hew to the original text and surgically graft onahopefully seamless genre piece. But since the film has already transcended static text in favor of the graphic sensory overload of genre films, it goes even further in characterization to emphasize how independent and in-control the Bennetts deserve to be.

More Than Just Another Mashup

In the subsequent years since the book was a hit, mashup ideas have come and gone. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter went from page to screen in only two years. The Walking Dead remains a juggernautfor AMC. World War Z is getting a sequel, thanks to box office receipts that trumpedits middling reviews. If the same cultural fascinationthat surroundedPride and Prejudice and Zombies had also put the first incarnation of the filmstarring Natalie Portman and directed by David O. Russellon the fast track to theaters, perhaps it wouldve presaged the zombie craze much like the book.

But even if it doesnt have the same finger-on-the-pulse feel that Smiths novel did in 2009, Steers film is still far more complex than the silliness its title suggests. This is no Snakes on a Plane. Its a work of recombinationthat transcends the mashuppigeonholeby adding strains of Kill Bill, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Thelma and Louise. It may not be a cinematic masterpiece, or even be logically consistentbut its still far more vital than its premise suggests. And it contains the best simultaneous marriage proposal/fight scene of all time.

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Source: http://www.wired.com/2016/02/pride-prejudice-zombies-empowerment/