Is Brad Pitt’s “World War Z” A Kind Of Porn?
by Mike Hogan
I saw World War Z last night at a small screening at the MoMA. There were a few journalists, some industry types and a pretty large collection of celebrities: Bruce Willis and his wife, Emma Heming; Sting and Trudie Styler; Kevin Bacon; Jemima Kirke; one of the Olsen twins (I can never tell which I’m looking at); Oliver Stone; and Darren Aronofsky, in front of whom I humiliated myself at the post-party by mistaking him for screenwriter Damon Lindelof. (“You owe me one!,” he said, laughing, as he walked away. Indeed I do.)
Before seeing the film, I read the Vanity Fair cover story about how the filmmakers scrapped the original ending and created a whole new one, written on very short notice by Lindelof and his friend Drew Goddard and shot with about 20 actors. Once you’ve read the VF story, you’ll be able to see where the shift happens — it’s just over an hour in, when Pitt leaves Jerusalem on a plane. I don’t want to spoil the movie, so I’ll just say this: instead of getting even bigger, the story gets much smaller. The original ending had Pitt squaring off with zillions of zombies; this one has him facing a more personal, even intellectual challenge. There’s action, but it’s confined.
I think it works, though I suspect some people who see the movie cold will wonder why its scale contracted instead of expanding. The reason, according to the article, was to keep things focused on the characters.
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