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At first glance, Zombieland looks like Tea Party paradise. In the 2009 zombie comedy, all the survivors of the zombie apocalypse are white, drive big SUVs and have lots and lots of guns. Each of them lives by his or her own code, all of which appear to be some version of “Screw you Jack, I’ve got mine.”
Jesse Eisenberg, star of this year’s The Social Network, narrates the film and introduces us very quickly to his rules for living in “The United States of Zombieland.” This geek boy, forced into the light of day by a cute girl who tried to eat him, is obsessed with cardio and staying limber, making sure he’s got a big gun with which to “double-tap” the zombies (because you’re never sure one shot will actually kill them), and cutting all emotional ties in order to focus on his own survival.
The characters all go by names of places—Middle American cities like Wichita and Little Rock. No proper names; that might indicate a relationship. Eisenberg is referred to as Columbus by Tallahassee, Woody Harrelson’s funnier, warmer version of his Natural Born Killers character, whose gleeful violence is only vented on the living dead. Wichita is a cute girl—the Sarah Palin of this zombie flick, taking care of her little sister Little Rock in true Mama Grizzly fashion but willing to steal the Cadillac SUV out from under the tentative partnership of Columbus and Tallahassee, and in a truly symbolic moment, take their guns, too. Of course Columbus is smitten—who wouldn’t be? But does smitten mean he actually cares if she lives or dies, or just that he wants some action before she goes?
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Braaaains: How Pop Culture’s Hunger For Zombies Reflects the Tea Party Nation | | AlterNet
I write things. Sometimes they’re about zombies!
