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16 August 2010

Realistically Speaking...

When I was in grad school, one of my professors told me a story about a well known medieval scholar who was asked once which of several recent movies most accurately portrayed the Middle Ages. The person asking offered several examples of documentaries and deeply researched historicals, but the professor had an immediate answer:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Yeah.

The one with the knight with a flesh wound, the killer rabbit, and Tim the Enchanter.

The Middle Ages, he said, were not all kings and queens prancing around in castles. There was mud. And squalor. And people dying of the Black Plague, and others just carrying on. And of course, there was still jokes and laughs.

That story really stuck with me. We romanticize so much, from our own lives and memories to the way we think about the history.

And about the future.

Recently, I was watching a movie. Some people probably thought this movie was a bit over-the-top, just looking for laughs, but as I was watching, I realized that this is my Monty-Python-dystopian; what I think the future is most likely going to be.


Yup.

Zombieland.

Twinkie-obsessed, foul-mouthed, horny-in-a-nice-way, Zombieland.

THAT'S what I think the future apocalypse will hold.

Here's the thing: whatever the end of the world brings, be it aliens, zombies, environmental, whatever--the survivors are going to survive by cardio. And they're going to want Twinkies. And they're eventually going to get desensitized to whatever caused the end of the world.

Yes, obviously, this movie is a comedy. Obviously it did things for shock and comedic value. But you know what? I think when the world ends, the ones left over are going to be a lot like the characters in the movie. Some are going to be brutal killers, dependent on only themselves for survival. The children aren't going to know about simple things we take for granted, such as watching Ghostbusters, but they are going to know how to shoot and kill.

And some are going to want Twinkies.

So, what about you guys? What movie or book do you think is the most realistic version of the end of the world?

(PS: My runner-up for most realistic end-of-the-world movie? Shaun of the Dead.)

9 comments:

  1. If we're going for a depressing vision of the end of the world: The Road... if the world has to end though I hope it's a Buffy/Angel style apocalypse, where if we don't win this one there's another one just around the corner...

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  2. I love all three of those movies so count me in.

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  3. I've been reading Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer at the gym--which has made me stop at one of two grocery stores in the same shopping center after EVERY workout. The book is far more depressing, realistic, and poignant than the Road.

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  4. I think you're spot on about Zombieland, and this reminds me of The Onion sketch about how we're not preparing our children for the apocalypse! LOL

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  5. I love ZOmbieland & I totally agree with your assessment! Those are the people that are going to survive & his "rule of survival" are all ones we should take note of in case of the zombie invasion. :)

    P.S. Also a HUGE Shaun of the Dead fan!

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  6. I have to agree that Zombieland is an awesome movie and have seen it many many times. Good assement to how things would probably turn out in any sort of end of the world disaster.

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  7. I think Zombieland was full of sage wisdome. DOUBLE TAP!!

    Having just read The Passage...I'm quite sure that's how the world is going to end. However, all the rules of Zombieland still apply in the case of vampires I believe.

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  8. Uh oh... have not seen Zombieland...

    I think my biggest fear is that the world as we know it will end like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That movie terrified me (it still does!)

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