What Is Jonathan Levine's Unique Cinematic View Of Agency In Warm Bodies

The film Warm Bodies directed by Jonathan Levine presents a unique cinematic view of agency. It gives an interesting insight into the free will of zombies through R, a refreshingly not-so-helpless female love interest in Julie, and communicates an empowering message of how teenagers can change society. The rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy) diverts from the typical depiction of zombies found in cultural phenomenon like The Walking Dead, World War Z, or Zombieland. Instead of the zombie being a simple corpse merely reanimated by a virus, zombies in Warm Bodies have consciousness, as communicated by R’s various internal monologues and voiceovers. The stigma against zombies comes from their lack of ability to communicate, and the overwhelming

Julie is also not the typical female love interest usually depicted in blockbuster films. Julie has a cause for her rebelliousness, and is capable of defending herself in the zombie apocalypse. When she is first shown in the film, she is getting prepared to go out into the zombie infested cities to scavenge for supplies. While her father, Grigio, gives a warning about zombies, and describes them via assumedly pre-recorded video as “They do not think, they do not bleed… they are uncaring, unfeeling, incapable of remorse” (Levine), Julie responds with “Sound like anyone you know, Dad?” (Levine). This statement shows that Julie does not agree with her father’s method of fighting against the zombie apocalypse, and shows that she is not afraid to tell Grigio this. Thus, instead of quietly rebelling against society through her own death as Juliet does, Julie is actively standing up against her father, and by extension how all humans think of zombies because of her father’s leadership

Also at the beginning of the film, the audience may be more open to identifying with Julie than R, because she is still human. Lindsey Scott describes the female gaze in Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet “Ultimately, we are not encouraged to share in Romeo’s experience of this first meeting as we are with Juliet’s, and the shots that follow indicate a gaze that initiates from Juliet’s perspective – a gaze that Romeo reciprocates – as she turns to face him behind the curtain.” (Scott, 138). Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting in the Zeffirelli film is similar to that of the first meeting between R and Julie in Warm Bodies. This identification with Julie is strengthened through R’s intimate flashbacks of her, followed by the defense of her friend, and terror while being overwhelmed by R’s zombie horde. Even though the film follows R for most of the film, the audience is given plenty of reasons to identify with Julie. Because of the many reasons to identify with Julie, it makes sense that the film would give the character more agency than that of female leads in other films, as to empower rather than alienate part of the film’s intended