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Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
49 Plays5 hours ago
What if the England of Pride & Prejudice was beset by a strange plague that brought the dead back to life to slaughter the living? What if young ladies were taught proficiency in sword play rather than playing the piano? And what if Elizabeth was a heartless, revenge driven, borderline sociopath?
Stefanie and Melinda discuss what happens when revisiting one of your favourite adaptations goes awry, and the painful hilarity of watching Hollywood go completely rogue on the film adaptation of a (sort of) classic novel in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith and its companion film, directed by Burr Steers.
Links & Mentions
The author’s interview in The Times can be read in full here. Additional interviews used as sources can be found here on TIme.com, here on Entertainment Weekly, and the author discusses reading everything Austen ever wrote here.
More information on Isolationist Japan can be found here .
A brief history of ninja can be found here - NB Stefanie uses the modern prefecture names only in this episode.
Emma Coffin’s fantastic look at Orientalism ("Ninjas – Invisible in More Ways than One: Orientalism in Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies") can be found here.
The more in-depth examination of costuming in PPZ that Stefanie references is here. While you can access the interview with the 2005 film costume designer Jacqueline Durran here on The Wayback Machine, where she mentions that Joe Wright was desperate for any excuse to shift the temporal setting of the novel to avoid "unflattering empire waistlines".
You can read more about the religious piety aspect of PPZ, that we didn't have time to get into in the episode, here in the fabulously named “Piety and Pigs Brains” essay on the JASNA website.
If you need subtitles or a transcript, these are available through Apple Podcasts. Please note, they are auto generated so we apologise in advance for it not correctly understanding our accents on certain words.
As always, you can find us (and our memes) on Instagram @janeaustenremixed and you can contact us via janeaustenremixed@gmail.com.
Join us every second Monday to hear all about a new adaptation of our favourite classic novel. Next episode we will be reading Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar. If you're reading along, we encourage you to buy secondhand or support your local independent bookshop, where possible.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Content Warning
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey all, before we start this episode of Jane Austen Remixed, a content warning for this week's text, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Graham Smith. Our discussion of this adaptation contains brief references to colonialism, racial fetishization, suicide, ableism, and some violence.
00:00:18
Speaker
These mentions are very brief, and they will only be referenced as they relate to the book's plot and themes. If any of these topics might be uncomfortable for you, please feel free to give this episode a skip.
00:00:29
Speaker
We'll be back again in two weeks. Otherwise, let's begin.
Concept of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey, Melinda. Hey, Stephanie. What if I told you Pride and Prejudice was actually about five badass martial arts trained sisters who spend their days slaying zombies and polishing their armory of weapons after a zombie plague has swept across England, while also trying to hunt down eligible matches to save themselves from an entailed estate?
00:00:58
Speaker
I think my response is best summed up with, a woman can either be highly refined or highly trained. We do not have a luxury of being both in these times. Music Music Music
00:01:21
Speaker
Welcome to Jane Austen Remixed, where we investigate the sword-wielding and brain-munching world of Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
Seth Graham Smith's Approach and Historical Context
00:01:29
Speaker
I'm Stephanie. And I'm Melinda.
00:01:32
Speaker
And today we'll be examining Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith and its companion film, directed by Burr Steers, who also adapted the screenplay.
00:01:43
Speaker
To kick us off, Melinda, can you please read us the blurb? It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.
00:01:55
Speaker
So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton.
00:02:11
Speaker
and the dead are returning to life. Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr Darcy.
00:02:24
Speaker
What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilised sparring between the two young lovers, and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan and overcome the social prejudices of the class conscious landed gentry?
00:02:44
Speaker
Complete with romance, heartbreak, sword fights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read. I'd forgotten that bit was at the end.
00:03:00
Speaker
I cannot describe to you how much I loathe the end of this blurb. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think a few testicle jokes in a reanimated corpse here and there elevates this book, which has frankly been relegated to the bins of pop culture history, higher than one of the greatest works of literature ever written?
00:03:22
Speaker
yeah I mean, look, this book is fun. It's not better than the original because it's mostly the original. And we will get into that. And I know, i know it's supposed to be funny and tongue in cheek, but I haven't read this for many years.
00:03:37
Speaker
And rereading it now, i really found myself like beefing with the way the author has so clearly written this book with a male audience in mind, as if to imply that no man could ever find reading the original an interesting or even rewarding prospect.
00:03:55
Speaker
Okay. And he says as much himself. I tried to read it when I was like a 14 year old and it was just awful. Okay. Now, if you want to read or even reread the book, jump off here.
00:04:07
Speaker
Otherwise, we'll get stuck in. Let me begin by saying, welcome to Buzzkill Central. the place where I revisit books I loved in my early 20s and ruined them for myself.
00:04:19
Speaker
It is a long list. There are many books on it, including The Bronze Horseman, for reasons I will not extrapolate here because that would need an entire other content warning. Please note, I do not include Bridget Jones's diary in this.
00:04:31
Speaker
You, dear listeners, actually helped me to redeem that book for myself, even though I may have ruined the movie for Melinda in the process. Just a little bit. It's fine.
00:04:42
Speaker
sorry. It's fine. It's still cinema. So we'll get into my newfound disdain for this adaptation in the analysis. So we'll start at the beginning.
Character Portrayals and Plot Deviations
00:04:51
Speaker
The author, Seth Graham Smith,
00:04:53
Speaker
wasn't actually the progenitor of the book's idea. That belongs to editor Jason Rakulak, I hope I've got that right, who called Graham Smith one day and asked him to simply write it.
00:05:05
Speaker
Now in interviews, yeah, so weird. In interviews, Graham Smith mentions how he immersed himself in Austen's world and every piece of writing she'd ever published and indeed every piece of writing ever written about her apparently. But I do question that.
00:05:22
Speaker
After he dropped this absolute doozy of a line in an interview with Time magazine, when asked about how well zombies had fitted into the small details already in the novel, he says, quote, "'There are soldiers encamped New Meriton in the original book for seemingly no reason whatsoever.' Napoleon, what? This is the whole thing we've discussed multiple times. There is. Yes.
00:05:45
Speaker
They're war. Yeah. Oh, boy. Okay. I'm pretty sure he would have found that if he had done even the most basic form of research. But let's move on. Yep.
00:05:56
Speaker
On to the plot. There isn't much to tell you, listeners. The bulk of the text is still Jane Austen's words. So, like with Darcy's story, I'll just point out the interesting builds. The first being this admittedly excellent twist on the opening, which is only slightly spoiled by the blurb, which I have for you to read, Melinda.
00:06:13
Speaker
Do remember this. This is fabulous. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of 18 was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
00:06:32
Speaker
Excellent. It's a great start. It's a cracker of an opening. And so we are thrown into a world where young women are taught the deadly arts instead of the creative. And while the citizens fight to keep social order and traditions intact, mayhem and death is now a daily occurrence.
00:06:49
Speaker
The first scene we'll move to... is the Assembly at Meriton. And I realise I'm skipping over a bit here, but like I said, it is mostly just Jane Austen's words.
00:07:00
Speaker
So we join after Lizzie overhears Darcy's slight. She is overcome with rage and moves to slaughter him where he stands in order to protect her honour. Side note, she was trained by Shaolin Monks, who adhere to a strict Buddhist code that calls for absolute pacifism, and nothing in my quick Google search included a carve-out for butchering those who insult you.
00:07:21
Speaker
Pun intended. Anyway, before she can act, a horde of unmentionables, the polite name for zombies, burst in through the window. Mr. Bennett calls on his daughters to form a pentagram of death, and the following plays out.
00:07:34
Speaker
Melinda? Just have to stop laughing. Oh, my God. Brings me back to the first time I was reading this and just going, perfect. okay Each girl produced a dagger from her ankle and stood at the tip of an imaginary five-pointed star. From the centre of the room, they began stepping outward in unison, each thrusting a razor-sharp dagger with one hand, the other hand modestly tucked into the small of her back.
00:07:57
Speaker
From the corner of the room, Mr. Darcy watched Elizabeth and her sisters work their way outward, beheading zombie after zombie as they went. And of course, he's forced to admit that actually she's pretty proficient with that. And, you know, maybe, maybe her eyes are brightened by the exercise. the exercise.
00:08:17
Speaker
Quick side note here. This iteration of Mr. Bennett is concerned only with keeping his daughters alive through the plague. However, he is still seemingly utterly unconcerned with how they will survive with no money and no home to live in after he is gone. His attitude is jarring and the side effects of his financial mismanagement are even more glaring in this adaptation.
00:08:36
Speaker
I'd forgotten about that. The fact that he's still Mr. Bennett, but yeah because it is Austin's story, he's just making sure his girls know how to wield a dagger. I'm sure that's going to do them really well then when they're living in a tent.
00:08:49
Speaker
Probably not. Alright, back to the plot. Here, the reason Mrs Bennett sends Jane to Netherfield on horseback is because if it rains, the unmentionables will spring more easily from the earth and Jane will simply have to stay overnight because it's not safe.
00:09:04
Speaker
Not only does it rain, but she is also beset by zombies. There is of course some concern that she has been bitten and turned, but it's confirmed that she is merely suffering a cold and a minor stab wound.
00:09:16
Speaker
Friendly minor, thankfully. Other big changes include the ball at Netherfield briefly being interrupted by zombies eating the staff because they had opened a door to cool the stifling kitchen. I'm sorry, Bingley, where are your guards? And Charlotte soliciting Mr Collins' affections because she has been stricken.
00:09:34
Speaker
Now, our girl Charlotte gets done absolutely dirty in this adaptation. It is so clear that the author loathes her character, cursing her to a slow demise and a lot of other small things that are, there's too many of them to list, but it's just very clear.
00:09:51
Speaker
He hates Charlotte. Indeed, when he was asked about his ill-treatment of Charlotte in this adaptation, he was pretty blasé about it, saying in that same Time magazine interview, Poor Charlotte, she can't catch a break.
00:10:06
Speaker
Not only does she get stricken with this strange plague and slowly turn into a zombie, but people say horrible things about her in this version, like she should just be happy that she's invited to this dinner party. She's a spinster, she just should expect nothing more than a crust of bread washed down with a cup of loneliness.
00:10:20
Speaker
well My good sir, why are you talking about this like you had no choice in the matter? You, who wanted to girlbossify Pride and Prejudice, have taken one of the strongest characters and chosen to grind her into the dust.
00:10:36
Speaker
You did that. Austin did not pen this incredibly degrading descent into undeadness for one of her best characters. You did. Okay, this has just blown my mind in so many ways because i think one of the best parts is how they adapt Charlotte.
00:10:57
Speaker
I think I just, okay, so completely agree with everything that was just said. But what I found, what I liked about it was the fact that it makes her choice to marry Mr. Collins a lot more real, like,
00:11:12
Speaker
oh, well, I'm not going to be alive for much longer. i want to experience marriage, so here we go But I completely agree with the rest of it. It's just funny because I cite this.
00:11:24
Speaker
That story is one of the best parts of the adaptation. and Now I feel somewhat chastised.
Critique of Character Treatment and Plot
00:11:29
Speaker
no No, And, you know, the first time I read it, and indeed the first few times I read it, I agree with you.
00:11:36
Speaker
I was like, you know what, this is an interesting way of adapting. She feels like she needs to marry someone because she's getting older and she's under this social pressure and all those sorts of things. I can see how that works.
00:11:49
Speaker
But reading it again this time with a more critical eye it's the nastiness in the rest of the book. that really makes me not enjoy this aspect so much anymore. Okay. So many of the quotes in this, you know, most of this book is Austen's words. Some of the things he changes the most are either the way Charlotte speaks about herself making it much more degrading, or the way other people speak about her.
00:12:20
Speaker
And it's just so unnecessary. And it's part of a raft of changes that he has made to characters as you go through that make no sense within the original context and make no sense for a book that is basically still the original.
00:12:36
Speaker
That's why I was getting a little bit annoyed. Plus this quote when I was reading this interview sent me into a rage. Oh, I can imagine. Then we get to Lizzie at Rosings, where Lady Catherine is horrified that not only did the sisters train in China, but also that they grew up in a house with no ninjas to protect them.
00:12:54
Speaker
It's an interesting take on the usual snobbery that we've talked about at length, Melinda, so I'll ask you to hold fire on that point until later. Okay. Instead of playing the piano, Lizzie fights three of Lady Catherine's ninjas to the death, ripping out the still beating heart of her final opponent.
00:13:13
Speaker
Melinda's covering her face. just I'm trying not to have the entire my entire sound as Steph retells this story just being me giggling. you this is how yep This is how I react to this story. I just think it's funny and great. and yeah All right, so the first proposal is basically the same as the original, with the addition that Lizzie intends to literally kill Darcy during it. Yes. he is Yes.
00:13:40
Speaker
He escapes unmertered, and his subsequent letter reveals that he separated Jane and Bingley, thinking she was stricken. My guy. She was at the ball weeks later and was showing no signs of undeadness, which are being telegraphed for Charlotte at this point in the story. So this really doesn't land.
00:13:57
Speaker
And then we get to Wiccan. The only change here is that Darcy shattered his legs to prevent him from kicking the deaf stable boy to death for not properly polishing his saddle. The rest is much the same.
00:14:10
Speaker
Later, the gardeners and Lizzie visit Pemberley on their tour of Derbyshire, where they are set upon by a herd of unmentionables in the garden. Lizzie bravely stands her ground, but the horde is scared off by musket fire from Mr. Darcy, who rides up on his horse.
00:14:23
Speaker
Familiar plot points ensue. Lydia takes off with Wickham and it is assumed that he will kill her rather than marrying her. Unfortunately, two women in his past were stricken and had to be burned to death before they could testify against him seducing them. So they're pretty sure that's all what he's going to do again.
00:14:45
Speaker
I'd forgotten that part. do you not remember that part. Yeah. up That was blocked from my memory. Oh, dear. Yeah. yeah yeah In the midst of the chaos, a letter arrives from Mr. Collins, commiserating over their descent into disgrace and informing them that they can keep Longbourn as Charlotte has been beheaded and burned as her turn completed, so Mr. Collins will have hung himself from her favourite tree immediately after posting this letter that they are reading.
00:15:10
Speaker
I thought that was a fitting end for Mr. Collins. But also, that's not how an entail works, guys. Just goes to someone else. The girls still don't get it. Yeah. Great. Again, basic research, my guy.
00:15:21
Speaker
Sometime later, Mr. Gardiner's letter arrives to say that the Elopers shall be married now because Wickham has had a terrible carriage accident oh that has left him a quadruplegic.
00:15:32
Speaker
The next time he pops up, he wets himself several times. It's just... Lizzie subsequently then learns... from her uncle after a bit of pressure that Darcy in fact, quote, beat him lame as part of the deal to marry Lydia. Okay, for me, I always disliked this part of the book immensely.
00:15:52
Speaker
i hate it Julie, from a strategic point of view, let's just cut everything else out for a moment. Sure, think every Austen fan would love to see Wickham punished for being an awful person.
00:16:07
Speaker
However, you are in a zombie apocalypse. Purely from a strategic point of view, you want to actually, you know, make the person a quadriplegic who is going to be looking after your sister? Like, your sister has got to become a nurse then for someone who cannot move themselves in Regency England.
00:16:28
Speaker
And it's just, yeah, it makes Lydia's fate, as we've discussed a lot in this podcast. So much worse. So much worse. And it's like it just, it does not make sense. She's also sent to Northern Ireland.
00:16:46
Speaker
I remember she goes far away. they He joins a seminary for cripples. Let's not use that word, guys. That's right. in yeah Northern Ireland. A few points here.
00:16:59
Speaker
I completely agree with you. It makes it so much worse for Lydia. The flip side for me is at least this way he isn't able to feed her to the first unmentionable he sees.
00:17:12
Speaker
True. But by the same token, this part always made me really uncomfortable just for the depiction of him being carried around on a litter and when he gets upset, he soils himself.
00:17:24
Speaker
It's so degrading. It's not even just that it's degrading for that character. It's a degrading depiction of the only disabled person in this book. Completely agree.
00:17:36
Speaker
i have other issues like this. The crudeness of some of the... updates, let's call them, have, that is the part that I gloss over when I reread this. And that whole section is, agree.
00:17:52
Speaker
We're on the same page again. Hooray! Hooray! Now, we're going to skip over to after the engagement of Jane and
Film Adaptation vs Book: Excitement and Discrepancies
00:18:00
Speaker
Bingley. Lady Catherine and her entourage turn up and her and Elizabeth's familiar argument is built instead around a vicious duel in which Lady Catherine very nearly kills Elizabeth before being bested and sent on her way.
00:18:13
Speaker
And another two of her silent ninjas are slaughtered to boot. And then from there, to be honest, the rest of the book is quite unchanged. We go through the engagement, all the rest of it.
00:18:25
Speaker
It's just the story you guys know. I do like one of my favorite quotes from the book is towards the end. I can't remember it exactly because as discussed with the podcast, we don't reread things if both of us have read something before. But there is this great line about how does Elizabeth accepts Darcy and they're wandering past a horde of unmentionables in a field and there's cabbages and they've mistaken the cabbages for brains and the two of them like look at each other. It's kind of that like rom-com action movie beat and the two of them look at each other and go, let's slaughter these guys together and they do it. And yeah there is a very specific quote and I laugh. I love it every single time.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yes, I did laugh at that bit rereading it again. it was nice to find the wholesome parts in this Now to the film. Here, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has received the full Hollywood adaptation treatment, as in, we see your very popular and beloved storyline and we raise you a completely different storyline that we made up on a whim.
00:19:33
Speaker
Like bookstays for decades, we sat confused as an unrecognisable plot played out in front of us in the cinema. Okay, so I have very distinct memories of watching this movie for the first time. There was a group of us that had all read the book and we'd been trying to coordinate for like weeks in the lead up to this movie being released, trying to all watch it together and align our schedules. And then the times got released at the movies and And it was playing for one week at 9.30pm every at night. It was one.
00:20:06
Speaker
One time slot per day for a week. And then somehow miraculously, the Wednesday night, the last session it was showing at our local cinemas, we all managed to go, guys, we've got to go tonight. And we managed to make it work. I have some of my best memories watching that movie and just, as you've heard me throughout this podcast, giggling through the entire thing. Yeah.
00:20:28
Speaker
Some of it is amazing. Yeah, how they do some of it is incredible and I'm not going to spoil your thunder here. I won't say specifics because I'm sure they'll come up. But then you're correct. It goes completely off the rails for no apparent reasons. i don't I don't know why. i still I still haven't been able to figure out how we ended up here.
00:20:50
Speaker
But I have to say between the book and the movie, the movie holds up. don't. I haven't seen it in ages, but I am very delighted by the fact that I can go back and watch it. Not going to ruin the movie, guys. Not going to ruin the movie. mean, the movie was already kind of ruined, so. Yes.
00:21:12
Speaker
I'm not going to ruin it further. Hooray! All right. So the film starts with a full enactment of the zombie massacre at the Netherfield Whist party.
00:21:22
Speaker
You know, the one that was barely a sentence in the book? with the implication that Colonel Darcy, decorated soldier and expert unmentionable hunter, is at fault for only finding one zombified guest, leaving the other to slaughter the remaining guests after he leaves.
00:21:41
Speaker
Fun side note here, the young daughter of the house who tries to raise the alarm regarding the other unmentionable present is named Cassandra, an allusion to the seer of ancient Greek myth who is blessed with accurately divining the future and cursed with never being believed.
00:21:58
Speaker
huh I did e go pick it up until I was reading the script. I found like a bootleg copy of the script and I was looking through it and i was like oh my God, her name is Cassandra.
00:22:11
Speaker
I still wouldn't have picked that up. Heads up, guys. If you're ever watching a movie and the character is called Cassandra and nobody believes anything she's saying, ding dingd ding Classical illusion. We are then treated to a Regency-style paper puppet theatre scene outlining that England's colonial chickens have come home to roost, with a ship bringing a virulent and abominable plague from an unspecified colony.
00:22:37
Speaker
Shout out here, this is probably, I presume, St Lucia. Yes, I did go down a rabbit hole. No, I won't bore you with all the details. Given the time period where the British were doing terrible things in the Caribbean and also the presence of voodoo.
00:22:50
Speaker
This, of course, sets up a more overt commentary on colonialism than the novel. However, the film only ever delicately sniffs around the edges as Steers refuses to commit to his own setup and never really picks at the scabs of post-colonialism, classism and racism which so obviously overlay the story he is constructing.
00:23:09
Speaker
From here, the film plays out along very familiar, if extremely condensed, lines. A key difference is at the Merritton Assembly, where Lizzie uncharacteristically flees the building after Mr Darcy's slight, standing outside crying until the undead Mrs Featherstone of the aforementioned Whist Party Massacre appears and tries to tell her a secret.
00:23:31
Speaker
However, Darcy blows her head off with a musket first. Yes, he does. And he's very annoyed that Lizzie doesn't say thank you. Yes, that's right.
00:23:42
Speaker
I love Sam Riley. I think Sam Riley is an incredible Darcy. He does such a good job. it's Look, it's different, but it's not that different.
00:23:53
Speaker
Like, it fits the tone of this film. and He broods. He properly broods. He is emo Darcy. Like he is literally my chemical romance in the corner. Like he's just missing the eyeliner.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yes. He's like Neo in the Matrix. Yes. And honestly, until I saw him in this film, I didn't think that someone who has a baby face and looks 15 years old could brood.
00:24:23
Speaker
He broods. It's great. So Also the gravelly voice. Oh,
00:24:30
Speaker
So, the alarm sounds and Lizzie races back inside and joins the pentagram of death while Darcy stands off to the side and utters this immortally corny line.
00:24:42
Speaker
i' do my best. Her voice is rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression in her dark eyes and I am forced to acknowledge her figure as both light and pleasing.
00:24:54
Speaker
that her arms are surprisingly muscular, but not so much as to be unfeminine. All this while the poor actor playing Bingley tries to keep a straight face and act like this is a completely normal thing to say out loud, apropos of nothing, while half a party of people is being slaughtered in front of you.
00:25:11
Speaker
I love it. I love it so much. It makes no sense at all. is this It commits to the bit. It does the thing that we talked about. it commits to the bit.
00:25:26
Speaker
That quote. Every single time. It's just like he would not be saying that in that situation. he would be trying to coordinate and help. He's a colonel, for goodness sakes. He would be helping.
00:25:41
Speaker
But they had to get the, like, Brightened by the exercise bidding. Yep. That is the funny part about any Pride and Prejudice movie. It's like Pride and Prejudice but listening to a podcast at like three times speed because there's so much plot. You have to like condense it really quickly. And then there's so much additional plot that I don't know.
00:26:05
Speaker
Actually, one of my favorite parts of rewatching this movie with a more critical eye is actually the number of Pride and Prejudice quotes they've managed to get in in completely different ways.
00:26:18
Speaker
different scenes. They've just plucked random bits of dialogue that's quite famous from the book, but put it in a completely different scene in the film. So, wow you know, when she's at Rosings and she's playing the piano and she's talking to Colonel Fitzwilliam and Mr. Darcy comes over and she's like, what do you think your cousin means by coming in all this manner? do you think he's trying to intimidate me? Don't worry. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me. She says that in this movie to Lady Catherine during their duel.
00:26:53
Speaker
oh Oh, actually, now this is coming back to me. Oh, yeah. I mean, look, it's a good line. It's a great line. And they've taken a lot of really great lines but just mashed them into the fit wherever they want. Excellent.
00:27:08
Speaker
it's You could play bingo really well with this because you have no idea where the lines are popping up.
Matt Smith as Mr. Collins
00:27:15
Speaker
In the interest of time, i will skip over everything that happens until just after Mr. Collins' proposal.
00:27:23
Speaker
A display of awkward perfection from Matt Smith. Excellent. Matt Smith. Look, I'm a massive David Bamber fan from the 1995. He is sleazy.
00:27:35
Speaker
is creepy. He seems to act like he's trying to do the right thing, and that fits. Matt Smith's version is completely unhinged. Unhinged. But this movie is completely unhinged. And he is one of the best parts of that movie.
00:27:51
Speaker
I feel like this film is Matt Smith just let loose. I feel like a lot of his parts weren't even scripted.
00:28:02
Speaker
He just did it off the cuff. Like the wedding scene at the end because he's marrying them, spoiler alert for what I'm going to show you at the end. He's marrying them and he's like, you may now kiss Mr. Darcy, the brides, the brides. You can kiss the brides. and i'm like, and I don't think that was it. Judging by the rest of the script and how it's written,
00:28:22
Speaker
I think you did that yourself, Matt. Maybe. It's just he's so delightfully in his own little world. Oh, have we got some trouble? Oh, I believe there is. And they all have to go and attack a zombie in the cage. They're at Rosings and it's a very serious scene and he's just like, footman, more scones.
00:28:46
Speaker
Anne, would you like his scone? There's the um Mrs. Phillips, she's baking. is baking. I love it. It's so good. I actually saw a reel just yesterday where this woman was like, my Roman Empire is that no matter which adaptation of Pride and Prejudice you are watching, Mr. Collins is cast to perfection.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yes. It works in every, oh, man. They just nail it with the casting of Mr. Collins every time. Also, I feel like I'm having a flashback to Bridget Jones's diary. Apparently I'm able to quote a lot of this movie from memory, having not seen this in years. so It's just so good. Tone, his facial expressions, his lack of eyebrows, chef kiss.
00:29:32
Speaker
We find Lizzie angrily storming about the woods when she meets Wickham and decides to wander off on an adventure with her brand new acquaintance, Unchaperoned.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know. I had a horseback. He takes her to his favourite place, which is St Lazarus, and we meet the pious undead, who, having never eaten human flesh, retain their humanity.
00:29:59
Speaker
Like the previously mentioned Mrs Featherstone. There is a whole other layer of analysis here that we don't have time for, but I'll link everyone to the amazingly named Religious Piety and Pig's Brains, an essay on the Jasnah website by Steve Taylor.
00:30:18
Speaker
Anyway, while they're in the church, Wickham outlines his plan to work with the pious undead and enlists Lizzie's help. We skip from here I was going to say the extra plot is going to plot hard from here. Oh, yes. I should mention, if none of this sounds familiar, it's because Burst Ears entirely made it up out of whole cloth.
00:30:41
Speaker
Also, talking zombies and just... Yeah. I understand that... You know, you've got to try something different. A lot of people have done zombies.
00:30:53
Speaker
Small fun fact about me. I don't like horror movies, but I like movies that randomly have zombies in them, but in other... instances make no sense uh I'm thinking here of the masterpiece that is Anna in the apocalypse uh and Shaun of the Dead and all of those sorts of things yeah but this weird turn is just I remember just being completely mind-boggled in the cinema and being like what is happening and it just yeah it doesn't make sense It just sounds to me like they had like a studio executive who had no idea what the story was just be like, but who's the big bad?
00:31:32
Speaker
Who are they fighting against? it can't just be a plague. And that's how we ended up so There is so much plot in Pride and Prejudice that you can't go into the minutia of every single event.
00:31:44
Speaker
so So they gave up and just made a new one. Yes. That makes no sense. So Charlotte announces she's engaged to Mr. Collins and she is not stricken in this film. Thank you to Burst Dears for saving our girl.
00:31:58
Speaker
And she asked Lizzie to come to Rosings as a chaperone for her pre-marriage presentation to Lady Catherine. They could have just been married, guys. Could he's been the ri regular visit to Rosings.
00:32:10
Speaker
Anyway, inexplicably, Lizzie gets Wickham an audience with Lady Catherine to explain his plan to work with the more human zombies.
00:32:23
Speaker
Unsurprisingly, Lady Catherine and Darcy dismiss Wickham's plan and Lizzie's bit put out about it, and we're absolutely off into the weeds now. That whole section is just bizarre.
00:32:40
Speaker
Like, okay, I can almost understand in some weird diplomacy. Like some of his logic kind of makes sense, but it really also doesn't. And it's so confusing.
00:32:53
Speaker
Doesn't make sense. It would make sense if he decided to dive into anything to do with colonialism and, you know, zombies weren't just the paws wandering around. It was actually, you know, an allegory for colonial tables being turned and the English being kicked out of their colonies and blah, blah, blah.
00:33:13
Speaker
Something like that. The fear of the other. When you look back at all the history of zombie movies, zombies are always signifiers of fear of the other and fear of loss of control and, you know,
00:33:28
Speaker
fear of being taken over. And it's fascinating when you look at the history of zombies in pop culture. But like I said, Steers refuses to commit to his concept. And so it just, none of it sticks.
00:33:42
Speaker
Like you can see, I can see where he was trying to go. I'll get into more of it, but it just, it doesn't stick. So Lizzie's awake. Darcy is, for some reason, never explained and never linked into the rest of story, out in the yard chopping at the shrubbery with his sword in an angry manner.
00:33:58
Speaker
Lizzie goes for a midnight walk. You think she's going to run into him? She doesn't. She runs into Wickham, who's wandering around in the dark, who tells her that Darcy convinced Bingley that Jane was a gold digger and then asks Lizzie to elope with him.
00:34:12
Speaker
I'd forgotten that bit. She's horrified. She refuses and he flounces off into the mist. The next day, Darcy comes to propose. Lizzie takes him to task over Jane and they duel in the parlour.
00:34:24
Speaker
I love this scene. Yes. Lizzie screeching, she's shy, while pelting Darcy with books. Pure cinema. Oh, the emotions of that scene in the original text translated to a alternate Regency England where they're all trained in weaponry and they're all a little bit more aggressive.
00:34:50
Speaker
They're just trying to defend themselves with whatever they can because that's what they've learned because they live in a zombie apocalypse. And ah it is one of the best parts of the adaptation. And just Sam Riley's just, will you consent to be my wife? And she's like, where is this guy?
00:35:09
Speaker
And then the fight. Yep. Cinema. Agreed. Completely. so no no It's so good. so good. So then Darcy's letter arrives the next day and it explains that Wickham is probably the one who deliberately infected the old Mr. Darcy with the plague, forcing son to behead father so that Wickham could get his hands on his inheritance faster.
00:35:31
Speaker
And this is a path that I wish the book had taken. So I was super pleased to see it pop up in the movie because, and I'll get into this later, I thought this was what the book was setting up to. and then it was just... thought it did.
00:35:43
Speaker
No. Okay. I've converged my two adaptations together. Excellent. Nope. Or he was going to kick the stable boy to death. He took off with his money. He wasted it all. He seduced to Georgiana. That's it.
00:35:56
Speaker
Okay. It seems like a waste. Anyway, the movie goes there. And then, of course, he seduces Georgiana in this one as well. The letter also reveals that Darcy has headed to the front lines of London and is suddenly seeing coordination in the zombie attacks, what he calls a dark hand, and warns Lizzie to be ready.
00:36:15
Speaker
This is also where we get a whole chunk of text from the end of the book. when he is When Lizzie says, explain to me when you first fell in love with me.
00:36:27
Speaker
And he's like, oh isn't I was in the middle before I knew I'd begun. They take all of that and put it at the end of the letter. Yes, that's right. He declares his love.
00:36:38
Speaker
Elizabeth, I implore you to be ready. Yes. Yes. Yes, exactly. yes because he declares his love because he thinks he's about to die because of how the- mean, he went there to die because he's so sad.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's a bit squiffy. I don't love it. It's one of the things that doesn't really hit. All right. Lizzie rides home from Rosings on horseback, bit of a long way to go on horseback, love, to find Lydia taken by Wickham.
00:37:08
Speaker
She recognises the St. Lazarus seal on the letter, but before she can leave to rescue Lydia, Lady Catherine arrives to question her about Darcy.
Inconsistencies in Plot and Character Behavior
00:37:17
Speaker
When Lizzie refuses to duel, because did you know to take up arms against Lady Catherine would be to take up arms against England?
00:37:23
Speaker
Her bodyguard steps in. Lizzie defeats him, but is bailed up at swordpoint by Lady Catherine, who utters my second favourite, also deranged line of the film. And I'm going to do my best Lena Headey here.
00:37:34
Speaker
I do not know which I admire more, Miss Bennet, your skill as a warrior or your resolve as a woman. really struggle with the Lady Catherine adaptation in the movie.
00:37:47
Speaker
She's so young. She's young, but she's also competent. I think that's the key, right? Like in the original text, even in the book, like the book adaptation of this is, oh, yes, well, Lady Catherine slaughtered all these zombies, so she's got this status, but she actually did it. So there's no unearned wings here. Yeah. The whole point of Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice is that she's snooty. She thinks she knows everything, but she doesn't.
00:38:16
Speaker
But in this world, she is actually accomplished. And it's always so weird with me. I agree. i do actually think this is one point that the book does better because she is still old.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yes, she is still highly competent at martial arts, but he's commented in The Jewel that one of the reasons Elizabeth wins is because she's younger and she doesn't tire so easily. But also, the way she's constructed in the book is much more along the appropriate lines for this.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yes, she did slaughter all these unmentionables, but the way she then applies that one thing that she's good at to everything else – She is then, she's still like, she's in everybody's business, giving them, you know, oh you should be doing this and oh, you should be doing that. And she's the same insufferable person because she's like that person at work that is good at one thing and thinks because they're good at one thing, they're able to tell everybody else what their job is, even though they have absolutely no idea and no experience.
00:39:19
Speaker
Yeah, okay. That's much more the vibe. Lena Headey is too likable. She's too likable as an actress. She hadn't yet played Cersei Lannister when they did this, so she's too good looking.
00:39:30
Speaker
She looks fabulous with her eye patch. She looks incredible. Oh, yeah. And it just, like you say, they don't there's not enough time for them to dig into her character. Like she's a snob and she's supercilious and she doesn't want to hear anything about the Unmentionables being able to talk and having thoughts in their rotting skulls.
00:39:48
Speaker
But that's like a completely normal opinion to have. So she doesn't seem unreasonable. Yeah. Anyway, she also goes completely off the rails as as a character because after you saying this, she tells the Bennett family to pack up all of their belongings and all of their servants and takes them all back to Rosings Park for their own safety so that Lizzie and Jane can go after Lydia.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yep, that's right. Like, oh okay. You came to attack Elizabeth. she Elizabeth killed one of your servants. And now you're like, I respect you.
00:40:31
Speaker
Come to my home. Yeah. So the sisters head off and they cross Hingham Bridge, which has been rigged to explode the next morning as a last ditch attempt to stop the horde, which has now taken London.
00:40:44
Speaker
Jane rescues Bingley from his own hand grenade and Lizzie rescues Darcy from the unmarked graveyard full of just rising zombies he has accidentally wandered into. We stan a pair of sisters who save their love interests.
00:40:57
Speaker
Darcy regretfully tells Lizzie that he raised the church to the ground four days previously, and then he sets off for Hingham Bridge. But in actual fact, he sets off for St Lazarus for a showdown with Wickham, armed with a bag of dead soldiers' brains.
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah, I don't love this bit either. I mean, as soon as the script goes off the rails, I'm not a massive fan, and this was just like, yeah. Yeah.
00:41:25
Speaker
I'm like, uh... Okay. Also super disrespectful to the people who have died in... I'm guessing that the reasoning behind it is like there's a broadcast in the background, like zombie protocols are in force. If you find a dead body with its skull uncrushed or its brains intact...
00:41:47
Speaker
you are expected to crush them or to behead it. So I guess that was going to happen to the dead bodies anyway. Potentially, yeah. But also I don't think they were being particularly safe. When the doctor walks into that room and there's all those bodies with like the tops of their heads lopped off and they're not even like tied down or anything, I'm like, I'm sorry, did you just set up a zombie reanimation room inside your own lines? Why are all these dead bodies just there?
00:42:14
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's icky. I agree with you, but it does within the broader context that we're going to have their skulls crushed anyway. That's true. Yeah. So the sisters get back to the bridge. Lizzie takes one look at Bingley's terrible poker face, deduces the plan.
00:42:30
Speaker
and sets off after Darcy. Darcy in the meantime feeds the pious zombies, the human brains, and makes an escape with Lydia as Wickham disappears into the horde of unmentionables that have flooded down into the basement from the church upstairs. He puts Lydia on his horse and then is accosted by the still living Wickham. Now, this bit of the film stretches time in some very Very hilarious ways. Do not attempt to timeline this out.
00:42:58
Speaker
I tried. It makes no sense. We're just going to go with it. It also very obviously employs day for night techniques, which is where they shoot something during the day and then just kind of darken the frames to make it like it's nighttime. It's really obvious and it makes it look really cheap. Everything in the scene kind of has this like spooky blue gray, like wash over it. It just...
00:43:20
Speaker
Back to this very stretchy timeline. Lydia is on horseback. She gets back to the bridge before most of the duel has taken place, meaning that these two men have been duelling and having the same conversation for quite some time. That's not a short trip.
00:43:36
Speaker
Also, Hingham Bridge is meant to blow at 5am, which is when Lydia gets there. And then it cuts back and the duel is still only midway through and Lizzie is God knows where.
00:43:47
Speaker
So we're going to continue to suspend the concept of time. Wickham tells Darcy he's the zombie king and then Darcy triumphantly stabs him through the heart only for Wickham to show him his infection wound and tell him that he's been undead this whole time.
00:44:02
Speaker
Which makes me think that's probably the reason why they had to take out Charlotte being stricken because if she was bitten then had a slow demise during the film. Why isn't Wickham starting to rot? It's a very good question.
00:44:14
Speaker
All the other zombies in St. Lazarus have bits missing out of their faces and they're quite clearly zombies. Why is Wickham still intact? Why hasn't he started to rot in any way? He's just got a bite mark in his chest and all these like black veins coming out of it. Let's not question it.
00:44:31
Speaker
Well, Wickham still has to look hot, right? Yeah, exactly. say that with a very deadpan. Yeah. m The whole zombie king thing is just bizarre. It's funny.
00:44:45
Speaker
Wickham rips the sword out, goes to kill Darcy, and suddenly Lizzie rides in to save the day and lops off Wickham's arm. Not his head. What's the line from Infinity War? Should have gone for the head.
00:44:58
Speaker
yeah Is Darcy too close at that point? i I wonder if it's... No. Okay, I'm really stretching things here because, again, it's been a while since I've seen the movie. Wickham's standing up and Darcy's on his knees.
00:45:11
Speaker
Oh, okay, then no. Wickham's like holding the sword above his head, so she lops his arm off through there. My only defence for her at this point is I guess she doesn't know that he's a zombie. That's true, yes.
00:45:23
Speaker
So she's just trying to incapacitate rather than, yeah Anyway, the lovers then ride for the bridge, which they make it to.
Timeline Criticism and Wickham as Zombie King
00:45:31
Speaker
Approximately 30 seconds after, Bingley gave the order to blow it, which happened about seven minutes previously.
00:45:37
Speaker
They almost get blown up riding across it. I'm still not over the fact that the horse falls into the big ditch and dies. That's not cool. so Anyway. Didn't remember that. Yeah, the horse goes down the ship.
00:45:49
Speaker
So they almost get blown up. They get flung onto the last bit of standing bridge. Elizabeth confesses her love to a seemingly dead Darcy, kisses him, and he starts breathing again.
00:46:02
Speaker
Aww. Aww. Lily James is a great Elizabeth, just saying. She's great Elizabeth. She's fantastic. So do you know who was originally supposed to play Elizabeth?
00:46:15
Speaker
um I think I've read this at some point but have since forgotten. Natalie Portman. Oh, yeah, no, that's very different. Yeah.
00:46:25
Speaker
So, yeah, when I was going back through all of the interviews... One of the interviews, i think it was The Guardian, mentioned that book had been optioned already by Hollywood and that Natalie Portman was in place to play Elizabeth. I really like Natalie Portman as an actress. I think she's really, really talented. I do not think she is right for this part. you know Rejoin the story at Rosings Park, where apparently they all live now.
00:46:55
Speaker
Mind blown. Why are we here? Mr. Pooley asks Lady Catherine's permission to speak alone with Jane. Mrs. Bennet's in the room, but he addresses it to Lady Catherine. next to her.
00:47:10
Speaker
That proposal happens. They all leave the room in excitement. Darcy sneaks some a moment to propose to Lizzie. Great. Cut to the wedding being officiated by Mr. Collins and then roll credits. And then suddenly in the mid credits, Wickham appears. riding a horse, charging towards the gates of Rosings at the head of a phalanx of zombies, and we cut to black, leaving everyone's fate unknown.
00:47:35
Speaker
Just insane areas here. Also, I'm sorry, I thought Rosings Park was the safest place in England. The gates are open, there are no guards. Yeah. That bit just really threw me. It kind of felt like it it was sequel bait.
00:47:50
Speaker
Yes, it absolutely was. Onto the analysis. ah For the book, there isn't much to add in terms of how well it adapts Austen's original. There is a reason why she is credited first as the author on the cover.
00:48:03
Speaker
Most of it is still her work, completely unchanged. The reception of the book in 2009 was mixed, according to its Wikipedia, with a notable review, which I have to quote from the Wikipedia because it is still behind a paywall for 2009,
00:48:20
Speaker
was written by The New Yorker's Macy Halford. She called the book's estimated blend of 85% Austen's words and 15% Graham Smith's 100% terrible. She found Graham Smith's writing awful, singling out a passage in which Elizabeth Bennet prepares to kill Mr Darcy over an overheard s slight. Now, at the time, this was one of my favorite parts of the book.
00:48:44
Speaker
Elizabeth's feisty spirit translated into a hardened warrior woman who would not put up with this stain against her honor. And the translation of that scene into the movie, which had her instead begin to sniffle and rush outside to cry, still infenses me. I know why they did it for the plot. I still hate it, but I digress. Unfortunately, reading this book again, all these years later, i find myself agreeing with Halford's review.
00:49:08
Speaker
While I still love the concept, on reflection, I am almost repelled by Graham Smith's interjections, likewise finding them clunky. Like when Lydia simply announces to her family, and I quote, Though I am the youngest, I am the most proficient in the art of tempting the other sex.
00:49:24
Speaker
I would like to remind you she's 15. and in some cases, like this passage I'm about to read you, are so entirely ill-fitted to the plot that they are really jarring to come across and continually throw you out of the narrative flow. "'I should like balls infinitely better,' Miss Bingley replied, "'if they were carried out in a different manner.' "'You should like balls infinitely better,' said Darcy, "'if you knew the first thing about them.' Elizabeth blushed and suppressed a smile, slightly shocked by his flirtation with impropriety, and slightly impressed that he should endeavour to flirt with it at all.
00:49:55
Speaker
no I am someone who enjoys a ribald joke, but I'm sorry, Lizzie is impressed? Impressed by a single entendre joke about testicles? No.
00:50:05
Speaker
There are a multitude of small tweaks to her character, just like this one, that really chip away the essence of who the original character is, which is fine in a wholly rewritten adaptation, but this is just meant to be Now with added zombies.
00:50:20
Speaker
Instead, we are peppered with scenes like this one on the way to Merriton with Mr. Collins, which I will get you to read, Melinda. Just a side note here, I do not like rival jokes and he that is, it's like, I want to say like 10 year old humour.
00:50:39
Speaker
It is. It's so childish. Yeah, and those are the bits that I skip over. Like, there are so many double entendres, or as you said, single entendres, because they're not that clever.
00:50:50
Speaker
so this is Lizzie speaking. Let them burn, she said. Let them have a taste of eternity. Turning to her cousin, who had averted his eyes, she added, You see, Mr. Collins, God has no mercy, and neither must we.
00:51:04
Speaker
Though angered by her blasphemy, he thought that better of saying anything on the matter, for he saw in Elizabeth's eyes a kind of darkness. a kind of absence as if her soul had taken leave so that compassion and warmth could not interfere.
00:51:17
Speaker
Yes. I understand there being a world in which if you are faced with an apocalyptic scenario that everyone's aggression gets amped up a little bit and Elizabeth already being more feisty than a lot of other characters, i do understand like the fact that she wanted to attack Darcy for the slide. I can understand those elements, but you're right, there is a weird bend to how her character is adapted.
00:51:52
Speaker
Likewise, the scene where Elizabeth goes to see the unmentionables being burned en masse and where she reflects completely uncaringly on the fact that a lot of the slavers are purposefully infecting innocent people in order to collect rewards for capturing and turning over unmentionables, which has essentially led to the mass slaughter of the poor in England, and she just doesn't care.
00:52:14
Speaker
Her actual reaction is just, oh well, better that a few innocent people die to save the rest of us. No. Better not infecting people in the first place, guys.
00:52:26
Speaker
Yes. And while there has always been a tension at the heart of Pride and Prejudice between the Bennett situation and the position of the almost entirely absent while still being present serving staff,
00:52:37
Speaker
And this is a reflection of Austen's own anxiety about how easily she herself could have slipped from the gentry into the service class. This callousness being baked into the character shows a genuine lack of care for the original text that I am not driving with.
00:52:53
Speaker
Yeah. There are countless throwaway lines about servants being devoured, poor and working class people being slaughtered en masse because they are not able to defend themselves from attack because training for themselves and their children is financially out of reach. The casualness. with which the sisters drive past a horde of zombie children from a local orphanage that the surrounding families have left completely unprotected, leading to its inhabitants being consumed, drives deep into the heart of my issue with this book. The lack of care for the most vulnerable in society is never questioned. It's a punchline.
00:53:27
Speaker
There could have been a much more interesting exploration of this tension and the precarity of the Bennet sisters given their financial position. Instead, the mass slaughter of the paws is a comic device. Oh, teehee.
00:53:40
Speaker
Bingley's carriage driver vomited onto his cravat when he saw the zombified pauper children. How jolly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I noticed it as much reading the book. Again...
00:53:54
Speaker
I'll reiterate, I haven't read this in a while. um That's also in the movie, but they're slightly older and it is a very creepy scene with all of the kids like staring at them. But you're right. Like it's not a punchline. It's appropriately creepy.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yeah. And it's not creepy in the book. It's ha ha ha funny. Oh, he vomited in his cravat. Yeah. Oh, there's so much vomiting in that book. Anyway. Other parts of the adaptation are amazing. Yeah.
00:54:22
Speaker
Yes. Alright. This adaptation is also often touted as a quote-unquote feminist update of the original
Corporate Feminism and Original Themes
00:54:30
Speaker
text. And I have to say, can see your face, Melinda. Firstly, we don't need a feminist update.
00:54:36
Speaker
For a multitude of reasons we have already discussed, Pride and Prejudice is feminist in its nature. It centres women, their stories, their worries, and their lives. The men are window dressing. Please note, I will not be dragging us into a pointless debate over whether or not Austen herself is a feminist with a capital F. We cannot measure her by a modern yardstick.
00:54:56
Speaker
And while I love the addition of the Bennet sisters kicking butt, despite the strictures of a society that is clinging to its hierarchies and traditions in the face of extinction, The aforementioned ruthlessness and the lack of care for others smacks of the author pushing the barrow of a type of corporate, third-wave girlboss feminism that was particularly virulent in the late aughts, when women were told that the only way to get ahead was to be tough like a man, emotionless, except for anger which apparently isn't an emotion, and cold-heartedly ladder climb over the proverbial bodies of as many men and women as possible to get to the top, except here the bodies are literal.
00:55:33
Speaker
All of this can be summed up in the scene where, after Proposal 1, Lizzie berates herself for giving in to the, quote, feminine weakness which she had so struggled to exercise from her nature when she cries.
00:55:46
Speaker
ah ah yeah. Guys, emotions are a broad spectrum. We are allowed to feel every single one. Everybody is able to feel every single one, and we should yes This, coupled with a multitude of the aforementioned poorly constructed single entendre jokes, like the many times Mr Darcy jokes about balls, as well as poor Sir William Lucas being reduced to a bumbling idiot who tells Darcy to imagine the and amorous applications of Lizzie's fighting skills right in front of her in public at the Netherfield Ball.
00:56:27
Speaker
And it all just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Oh, I had forgotten. It's funny how much you can like a story but also have blocked out significant chunks of it at the same time to enjoy it.
00:56:46
Speaker
I'd forgotten that one. was horrified to read it. Now, while I have a lot of issues with the movie, I actually think that, Lizzie running outside to cry aside, the movie actually captures the essence of the Bennet sisters and Elizabeth in particular much better.
00:57:03
Speaker
Yes, it is still made for the male gaze. The scene of them dressing still gives me the ick. Oh, they are feminine and deadly without behaving like proto-males.
00:57:15
Speaker
Lizzie is not so callous and uncaring. She is not uncaring for the religious unmentionables that have retained their sense of self and tries to broker an ill-thought-out deal that would preserve them and take care of her fellow humans, even if it is just part of an evil ploy of Wickham's to become king of the undead? Question mark, question mark.
00:57:35
Speaker
New King of England, question mark, question mark. And because she retains the essence of Elizabeth, the romance between her and Darcy, though rushed given the time constraint, is much better presented and also helped along by the natural chemistry between the leads.
00:57:51
Speaker
The obvious caring relationship between the sisters is clear too. The older two immediately tool up and set out to fight a horde of zombies to get their sister back, something i am willing to bet original Lizzie would have loved to have had the capability to do.
00:58:06
Speaker
Yep. Briefly touching on book, Darcy, not even he has escaped the clunky pen of Graham Smith, who felt the need to slip in this absolute doozy of an unnecessary addition after the Merritt and Sembley scene.
00:58:19
Speaker
But what no one, not even Mr Bingley, knew was the reason behind Darcy's cold demeanour. For until recently, he had been the very picture of pleasantry, a young man of merry disposition and utmost attentiveness. But his nature had been forever altered by a betrayal that he had not the stomach to speak of.
00:58:40
Speaker
Just why? to what point and purpose? Darcy does not need this addition to his character. There is no payoff for it and again it fundamentally alters the essence of his character. It feels like it should be setting up the murder of the older Mr Darcy by Wickham but nope.
00:58:56
Speaker
Nope. There's no additional trauma here. Yeah. The thing about Darcy is he actually is very attentive. And he is kind. He is that already. He's just not as extroverted as Bingley in showing it. I mean, sure, modern lens aside, but he's just quieter. There's nothing wrong with quiet.
00:59:19
Speaker
One more thing. Apparently Mary eagerly joined into the dancing at the Lucas's party after playing a long concerto on the piano. Again, simply mystifying.
00:59:31
Speaker
Now, much academic ink has been spilled over this adaptation and many of the other monster-featuring books, with papers both praising the innovation and hand-wringing over the death of literature as we know it. Slight aside, my favourite one is titled... are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted. Oh, gift oh that's brilliant.
00:59:51
Speaker
I actually emailed the author and I requested a copy of the paper because it's not available online, but I didn't hear anything back, which I can understand because she's a real academic and I'm a random podcaster.
01:00:04
Speaker
So what stuck out to me in a lot of the papers that I looked over for this episode were the valid critiques of the fetishization of the Oriental and the Orientalism featured within the book and the film.
01:00:15
Speaker
Before we dig into the controversy, some historical points to frame our
Orientalism and Representation Issues
01:00:19
Speaker
discussion. In the story, social elites are sent to Japan for their training in the deadly arts, while the rest send their children to China, widely considered a lesser education. This framing of martial arts style as a class signifier is one of the more interesting aspects of the book. However, there are problems.
01:00:34
Speaker
To quote the author, I added the conceit that the really rich, the Bingleys and the Darcy's, would have trained as warriors in Japan. And to the upper classes, the ninjas of Japan and the traditions of Kyoto were considered far superior to those of China. So when people find out that Elizabeth, as talented a killer as she is, was trained in China, they devalue her skill.
01:00:54
Speaker
Now, we are going to assess Graham Smith's created hierarchy of cultures in good faith. I am going to assume that he did his homework, despite finding no mention of any such research in any of his interviews where he was at pains to point out he read everything ever written by Jane Austen.
01:01:09
Speaker
And assume that he constructed this, frankly gross if you think about it for more than a moment, stratification between Japan and China. Because during the time that Pride and Prejudice was set, Japan was under a ruling directive known as Sokoku, literally locked country.
01:01:25
Speaker
The ruling shogunate pursued this isolationist foreign policy from the beginning of the 1600s right through until the 1860s, well after the unmentionable arrival in England.
01:01:36
Speaker
During this period, almost all foreigners were barred from entering. Therefore, the exclusivity of a Japanese education naturally rights itself. It's a shame that this was not extrapolated in the book outside of the prevailing, overly simplified, ninja's are cooler undertones.
01:01:52
Speaker
That said, a historical point of order here. Ninja are not frontline warriors. They were foremost employed as spies and saboteurs specialising in arson,
01:02:03
Speaker
Also, most of the clans were eradicated during the reunification period in the 16th century. So actually finding a ninja to teach you may have been a tad difficult by the Regency period.
01:02:16
Speaker
Graham Smith also asserts in this quote that the aristocracy valued the traditions of Kyoto prefecture. Now, While that is the place for modern tourists to go and have a ninja experience on their trip to Japan, even the most bare-bones research will tell you that martial arts in Japan are actually a cultural tradition born in the Miei and Shiga prefectures.
01:02:38
Speaker
I went down a rabbit hole. You can tell. It's great. Conversely, during this period, Britain was engaged in open commerce with China, with the first official trade route opened in 1699.
01:02:51
Speaker
Therefore, it would have been much easier to get to China for training in the deadly arts, making it more accessible. What the story does not contend with here is, yet again, the scourge of British colonialism.
01:03:02
Speaker
The book is set less than 30 years before the outbreak of the First Opium War, which was triggered by Britain smuggling bucket loads of the opium they were farming in India into China, something the Qing dynasty rulers were trying to clamp down on because, unsurprisingly, rampant addiction in a population causes social and economic issues.
01:03:21
Speaker
So would Shaolin monks with their strict do-no-harm policy really be disposed to train the offspring of those ravaging their country with an illicit drug trade? Hmm. And that's the good faith reading.
01:03:33
Speaker
The bad faith one is the Graham Smith himself simply seems to view Japanese culture as superior, though not so much so that he treats his Japanese characters with any respect.
01:03:44
Speaker
Which brings us back to the valid criticisms of fetishization and tokenism. For a story so reliant on Asian culture, where are the Asian characters? No, Lady Catherine's silent ninjas and her weird geisha waiting lady do not count.
01:03:59
Speaker
They're a black mark in the column of fetishization. Silent, obedient, black-clad ciphers that they are. Now, while in reality the Chinese-born population of London in the 1861 census, yes, I went as far as looking up the census details from this period. Perfect.
01:04:16
Speaker
It was only 78 people. If there had been such a massive upswing in the thirst for quote-unquote Oriental education due to the plague, you cannot tell me that there would not be more Chinese and even some Japanese people traveling to Britain for this cultural exchange.
01:04:31
Speaker
Instead, the mentions are reduced to a sprinkling of lazy Asian stereotypes, including where Darcy straight up asked Lizzie, what think you of Orientals?
01:04:43
Speaker
Mm-mm. Yep. And the part where Graham Smith seemingly forgets his own characters are possessed of an education in Chinese fighting styles and mentions repeatedly that the sisters would rather carry katana swords in public than ladylike daggers.
01:04:56
Speaker
Someone tell me why they would carry a sword that was restricted in use by law to the samurai class in Japan, a country they have never been to. You really did go down a rabbit hole with this one. I did. I did. Actually, I didn't know that about Katana already.
01:05:11
Speaker
Of course you did. We watched the TV show Shogun. It's really good. Oh, right. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. No, the show was not my source for any of this. I will source everything.
01:05:22
Speaker
Not to mention the stereotyping of Shaolin monks is nothing more than the Chinese equivalent of budget ninja, with minimal to no mention of the religious tenets that guide their lives. It's problematic at best and actively propagating straight-up racial stereotypes at its worst.
01:05:36
Speaker
And here I'll get to you, Melinda, to read a quote from an essay by Emma Coffin, which deals with the issue at the heart of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies narrative. Graham Smith amplifies the Orientalism of Pride and Prejudice through his selective and often derogative appropriation of Asian culture.
01:05:54
Speaker
He fails to problematise this. Instead, he merely utilises Orientalist mysticism, characters and images to increase his book's mass appeal, appropriating aspects of Eastern culture in order to add comedic value and hints of exoticism.
01:06:09
Speaker
The Asian characters largely fade into the background of the text. so that the white British characters can remain the focal point. in Yeah, the whole essay is fantastic and a really thought-provoking read, and I'll link it in the show notes.
01:06:24
Speaker
Now, there's always a counter-argument here that books like this are just a bit of fun and not meant to be taken seriously, but I reject that premise entirely. Pop culture is culture. It creates the world around us, and it would have been so easy to properly integrate Asian cultures into the adaptation to properly round out the clash of social classes without completely removing all agency from the actual people who created the culture that the author is cribbing from.
01:06:49
Speaker
It should also be noted here that by the time the film was made in 2016, most of the mentions of Orientals had been stripped out, as clearly this aspect of the book was raising eyebrows even a decade ago.
01:07:00
Speaker
While the locational snobbery still exists, Lady Catherine, for example, simply has a black guard rather than a troop of pet ninjas. Uh-huh. So, credit where credit is due.
01:07:13
Speaker
The book does have an amazing premise, and overall the themes are adapted well to a supernatural setting, given that there's very little meddling in the overall storyline.
Costume Design and Regency Accuracy
01:07:23
Speaker
The tension between women needing to know how to fight and protect themselves while also upholding the expectations placed on Regency ladies is well handled.
01:07:31
Speaker
Darcy likes that Elizabeth is muscled enough to be a good fighter without being so muscular as to be unbecoming for a lady. Side note, I would have loved if one of Mary's characteristics was that she had become an utter beefcake, which is why she was considered the ugly sister. Just imagine her bench pressing a carriage while waxing lyrical about Fordyce's sermons.
01:07:53
Speaker
Come on. Yeah, that would have been great. The other fun touch is that while it would be safer for the sisters to be armed with muskets and swords, they only go out with ankle daggers, as that is seen to be the more appropriately ladylike weapon in polite society.
01:08:11
Speaker
And what I love about the film is that it throws this particular aspect out the window when Lizzie and Jane set off to the front line to rescue Lydia. While the sisters are still clad in the long Regency-style coats they have been wearing over their day dresses for the whole film, the sisters are signposted as having stepped into the role of heroic male rescuer by being armed with full swords and wearing what appears to be long black jodhpurs or pants under their coats. They have abandoned all propriety in their desperate race for the church.
01:08:40
Speaker
And indeed, both fu fulfill their roles in the fantastic upending of the usual trope, with Jane rescuing a hapless Bingley from himself and Lizzie charging into battle to cut down Wickham and drag Darcy to safety.
01:08:52
Speaker
Truly spectacular stuff. Their outfits in that ending section are phenomenal. that Lizzie's coat is so cool. love that coat. It's such a cool thing. Yeah.
01:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. While, as mentioned, I find the storyline in the film hard to stomach overall, what I did love was the dedication to the bit when it came to costuming.
01:09:14
Speaker
Apart from the aforementioned deliberate and fun visual semantics of the Bennetts in pants, the dedication to having the women in what appeared to be pretty accurate Regency costumes was fantastic.
01:09:24
Speaker
helping to underscore the tension between survival and civility. But don't take my word for it. Here is a quote, I will link the whole article for you, from a Regency costume enthusiast waxing lyrical over this movie.
01:09:38
Speaker
Quote, the overall look was pretty good, with lovely printed cottons, fluffy chemisettes, bonnets, and Spencers or polices worn outdoors, and gloves at the ball.
01:09:49
Speaker
There were several flashes that revealed the dresses were split partially up a leg for easy access to thigh-holstered weapons and movement for kicking, but I liked that as a modification of their clothes to accommodate a zombified world without suddenly putting everyone in pants. Because the cut of the clothes was so acceptable, it made the little zombified details Darcy's long leather coat, Lizzie's leather-collared panelled police, that's the coat that we love,
01:10:12
Speaker
feel like fun touches rather than cringe-inducing weirdness. It helped that the designers also made sure such zombified touches appeared in scenes with actual zombie fighting, while more Austenesque scenes like balls were more traditional.
01:10:27
Speaker
So, props to the costume department. Who knew it was so easy to get it right? Cough, 2005, costuming bin fire, cough. Do you really want to put that in there?
01:10:39
Speaker
Yes, I do. And I have receipts because the director admitted himself in an interview that the reason why they're not dressed in Regency is because he finds it personally ugly.
01:10:53
Speaker
Stephanie's starting my moors. Yes. Now for my rating. I'm giving the film a not actually Austin. I really enjoyed it for all its faults, but it's not Pride and Prejudice.
Final Ratings and Execution Discrepancies
01:11:06
Speaker
Between Lady Catherine sheltering the Bennet family and Wickham's plot to become King of the Unmentionables, there are just too many changes for it to be considered a true adaptation.
01:11:15
Speaker
It's like someone told Burr Steers the plot through a game of telephone, so he missed half the details and filled in the rest with his imagination. As for the book, I am giving the concept Austin approved.
01:11:29
Speaker
The addition of zombies suits Austin's sharp wit and adds a layer of fun, and like in zombie movies of decades past, the creatures function as their own form of social commentary, layering meaning into the original dissections of the class struggle.
01:11:42
Speaker
The execution, however, scores a most seriously displeased. Fundamental changes to key characters with no purpose and no payoff, the fetishisation of Asian culture, and lazy inconsistencies in the book no longer stack up for me.
01:11:56
Speaker
An example of the latter that really stuck out was that after the aforementioned comment about women not wielding muskets because it's unladylike in the very same chapter, Elizabeth asks for her favourite musket to be sent to Netherfield along with her clothes so she can remain there safely and care for Jane. Or in the chapter after that where the sisters are each armed with a musket for a walk.
01:12:19
Speaker
So yes, unfortunately, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is now consigned to the buzzkill central portion of my brain because sometimes you just gotta call out a problematic fave.
01:12:31
Speaker
Oh dear. Yep. What you've said is a hundred percent accurate. It is very 2009. That's that's not an excuse.
01:12:41
Speaker
Please don't hear me saying that. It's always fascinating how, when you can go back and reread something, how you can see it with more critical eye. i think it's important to do that. It's why media literacy and cultural analysis and textual analysis is so important because it is what messages our culture are telling us.
01:13:01
Speaker
And i am sad, but I am also thankful that we've been able to look at stuff and reevaluate. It's important. Yeah. Definitely.
01:13:12
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Jane Austen Remixed. We love exploring this wonderful corner of the literary world with you. Please share the podcast with your friends, family, literary fans, and other Janeites, and we would love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening.
01:13:29
Speaker
This helps us to reach other fans of Pride and Prejudice. and build our community. You can also follow us on Instagram at janeaustenremixed. And if you have a question or a suggestion for a book, movie, or something you'd like us to review, drop us a line.
01:13:43
Speaker
You can email us at janeaustenremixed at gmail.com. And join us in two weeks when we examine Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective by Kelly Gardner and Sharmini Kumar.
01:13:56
Speaker
And now, Stephanie, for the most important question of this podcast, does this Darcy dive into a lake? In the book?
01:14:08
Speaker
No. But in the film, he actually throws himself into a lake at Rosings while in emotional turmoil straight after the first proposal.
01:14:19
Speaker
What? I do not remember that at all. I didn't remember it either. It is wholly unconnected to anything else in the story. The voiceover is Sam Riley reading Mr. Darcy's letter and then it cuts from him in the billowing white shirt diving into the lake, Colin Firth style, and then it cuts away to her reading the letter and it never goes back to him. It never addresses it. The next time you see him, he's fully dressed in his leather coat in the carriage leaving Rosings.
01:14:49
Speaker
Amazing. Blink and you miss it like reference. Perfect. And on that note, we'll see you next episode.
01:15:30
Speaker
you