“World War Z” opens in the US on June 21 and in Israel on June 27.
#World war z movie movie
They still land in a recognizable Jerusalem (the movie was actually shot in Malta, but inserts make it appear as Jerusalem) but when the English supertitle reads “Jerusalem,” the Turkish one beneath it again repeats the phrase “Middle East.” The shot of the Israeli flag remains, but even when the action is in Jerusalem and someone refers to Israel it is just called “Middle East.”Īrikan reached out the company distributing the film in Turkey (United International Pictures, which is co-owned by Universal Pictures and Paramount), which said that the subtitles and translation came its way from Paramount.Ī contact at Paramount said he was “unable to go on the record to discuss local translations.” That is, until we get to the even bigger punchline.Īccording to the bilingual Istanbul-based film critic Ali Arikan, the Turkish version changes spoken references of the word Israel to read “Middle East” in the subtitles. The world audience at least gets to see how Israel puts up a good fight, and despite the destruction one could still read it as something of good, fun PR on an international scale.ĭaniella Kertesz as the brave, beautiful and badass IDF soldier who tries to save Brad Pitt. (“Get him to the Jaffa Gate!” she shouts to her fellow soldiers.) That has to stand for something, right? Plus, when Pitt makes his brave escape to head to the next location in this globe-hopping movie, he takes Daniella Kertesz as the brave, beautiful and badass IDF soldier along with him. But… at least it lasted longer than everybody else. Okay, so Israel falls to the zombie plague, too. Hey, who the hell wrote this movie, Meir Kahane? The zombies hear the singing (and its amplifier feedback), create a pyramid of snarling, undead bodies, climb the wall and start killing.īasically, if it weren’t for those damn peaceniks, Israel would have survived. This joyous cherished vision of unity and peace – an image the whole world has been waiting for – is what winds up leading to the DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY. This big kumbaya moment leads the gathered, multicultural crowd to start singing. The Israeli flag, shown in glorifying closeup, ripples proudly in a sun-dappled halo. After Pitt’s plane narrowly escapes doom during a bloody action set piece, he touches down at Atarot Airport. His ordeal takes him from the pit of hell (dramatized for the screen as Newark, New Jersey, naturally) to the last civilization left standing: Jerusalem.įor a solid 10-minute stretch, “World War Z” is the greatest piece of cinematic propaganda for Israel since Otto Preminger’s “Exodus.” While the rest of the world has fallen to cinders, Israel survives. Pitt is a UN specialist (his exact function is a little vague) on the hunt for Patient Zero in the zombie plague that has turned the world’s major cities into war zones of frenetically paced, flesh-chomping zombies. NEW YORK - “Go to Israel!” orders the half-mad CIA agent offering key plot breadcrumbs from behind bars in “World War Z,” the $200 million behemoth action picture (and would-be franchise) from Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures, (very) loosely based on Max Brooks’s bestseller.