MovieChat Forums > Life After Beth (2014) Discussion > Cartoonishly Jewish Undertone?

Cartoonishly Jewish Undertone?

posted 11 years ago by djcres-1
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm not sure I fully understood the reason for judaism to be so present in the background of this film. All the characters have these overtly jewish last names like Orfman, Slocum, Wexler, Levin, and Goldfarb. John C Reilly's character has to kiss the mezuzah on the way into his home even as his zombie daughter tears the house apart. The funeral at the beginning is clearly jewish, going to the point of discussing deli sandwiches. I'm just curious if anyone knows why this was important to this story. I thought at first maybe it was a kind of play on the golem or dybbuk mythology but I couldnt really piece that together out of this. Any thoughts?

[–] ScripTipps 11 years ago

The filmmaker is Jewish. I think he just wanted the characters to be like people he was most familiar with.

Also, the director said that since Jews don't believe in embalming, their corpses would be more intact and therefore more likely to come back first in a zombie apocalypse.

http://www.ScripTipps.com/

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] time-bomb 10 years ago

I wouldn't say it's cartoonish, the fact that these Jewish things appear in a comedy shouldn't take away that Jewish people do these things or have Mezuzah on their front door, or many doors in their home.

[–] wrlord2001 10 years ago

"I'm not sure I fully understood the reason for judaism to be so present in the background of this film."

Wow. What WASP hellhole do you live in? Judaism was only present to the extent the characters were Jewish. There are Jews in this country. Deal with it, weirdo.

[–] doggie_rodriguez 10 years ago

I'm not sure I fully understood the reason for judaism to be so present in the background of this film.

How can something be "so present" yet be in the background? The main characters were Jewish. It happens.

I'm just curious if anyone knows why this was important to this story.

I'm more curious as to why this is an issue with you.

http://whysheleft.tumblr.com/