Shaun Of the Dead Is Really A Good Love Story

I hate romance movies, but I'm crazy about a good love story. What's the difference? Well, romances are the movies that guys typically don't want to see. Movies like The Notebook or any crap flick that has two young beautiful people on the poster.

These are movies where if someone asked you the plot you'd have to say, well, a guy falls in love with a girl and then tragedy strikes and then they try to keep loving each other a lot no matter what! But I find that the best love stories are far more under the radar. They're usually mixed up with plots that have their own lives and momentum. Indeed, some of my all-time favorite love stories are in a variety of genres that no one ever called romance. Which love stories? Glad you asked! Oh, you didn't ask? Wait, you're not even reading this introduction because you jumped right to the first numbered entry? Oh, OK. By the way, that kinda sucks because you never heard me scream, "SPOILERS BELOW!"

Shaun of the Dead is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and it's based on a simple premise: When zombies start popping up around England, a 30-something slacker and a group of friends must fight for survival. That's it. Like any zombie movie, people get torn apart and eaten, and like anything Simon Pegg is in, it's really funny. But for me, in addition to all of that, Shaun of the Dead is the best love story in the last 10 years.

Lots of comedies have a love interest in their B stories. They're tacked on so Ben Stiller or Vince Vaughn have someone to kiss after they do something funny, but that's not what Shaun of the Dead does. At the start of the movie, Shaun's long-term girlfriend Liz breaks up with him because he is apathetic about everything in his life, including their relationship. All he wants to do is hang out with Liz and his friends at the pub, whereas Liz craves change and excitement. Their relationship just lumbers on with little energy and direction.

But when the zombie apocalypse strikes, Shaun risks his life to find Liz and keep her safe. Does he become a super zombie killer of Bruce Campbell Evil Dead proportions? No, but he also doesn't cut his girlfriend's head off with a chainsaw, so there's that.

Shaun does, however, put his life in jeopardy over and over and does what he thinks is right, all for the purpose of protecting his girlfriend. And when the movie's over, he hasn't become a better man worthy of her love. He's the same man, but Liz knows him better. She sees the difference between Shaun's desire for simple comforts and apathy. He's not apathetic. He loves her completely and would do anything for her, but what he wants to do most is just hang out. It seems real. It feels right. And it's telling that a movie about an unexplained zombie apocalypse still has a love story that makes more sense than Titanic's.

Why Real Love Requires Self Love

MAIN QUOTE
“We are want to condemn self-love; but what we really mean to condemn is contrary to self-love. It is that mixture of selfishness and self-hate that permanently pursues us, that prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves.” ~ Paul Valery, French Poet, 1871 - 1945
DR. LISA LOVE REFLECTIONS

As a counselor I have often told people that they need to learn to love themselves. Yet, while saying this to others, I have at times taken pause to reflect and ask myself, “What does that really mean? How do we know the difference between a self-love and a selfish love? And, what can we do practically to love ourselves in the right way?” Perhaps the quote above holds a clue, because I believe true self love fills us with enough joy, peace, and love that our desire to be loving human beings grows.
Because of this we want to express more empathy, compassion, and understanding towards others. Selfish love does the contrary. It increases our sense of self-loathing or our disdain and anger towards others. It causes us to act increasingly in our own best interests without considering the interests of others. It causes us to want to sacrifice others needs and desires in service to our own, instead of the other way around. Or, it causes us to self-destruct through a number of behaviors that may feel good temporarily, but ultimately they lead to the shutting down of our hearts and spiral us downward into increased self-loathing and self-reproach.
How then do we love ourselves in the right way? By first and foremost learning what love is. Then, by insisting that we feed ourselves with that love. This is best done by finding people who know how to love. From them we learn how to adopt loving mindsets, feelings, and behaviors.
And, it is done by setting boundaries on people who don’t know how to encourage the greatest level of love in us. Because when we truly have that kind of love in our lives we are increasingly a blessing to others. Which is why real love requires that we love ourselves in the right way, so we can have the strength to love, the wisdom to love, and the energy to love those who need our love the most.