[Note: So I wrote this long article on the Captain America movie after having seen The Wolfman (the director of which was doing Captain America). Many of these issues are pretty old news now (but still valid). While abashedly nerdy and “detailed” to say the least, it was more an exercise in writing that I needed and hadn’t done in over a year or so.]
My thoughts on the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger movie:
What it could be, should be, but probably won’t be.
[This is not meant to be a history lesson. It is simply my thoughts and opinions on a movie that hasn’t been released yet. Also there are some potential spoilers from and for various sources, so be warned.]
I just saw Joe Johnson’s Wolfman re-make, and although the movie itself never really appealed to me, I wanted to see it mainly to evaluate Joe Johnson’s directorial ability and how it might affect the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.
I don’t know why I feel so powerfully about this movie. I don’t have a childhood attachment to Captain America like I do to Spider-man, but I really think that beyond the potential to be a great comic-book movie, Captain America could be a really important movie for the present American audience. I liken its potential to Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978). Superman was an important movie for its time, premiering in the period coming off Post-Watergate, Vietnam, and oil crisis period of distrust and fear of the late 1970’s. It transcended its own “comic book movie” stigma while also simultaneously starting the modern iteration of the genre. Superman: The Movie was fortuitously released at an important turn in American mood and, like the titular hero, was there when people were ready to begin to believe in something again. It was because of Donner and his ability to craft such a pure cinematic experience of movie magic that made Superman so important.
In my opinion, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) (and while I am giving opinions, I’ll just go ahead and say that it’s not the greatest comic book movie of all time) was so successful in part because it came out at exactly the right moment and tapped into the collective (un)conscious of the United States audience— and to some extend the global audience as well. The movie was released the summer prior to a huge presidential election in a year when oil prices per barrel reached an all-time high; the country was in an economic recession and stock market decline; and a general increase of fear and angst from terrorism and wars on terrorism all over the world that seemed to mirror the period of the 1970’s that directly preceded Superman. This is the period that birthed the neo-noir genre, which included films such as Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), hell, even Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977). On screen, The Dark Knight’s near perfect rendering of a state in fear, paranoia, and chaos truly mirrored the general anxiety of the time similar to the aforementioned films. Now, like the period immediately preceding Superman: The Movie, I believe that there has been a shift in perspective or at least a desire for one, and “you’ll believe a man can fly” is exactly what moviegoers are ready for and need.
Captain America could be this film, but unfortunately, after seeing Wolfman to check up on Johnson (a director I haven’t seen a movie of since Jurassic Park III), I don’t think it will. Viewing Wolflman gave me the same feeling I saw after Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (I was a bit young to have this feeling after Episode I): a despairing heartbreak at a missed singular opportunity.
I think Johnson is a competent director, but that is it, and it’s not enough. From everything I’ve seen from Johnson’s movies, and with everything that I’ve read about his comments on the upcoming project, he just seems to lack what Donner had for Superman, Rami had for Spider-Man 1 and 2*, Singer had for the X-Men (that Brett Ratner certainly did not), Nolan has for Batman, and Favreau has for Iron Man: a thorough understanding and respect of both the character’s place and history in comic books and the cinematic vision and competency to best to translate that distilled essence to the screen.
For example, Johnson just released a statement that they are planning to make Steve Rogers part of a USO show as a means to explain why someone would actually wear the costumed in real life. This idea is flawed on so many levels. On the costume, the most glaring is Johnson thinking that the modern audience needs a reason for the costume to be fully explained at all. This pandering to the lowest common denominator of entertainment seems similar to Warner Bro’s originally wanting to “darken” the Superman franchise in order to recreate the success of Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight by replicating the process any way they can. “Nomex survival suit for advanced infantry.” Infantry are in the Army. Captain America is in the army, so we better explain the suit. Perhaps Favreau could reshoot the scenes of John Slattery as Howard Stark in Iron Man 2 (2010) with Morgan Freeman in the role to design Cap’s suit and shield (here’s to hoping he likes to nap in the middle of important metallurgy experiments).
Not every superhero needs the origins and design of his or her costume to be addressed. Sam Rami didn’t need to explain where Peter Parker got his costume and neither of course neither did Stan Lee originally. The need to detail the process of costume origins stems from a modern trend that they be realistic and functioning. The costume of Captain America was not created in the modern era. It is a by-product of the 1940s and, by definition, not current and hence the appeal of Steve Rogers as a man out of time when his is found and un-thawed. There is no need to place the movie set in the 1940s in the modern mentality of skeptically scoffing at a costume unless it is functional. If the filmmakers are so dedicated to making the film a near-fully period piece, if they can successfully sell the time-period, modern audiences will fall in line with 1940s thinking, trust that the filmmakers know what they are doing and trust them without having every detail explained. Christopher Nolan never explains that the substance Bruce sprays on the Nomex survival suit is an insulated coating to hide his body’s heat signature. The audience just trusted that there was a reason he was making the suit black that also fell inline with the traditional look of Batman’s suit. If the trust in the filmmakers can be established, simple and natural ways to translate Cap’s traditional costume of spandex looking material into a more realistic uniform in the 1940s (Mark Millar’s Ultimates comes to mind) are readily available that there is no need to go to great lengths to waste screen time explaining it.
Admittedly, I think Johnson seems to be more concerned with the brazen nature of the flag motif than the functionally, but the design of Captain America’s costume is a real part of American history. The Captain America comic by Timley Comics was created as a way to provide a counterpoint to Nazi Germany’s actions by distilling the best of the United States into a single symbol and to eventually boost moral when the nation entered the war. Captain America, Bucky, and their allies’ popularity basically made them the Beatles of American symbolism (a good though, admittedly, flawed analogy for obviously reasons). His costume design actually served to inspire those at home and fighting abroad and not simply to entertain**.
The decision to make Rogers part of a USO show in order to protect him, I find to be a more disturbing mishandling of the character and again highlights Johnson’s lack of understanding about Steve Roger’s primary appeal and focusing on all the wrong things. Similar to the perceived necessity of explaining the costume, I find the “protective-preservation ” plotline to be an inaccurate modern take on actual historical mood and events. Unlike current wars and conflicts, the pre-Super Soldier Serum Steve Rogers is a symbol of America’s unwavering devotion and (nearly) universal support of the extermination of evil. The spirit of the time from what we now call the Greatest Generation was of sacrifice and duty and not of reservation and hesitancy. If the United States designed a superior riffle, but was only able to make one, the US Army would not have paraded that superior riffle around to inspire the deployed troops or Americans on the home front. They would have put that riffle to work in the hands of their best marksman (that’s a better metaphor). It is easy to look back after the War has already been won and say that you would obviously want to protect the Super-Soldier because he’s the only one, but it is another thing to be on the other side of history, not knowing how the outcome of how the war will play out, but knowing that failure is not an option and then say we’d better keep this guy off the front lines for his protection.
Also, the idea of Captain America, the last and only Super-Soldier, being in a USO show at all is just not well thought out. First, the USO is a private, civilian organization, not part of the Armed Forces, so it seems a bit silly that the US Army would put its most valuable asset in the hands of non-military personal. Second, if Nazi intelligence can discover and infiltrate the site of Project: Rebirth’s primary test (possibly the most important and secretive research going on in the United States during the period preceding World War II) to kill the lead scientist and end the program, then they would probably have no problem securing the schedule and location of the USO’s shows to assassinate its singular success.
Finally, showing a Steve Rogers, someone who volunteered for a risky and dangerous treatment to do anything he could to help combat evil, in some meaningless protective USO parade at all is huge and unnecessarily breach in character. Captain America is not about hesitancy or reserve. Spider-man, Batman, and Iron Man, as products of a more modern time, all had to have significant trauma inflicted on them to push them to become superheroes. Steve Rogers volunteered for the Super-Soldier Project not because of some defining personal tragedy but because it was right. That he would be so deferential to actually be in the show in the first place and not on the front line wholly undermines his credibility to be seen as the symbolic paragon of the World War II American spirit. War is dangerous. There were ordinary men who risked and lost their lives to accomplish extraordinary things. To have the Super-Soldier willing to play it safe is an insult to their sacrifice and will unconsciously and possibly irrevocably color the character in the minds of the audience. The filmmakers are already going to have a difficult time building him up as the most inspired leader of the war without the (at least 30 minute) handicap/ setback this USO plotline creates***.
Johnson’s statement on the costume seems indicative that he is indeed focusing on all the wrong aspects of Captain America or not aware of the right ones. While the design of the costume is part of the character, it isn’t the defining one like Iron Man or Batman where the suit is the vehicle for the character’s accomplishments. The most important thing about Captain America is Steve Rogers himself. There is an issue of Spider-man in the 90’s spider-slayer arc where Peter Parker’s (fake) parents, Mary and Richard, are a taken aback by Spider-Man and contrast him to Captain America who they say was at least human****. This anecdote really centers in on the essence of Steve Rogers as being seen as one of and not above the American wartime populace. Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Batman are superheroes but I would not classify Captain America as such. The three former icons have abilities and tools that take them far beyond the ordinary and into the extraordinary. Because of their spectacular abilities, superheroes are intrinsically set apart from the people without them. “Ordinary” people applaud them, worship them to a degree, and can even fear and hate them (the whole Luther-Superman dynamic springs to mind) knowing that the superhero stands above them in a way. A hero on the other hand is of the people, not set apart and inspires others to be heroes in and of themselves. While Captain America has the Super Soldier serum that maximizes his human attributes, the difference between Super Soldier and superhero is a fine distinction, but it is this distinction that is the most important to the character.
In all the Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers is the only successful Super Soldier. Efforts to re-create the formula and the Super Soldier have created a myriad number of copies with an equal number of shortcomings and side effects. With so many efforts to duplicate him and no true successes, a theory has emerged, sort of flitting through the background of various Marvel titles, that it isn’t the serum that is special and unique to the success of the Super Soldier but that it is Steve Rogers and his will to be what is needed that just actually makes the Super Soldier serum effective in the first place. Abilities coming from within the individual rather than a suit designed from engineering brilliance, or genetic or scientific powers is what separates Captain America from the other comic book icons and is really at the heart of the character.
While that sounds similar to Batman, there is a fundamental difference between the two. Batman is a creature of fear and intimidation and Captain America is a symbol of hope and inspiration. This contrast is why Johnson’s take on the World War II backdrop of the film should be a realistic and natural one (in the vein of Band of Brothers over something like The Great Escape) but not for the same reason as Batman Begins. Nolan’s take on Batman is so determinedly grounded in reality (a reason why the sonar sequences never sat well with me in The Dark Knight) in order to take a man with the right training, discipline, well-funded armory, and the will to fight crime, and elevate him beyond the what normal people cannot or are unwilling to do; a superhero in the realistic world. Johnson’s take on Captain America should be similarly grounded in historical reality in order to demonstrate how a normal man can alter history and create heroes out of other people.
That is the beauty of Steve Roger’s as Captain America. He is a symbol of what we can be if we can find the inner strength to not shy away from what is needed and push ourselves beyond what we are capable of in the service of others—a mirror to inspire and reflect what already exists in ourselves. He reminds us of a time when there is sometimes evil without shades of grey, and that good must arise to combat it. He shows us that despite the ever-growing complexities of our current time, there is still right and wrong. Most importantly, Captain America inspires people to find heroism within themselves in the direst of circumstances or in the smallest ones; to be who we really are or even forgot that we could be. This film is about establishing him as the encapsulation of the greatest generation, and then literally bringing that heroism to our current and every subsequent generation. That is the film that Captain America should be and deserves. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen of Johnson’s potential in Wolfman, I don’t think that it can be, but despite my doubts, I still hope it will be.
— Cory Line
2 March 2010
Oh yeah, and Bucky Barnes should be played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Sequel, baby). No question about it.
* My theories about why Rami didn’t have it for Spider-man 3 would probably necessitate a longer piece than this.
** A short exchange with some of the men teasing Cap about the flashy nature of his costume, and him replying that he asked for it to be that the enemy combatants would be drawn to him rather at the other men would be a more elegant, simple and character driven solution very similar to the reason Frank Miller gives in the ‘Dark Night Returns’ for Batman’s yellow chest insignia.
*** A best-case scenario would be that Steve realizes that boosting moral through non-direct means is not the best use of him being an honest-to-god super soldier (or Steve finally getting fed up with the Army’s efforts to protect him) and escapes to the front line, or he is attacked at a show by the Red Skull’s agents (I already explained how and why) and the Army decides they can’t protect him anywhere and is finally put on the front line to fight. As a best-case scenario, the very best way that this USO idea can possibly be resolved, it’s still not great, a complete backtrack on his character, and, at the very least, a complete waste of time.
**** Amazing Spider-Man 368