In which I revisit a previously explored topic with fresh eyes and an open mind.
You had to have seen this coming, right? I'm right in the middle of reviewing all of Marvel's Phase 2 right around the 4th of July. You had to have known that I couldn't have passed up such a perfect opportunity to bring up everybody's favorite star-spangled superhero. It would have been as if the movie didn't make a point to come out on BluRay on September 11th.
Captain Rogers has been busy since the Avengers saved New York from the Chitauri invasion. He’s been working as a covert S.H.I.E.L.D.
operative with Black Widow, leading the agency’s counter-terrorism strike force
and making the world a safer place for democracy. But when Nick Fury stumbles upon a secret
that could shake the world to its foundations, he’s assassinated for it. Now Steve and Natasha are on the run from
both S.H.I.E.L.D. and a cybernetic assassin known only as The Winter Soldier as
they attempt to solve a mystery that’s sixty-eight years in the making.
Although it might not be immediately
evident, Captain America: The Winter
Soldier is a direct indictment of post-9/11 politics. In the wake of a public attack on New York City
by foreign operatives (ie September 11th), S.H.I.E.L.D. (ie the US
Government) creates a fleet of next-gen helicarriers to preemptively and
unilaterally deal with national security threats (ie the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan)
and curtail civil liberties (ie The Patriot Act). Captain America, the living embodiment of an
idealized America, is not surprisingly unhappy with this, arguing that “this
isn’t freedom. This is fear.”
The
mid-movie plot twist – that Hydra, the Nazi splinter-faction that we thoughtwas defeated by Rogers in 1945, is not only still operating well into the 21st
century, but has infiltrated the United States government at its highest levels
and is now essentially running the show – brings this point home in bluntest
way possible: America is being run by the same fascists ideologies that we
fought against in World War II. It’s
like George H. W. Bush slapping the backside of George Jr.’s head because he
raised him better than this.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier deals more directly with Rogers’ post-war disillusionment than any other MCU film to date. While he “thought that [he] could throw [him]self back in, follow orders [and], serve,” he realizes that “it’s just not the same.” He tours the Captain America Museum, trying to make sense of the myth he’s become and the life that he’s lost: a girlfriend who moved on in his absence and a best friend who never came home at all. He sits in on VA support groups, where a younger generation of soldiers also struggle with reintegrating into civilian life. When he visits an infirmed Peggy Carter, who admits that while he “saved the world[,] we rather mucked it up,” we are forced to watch his heart break when he has to explain to her once again why he’s still alive after nearly seventy years due to her Alzheimer’s.
The
real sucker punch for him, however, is that Bucky – the childhood friend whose
death in World War II he still blames himself for – is not only alive, but has
been brainwashed by Hydra into becoming The Winter Soldier: the assassin who
not only took out Nick Fury, but JFK and Howard and Maria Stark (Tony Stark’s
parents). Rather than falling into Watchmen’s apathetic despair – shouting “what
happened to the American Dream? It came
true! You’re lookin’ at it.” – Rogers
pulls himself up by his bootstraps, trades in his sleek, covert uniform for his
star-spangled getup from The First
Avenger and vows to bring his friend back from Hydra’s control: a microcosm
of the socio-political conflict of the film.
But the real kicker – the one that’s surprisingly easy to miss
– is the connection between Cap's moral stance in when confronted with
issues of government transparency and Edward Snowden. When he finds out
that Hydra's running the show, Cap' doesn't side with the government (you know,
because he's Captain America).
He doesn't try to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. (and, implicitly, the moral infrastructure
of the United States) like Fury wants him to. He dumps all of
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s databases onto the internet and lets the rest of the country
sort it out: forcing hard truths and moral transparency on the world simply
because it's the right thing to do.
In
a rare turn for sequels, Captain America:
The Winter Soldier succeeds at surpassing its predecessor: maintaining The First Avenger’s virtues while culling
the chaff. Hayley Atwell is just as
convincing as a frail old woman as she is as a capable young agent. Despite already possessing a surprisingly
deep filmography, Anthony Mackie gives a remarkable breakout performance that’s
bound to finally earn him his cinematic due.
Samuel L. Jackson is badass enough as Nick Fury that it’s easy to forget
that he’s pushing sixty-six years-old himself.
Chris Evans continues to channel The Greatest Generation’s determined
idealism into Steve Rogers while Scarlett Johansson plays the facile superspy
with such skill that I still can’t figure out why we haven’t gotten a solo
Black Widow film yet.
Contrary
to the utterly forgettable and somewhat bumbling Armin Zola that we got in the
first film, the Zola of The Winter
Soldier is chillingly to-the-point.
Alexander Pierce is the intelligent, charismatic, real-world villain
that Marvel has always lacked. And The
Winter Soldier – America’s longest-serving POW – is so complicated, nuanced and
tragic a character that it hardly serves to simply call him a villain. With one film, Markus, McFeely and the Russos
solved “The Marvel Problem:” forgettable, if functional, villains that merely
serve to further the narrative and give the film’s Avenger of choice somebody to
punch.
Whereas
The First Avenger’s climax was
disappointingly cut short by the untimely disappearance of The Red Skull, The Winter Soldier’s much more personal
apex is carried through to the thoroughly satisfying conclusion that its
predecessor lacked. While the first film
wanted for the expected post-credit scene that had already become Marvel’s
signature flourish, The Winter Soldier
has two: one mid-credit and one truly post-credit, each with its own implicit
ramifications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rogers’ and Natasha’s playful, back-and-forth
banter – ranging from trying to set Steve up with coworkers and the best way to
go on the run – is just the kind of levity that the grounded seriousness of the
first film didn’t allow for.
Anthony
and Joe Russo, whose directorial credits until now consisted of TV show
episodes, TV movies and the ill-conceived You,
Me and Dupree, emerge from The Winter
Soldier as latter-day Dario Argentos.
Their restless camerawork, combined with Henry Jackman’s riveting score
and the iconic shrieks that herald Bucky’s presence, give the film a frenzied,
unrelenting energy all of its own. While
Joe Johnston occasionally gave in to over-direction, the Russos are contented
to sit back and let the strength of the cast and writing move the scenes
forward when that will suffice.
Whereas
The First Avenger was a sprawling
World War II epic, The Winter Soldier
is a gritty, Nolan-esque spy thriller where everyone is suspect and nobody is
innocent. It is a masterpiece of
post-9/11 paranoia and 21st Century realism. It delivers on the promise of The Avengers: that Phase 2 can continue
to produce interesting, nuanced films beyond Phase 1’s origin stories. This film, in short, combines the best
features of superheroic action and Nixon-era espionage.
Rating: 10/10
Buy on BluRay: Yes!
So what did you think about the politics of Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Did you agree or disagree with them? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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