(Guest post by Watcher Dagnabbitt on the upcoming “Captain America: The First Avenger” film’s re-imagining of the classic comic book hero, according to the film’s director.)
Don’t be depressed just yet – these director comments still are closer to the character’s spirit than, say, Joel Silver’s remarks about Batman “getting over” the shooting deaths of his parents.
The thematic element of Captain America having been always jingoistic is incorrect. He hewed much more closely to that concept at his inception (heh. I worked “Inception” into this) as a comic-book symbol of America vs. Germany, but there have been well-received story arcs when he even gave up his shield and armor in the intervening decades.
The recurring thematic element of Captain America, and this snippet – which may not be unedited – supports it, is that Steve Rogers always does – not tries to do, but DOES – what is right. And like his thematic counterpart over at DC comics, Superman, his sense of right and wrong is grounded in his American values-based upbringing, which in turn have best been portrayed when he points this out to his own.
(Because it is easy, and lazy, to write a protagonist fighting for the American Way of Life against Islamic terrorists; it is harder, and therefore takes actual writing skill, to have that same protagonist defend, say, both anti-war protesters and Tea Party activists because both groups are exercising their American right to assemble, disagree, and speak freely about it.)
There is an EXCELLENT passage in one of the Daredevil story lines in which Captain America guest stars. He just has helped Daredevil, along with Iron Man and Thor of the Avengers, take down an American Ivan Vanko-type with the flag tattooed across his face.
He questions Daredevil about villain, but is put off by the latter’s lack of concern over the villain’s origins. Daredevil asks why Captain America is so concerned, and he replies, “He wears the flag.” In that short passage, the essence of the character still rings true: he believes in what America represents – without jingoism OR cynicism.
While I doubt seriously that the Captain America film will be anything approaching profound – “Iron Man 2″ supports my own observation that Marvel has not learned from Warners’/DC’s/Nolan’s success with Batman and therefore will not attempt to elevate their comic-book film content beyond the realm of a comic book – I am not ready to expect a live-action anti-American diatribe, either.
The difficulty in finding portrayals of “Good Guys” in film is rooted much more in the inability of contemporary writers to create and maintain those protagonists.
Even Aragorn of the “Lord of the Rings” film was given a reluctance to accept his role as a paragon of leadership because Peter Jackson (falsely, IMO) believed that an “unflawed” character would not be plausible.
I suspect that the creative minds behind these Marvel characters are of the same ilk. Again, it not so much a leftist view as a cynical view period that they. unfortunately, perpetuate.
I respond to them, as I respond to my writer friends in Hollywood, what I posted to Jackson himself years ago, after his Aragorn comments circulated among the Tolkien discussion groups: Impossible to believe in flawless good guys that can anchor a film? Two words – Atticus Finch.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
One wonders how Atticus Finch would be written today by these writers. You know, the “enlightened ones”
I sure they would invent some backstory as to how he came from a broken home and had a drinking problem, and might have even been a genuine racist, but saw the error of his ways in time to help defend a black man who was clearly innocent.
It seems to me that you lose something in the translation. I think that more and more writers spend WAY too much time trying to figure was motivates a character instead of simply writing what that character does. Sometimes (though I’ll admit not always) thats not as important or even as interesting as the characters actions. (like Atticus Finch).
A character study is fine, but sometimes a straight forward story with clear good guys and bad guys with no back story is better.
I give you another one. In the Dark Knight they didn’t spend any time talking about the Jokers true backstory. It was different each time and yet he was a compelling character. Who cares what motivated him, you just knew he was the clear cut bad guy of the film.
I do understand the arcs of Captain America who isn’t jingoistic but their is a point you miss when comparing Cap to Aragorn, which is an apt comparison. Both the characters were reticent to their roles as heroes, but both worried that they were not valiant enough to be what their respective causes needed. Aragorn worried about man, but he never lost his belief that mankind would redeem itself. Cap may worry about Americans on the wrong path, but he never lost his belief that the American way would prevail. That doesn’t sound like the Cap that current filmmakers are presenting. To me, it sounded like they made a Cap that is ashamed of the flag enough to not wave it. Which would be like Aragorn dressing up like an elf just so people wouldn’t associate him with those filthy evil men.
You don’t have to believe in flawless characters to believe in a character with no apparent flaws. Atticus Finch is not necessarily flawless, but we do not see his flaws because they are not material to the story. The same should have been true of Aragorn.
Because it is easy, and lazy, to write a protagonist fighting for the American Way of Life against Islamic terrorists;
Then why the hell hasn’t Hollywood done it yet?
Even a movie like the first Iron Man, which started out as Iron Man vs. the Jihadists, took a screeching 180 halfway through and became Iron Man vs. the Evil Rich White guy. I could actually hear Hollywood suits sighing with relief at that part, when they realized that the movie wasn’t ultimately going to disturb their delicate PC sensibilities.
I agree, JimmyC – “easy” isn’t an adjective that scares away movie types. Sequels, remakes and reboots define the word “easy.”