The title of Marvel’s new summer blockbuster, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is also found in American history. The term “winter soldier” referred to controversial meetings in 1971 held by Vietnam War veterans. They discussed the details of war crimes and led to an investigation referred to as ‘The Winter Soldier Investigation.’
In a review from Slate, Dana Stevens explains the role of Captain America and The Winter Soldier are reversed in film. “The character nicknamed the Winter Soldier isn’t the steadfast, naïve Captain America, aka Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), but his treacherous nemesis ... “ she said.
In the Captain America sequel, Captain America, played by Chris Evans, must fight the enemy, The Winter Soldier, played by Sebastian Stan. But the catalysts for starting this battle are much more blurred than simply hero and villain.
S.H.I.E.L.D., the headquarters of where the film takes place, is a spy agency in the Marvel universe. We find Captain America in present day America at the start of the film, working at S.H.I.E.L.D. But as the plot unravels, it is unclear if S.H.I.E.L.D. are really the “good guys” and protectors as the name suggests.
Marvel portrays this Captain America sequel as a political thriller. Throughout the years, films have had a way of illustrating the cultural anxieties of their time period. There are definite parallels between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the NSA.
In an article from Comic Book Resources by Albert Ching, director Joe and Anthony Russo explained in an interview that they were working to draw connections to what is happening in the world.
"We were thinking about what's going on in the world with preemptive strikes, the president's kill list -- the whole Snowden thing came out after we were shooting. We tried to make the movie reflective of our real world condition and our real world stakes, even though it's a fantasy expression of what that is,” said Anthony Russo in the interview.
In the beginning of the film, S.H.I.E.L.D. goes after a member of their own team. Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Nick Fury, after finding a flash drive after a mission, is chased down by S.H.I.E.L.D. It is unclear as to why they are after one of their own.
But soon after Captain America, Steve Rogers, also becomes hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Rogers being the one the stars at S.H.I.E.L.D. is surprised but prepared for the attack, but the reason why is left unknown to the audience, at first.
It later becomes clear that S.H.I.E.L.D. is not protecting the world’s freedom like we once thought. A larger plan is unveiled when Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, played by Scarlett Johannson, go off to investigate what really goes on at S.H.I.E.L.D.
They find that S.H.I.E.L.D. has an operation that has been in the works since World War II. The plan is called HYDRA and it is an algorithm developed by Nazi scientists to find those would be a problem in the plan of “world order” and eliminate them. HYDRA reads everything about a person’s past; emails, texts, phone calls, internet use and using it to predict their actions. Rogers was attacked because he posed as a threat according to this algorithm.
In an article from Comic Book Resources by Todd Gilchrist, explains that in light of current events, this film coincides with people’s fears about the NSA and privacy.
“Given the timely relevance of questions about NSA snooping, personal privacy and bureaucratic oversight, Markus and McFeely capitalize broadly on audience fears by shrewdly constructing the "Captain America" sequel like a political potboiler, a rabbit-hole chase to uncover the corruption of the U.S. government best exemplified by ‘70s thrillers like ‘All The President's Men’ or ‘The Parallax View,’” he said.
But according to Gilchrist, the film does not completely fulfill its aspirations. He explains that it addresses what is done is given up in order to obtain freedom but does not fully address the rest of the political issue. “As impressively mounted and physically palpable as the action may be, what it lacks is real-world tangibility, insofar as it fails to look at the impact of the action within Cap's sphere of disillusionment upon the larger world around it. Would a series of massive shootouts in a heavily-populated metropolitan area jeopardize public support for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security measures, or bolster it?” Gilchrist said.
Though the film may have done more to illustrate the political issues, it did illustrate the fears and anxieties that we feel as a culture; about technology, the internet and our privacy. The film gives a nod to WarGames a political thriller of the 1980’s that well encapsulated the feels of anxiety during the development of the internet and fears of nuclear war. Similarly to WarGames, the Captain America sequel captures the anxiety of culture well.
While the film was not drawing direct parallels to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plans for order and the NSA, it does pose interesting ideas of cultural feelings about current events. Our society has highly technological lives and little privacy. Captain America leaves us with an interesting question about the future, what does this lack of privacy mean for the world?
No comments:
Post a Comment