Ever so slightly worrisome.
Hollywood has a real internal problem with being able to simply accept the concept behind a Captain America, without sneering at it. They can overcome it, but it’s just not natural for them.
9 thoughts on “New “Captain America: Winter Soldier” trailer.”
Comments are closed.
I’ve got, as I’ve mentioned before, reservations about how DC et al. have changed the concept since it was set up.
.
Captain America, as originally created, was a man who could not live in peace for any reason when America’s enemies were in arms against her. He was not a summer time soldier nor a fair weather friend. The so called real Captain America of the Cold War and modern era can not be so described.
.
I’ve a fanfic in the earliest planning stage, that might rationalize the differences.
.
Speaking of WWII era AH/AU, does the woman the New Yorker had covering the Eichmann trial strike anyone else as a plausible Nazi agent of influence?
Captain America is a Marvel character. Just pointing that out, I agree with everything else.
Yes, I was wrong, Marvel not DC.
.
Thank you.
I think the people behind this movie are smart enough to realize that overt sneering at Captain America’s love of country will bite them in the ass.
Hollywood does have a problem with the character’s central motivations, so they’re extremely likely to screw that up.
.
But the larger problem is that Captain America just isn’t that interesting.
Let me put that another way. A character can be defined either by his flaws, or by his enemies.
Tony Stark is a genius inventor, with a delusion that he’s incapable of love, seeking an honorable death, dealing with a whole lot of self-destructive impulses along the way. He’s defined almost exclusively by his flaws, and it doesn’t really matter if he happens to be fighting the Mandarin, the Crimson Dynamo, or Whiplash. He’s still Tony fricking Stark, and the bad guys are just scenery. The story is all about him, and they’re showing up to give the drama a backdrop.
The Hulk (prior to becoming intelligent) was completely defined by his enemies. Bruce Banner tried to avoid conflict, and the Hulk smashed. The focus of the story is the villain that’s about to make a very bad mistake (and that’s with one of the weakest rogues galleries in all of superherodom).
Spiderman is an synthesis of the two modes. He’s defined by his guilt complex, (his sense of duty, his dependents, and his compulsive wisecracking–which are disads, but not character flaws). But he’s also defined by his enemies, from Green Goblin and the Lizard, to J. Jonah Jameson.
.
Anyway, back to the point. The essence of Captain America is that he fights for truth, justice, and the American Way. There’s not a character flaw to be had there. Hollywood is *extremely* tempted to see it as one, but if they try that stunt, they deserve all the blowback they get. So he has to be defined by his enemies. In this case, an American hero that’s been brainwashed by the godless commies and turned into a murderous assassin is the focus. If Hollywood follows its id, they’ll pull the “not so different” trope and revel in it. Sadly, I think that’s more likely than not.
Consider though: Captain America lost decades of his life. He doesn’t quite fit in with these youngsters that he fights alongside. With the right writer, that bit of back story can be used for tragic effect.
It could.
But that would require introspection on the part of the writer. In a big budget Hollywood action movie.
.
Not to mention the writer and actors flagrantly opposing the “Year Zero” Leftist shibboleth.
Firstly, three items where I may be wrong and haven’t bothered to check. Steve Rogers doesn’t age. His mother was Irish. I recall he is some sort of New Yorker, I want to say Long Island.
.
If Rogers avoids death by accident, violence, and old age, he would eventually see the death of the Republic. (If the second coming doesn’t happen first.) This could easily be written as a period also lacking in truth and justice.
.
Secondly, think about his background and period.
.
His father, and his surviving male relatives of that generation would have been WWI vets. His brothers and male cousins, his friends even, would have volunteered. Unlike my cohort, in his cohort, college students worried about the welfare of foreign peoples went and fought in the bloody Spanish civil war. There were contemporary and near contemporary communities who were extremely gung ho even by the standards of the day.
.
His extraordinary drive and conviction, beyond even his hardcore peers, is a major part of his origin. (Whether it is shackled to, or inspired by love of America and the Republic is an interesting question)
.
This can also be a flaw.
.
If his deal was ‘as long as arms are born against the United States’, he probably was not prepared to live so long, or for America’s success to attract a never ending stream of enemies.
.
One possibility is that he gets no joy from battle, does things out of a stoic sense of duty. Certain David Drake characters and Sisyphus perhaps.
.
Secondly, if he started with enthusiasm or joy, perhaps that could run out on him. Just because it would never be particularly in character for him to be PC (Oxford Oathish) on the matter, does not mean that he couldn’t change from where he started.
.
Thirdly, today even South Boston might not be what it used to be. Frankly, this seems more a certainty as time goes on without the Irish conflict feeding into things as strongly. Suppose Steve continues to live, is inclined towards conflict by personality, doesn’t change from his youth, and the United States continues to be secure and peaceful. He might become more and more alien.
.
As an aside, the counter argument to the last is that lies and weakness invite attack, which eventually would revert things to sanity. Which makes me want to write a crossover fanfic with Mahouka. (Mahouka had a mid century world war coming up which kills two thirds.)
Just take a deep breath and repeat the mantra: Never Trust A Trailer.
.
Don’t make me repeat my “Thelma and Louise” story…