A World War 2 icon returns to our screens to remind us of a time when America believed in its incorruptibility.
This summer Hollywood has spread out a few superhero stories for our consumption. These heroes often come with attendant weaponry – sometimes a ring of power, sometimes a celestial hammer. These weapons are symbols of power; acting as a deterrent and signifying the aggression these heroes are capable of. Captain America, however, bears only a shield – a symbol of protection rather than one of aggression. It is a motif that recurs frequently, as a trashcan cover or a cab door, throughout Captain America: The First Avenger. This superhero is obviously a product of a simpler time; a time when his creators believed their country was the champion of the little guy. It is to such a time that the film carries us after a brief portion set in the present.
Joe Johnston takes us back to time before the transistor, when multiple arms carried armatures and analog graduations were the order of the day. World War 2 was raging all over Europe and able-bodied men all over America were volunteering to lay down their lives for the country. Unfortunately for Steve Rogers (a graphically emaciated Chris Evans), his mental toughness and never say die attitude cannot compensate for his less than able body. After multiple rejections on account of his physical inadequacies, Rogers is finally enlisted when Dr.Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci as a wizened old man) decides he may be just the guinea pig for a ‘super soldier project’. Dr.Erskine, a German deserter, has a sordid past of his own. Formerly under the employ of Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving playing Hugo Weaving), Erskine escaped to America when his research was usurped to service he god complex of the Fuehrer and his minion. The film attempts to assuage decades of German guilt with a single line of dialog. “People forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own,” he says, almost in way of explaining his defection. There is a conflicted man somewhere beneath the calm exterior Erskine. This struggle is written into the film’s major characters, even if only briefly.
Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell with a stiff upper lip), officer in charge of training Rogers’ recruiting class, is one of the few women officers in the film with standing. She is entirely aware of the unique position she holds in an intrinsically male chauvinistic organization. And yet she must deal with an unnecessary emotion in the heat of battle, her attraction to Rogers. Rogers too deals with dilemmas after being accorded superhero status; both on whether he was the right choice and on what to do with his gift. After a successful tour across the United States selling treasury bonds ‘Captain America’ arrives in Italy to bolster GI morale through his stage act. The derision he is met with is depicts the stark contrast between pubic euphoria and the mood on the frontlines. It also defines the balance we all hope to strike in our professions – one between peer respect and fiscal stability.
Captain America is very aware of its place in the larger cinematic universe. The Marvel references are the most significant, with a small sequence after the end credits reminding us that the Captain will soon be integrated into a larger organization. Howard Stark, father of Ironman-to-be Tony Stark, plays an integral role in the hero’s genesis and the origins of the cube of power seen after the end credits of Thor are also explained away. But the film’s awareness extends beyond its Marvel roots into popular Hollywood terrain. Upon harnessing Odin’s cube of power, Schmidt whispers caustically about digging in the desert making a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark. In yet another scene Rogers sets off to save his childhood friend Buck from behind enemy lines. Clad in a leather jacket Rogers reminds us of another man who attempted an improbable escape from the Nazis clad in similar attire – the irrepressible Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
Despite the film’s awareness, the naiveté of its central premise is a little grating. The compassion of a weak man who suddenly chanced upon strength is no less condescending and our disbelief is not suspended enough to accept that a weak man is less likely to be enamored by the dark side of power. If Captain America: The First Avenger has a fatal flaw, then this is it.
P.S: An edited version of this review appears in today's City Express supplement of the New Indian Express.
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