The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 77 Days to go: 52
Movie #363: Captain America: The First Avenger
Of all the Avengers with their own individual movie franchises, Captain America (Chris Evans) is my absolute favorite, and the Captain America movies are as well. Unlike Tony Stark and Thor, Steve Rogers is an underdog, a weakling. He doesn’t win fights, he doesn’t win girls, and he’s not actual or even figurative royalty. He’s just a guy — an average, undersized guy with an oversized heart, an oversized will, and more courage than even the God of Thunder. In this way, Captain America is a uniquely American folk hero — a scrappy little underachiever who proves himself worthy of greatness and is rewarded, by way of a super secret scientific serum, with the body and strength to match his sense of duty and determination.
This is the America people like to believe in, the America of lore, and particularly the stars-and-stripes gung-ho America of the 1940s in which Captain America: The First Avenger is set. I’m certain this America only exists in stories, in nostalgic memories of people who may not have even been alive at the time, of the so-called Greatest Generation. I have no doubt of the greatness of some of the people at that time, of course, but I also know that people are people, and humans are humans, and just because stories of dissent and apathy and disillusionment aren’t told, it doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. That being said, however, the image of 1940s America is firmly entrenched in our collective minds at this point as a time of noble sacrifice and patriotic empowerment. It’s a feel-good story that endures. And it perfectly embodies the image that Captain America himself — the concept of Captain America, that is — aims to fulfill. Luckily, it all comes together perfectly in the film to create not only a rousing superhero picture, but a decidedly bolstering one.
But Captain America doesn’t serve to just reinforce the idealized Allied soldiers of WWII, it seeks to augment them. Steve Rogers is himself a super soldier, thanks to the efforts of super scientists Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), but what he received through science, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) already possessed in her DNA. Carter is herself a super soldier — not through artificial means but through sheer force of fearlessness and skill. Whether she’s cold-cocking an insubordinate soldier bent on sexual harassment or staring now a madman in a car headed straight for her, Peggy Carter is no one to be messed with. She’s every bit a match to Roger’s own vim and vigor, and more compelling than their blossoming attraction is simply how impressed they are with each other’s courage and abilities. When Peggy interrupts a sexy Natalie Dormer coming on to Steve, she wastes no time expressing her frustration with him — by shooting directly at his new shield. She knows what she wants, that one, and she doesn’t have to be coy to get it. She’s AMAZING.
Of course, a super soldier needs a super villain to contend with, and that’s where Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) AKA Red Skull comes in. Harnessing the power of the mythical yet all too real Tesseract, Red Skull has not only Captain America’s same super strength, but also super weapons to vaporize his enemies and the enemies of Hydra — a force even deadlier than Nazi Germany that costs a lot of lives — including Dr. Erskine’s — and costs Steve his best friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Schmidt and Hydra are formidable foes, not only for this film, but for other Marvel films as well, tying the whole universe together in a satisfyingly neat little bow — making the entire Marvel universe both easier to follow and to be invested in.
The true achievement of Captain America, however, is unlike any other superhero film to date: It makes me cry. When Steve sacrifices himself for the good of the people, as he was always destined to do, and he and Peggy share a painful goodbye disguised as a “see you later,” there are legitimate tears in my eyes. When Cap wakes up in modern New York City after seventy years asleep, I’m inconsolable. I want nothing more than a life in which Steve and Peggy get to share those 70+ years blissfully married to one another, saving the world and sexing it up. Think what a great world THAT would be.
Captain America is an origin story, a war story and a chaste romance all rolled into a comic book superhero film. And Steve Rogers is a fearless, flawless, idealized hero — the greatest of the Greatest Generation — never aging, never slowing, never backing down. I love him. And I love this film. He’s the star-spangled man with the plan!
Viable Option 