![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrryblssmninjaMy grandma's funeral Mass was Saturday. It was a good service, as funerals go.
Last week was a good week in TV. Sherlock's fall, Southland's return, Fringe and (excepting certain issues) My Little Pony.
I'm still putting together a guide of upcoming entertainment for the year, but one of the movies I have a good feeling about was just picked up by a distributor at Sundance: Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Finally, I recently watched Captain America, and I can't stop thinking about how surprisingly sad it is.
It all started with the last line, "I had a date." This led me to think of "date" not just as meeting with Peggy but as the whole era that he lived in.
Steve Rogers can't get drunk after the Alpine fall of his best friend. He sacrifices himself for his country and thus loses not only his love interest but seventy years. He doesn't even get to see the end of the war.
The scientist who created the program dies. Peggy has to listen to the death of the guy she not only was romantically interested in, but was the embodiment of much of her project work in the military.
Bucky gets experimented upon, and finds that Steve is now a supersoldier taking away the usual female attention. Bucky doesn't mind that aspect of Steve's transformation that much, though, and even loses (or risks) his life to protect Steve's.
Even at the exposition of the future, the main attraction we see, Stark's hovercar, breaks down. Stark goes on searching for Cap, but dies before Captain America is found. I wonder what will happen when Tony finds out about his dad's involvment in the Captain America project. I remember seeing one of the shield prototypes just used to prop us stuff in Tony's lab in Iron Man 2.
Even ideals have changed- The Red Skull is defeated while saying that, soon, nations won't matter. Steve disagrees, and the whole identity of Captain America is based on a nation. Yet even his Howling Commandos are a group of mixed nationalities fighting for the same cause, and at the end he is recruited by the Avengers, which may be US-led but is not defined by protection of the United States.
Even though the film is strident in its hoo-rah fun and patriotism, all of these characters end up losing so much to ensure victory.
The people who made the movie probably didn't intend this ambivalent undercurrent, but now I want to write something formal about this interpretation.
Last week was a good week in TV. Sherlock's fall, Southland's return, Fringe and (excepting certain issues) My Little Pony.
I'm still putting together a guide of upcoming entertainment for the year, but one of the movies I have a good feeling about was just picked up by a distributor at Sundance: Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Finally, I recently watched Captain America, and I can't stop thinking about how surprisingly sad it is.
It all started with the last line, "I had a date." This led me to think of "date" not just as meeting with Peggy but as the whole era that he lived in.
Steve Rogers can't get drunk after the Alpine fall of his best friend. He sacrifices himself for his country and thus loses not only his love interest but seventy years. He doesn't even get to see the end of the war.
The scientist who created the program dies. Peggy has to listen to the death of the guy she not only was romantically interested in, but was the embodiment of much of her project work in the military.
Bucky gets experimented upon, and finds that Steve is now a supersoldier taking away the usual female attention. Bucky doesn't mind that aspect of Steve's transformation that much, though, and even loses (or risks) his life to protect Steve's.
Even at the exposition of the future, the main attraction we see, Stark's hovercar, breaks down. Stark goes on searching for Cap, but dies before Captain America is found. I wonder what will happen when Tony finds out about his dad's involvment in the Captain America project. I remember seeing one of the shield prototypes just used to prop us stuff in Tony's lab in Iron Man 2.
Even ideals have changed- The Red Skull is defeated while saying that, soon, nations won't matter. Steve disagrees, and the whole identity of Captain America is based on a nation. Yet even his Howling Commandos are a group of mixed nationalities fighting for the same cause, and at the end he is recruited by the Avengers, which may be US-led but is not defined by protection of the United States.
Even though the film is strident in its hoo-rah fun and patriotism, all of these characters end up losing so much to ensure victory.
The people who made the movie probably didn't intend this ambivalent undercurrent, but now I want to write something formal about this interpretation.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
2012-01-25 20:18 (UTC)no subject
2012-01-26 00:05 (UTC)no subject
2012-01-29 06:33 (UTC)Wow, your interpretation makes the movie that much more interesting, and even sadder. I was surprised by how sad it is too, and I'm bummed because I loved Peggy and would love to see her again. I hate how they're rushing to make The Avengers movie and sacrificing Captain's story in the process.
no subject
2012-01-29 06:41 (UTC)Yeah, I like how it has all the trappings of the patriotic action film but has this ambivalent undercurrent. I'll wait and see how Cap's story is handled in The Avengers and the Captain America sequel - the latter could be interesting if they incorporate comic book stories like Winter Soldier.