Dave | unobtrusive lucidity

A Review of “Captain America: The Winter Solider”

When the Captain America: The First Avenger was nearing it’s release, I remember having a conversation with an old friend over coffee. He wondered what would be done with the character on film, the undertone being that he was concerned that Cap would be reduced to the hard-fighting, propagandized embodiment of the “American dream.” I refuted that the character has a long history of being much more than that, and the capacity was certainly there if the writers chose to realize it. Certainly they did in the first film, and I had high hopes…and high standards… for this week’s debut of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I also find myself recalling another conversation with another friend who collected comics as I do. He operated a comic book interest group in the city where we lived, and said in one of our conversations that comic books provide a snapshot of where our culture is or has been at any given moment in history. I think that’s true. I also think that the potential for this is even greater as our heroes leap from the page (some beautifully, some less than spectacularly) onto the screen. If ever there was a super hero story to date that wrestled with the changing times in which we find ourselves, it is this film. If ever there were a character to wrestle with these massive issues and give hope in our fight to defend…or even to understand…our identity, it is Captain America. If ever there was a time to put these questions onto the screen, it’s now.

Oh, and those high standards? They were exceeded in nearly every way.

Steve Rogers, remember, is a man out of time, a member of the “greatest generation,” the product of an era when true freedom was felt to be threatened and a nation of people were willing to do whatever it took to defend that freedom. He is displaced to our current time, and left to sort out a country extremely different than the one for which he fought. Captain America symbolizes everything that we would want in a hero…good for the sake of good, annoyingly good, an ideal that is more powerful in spirit than in any physical capacity. You likely recall his line from the Avengers, when, saying that he had been told that America won the war when he emerged from his icy hibernation, he added, “They didn’t say what we had lost.” It’s hard to look at where we are and wonder if we haven’t lost a great deal. The ideal of sacrificing for what we believe isn’t in question. The question of our age is rather, what is it that we’re sacrificing? How far is too far, and what is it, exactly, that we believe?

This film does what the super hero genre is most uniquely qualified to do, and pulls that lingering question under a spotlight to be examined. Were I to isolate a single theme for The Winter Solider, it would be this: What is freedom? Nick Fury holds one ideal, and guides SHIELD in that path. “We take the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be.” He’s angry that Captain America won’t accept that ideal. After all, he reasons in early and very meaningful dialogue, Captain America’s generation got their hands dirty protecting freedom, and did things that they weren’t proud of. The Captain’s response is that they did indeed, but that they did so for freedom, not fear.

In a post-terror-attack world, has our definition of defending freedom become a reactionary one driven by fear? Conspiracy theorists would tell you that this has given rise to those who say that there is such a thing as too much freedom, those who would act for what they see is the greater good of the entire country without that country’s consent or permission. Our surveillance society concerns of today is the example that most likely leaps to mind, and the movie captures this fear, wrestles with it, forces the audience deeply into both sides and the answers at which they arrive to the questions, the questions that have to be asked. The movie asks them, in a way that I can’t recall a super hero story doing since the Watchmen came into print. And, while that might be shockingly high praise that will be off-putting to some, I’ll say in my defense that, in order to explore the character of Captain America as a sequel deserves, the writers had to delve deeply into the anxieties of the times, into the questions that we all have on our lips, just as Moore did with his anti-heroes. The difference here…the thing that Captain America symbolizes above all else…is that there is hope.

Captain America, after all, may be the first super hero, but he is also much more than a super hero. He is a symbol of the everyman, and someone who must probe the questions that we are frightened to probe. This film is simply just deeper than the rest of the Avengers canon, and, while the films preceding it have certainly laid the foundation for this, there just hasn’t been a film to date that was more capable than this one of exploring the issues at hand, and I am so glad that Brubaker, Markus and McFeely did not shy away from doing so, because this screenplay is simply, unquestioningly superb.

Fitting Marvel’s history of placing all-star casts in the Avengers films, this certainly is no exception. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson all bring outstanding performances to the screen, as do Cobie Smulders (who we discover may play a very important role in upcoming films?) and Anthony Mackie as he debuts the Falcon to our lineup of heroes. Evans allows Steve Rogers to develop as a character is huge ways here (his scene opposite Hayley Atwell is…wow…). Also, for long-time comic book fans, Agent 13 makes an appearance, hopefully the first of many, and I’m happy to see the thorough evolution of the Black Widow (and, if I may interject and channel the voices of long-time fans everywhere…please, Marvel…she needs her own film!).

My only complaint with the film, if this is a complaint at all, is that the themes which it explores are so huge, and it’s treatment of them so thorough, that the Winter Solider story arc (which I won’t spoil if you’re unaware of who he is) lacks a bit in where it could be taken. That is, by the end of almost two-and-a-half hours in the theatre, I wanted to see him developed more.

From a closer perspective, the choreography of the action sequences are generally excellent here, although the final and climactic face-off between Captain America and the Winter Solider became a bit too predictable. The pacing is ideal, giving the audience just enough time to relax before returning to the edges of their seats, and the plot twists…well, let’s just say I didn’t see this one coming.

Captain America is an iconic character for reasons that many don’t realize. He simultaneously symbolizes and calls into question our nation’s identity. This film realizes that potential, and I can’t imagine anyone not taking something huge away from the movie. Super hero fan or not, Avengers fan or not, you will not be disappointed here, you will be enriched.

And, just in case you’re not conditioned for it yet, don’t leave when the credits roll. There are not one, but two hidden endings, one of which introduces three important new characters to the Marvel universe.

I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier a solid ten out of five stars.

Image attribution: Andrew Buckingham under Creative Commons.

Acclimations and Adaptions

I walked outside this morning on my way to the office and nearly swooned in the warmth. I actually rolled down my window at one point. It was almost…fifty degrees! I remember well the first week that I lived in Virginia. I moved there in January, being used to heavy sweaters and winter gear for at least two more months. That week I remember driving to class with no jacket on and my sunroof open. I thought I had reached Heaven. I’ve always hated the cold and hated winter, and here I was, perhaps finally free of it.

Now, ten years later and after two years in New England, I have perhaps finally acclimated in a sense, if my comfort with my window down this morning is any indication. It’s been a long time coming. I expected to be rudely re-acquainted with what a real winter was after so many years in the southeast, but I hadn’t expected it to be as severe as the two winters I’ve been through in New England. Harsh would be an inadequate descriptor. I’ve wrestled with a depression for a good portion of the last two years that I thought was a thing of the past.

That hasn’t been entirely seasonal in nature, though. Changing careers at this point in life is exciting, yes, but fraught with more stress than I had anticipated. I thought it would be rough, but I didn’t know it would be rough. I didn’t anticipate the long acclimation period to that, as well…to being in a position in which I knew information, but lacked experience. That’s not a situation in which I’ve often found myself for the last twelve years.

I suppose that, if I were to identify anything that I’ve taken away from this experience (other than I should listen to my instincts, because there are many ways in which this might have gone much more smoothly if I had…but that’s another post) it’s that I should avoid expectations. Difficult, because we enter every experience with expectations. That’s simply part of the human condition. The last two years of my life, though, are prime examples of how the act of entering into new experiences with a high expectation has resulted in an enormous amount of frustration and disappointment. I thought that life would be easier after this career change, that it would quickly reward my efforts, that our family would be in a better position both emotionally and financially. Life, unfortunately, and especially in our political and economic climate, is nowhere near that predictable or sunny.

In short, I don’t find us riding waves of familial success as I thought we would at this point. Rather, we are treading water in many ways.

Could this have been predicted? Perhaps some of it could have. This radical life change was entered into thoughtfully and prayerfully, though, and it was not impulsive. It’s just impossible to predict everything, or even most things. And, overall, it’s been worth the experience and has placed us in a better position in many ways. I wish, though, that my expectations hadn’t been as high, that I hadn’t permitted myself to build up this elusive ideal of what life would look like before reaching this point. Because, if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have hit quite as hard, perhaps, when the rough spots occurred.

Weather is unpredictable, both literally and metaphorically. Perhaps it’s better to accept that as the primary constant in our experiences.

Photo Attribution: dcJohn under Creative Commons

Trendy? Not So Much…

Space Ghost action figure: a random image that is quirky and means nothing.

A long time ago, in a geographic location far far away, when I was a college student, there was this diner near the school. It was decorated like a 50’s diner, and served the faire that you would expect from such an establishment. Not astounding food quality, but it was fun. There was even a juke box. It was a great place to unwind and enjoy yourself.

I hadn’t really seen a place like that since, until we moved to New England two summers ago. The city in which we initially lived had such a diner downtown. I mentioned to Karen that I really wanted to stop in, because it would be really fun to go to a place like that again. After all, it’s a pretty unique experience.

And then, in our second apartment in that city, we discovered another such diner only a couple of blocks away. And then, when we moved about half an hour away to the town in which we currently live, we discovered another in the center of town. Turns out that, at least in our part of New England, retro-styled 50’s diners are all the rage.

I haven’t been to one here. Sort of don’t want to now. Mostly because they’re all the rage.
Contrast this with a place like Flying Saucer Pizza, which we tried last weekend, and that is a really cool and unique idea for a science-fiction-themed eatery (at least I haven’t seen any others in the area). It’s the sort of place that you recommend to your friends, because it’s unlike any other place that you’ve visited.

I suppose that where I’m going with this is that I really don’t like to do what everyone else is doing. In fact, if it’s stylish, trendy, or “what all the cool kids” are doing, I really have no desire to do it. On a cynical day, I would tell you that this is because of a herd mentality, because I don’t want to be part of a group following with no critical thought involved. In reality though, and in keeping with the positive vibe of my day, I think it’s more about my own personality flaw.

I just like to be different, man!

I sort of wish, for example, that Apple hadn’t gained the huge market share that it has, because it was a much cooler experience to carry an iPhone when very few people had one. Sort of like using a Mac still is, you were part of an exclusive club of sorts. I’ll continue to use one because it’s still superior to other phones, but when everyone has one…well, it just isn’t as fun.

We won’t discuss the secret fear that I hold of huge amounts of people becoming Whovians and forcing me to lose my joy in that program.

I think there’s something wonderful in being different, in defying easy categorization. Conformity is over-rated, and creativity flows from being a non-conformist. Still, the sour taste that doing what is popular leaves in mouth…it’s almost problematic.

Is this a pride thing? Do I need to mellow out in my old age? Should I follow the crowd more?

Nah. Being quirky is way too much fun…

Not So Amusing

Every now and then, a friend or colleague will reference a television commercial that is apparently all the rage, the thing that everyone is talking about. Karen and I generally remain (blissfully) in the dark about these, because we cut the cord years ago. The rare exception are adds that will appear on Hulu, and when I do see commercials, sometimes on a television in a waiting room or something similar, I generally just shake my head. Commercials generally are intended to leave one believing that if you buy that given product, your life will suddenly be fulfilled in some previously unrealized way.

Marketing, I will always believe, is a symptom of a great deal of what is cancerous in our consumerist Western culture.

Last week, Karen and I were watching a favorite program on Hulu, and we saw two such commercials. I think…I think…that they’re intended to be cute, amusing, and genuinely fun. And if you don’t think about them as you’re watching them, I imagine that they are just that. In the interest of actually thinking about what we’re seeing, though (you know, since that’s always a good idea), let’s look at Disney’s beckoning to bring us into their park for good family fun:

In what world would a grandparent have such poor self control as to upstage their grandchild? In what world would they even want to do such a thing? I’ve met a lot of grandparents in my life. I have a lot of friends that are grandparents. None of them would even dream of such a thing, because it isn’t funny, or cute, or amusing. It’s trampling your (grand)child’s self-esteem. And, incidentally, no child that I know would laugh at this either, to say nothing of the parents in the audience.

Or, perhaps even more depressing, this is apparently supposed to convince us to buy flavored coffee:

Except that’s it’s using a stereotype of vacuous women to do so, making the women in the commercial appear weak and flighty. Even worse, it’s making literary-minded women…and those interested in literature in general…to appear silly. Like we need less interest in literature in the U.S. today. Advertising as a discipline (if it can be called that) doesn’t care about whether or not it’s reinforcing a depressing cultural trend, though…it only cares that it can use it to sell a product.

Encouraging poor behavior, capitalizing on downward trends…what’s sad is that commercials like this (and there are others that are even more reprehensible…at least these two made some effort to disguise their manipulation with cleverness) do sell products. We let them. We mindlessly sit in front of a TV and soak them in, unthinking, without analyzing, permitting ourselves to be voluntarily reduced to the lowest common denominator.

The creators of these, and many other ads, should feel ashamed.

As should we.

Out of Practice

I logged into the blog tonight (Thursday) out of a sense of obligation. I haven’t posted anything all week, after all, and my posts seem to be becoming progressively later in the week, in any case. I used to write every Monday, after all. Every Monday, publish early Tuesday, a routine like clockwork, and…

…and I’ve complained about this before.

So, I’m not here to initiate a resurgence of whining. I’m just noticing something else that goes along with this, a part of the bigger picture. I don’t keep up with the blogs that I follow as I used to any more, either. I used to carve out 30-45 minutes every day to read posts from everyone that I knew in the blogosphere. I was always looking for a new blog to follow. I classified myself among the serious bloggers, those who would list this as a very important hobby, if not a side vocation. The reason is because I think that this medium is so important. The expression that this permits is so huge on so many levels. Free information is put out there by numerous sources. As everyone kept a journal at certain points in our history, we can now throw our thoughts out there for anyone who wants to listen (sort of what I’m doing now). And, of course, what has always made it so fascinating is that readers can interact with us and our thoughts.

“Ummm…yeah, Dave,” you’re saying right now. “This isn’t exactly new. Not like we didn’t realize this and you’re giving us an ‘aha’ moment…”

I know. Not like Web 2.0 is a new innovation or anything. I think, though, that we need to be reminded of this, because we’re doing it every day and we’re lost a bit in taking it for granted. Choose your social network…whichever one(s) you use, you’re doing the same thing, just is shorter sound bytes.

And that’s what concerns me.

I will always believe that long-form blogging is important in a way microblogging can’t achieve. Not saying for a moment that the latter isn’t important, as well, but there are things that it can’t do that we can do in this medium. Yet, this medium seems to be declining, or at least that’s the word on the street with many bloggers that I’ve followed for a long time. There’s no time to write these posts anymore, they say, and many say there’s no time to read them, either.

And, certainly I find myself skimming my subscriptions and pulling out specific posts now, and that’s on the every-third-day that I manage to open Feedly at all.

I can identify any number of reasons why this is the case, most of them legitimate, if not all. My time is stretched thin with a 2-year-old in the house, family obligations, various creative pursuits, and, of course, that whole day-job thing. However you slice it, our attention spans become forever shorter, our time to read anything more than a few characters increasingly strained. Out of practice, and all that. So, perhaps this is a hobby that’s been nudged down the priority list as my season in life has changed. That happens. It’s still important, though, for all of us who write, and for all of who read, in spaces like this one. The thoughts that can’t fill a book by themselves, but that can’t be boxed into 140 characters. These spaces are important.

We just have to find the time to read them.