Captain America becomes a hero for the 21st century

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 8:44 am by Andrew Collins

Captain America becomes a hero for the 21st century 2014-04-04T08:44:12-06:00 Andrew Collins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Review of Captain America: The Winter Solider, Directed by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, and Joss Whedon

For a film with hardly a single original moment, Captain America: The Winter Soldier performs surprisingly well. Wrap Bourne, Minority Report, and Olympus has Fallen into a Marvel film and you get Chris Evans at his finest, beating up the baddies and saving the day in the capital of the free world.

It seems every new Marvel film has been upping the ante on action sequences, and the Winter Soldier picks up where Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 left off, except instead of an army of Iron Man Suits or Dark Elf spaceships we have dogfights around not one, but three (count ‘em!) hover-carrier-gunships. During it all, Captain America repeatedly demonstrates his prowess in hand-to-hand combat and indestructible-shield-throwing. It’s cool and all during the first action sequence when Captain and company free hostages on a hijacked ship, but two hours and countless bodies and bullets later, even when he finally meets his match in the cyborgian “Winter Soldier,” we’ve started growing desensitized. How many punches, stun guns, and hundred-foot falls does it take to bring down Captain America? We may never know.

More irksome than the action sequences are the huge technological leaps the film takes in order to further the plot. Instead of deus ex machina we have technica ex machina (I know, I don’t know Latin and kind of made that up, but you get the point). Is our hero in a tight spot? Why not give him a handy little tool that can melt through ten feet of asphalt in seconds? No way to infiltrate enemy headquarters? Well, it just so happens that Black Widow has some shape-shifting material that makes her look exactly like a world leader from another country. SPOILER: Was Nick Fury pronounced dead in the hospital after multiple gunshot wounds? No problem, Bruce Banner came up with a drug that slows the pulse down to one beat a minute. Some people may find this sci-fi level tech creative and cool; I say too many secret weapons makes for cheap storytelling.

The Winter Soldier is not without its strong points, however. As a Washington, D.C. resident, I had the unique bonus of enjoying many scenes from recognizable areas of the real-life city. This heavy dose of the familiar helped to bring the film down to earth, though I highly doubt there’s a trio of hover-carriers parked underneath the Potomac.

In today’s Washington, D.C., Captain America must confront a decidedly more postmodern world than the one from 70 years ago in which he fought against the Nazi’s Hydra. Serving in the Army was much more black and white then, he says to an aging Peggy Carter. You followed orders, and yes, even though you may have done some terrible things in battle, the cause was just. Freedom was on the line. But after S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury sends him to handle a hostage situation with a certain set of orders while giving Black Widow a separate assignment, Captain America questions whether he can still trust the orders coming from the top. He’s in the business of protecting freedom, after all, not serving as a tool for the powers that be.

His skeptical premonitions prove accurate as he discovers that Hydra lives on and has embedded itself in S.H.I.E.L.D. This conflict marks the film’s one clever stroke, as Captain America’s doubt taps into today’s debates over mass government surveillance, personal privacy, and the expediency of military intervention. Without compromising his idealism or impeccable integrity, it moves him past his flag-waving origins and makes him relevant for the 21st century. His experience mirrors our own after all. Nations and institutions often look black and white to the naïve person looking from the outside in. With real-world experience this perception crumbles into confusion and disillusionment, and before we know it we’ve found ourselves in place where we’re not sure who to trust. Captain America, with his moral compass ever pointing truth north, provides the ideal we long for to lead us on the true path. He’s the man we wish we had at the helm of our armed forces, the man who sadly does not exist in a world in which all have turned aside to corruption.

But hey, that’s why he’s a superhero.

Previous Post

April 2, 2014

Realizing All is Lost

Next Post

April 11, 2014 Dom Hemingway – the myth, the legend, and so on and so forth

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Above all else, guard your ____, for everything you do flows from it.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Heart Actions Words Mind