My first Halloween in grad school I walked into my office job wearing a Captain America costume. My boss wasn't familiar with who I was calling me "Flag Man" and "Mister A" before I finally sighed with defeat, took off the cowl, hung my head, and muttered "No, I'm Captain America."
My favorite heroes are the idealists and they tend to stand for truth, justice, and the American Way. Steve Rogers literally wears a flag to let people know exactly who he is and what he stands for. These are all things worth fighting for and I would argue that they are all also currently under siege. Captain America has to exist beyond whoever is in office, beyond any army or agency. These things are run by people with agendas and agendas change quicker than the tides.
The Winter Soldier sees what happens when Cap's ideals clash with agendas with far-reaching consequence.
Tautly paced and tightly constructed, it's the first Marvel film that felt like it had actual repercussions rather than a neat, what-did-we-learn-this-time conclusion. It also helps to my own biased enjoyment that the bulk of the film ostensibly takes places in around DC (After a week of filming on the Mall and in Dupont Circle, the production relocated to Cleveland where it was logistically easier to film the exteriors) with SHIELD's headquarters placed just on the other side of the Potomac as if there was some underdeveloped piece of Rosslyn just there on the riverbank.
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| The most unbelievable thing about this entire movie is that the Capitol and monuments aren't under renovation. |
When he came out of the ice, everyone Steve Rogers ever knew and loved was dead or on death's door. The world moved on without Captain America, it had to; Steve is worried if it moved in the right direction. The thing about writing Cap is that the world around him changes and he adapts but what he stands for never wavers. Steve buries himself in his work, keeping his head down and charging forward. It makes sense that he gets uncomfortable with questions about his love life; that when his new buddy Sam Wilson asks him point blank what makes him happy, he can't honestly respond. When Batroc taunts him the opening action sequence that he's little more than a shield, he's quietly laid out the mission statement for the entire film: We've seen Captain America in action, but in this brave, new world who exactly is Steve Rogers?
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| The Watergate Hotel conspicuously in the distance right before all hell breaks loose. |
The First Avenger was Cap in his element, in his natural timeline.
The Winter Soldier sees that aw shucks idealism clash directly with modern era cynicism as Steve's worst fears are realized: In his decades-long absence, the organization he helped found has been infiltrated and furtively corrupted by his old enemies in HYDRA as a shadow organization within a shadow organization; wheels within wheels. And to top it all off, his best friend long-presumed dead Bucky Barnes has been brainwashed and preserved as the titular assassin; the best thing in Steve's life before he went under now death personified. Cap has no moral objections to dismantling SHIELD with his own two hands but Bucky? He will try to save his friend at whatever the cost because he's with him to the
end of the line.
The Winter Soldier, given its clandestine implications, is the darkest MCU film to date which is kind of impressive because a previous film involved the hero dealing with PTSD and suicide bombers and a future film involves two heroes creating a murderbot that essentially lays waste to an entire Eastern European country. It's not, like,
Batman v. Superman dark (it helps that this movie is actually good) largely because of the filmmakers delicate handle on tone, the sharp sense of humor, and consistently enjoyable performances across the board but while the heroes do save the day, the top spy organization in the world has been pursuing an evil agenda for decades; with foxes in the hen house that long, Cap has to burn it all down. And that's a HUGE move to make. But it all works.
Marvel started publishing Ed Brubaker (who silently cameos here) and Steve Epting's
Winter Soldier story right around the time I wrapped high school and started college and it really is my favorite
Captain America story in over 75 years of comic stories featuring the former propaganda tool. The idea of Bucky, the one "death" that haunted Steve Rogers for decades, turning into something far worse, was groundbreaking and divisive at the time and when I first read it, I couldn't shut up about it. The best twist stays here but the genius move is that it's overshadowed by the bigger twist of what Cap is truly up against with HYDRA/SHIELD; somehow the presence of the Winter Soldier is secondary.
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| How to Fall Forever |
I had kind of been burned out on superhero movies going into
The Winter Soldier that April night back in 2014.
Man of Steel definitely didn't do it for me that previous summer and
Thor: The Dark World left me feeling like the magic of seeing the childhood heroes I grew reading about on the big screen was starting to wane. It took me a minute to warm up to
The Winter Soldier for some reason: I always liked it a lot but it left me spinning with how much they throw at you over its runtime. It's a movie built for multiple viewings and, in the four years since its debut, I can say now it's my favorite in the entire MCU running leaner and meaner than everything else. It's also gained startling relevance since its debut; in 2014, it was farfetched our government could be compromised so badly. In 2018? It seems par for the course.
Marvel started publishing Ed Brubaker (who silently cameos here) and Steve Epting's Winter Soldier story right around the time I wrapped high school and started college and it really is my favorite Captain America story in over 75 years of comic stories featuring the former propaganda tool. The idea of Bucky, the one "death" that haunted Steve Rogers for decades, turning into something far worse, was groundbreaking and divisive at the time and when I first read it, I couldn't shut up about it. The best twist stays here but the genius move is that it's overshadowed by the bigger twist of what Cap is truly up against with HYDRA/SHIELD; somehow the presence of the Winter Soldier is secondary.
