In my adolescence, I was a big comic book fan. I read them voraciously, collected them obsessively, corresponded with other fans earnestly, contributed to “fanzines” seriously, wrote and drew my own comics (poorly), and so forth (I even won a coveted Marvel “no prize” and had a letter published in an issue of Captain America, nyah nyah nyah!). I was a Marvel adherent, as were all the cool kids in the late ’60s and early ’70s: Marvel was the “hip” company with the new superheroes (the angsty-ones), the serious-topics-but-flippant-dialogue, the philosophical and intellectual references that sometimes went over your head but made you feel intelligent anyway, the roster of talented, idiosyncratic artists and writers. DC? Pah! Let the squares read Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman. Marvel’s got Spiderman, the Silver Surfer, Thor, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avenger, and Captain America!
Though I eagerly consumed and for a time purchased nearly all of Marvel’s output (making the rounds of various local drugstores—no fancy “comic book stores” in those days!), my favourites were Captain America and the Avengers. I’ve never analysed the reason for this, though perhaps even at the time I was impressed by Captain America’s roots in popular culture of the Second World War, which made him a more mythic character than the other Marvel superheroes of the Sixties.
I remember watching with pleasure the animated “Marvel Super Heroes” television series in the late Sixties (though the limited animation disappointed me slightly), but I’ve never seen the 1940s “Captain America” serial (though I own a copy on VHS tape), nor have I been tempted to watch any of the other live-action or animated incarnations of Captain America (with the exception of the unauthorised Turkish version, 3 Dev Adam).
Consequently, it was with a bit of trepidation that I set out to view Captain America: The First Avenger. Would my youthful memories be sullied? Actually, to my delight, they were not. Captain America is entertaining, exceptionally well-produced and designed, and has a solid cast. There are a number of kinetic action sequences and the script is serviceable if a bit contradictory (more about that below). Though the film is nearly two hours long—and Captain America himself doesn’t really go into action until almost exactly the movie’s mid-point—the pacing is good enough that a viewer isn’t aware of the passage of time.
Fictional films don’t necessarily have to be historically accurate (well, duh), but Captain America: The First Avenger almost goes out of its way to be confusing. True fact: during the Second World War, the “Allies” (the USA, UK, a bunch of other countries) were fighting the “Axis” (Germany, Japan, and—for a while—Italy, and a few minor loser nations that picked the wrong side). Captain America starts down the right (historically accurate) road (although the USA wasn’t actively in the war in 1940, as the movie implies): Captain America performs in a stage show selling bonds and punching a fake “Hitler,” a few Nazis show up, and then…kaboom, suddenly it’s all about the Red Skull and his private organisation “Hydra” (ripping off Hitler’s shtick: the Skull’s troops give a two-handed fascist salute and shout “Heil Hydra!”), and we don’t see any Nazis any more. Alright…but then, just when we’ve gotten used to that situation, there’s a brief, extraneous scene set in London on V-E day, reminding us hey, somebody has been fighting (and defeating) the Nazis (offscreen), even though every Allied soldier we’ve seen has been dedicated to the battle against Hydra.
Captain America conflates the various versions of the comic book hero’s story: his WWII origins and Hitler-punching proclivity (people reading replicas of the first issue of the comic book are shown, and there are even allusions to the 1940s movie serial), the circumstances of the 1964 revival of the character (found frozen in ice nearly 20 years after preventing a bomb-laden plane from striking Allied forces—of course, the film pushes the discovery of ice-Cap back another 50 years or so), later tweaks of the “canon,” and new fillips added by the screenwriters (such as “Captain America”—whom everyone knows is Steve Rogers—used as a spokesman for bond-selling shows rather than being employed as a super-weapon). There are no major betrayals of the character, nothing to upset a loyal Captain America fan. But…
While films aren’t history lessons, they are historical documents. Captain America: The First Avenger doesn’t present an accurate picture of the Second World War (no sin), but it does say things about the period we’re living in right now. Much has been made of the “integrated” group of soldiers who assist Captain America—in addition to a British soldier, we’ve got a black GI (a Howard University graduate), and a Japanese-American from Fresno (plus Dum-Dum Dugan and a few others). While it is true that the U.S. Army wasn’t officially integrated during the Second World War, “accidental” integration could occur during the heat of battle, as pointedly illustrated in two propaganda movies made during WWII, Bataan and Sahara. So while at first glance this seems a rather blatant bit of politically-correct stunt-casting, in truth it’s not so outrageous and bothered me not at all. Similarly, the active role of Peggy Carter (who, despite being British, is employed by the Strategic Scientific Reserve, apparently a quasi-military arm of the U.S. government?) might seem like a Hollywood fantasy (and it is, to a certain extent), but it’s not wholly unbelievable (there were gun-toting female secret agents and resistance fighters during the war).
But the substitution of the Red Skull and Hydra for the Nazis as the primary villains of the piece is curious and stretches credulity: as noted earlier, the Second World War is shunted aside and every bit of Allied military action we see is directed against the Hydra strongholds in Europe. Um, did the Nazis just turn a blind eye to this? Why must the Red Skull make a particular point of openly breaking with the Nazis? If it weren’t the Nazis we’re talking about, I’d suspect a bit of historical revisionism at work, but heck, nobody likes the Nazis, even now. We don’t have to apologise for fighting and defeating them. This situation is primarily annoying because Captain America shifts gears so abruptly and because the existence of Hydra inside Nazi-dominated Europe seems so unlikely (who are all of the Hydra soldiers, anyway? German army deserters? Neutral Swiss citizens looking for some combat action?).
Aside from this serious but hardly fatal flaw, Captain America is a pleasing piece of entertainment. The production design is excellent, cleverly utilising vaguely familiar shapes and images for the advanced war machines of Hydra and the Allies (many of the latter courtesy of Howard Hughes-clone Howard Stark, aka Iron Man’s dad). The sets are superb and the evocation of the 1940s is quite good (although the 1939-40 World’s Fair trademark Trylon and Perisphere have been replaced by the Unisphere from the ‘64-65 World’s Fair), with lots of vintage cars (although the scene in which Steve Rogers pursues a Hydra assassin driving a stolen Yellow Cab is unintentionally amusing: apparently there was only one yellow car in New York City that day, which makes it ridiculously easy to spot) and costumes on display.
Technically, the film falters almost not at all. The representation of Steve Rogers as a 98-pound-weakling is an amazing feat of special effects: hunky actor Chris Evans is perfectly scaled-down in these scenes. Presumably, this means CGI could even be used to make Kirstie Alley look thin? Zing! Or make me (even more) handsome and muscular? I saw a “flat” version of Captain America so the 3-D effects won’t be commented on here, except to confirm my earlier assertion that by movie-land law, every 3-D movie must include extended flying scenes. Still, aside from a couple of shots in which Captain America bounces into the air like a steroided kangaroo, the effects are excellent and representational rather than gaudy.
Credit should also be given to director Joe Johnston (and whoever the uncredited choreographer was) for the elaborate and well-staged musical production number starring “Captain America” and a bevy of star-spangled chorus girls. It could have been embarassing and awkward—who knows how to make musicals any more?—but it turned out slick and entertaining.
Dramatically, Captain America is satisfactory, with good performances from the cast. However, there are few sincerely touching scenes: not that the plot provides too many opportunities, the story isn’t conducive to evoking deep emotional reactions from the viewer. Yeah, Steve Rogers is an earnest weakling, it’s too bad he gets beat up a lot, and (spoiler) it’s too bad his pal dies, but we don’t actually feel that sorry for him, because it’s just a movie (whereas really superior dramas can rise above this limitation and affect the viewer anyway). The relationship between Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers isn’t obnoxiously fake yet we don’t really care about their romance either, that’s not the point of the film (indeed, it’s not the point of Thor, Iron Man 2, Green Lantern, or X-Men: First Class, either, all of which give short shrift to “love interest”).
Perhaps the most effective dramatic moment of Captain America occurs at the end, when Steve Rogers is brought out of suspended animation in the present-day and says wistfully, after a moment, “I had a date” (with Peggy Carter). This brief sentence does make us feel something: we understand it’s not merely Steve’s missed opportunity to go dancing with Peggy, it’s his realisation that everyone he knew—including Peggy—is now dead (or very very old) and he’s completely alone in a strange new world.
So…this long-time Captain America fan was not disappointed. Captain America: The First Avenger is not a great movie, it suffers from the same “set-up” syndrome that affected Thor—rather than self-contained films, these feel more like feature-length preludes to next year’s The Avengers—but it’s full of action, and it looks marvelous.
