WARNING: MAY BE CONTROVERSIAL. DO NOT READ IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE HEARING A PERSPECTIVE THAT MAY NOT AGREE WITH YOURS WITHOUT LOSING IT.
Note: I kept forgetting to post this, so it's almost a month old! Sorry! XD
If you know me, you most likely know that I love Marvel superheroes. Of Marvel’s wide cast of characters, my favorite is Captain America, and the best MCU film (no, I will not be taking questions at this time) is Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
I’m home for Thanksgiving/Christmas break right now (since they just got mashed into one for most college kids), and I have been without Marvel content for a while since I don’t have a Disney+ subscription (planning to start the Marvel shows on Hulu soon though, thanks Spotify student package). And sometimes, I just get a serious craving for Marvel (usually it’s Winter Soldier, if you couldn’t guess). Well, that happened this week. And you know what I noticed? How currently relevant the movie is!
You might read those words and be skeptical. Okay, sure. But let me lay it out for you.
In this film, S.H.I.E.L.D., a government organization, is essentially deciding who lives and who dies via this algorithm they possess. It taps into all sorts of private information that it really shouldn’t have access to (sound familiar to anybody?). The members try to justify the creation of their death-dealing machines by saying they are ensuring freedom. Steve Rogers is iconically quoted saying, “This isn’t freedom; this is fear” in response to this idea. Yet the project continues because Alexander Pierce and his Hydra cronies are power-hungry, no matter how much they might try to hide it. Pierce manipulates his followers, turning S.H.I.E.L.D. agents against Captain America, a man whom most of them trust and admire, and even going so far as to wipe Bucky Barnes’s memory to keep him compliant with his “mission.”
Both the algorithm and the weaponized, brainwashed toy soldier that is now Bucky Barnes were created by the same man: Arnim Zola. He assisted the Red Skull in performing evil science experiments all the way back during World War II, and he kept doing so even after his leader got incinerated by the Space Stone (to another planet where he guards the Soul Stone, but that’s irrelevant). The other day, I saw a video of Klaus Schwab, a...guy from somewhere in Europe doing something related to government and political matters (I don’t remember, oops), and you know who he reminded me of? You guessed it: Zola. The two are similar in accent and physical appearance, but the real kicker is the ideas they share. Phrases like “new world order” popped up in both their monologues, phrases that scare me a little bit because of their implication of dystopia. The words of these men carry the weight of taking away freedom from the people; however, as Zola’s computerized conscience tells Natasha and Steve, humanity is stubborn if you try to take away its freedoms outright, so you must instead get the people to voluntarily surrender their freedoms and rights. Zola doesn’t give any specific examples of what he means, but we can definitely see it in the real world. Media and government are working to inject fear into the populace’s minds, exaggerating the deadliness of a manufactured disease that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. By telling people this and that avoiding other people, staying home, and wearing masks will protect them, the government is theoretically able to indoctrinate the masses and turn them into puppets.
And that perfectly brings me to my next point, which has been discussed in fandom circles across the Internet...probably since this movie came out (I don’t know, I wasn’t really in the fandom until Infinity War, but that’s another story for another time). From the moment we first see him in this film, Bucky is wearing a mask. It later gets knocked off his face when he and Steve are engaged in combat, which is the turning point for both of them. Steve recognizes his friend, which in turn confuses Bucky and makes him want to understand. All that summarized, Internet fans and commentators have talked about how the mask is effectively a muzzle, serving to silence Bucky and make him a subservient soldier. In essence, it enforces his being “silent but deadly” because assassinating people is the only purpose he serves to Pierce. The only other reason I think he could be wearing it is to conceal his identity, which is also sketchy. If it is so easy to see the negative motives behind Bucky enforced mask-wearing, then why the heck can’t everyone see how detrimental it is to our society today? The government wants us to comply with their stupid, questionable rules without second-guessing so that they can keep a firm grasp on their power over us. I dunno about you, but that does not sound good to me.
As I was watching the film and puzzling all these details out, I came to think more about the conclusion to the Captain America trilogy that comes in Civil War (I’m restraining myself from going off on a tangent about this movie). The entire plot revolves around a disagreement over government control! How perfect, right? Since I first watched the movie, I have been Team Cap. Sure, it used to be for less nuanced reasons (again, he is my favorite character), but now that I’m an adult who has voted in an actual election and is competent enough to comprehend the current political turmoil, both on American and foreign soil? Personally, I think I made the right choice. It’s difficult to trust in a government that is filled with lying, deceitful people with vested interests and a love of power and money. In the Marvel universe, can the U.S. government really be trusted to make all the right calls on the Avengers’ permitted moves? Absolutely not! It could cover up its dark secrets (such as the Hydra infestation within the depths of S.H.I.E.L.D.) or send Earth’s mightiest heroes on wild goose chases to cover its tracks.
I’m not saying the Avengers are perfect or have flawless judgment. Of course not. They all have dark pasts. But as Steve says during a discussion in that film, “The safest hands are still our own.”
I’m sure there is more to this line of analysis that I missed. I could branch out into more films and more characters (heck, even the backstory and context for the plots) and probably find more Marvel-ous support for my ideas. However, with what I have outlined above, I have found an even deeper love for one of my all-time favorite films by realizing that it isn’t arbitrary; it has meaning and depth, and I think the world can still learn a bit from Captain America.
NOTE: This is just the beginning of my analysis. I have decided to complete a more extensive analysis over the entire MCU film chronology, so there will be a longer "essay" later on (probably including this exact passage copied and pasted in lol). Stay tuned! :)
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