Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson inCaptain America : The Winter SoldierDisney / Marvel / Disney / Marvel
“ A political thriller of the ’ 70s ” is how Kevin Feige , the Isle of Man in thrill of theMarvel Cinematic Universe , described the fresh Captain America movie his studio was release in the leap of 2014 . At the time , it seemed like an awfully highfalutin point of address for a film about a defrosted patriotic superhero who chucks his shield at bad cat . Had n’t James Mangold tried the same tack a year prior , dubiously citing Ozu as a major influence on his Marvel adaptationThe Wolverine ? Could n’t these guys just include they were making capeshit ?
As it turned out , there was some validity to Feige ’s boasts . Captain America : The Winter Soldier , which strike theaters 10 years ago this month , was first and foremost another Marvel movie — merry and quippy , with a showy CGI climax , superheroes who trade quip as often as blows , and cameo appearances in the deferred payment . But itwassort of a political thriller , too … and a fish - out - of - pee comedy , and an action mechanism vehicle , and a dramatic event about a render soldier , and a nutty skill - fabrication rarity of theThey Saved Hitler ’s Brainvariety . It was all of those thing at once , even as it comfortably fit the mould of what was fast becoming the most democratic Hollywood enfranchisement ever .
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson inCaptain America: The Winter SoldierDisney/Marvel / Disney/Marvel
The old starring fomite for the character , Captain America : The First Avenger , had its own singular musical genre flavour : a rah - rah throwback vibration as it tackled the WWII origin account of supersoldier Steve Rogers ( Chris Evans ) through the ocular spoken communication of wartime propaganda . The fleet - footed sequel adopts a new stylistic vocabulary , in accordance with Cap ’s move out of his original historical setting . He ’s become an anachronism , nostalgia for all - American gallantry personified . The script , by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely , foregrounds that tension , leaping off from the issue of how a Greatest Generation ikon — influence in a commonwealth ’s rose - biased self - look-alike — would cope with his role in an America that ’s lost its flattering magic of innocence .
unshakable grandeur is not , on paper , the most interesting trait . ( It ’s why Superman , a crosstown kindred spirit , is a dodgy role for any actor look to do more than mythically pose . ) But inThe Winter Soldier , Evans makes Cap so satisfying , in his outdatedeverything , that he ’s almost hip — or at least appealing . He finds the humor and aloneness in Steve Rogers , an underdog despite his flawless form and ironically Indo-Aryan skillful looks . So much of the moving picture rests on the understatement of his carrying out . So much of the franchise , too . One of the many problems facing the MCU place - Endgameis the want of any Hero as likeable as Captain America , a gee - whiz relic who ’s likably out of his element .
The movie ’s directors , Joe and Anthony Russo , were a little out of their element , too . BeforeThe Winter Soldier , they work mostly in comedy , alternating Hollywood movies likeYou , Me and Dupreewith steady fizgig on hip connection sitcoms likeArrested DevelopmentandCommunity . But that experience gave them the sensibility Feige was chasing — a jocular humanity that aligned with the step Joss Whedon had impart to the serial with his tag - team smashThe Avengers . In a gumption , The Winter Soldiersimply scale up the energetic genre potpourri of their most ambitious television set sequence — Communitywas essentially their undergraduate audition for natural process - comedy duty .
The Russos would go on to make some of the franchise ’s biggest hits , including the record - breakingAvengers : Endgame . Their approach would lose its flavor some over the age , as mold lists inflate , the spectacle fix more digital , and the color palette went grayer and mirky . But it mostly works like gangbusters inThe Winter Soldier . There ’s a stunt - forward physicality to their activity scenes — a focus on helping hand - to - hand combat — that ’s miss from a lot of Marvel picture show , before and afterwards . A late highway shootout with the eponymous scoundrel has a certain dieting - Michael Mann urgency . And the movie superlative with a great , messy close - quarters brawl in an elevator , pitting Captain America against a bunch of nervous S.H.I.E.L.D. agents .
Those years in the situation comedy trenches gave the Russos a natural endowment for manage volley bon mot and clashing personality . The Winter Soldierhas mountain of both ; it gives Cap alchemy with everyone as he builds a horse cavalry around him . Anthony Mackie is enjoyably down to earthly concern as Sam Wilson , an everyman oldtimer whose human vulnerability — his decide lack of superpower — mirror Steve ’s own origins as a guy puny in size of it , but not spirit . Scarlett Johansson deepens her Black Widow a little without jettisoning the strategical aloofness that defines the character ; her resonance with Evans is flirtatious , but basically platonic , a faint reverberation of softheaded comedies past . And this might be the single - best use of Samuel L. Jackson ’s Nick Fury . Maybe it ’s just fun to see a unavowed federal agent of such unflappable cuke cool actually break a sweat for once , as he scrambles to narrowly escape death .
Some might argue thatThe Winter Soldieris only superficially engaging with those 1970s conspiracy thrillers Feige mention — movies likeThe Parallax ViewandThree Days of the CondorandAll the President ’s Men . All the same , there ’s a rapport to the nods , including theTarantino - worthy casting putsch of securing Robert Redford to play ( spoiler alarum ) the cinema ’s stealth scoundrel , a D.C. bigwig abandon decades of anti - war policy in favor of absolute fascist control . If the movie presents Captain America as an idealist waking up into a world more cynical than the one he think of , Redford ’s Alexander Pierce is the flip side , a man whose idealism has been tardily gnaw over the years . The savviness ofThe Winter Soldier ’s genre tribute is how it present the eyes - undefendable paranoia of Watergate - era thrillers as an internal conflict for Steve — the way he experiences decade of internal disillusionment in something like real meter .
In its windy four - quarter-circle way , the picture is about the impossibility of squaring dissimilar epoch of national identity element . Captain America , a symbol of a country that no longer exists and maybe never did , must confront the realness of what his fatherland has become . It ’s a theme further complicated by the movie ’s human relationship to the U.S. war machine . Like several other Marvel movies , The Winter Soldieroffered full script favorable reception to the Department of Defense in exchange for access to military resources — an system that ’s lead plenty of the great unwashed to characterize the MCU as glorified enlisting material . But for all they rivet an idealized mascot of military might , the Captain America picture show do n’t fit that visibility so cleanly . WhileThe First Avengertouched upon its hero ’s uneasy service program as a living Uncle Sam , The Winter Soldierquestions the merit of following orders when the whole political apparatus is corrupt and compromised .
And , of cours , e there ’s a renew relevance to the pic ’s big pull : the revealing that the Nazi - fund terrorist cell HYDRA pass through U.S. intelligence decennium sooner , “ growing like a parasite within it . ” Back in 2014 , that felt almostsafe , like the film ’s way of flinching by from a critique of the U.S. government activity by placing the blame for its crime on a dark component within it . But a decennary later , “ Nazis have overthrown Washington ” hits a picayune other than . And anyway , maybe that twist talk to a larger rot within American politics — an institutional racial discrimination and fascism that predates the Third Reich , and which would require more than the fell clenched fist of Captain America to chuck from our real halls of power .
The Winter Soldierwears all this passably softly . After all , it ’s still a comic - book motion-picture show , albeit a especially well - embrocate one — an exciting , funny , mildly impress blast of save - the - globe amusement . Despite the genre accents , itremains faithful to the MCU formula as Feige and ship’s company defined it , down to the slightly dull unripened - screen spectacle of its conclusion . But the film also record how far that formula could be stretched without snapping , and shew what it looked like when this blockbuster motorcar ardor on all cylinder .
That ’s in all probability why it remains , a decade later on , close to the peak of the studio apartment ’s yield . There might be better movies in the franchise — one thinks of James Gunn ’s idiosyncraticGuardians of the Galaxytrilogy , which get pretty close to just doing its own thing , or ofBlack Panther , with its Shakespearian pathos and general lack of Avengers cross – publicity . But at this point , nothing else has feel more like the platonic ideal of the model Feige foster , and nothing has made the juggling act the example authorization attend easier . The Winter Soldiergave “ Marvel flick ” a good name . These twenty-four hours , that ca-ca it bet every bit as anomalous as its unfrozen boy talent scout superhero .
