erik lundegaard

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Tuesday October 29, 2013

Thoughts on the 'Captain America' Trailer

Thoughts:

  • Instead of “Was he wearing a parachute?” shouldn't the line have been something like, “Was that a parachute on his back?” Also, the guy who answers should be less smug. Also, barbershop quartet? Steve Rogers became Cap in the 1940s not the 1900s. 
  • Holy shit! Robert Redford!
  • “I thought the punishment usually came after the crime.” Interesting.
  • “This isn't freedom; this is fear.” Wow. Even more interesting. Oh please, let this play out. Let it be smart. Let Cap not be on the “not fear” side until he's played and then comes over to the S.H.I.E.L.D. “fear” side.  The side that has to punish before the crime.
  • “You've shaped the century.” Uhh ... what century? Dude was on ice, literally, from 1945 to 2010.

All in all, though, this is my Captain America. I collected comic books from 1973 to 1978 and that Cap, mostly written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Sal Buscema, was not only a man lost in time but a man without a country. He was not a superpatriot. He was to the left of the superpatriots. He didn't trust superpatriotism. In one of the best storylines of the Marvel age, Englehart retconned the Captain America of the 1950s into a completely different Cap (since our Cap was on ice, remember?). Englehart made him a McCarthy-loving, Red-baiting, paranoid nut who winds up being freed after Nixon goes to China and then goes after our Captain America, the original Captain America.

The whole storyline was great commentary upon America of the 1950s. Maybe this movie will be great commentary on America of the 2000s. Doubtful but maybe.

Final thought: Three years ago, I thought Chris Evans, the hotshot Human Torch, was all wrong to play Captain America. Apologies.

Posted at 07:22 AM on Tuesday October 29, 2013 in category Trailers