Posted on 05/03/2009 10:05:04 PM PDT by sinanju
"...The most perceptive comment on the picture’s politics came from Sonny Bunch in The Weekly Standard, who called Favreau’s feature “the film equivalent of a Rorschach test. If you go into Iron Man seeking right-wing imagery, you’ll find it: Tony Stark is a patriot, pro-military, and likes unilateral intervention. If you go into Iron Man looking for left-wing imagery, you’ll find that, too: The true villain here is Stane, representing an out-of-control military-industrial complex."
(snip)
"..As the Bush years give way to the Obama era, there will be no shortage of superheroes at the cineplex. Both Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 4 are in the works, and another Batman picture will surely appear as well. There will be more sequels starring the X-Men and the Hulk, and there will be new franchises featuring Captain Marvel and the Sub-Mariner. With Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s acclaimed graphic novel, we’ve already seen one major superhero movie on Obama’s watch. The film is overstylized and undersatisfying, but it preserves its source’s central theme of the limits and dangers of power. It is also, like the comic that inspired it, open to more than one political reading.
No one knows how the genre will adapt to the changes in Washington. But despite the comic-book Spidey’s easy partnership with the president, you shouldn’t expect Hollywood’s superheroes simply to fall in behind the new guy. It didn’t take long for public doubts about Bush to be reflected on screen, and there was a time when the 43rd president was more popular than Obama is now. Superhero stories may have begun as power fantasies, but it is our ambivalence about power that keeps the modern genre thriving."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
If there's room for intelligent debate about the script's motivations then it presumably means that the writers knew better than to mindlessly spew zieg-heiling leftist rhetoric and actually force the audience to think and debate. Unusual for Hollywood but I guess some filmmakers actually want to sell tickets.
The whole "ambivalence about power" thing has always been at the heart of the superhero genre, in my humble opinion. Spiderman is probably the most tormented example of that, but it affects all superheroes to varying degrees.
I thought about that while watching one of the “Star Wars” movies the other month. I think of the Emperor and the Dark Side as a bunch of commies. But the leftists who enjoy it apparently see Vader as Dick Cheney.
I believe it was Jonathan Last at WeeklyStandard who wrote a long dissertation on the Empire as being more capitalist and meritocratic than the Jedi.
He was roundly disputed.
His argument was laid rest when someone showed him a scene cut from the movie that was in the original novelization wherein Luke and his best bud (who’s shipping out to join the rebellion) have a long discussion at a bar in the town of Anchorhead wherein the Empire’s fascistic, corporatist threat to the independent moisture farmers on Tatooine is stated clearly.
Superman is my favorite hero because no ambiguity exists in him. He is a man, yes, but as a native of Krypton he not a son of Adam, and is therefore not fallen; in a way, he is an innocent. For this reason he can be trusted to wield the powers he possesses in defense of the Natural Law (aka “Truth, Justice, and the American Way). It is his innocence and trustworthiness that make him “super”, not his powers. He is Superman because he is good.
I contest that.
The Kryptonians are hardly portrayed as innocents. What little we know of them does not show them to be any less sinful than humans.
Superman has always had it too easy. The biggest problem he ever seems to face is concealing his (secret) identity from Lois Lane.
Spiderman is the all-time favorite. His superhero responsibilities always stand in the way of him getting a life. He is forever tormented by the death of his Uncle Ben as a result to his one brush with arrogance and profit-seeking. He can’t hold down a decent job, can’t hold down a romance and can’t even take proper care of his invalid aunt (albeit the movie version of Aunt May is a lot younger and sturdier, not to mention hotter than the comic version).
Spidey’s got no Batcave or Fortress of Solitude, his secret is that he’s a working-class superhero.
Yes, I'm very interested with what they do with the next Batman. Poison Ivy us going to be featured this time around; and I want to see how they handle having an environmental terrorist as the villain, it could be done very well or it be all ruined by playing it PC. Or worse yet they could make it like the last time Poison Ivy was on the big screen *shudder*.
Boycott the damn thing.
"We have a really interesting international cast and I personally view the world in a very polyglot sort of way, go Barack Obama, and so we wanted the movie to really reflect a modern worldview." - Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Source:
http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/7740/tcid/1/pg/2
RE the superheros, in comic books, Spidey was always my favorite -- sinanju has helped me understand why: it's because Spiderman is a working-class hero.
On the other hand, I really loved Ironman the movie in spite of the fact that Obadiah Stain was the villain. I waded through "The Arms of Krupp" years ago (a book chronicling the history, mostly WWII, of the venerable German arms manufacturer and yes, the same Krupp that produces those wonderful coffee makers). The book was tough but worth the read, and must say that, as much as I am a believer in the intrinsic goodness of most private enterprise, I can certainly see that Obadiah's business pragmatism would be logical in that industry.
I liked Tony Stark because he was the epitome of American inginuity, resourcefulness, determination, and discipline. A thing about the movie that struck me was the care it took to focus on how Stark was the kind of technical, mechanical guy who liked to rebuild cars and tinker, which is accurate to the nth degree with regard to real ingenuity in America.
Stark wasn't in the financial realm of the typical working class joe, like Spidey, but he was certainly blue-collar working class in his hands-on skills, and that I find extremely believable because it lines up so well with my own life experiences with such men and not a few women whose incomes are all across the board. Technical types are all productive working class joes no matter what their education or income.
On the other hand, non-technical, managerial, paper-pushers, coordinators, and adminstrators, no matter their education or income, don't actually produce anything; in a fix where people had to get down to basics to survive, it would (will) be the technical hands-on folks who know how to build, design, grow, craft, or produce things who will be of use to survival; the "white collar" non-working-joe types will be burdens unless they learn a skill from them.
As for the Star Wars series ... I hugely enjoyed the first three way back when, and have watched them a zillion times ... in retrospect, and especially seeing one or maybe two of the later Star Wars flicks, I now deem the entire Star Wars franchise as a treacherous and false model, but I admit personal revelations tipped me off to it, and I have learned to listen to my hunches. I believe there is something twisted, disguised, and wicked lurking in them; it came through loudly and clearly in the first of the second batch of Star Wars films with more of the horrible phony Yoda, whose "wisdom" was inane and false. Jar-Jar Binks (the model for Obama!) was reason enough to want to see the entire franchise destroyed forever! The only compelling character in Star Wars, the one that captured me from the start and the reason I became a James Earl Jones fan, was Darth Vader. Reminded me of my third grade teacher!!!
I generally concur in regards to Superman. The main thing about him that differentiates him (apart from the fact that he is, well, imbued with the powers of a god) is that he really did not have to do anything to get them. In many ways, he is just some bloke who happened to get a major genetic boost by being sent here as a child (he did not even have a say in that) when his home planet exploded and he got shuttled off into some planet where the yellow Sun would make him more-than-human. Secondly, he even has to act slower, duller, clumsier ....in his alter-ego as Clark. He basically acts the way he sees humans ...fragile, weak, dim-witted individuals, and he presents back to us the image he sees of us. Thirdly, he is a chronic and habitual liar, hiding his true identify (for years) from the very woman that he claimed to love and adore, and basically even going as far as playing with her emotions (i.e. the quasi-relationship Lois has with Superman, even though Clark has a relationship with Lois as well. For the longest time Lois thought the two were different people).
The real Superman in DC boils down to two men ...one a lesser Superman, and the other a greater Superman.
The Lesser Superman is Lex Luthor. He is a character that raised himself up from nothing, through sheer force of will, to become arguably the most powerful man in the world (well, if it were not for the Greater Superman, that is). He even became president of the United States, even when people knew that there were 'questions' about him. Sure, he is machievallian, and he would be said to adhere to Nietzche's principles (which although associated with nazism are actually quite good). He is a man who knows what he wants to become, and sets ahead to become that, and actually becomes it. DC once even made a graphic novel that potrayed Lex as the true 'Man of Steel,' and Superman basically as some over-powered ALIEN LIFEFORM that is an implicit threat to humanity. As much as Superman looks like us, he is actually an off-world lifeform that has WMD-capable powers at his disposal, and an extant risk should he ever go 'rogue.' All Lex does is ensure that he has the ability to destroy Superman should that ever happen, and even takes the position of getting rid of the threat before it happens (since the risk is too great).
Imagine, for example, the Japan discovered a new weapon far greater in potence than the Hydrogen Bomb ...even THOUGHT it is CURRENTLY an ally, any sagacious US president would recognize than 3/4s of a century ago Japan was a sworn enemy, and that allies and foes shift with the sands of time. Such a president would take action (covert of course) to ensure that they either managed to steal the weaponry know-how of that super-weapon, or found a way to impede its accelerated development by Japan.
While Lex is depicted as evil, he is actually just a self-accomplished man who realizes that so much sheer power cannot be concentrated in the form of a single individual who does not even belong to our planet, a person who may very well live for thousands of years, and a person who may wake up one day and decide to go rogue. An individual with the power to smash a mountain with his fists, take out an entire nation's defenses using super-speed in minutes, create hurricane-level winds and frigid environments with a blast from his lungs, and is virtually invulnerable ....and who is only 'good' because he has been good so far, but with nothing more than good will and trust fortifying that ....deserves to have a fail-safe option in case he falls. I'd expect my president to think of such options, even if all is well now. Lex Luthor is a person who thinks in such a manner.
The Greater Superman is, ofcourse, Batman. Bruce Wayne could have decided to simply wallow in his wealth, but instead he decided to forge himself into a paragon of human perfection. In intellect he is a renaissance man, able to do everything from quote shakespeare to do advanced chemical spectro-analysis, to you name it. He is a genius in very many fields, a veritable poly-math. He has also honed his body, becoming an expert in (according to the comics back then) all of the world's martial art systems. He has also worked on his muscles to become very strong, very fast and of high endurance. His will of mind, and his ability to work out every possible outcome, makes him easily the most dangerous human out there. To the point that he is one of the founding members, and one of the big 3, of the Justie League of America (where the other members include a good number of individuals who can shift entire continents on their own). Yet a simple human being is able to rise to become the brains and resources of such an out-fit. A human who is looked up to by the likes of Superman and the Martian Manhunter. A simple human who is said to scare every single member of the JLA apart from one of the Green Lanterns.
Batman is the real Super-man (something that Superman once stated). He may not have the name, but he owns the title Super-man.
Now ...let me get back to some real work. LOL
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