10 Great Movies You Didn't Know Had A Hidden Symbolic Meaning
10. Contemporary American Politics - Captain America: Winter Soldier
Credit where credit's due - the directors of Captain America: Winter Soldier certainly pulled things around after the average-at-best original, delivering a fast-paced, action-packed comic book adaptation with an equally intricate plot which twists and turns throughout the film. It also bears a far greater resemblance to the real world than perhaps audiences initially understood. In an interview with Mother Jones, co-director Joe Russo explained how we just looked at the issues that were causing anxiety for us, because we read a lot and are politically inclined. And a lot of that stuff had to do with civil liberties issues, drone strikes, the presidents kill list, preemptive technology. As much a political thriller as it is an action movie, Captain America: Winter Soldier touches upon everything from NSA surveillance, the CIA's Operation Paperclip (in which Nazi scientists were brought over to the US to work for the government) and mind-controlled government assassins. It's perhaps easy to dismiss many of these topics as "conspiracy theories" - that is, until you do the research and discover that there's a worrying basis in historical - and present day - fact to support them. Whether or not drawing upon real-world political concerns and symbolically representing them in summer blockbusters is entirely appropriate is another story.
