13 Movie Moments That Surprised The Hell Out Of The Audience
13. Political Allegory In The MCU?! - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Reviews for the Cap sequel have all praised the 1970s political thriller feel imbued in the film. They even got Robert Redford, who built his career on political thrillers in the 1970s, and whose grandkids convinced him to take a part in the MCU, to play the heavy in the film. Steve Rogers is a man out of time, from a time when a man was measured by his honesty, and Duty, Honor, Country was practically the national motto. Since The First Avenger had him frozen in World War II and waking up in 2011, the film couldnt take the tack the comics had with Cap fighting the Cold War, then the political establishment, but that didn't mean they had to ignore that approach entirely. The plot draws heavily on established tropes of political intrigue movies: a shady, duplicitous military project, a global spy network, and the patriot's suspicions, which Nick Fury uses against the forces that sought to wipe him out. The Winter Soldier borrows elements from 1970s political thrillers Three Days Of The Condor (which also starred Redford), The Parallax View and Marathon Man, but it is also very topical and current, considering the current situation featuring the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden. You expect such things in a political thriller, and comic book readers have even come to expect them in the comics, with the Civil War and Watchmen series coming to mind, but if youre not a regular comic book reader, its a strange thing to find political commentary in a comic book movie - especially when its done so well.
