Was Lou Lumenick taking things out of context?
3 Comments Published by Avi Green on Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM.
I read Kyle Smith's review of Captain America in the NY Post, and his review gives a far different take on the movie than Lou Lumenick's does. And Smith disagrees with Lumenick that it goes soft on nazism. So now I'm wondering, did Lumenick take things out of context or lie? Well if he is, then that was a very dumb thing to do, and is symbolic of the paper's sad tendency to making a living on tabloid-ism that dampens the impact of the more serious stuff they publish too (I recall them even running 2 articles that used an anti-French slur "frogs" a few months ago).
So if the movie does do things right, then I have to feel glad if it's auspicious. I'll try to see it in time, and determine for myself whether Lumenick exaggerated anything for the sake of tabloid stupidity.
So if the movie does do things right, then I have to feel glad if it's auspicious. I'll try to see it in time, and determine for myself whether Lumenick exaggerated anything for the sake of tabloid stupidity.
Labels: Captain America, marvel comics, politics
Saw the movie today. Lumenick is mostly off base.
First, Tucci's speech doesn't try to rationalize Naziism. It does, however, try to draw a line between Nazis and Germans: "People forget the first country the Nazis invaded was their own."
I never caught anywhere that Hitler considered Schmidt's tactics too extreme. The disagreement drawn between them was that Hitler hasn't received any weaponry from Hydra in over a year, while Schmidt considered himself a god, above Hitler and his petty concerns.
The film takes great pains, IMO, to avoid associating Rogers' good attributes with America itself, though. He's Captain America, and he wants to go fight for his country, but it's mostly just because he doesn't like bullies. I missed the Joe Johnson who made The Rocketeer all those years ago. Granted, it beats America bashing (or awful internationalist stuff like GI Joe: The Real UN Hero), but still...
I see, thanks very much. What Lumenick did just furthers the notion that the NY Post is blurring the line between tabloid propaganda and more serious reporting. Could he have been jealous that he wasn't offered a job with the studio? Now it's clear that Lumenick, if anyone, isn't a reliable movie critic.
I'm certainly glad to find that the movie is well done after all, and far from being like what Lumenick claimed.
My review is here.
I do think it's a bit soft on Naziism if not for the fact that I don't think there's a single swastika seen in the movie (aside from, perhaps, the one on the USO actor Hitler's sleeve). The thing is, adding HYDRA as the Red Skull's "true" organization was totally unnecessary.
And while the film may not have associated Rogers' attributes with America itself, there was certainly no shortage of red, white and blue in the film.