The Four Color Media Monitor

Robert Redford has been signed for a co-starring role in the sequel to the Captain America movie, where he'll play a director of S.H.I.E.L.D (but probably not Nick Fury). But with his latest personal movie, "The Company You Keep", he's dampening the enthusiasm that might've once been felt, as he revealed he sides with the Weather Underground. He recently told ABC's Good Morning America:

...he felt compassion for 1960s-era radicals such as the Weather Underground in his early years.

“When I was younger, I was very much aware of the movement,” he said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” “I was more than sympathetic. I was probably empathetic because I believed it was time for a change. Whether that was change was a revolution or not, I don’t know. But I was very much for what was going on.”

“Even when you read about the bombings?” Mr. Stephanopoulis asked.

“All of it,” Mr. Redford said. “I knew that it was extreme and I guess movements have to be extreme to some degree. Years later, I thought this is an interesting story but we’re too close to it and I thought, when this gets — when we get some distance from this … then I might be interested [in a movie about it] and now that’s that time. So that’s why I decided to make it now.”

Once there was a time I thought Redford was a fine actor, and would've considered him a great pick for a role in a comic book movie too. But that was long before I knew his opinions on violent hoodlums running amok in civilized society, and what might've once sounded cool doesn't sound so great when his tolerance for thugs becomes apparent, and clearly hasn't changed even after Bill Ayers made clear in 2001 that he didn't regret his crimes (Ayers, incidentally, once had a comic book bio adapted from his awful memoirs).

Regarding his role in the Captain America movie sequel, Redford said:

“The Captain America thing is just a very simple thing,” he continued. “I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something just to be different. Something bold, different. And that felt like a good thing to do. That was it, nothing more to it than that. Well, it’s bold in terms of expectations, I guess.”

What could he mean? Different from the sympathetic-to-thugs positions he has, which contradicts what Captain America's meant to stand for? I don't know, but his willingness to fawn over the Weather Underground casts a cloud over his co-starring role in the Captain America sequel.

Labels: Captain America, marvel comics, politics