23 Marvelous Movies: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is what Marvel fans often point to as the film where the cinematic universe truly came together because it was here that the complexity, nuance, and genre-defining that were already prevalent in the previous films were brought to the attention of filmgoers and critics. Any series that went from pulpy, old-fashioned WWII adventure to espionage political thriller in the same vein as The Manchurian Candidate and the Bourne series.
And it was created by a pair of directors that, before making this movie, had no experience in this type of filmmaking but would go on to become the new faces of the entire cinematic universe: Joe and Anthony Russo, whose two previous films were the comedies Welcome to Collingwood and You, Me & Dupree. And yet somehow, they were able to create one of the most thrilling and thought-provoking entries in the entire franchise.
This is largely accomplished thanks to this film having one of the most varied bunch of fight scenes in any of these movies: rooftop chases, motorcycle getaways, elevator brawls, highway takedowns, one-on-one combat, infiltrations, flying bits, it's all here. And in each one of them, the choreography and cinematography are beautifully suited to meet their demands for either a chilling ambush or a fist-pumping triumph.
Also, from a dramatic standpoint, Steve Rogers' journey as a character gave the Russos ample material to shape into a truly compelling installment.
When we first see him, he's still the boy scout that we've come to know love, making friends with veteran pararescueman Sam Wilson, defeating terrorists while saving hostages on a ship, and showing anger when he sees Natasha Romanoff having alternative motifs for taking along, namely to extract intel from surrounding hard drives. But when he finds both the organization he's been fighting for and his best friend being corrupted by the same evil force he thought was destroyed decades ago, that's when he relies on his own intuition.
Iron Man 3 had Tony overcome the mistakes that formed his deadliest enemy, The Dark World had Thor face the traditions of his culture, The Winter Solder pits Steve against the only one who stood by him before he took the serum, Bucky Barnes. who has been resurrected after he seemingly died back in 1945 by Hydra. Now he is a ruthless, cold-blooded killer known as The Winter Soldier, whose sense of right and wrong has completely vanished.
Steve's biggest hurdle in this film is understanding that sometimes he has to go with his gut and do what he thinks is right, as opposed to what is most likely the objectively moral thing to do, which he has in his past two movies. When he expresses his view that S.H.I.E.L.D must be taken down as a whole along with its parasite, Hydra, Fury disagrees and thinks the organization can exist benignly. But Steve is willing to wipe out the organization that brought him and the other avengers together for the good of the world, for no other reason but his instincts tell him so.
He even infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D using his original suit-which has been preserved by the Smithsonian Institute since his disappearance-because he's still doing this his way, like the star-spangled man with a plan that he is.
When he ends up having to face The Winter Soldier again, he doesn't care that the old Bucky is gone on the outside and he is now a threat to the world, he knows somewhere in there is the guy who protected him from bullies in Brooklyn and gave his life for his country. He doesn't fight him in the hellicarrier, all he does is reach out to him. After telling him his real name, his own name, and who he was before Hydra claimed him don't work, he uses a phrase that Bucky once said to him: "I'm with you to the end of the line". While it may not be enough to remove the curse, it does persuade Bucky to save him after the hellicarrier lands in the Potomac River. As cheesy as it may sound, Steve's heart is ultimately what helps his friend's journey to redemption.
But Bucky isn't the only one from Steve's past to come back. Upon arriving at the same military base in New Jersey that he trained in, he and Natasha come across Red Skull's assistant, Armin Zola who, before he died, stored his entire mind in a computer's databanks, able to chillingly communicate to Steve and Nat how Hydra was able to flourish after the Nazis were defeated in WWII, how they have been responsible for much of the world's chaos, and how they plan to gain supremacy with an algorithm that S.H.I.E.L.D. is utilizing to rid the world of anyone who poses a threat to them with their satellites, thanks to peoples' willingness to surrender their freedoms for security. It's also through this scene that we realize that Hydra has been involved in certain tragedies.
However, even with those two people that come back to haunt him, Peggy is thankfully still alive, but now has Alzheimer's and is far too frail to have the dance promised. However, she still gets to state the movie's core message: "All we can do is our best, and sometimes, the best that we can do, is to start over," which is what we see when S.H.I.E.L.D. is toppled and Bucky starts his path to redemption.
But Steve is only one member of the Avengers that grows in this film. Natasha Romanoff tags along and experiences some change as well.
A key moment in Steve and Nat's relationship is when they are driving to New Jersey incognito as a couple. Steve is explaining how difficult it is for him to find a girl with a similar life to his and he can't make up a different past as Nat has always done as a covert spy, or else he would be lying about his identity. Nat asks him what he wants her to be, and he suggests a friend, which she declines, showing how she doesn't really have any bonds with anyone besides Clint Barton because of her life at S.H.I.E.L.D.. The organization is the only family she wants and the Avengers are just a team to her.
Eventually, Natasha is forced to deal with the harsh reality that the same organization that took her in has been corrupted beyond redemption. And at the end, she's the one who exposes S.H.I.E.L.D. to the world and lets the senate know that she and her friends are not intimidated by the government threatening to arrest them for getting rid of their intelligence apparatus. Thanks to Steve, she has learned to go by her own instincts and not kowtow to her "guardians'" anymore.
Nat's inclusion in the story shows that Marvel was only going to bring her back in an appropriate film, where she can actually add something to the story. If she was included in Iron Man 3 or The Dark World, she would feel too out of place.
Nick Fury finds himself to be a more active player in this film's plot than he was in The Avengers.
Steve's first interaction with Nick, when he is shown the new hellicarriers S.H.I.E.L.D intends to secure the world through Project Insight, inadvertently bringing Hydra’s plans into fruition, sets the stage for their relationship throughout the film and expands upon the tension that was already planted between them in The Avengers. Their worldviews truly clash here with Steve's idealistic trust in humanity in total contrast with Nick's cynicism.
It's only when Nick is almost killed by Bucky for interfering with Hydra's plans for world domination does he see how compromised the organization he has been tasked to direct all these decades has become. Thanks to Agent Hill, who ends up helping with the group's plan to take down S.H.I.E.L.D., he survived. After Steve rejects his plea to just destroy Hydra and takes on the role of leader of the resistance, Nick starts to see the value of working in a team, as opposed to being the architect of that team. He sees the members more as individuals more than pawns for keeping the world in check.
The actions of Hydra are driven by one of the most memorable villains that have ever graced a Marel movie, S.H.I.E.L.D. senior official and undercover Hydra member Alexander Pierce, who has had a good relationship with Nick from their war and espionage experience, making his evil plans more entrenched in the characters' backstories than other antagonists. While he may not be the most complex baddies in the lineup, his charisma and power to manipulate an entire organization of otherwise good people into thinking Steve is a fugitive and launching a manhunt him, make him a truly intimidating foe. What are his last words when Nick ultimately kills him?
Also, casting an actor as synonymous with American cinema like Robert Redford as essentially a neo-nazi was a brilliant choice on the part of the Russos, as it helps throw the audience completely off-guard.
Two other members of Hydra are revealed in the form of the late Garry Shandling's Senator Stern from Iron Man 2 and regular Maximiliano Hernandez as Agent Sitwell, both of which were somewhat thorny characters, anyway. It's also revealed by Sitwell, through an awesome interrogation scene on a roof, that Hydra intended to wipe out several people who specifically threatened them, including a man named Steven Strange. Oh, and Sitwell suffers a pretty brutal, but well-deserved and satisfying, death at the hands of Bucky while Stern is arrested and taken into justice at the film's end.
Because Steve has always believed in the strength of the common human being, he recruits Sam Wilson for his team, who was has been living with survivor's guilt over not being able to save a fellow pilot in Afghanistan. However, he is given a chance to move on by joining in on Steve and Nat's journey.
He's rewarded by having a pair of wings of his own as The Falcon, which lends himself to being the star of some of the coolest flying shots in recent blockbuster cinema, especially during the film's climax. As we'll see later in the Marvel movies, Sam learns from Steve about believing in the little guy.
The true brilliance of The Winter Soldier is that despite its 180 direction from Captain America's last outing-the more pulpy, old-fashioned romp, The First Avenger-it still reaffirms why the character is so beloved and respected. His unwavering commitment to doing the right thing and preserving freedom from tyranny are both on full display in this movie that's also trying to deconstruct him and question his relevancy in a world where technology has advanced by seventy years from when he left Earth.
It also values the individuality of each of its supporting characters when they start to take down the dangerous ties that have been holding them back, as well as that of all the people whose freedoms the gang tries to save from Hydra's attacks.
Like Iron Man 3, The Winter Soldier really is a perfect sequel, giving us precisely what we want from the character and building on upon such a solid foundation so we can learn some more insight into how they function.
At the end of the day, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been toppled as simply a more well-meaning form of the very thing it was made to destroy, the Avengers are an independent team, and Steve has fully melted into the current world that is as prone to corruption as it was before he was frozen. We can only hope that he is ready to take down Hydra once and for all, because they have a certain scepter and have been using it for their next Buckys.....
But that will have to wait. For in the next entry in the MCU, we look at a certain ragtag team that would help define the entire franchise as we know it.
