Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo (Arrested Development, Community)

Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

Captain America: The Winter Soldier contains two rather disparate movies. One of them is a deeply personal story about loss, regret, the burden of the past, and the hope for redemption from it. The other is a spy thriller of betrayal and skulduggery that questions the balance between freedom and security that has long troubled America. For my money, both of them work surprisingly well, which is doubly impressive because they’re both crammed into a single movie. The plot finds Captain America attempting to adjust to his new life in the modern world. Unsurprisingly, he’s having difficulty fitting in or making new friends, with the apparent exception of a rescue pilot named Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). He’s still working for SHIELD with Black Widow under the direction of Nick Fury, doing wetwork and black ops missions for the organization, but he’s beginning to have doubts about the direction his life has taken, when everything suddenly goes completely insane. A masked assassin called the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) shows up, and Cap himself is declared a fugitive by Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), the head of the World Security Organization. Captain America must deal with the assassin, and also with the revelation that the organization for which he gave his life may be compromised at the highest levels.

I had honestly forgotten how good this movie was. I remembered liking it, and even placing it in my upper echelon of MCU films, but I had forgotten just how well it worked. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think one of the most important is that it’s one of the very few ostensibly action films in the MCU that actually has good action. There’s almost no CG on display; it’s all practical fights with well-done choreography, filmed relatively cleanly. No one would ever mistake it for a John Wick or a The Raid, but it’s head and shoulders above most of the rest of the Marvel movies. The Winter Soldier in particular does some insane knife-fighting, switching hands on the fly and showing really excellent physicality. The elevator fight is still one of my favorite and most memorable combat moments from the entire universe, as well. The idea is very simple, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it’s shot pretty creatively, too. Having Black Widow around for the duration doesn’t hurt either, as she’s always been cool in close combat. Speaking of Black Widow, this is really the first movie that makes her seem more like a real character than just a skillset with an attitude. Despite having seen her in a couple of these previously, she never really feels well-developed until this film, where the revelation that her noble change of heart was basically meaningless really seems to shake her to her core.

I remember when this movie came out that much was made of the overtly political messaging, and that still comes across today. While most of the Marvel movies are gently and inoffensively left-leaning (for American values of the term), this one was an out and out shot at conservative police-state values. Although I think some of the impact may be lost on comics fans (who have definitely seen it before), the audacity of having a Captain America movie where America was basically the bad guy was pretty gutsy. The movie doesn’t really shy away from any of the potential messaging either. It really is a movie about how a surveillance state is bad for everyone involved, and how the principles of safety can be used to undermine the existence of liberty. That’s some pretty big picture thinking from a movie that originated as a funny-book, and it’s really the first MCU film to do this. It remains the only one that is this overtly political. Robert Redford does an amazing job as the paternalistic guardian of the world’s safety here. He’s charismatic and calm enough that you can almost see his side of the issue, and that’s important. The viewer needs to remember that tyrants aren’t always raving lunatics, and Redford drives this home with a beautifully nuanced performance. In general, I love the political element that this movie has, and I’m happy that Marvel decided to go in that direction with it.

The politics aren’t the part of the movie I love the most, though. No, in this movie the thing that really does it for me is the excellent character work. It gives Cap a problem that actually challenges his beliefs and his goodness (although appropriately leaving both intact). It introduces an amazing new character in Sam Wilson, who literally does not have a single line in this entire movie that I do not love (which I will not be able to say for the next entry in this series). It has a continuation of the love story from Captain America: The First Avenger that, despite being incredibly maudlin, never fails to bring me close to tears. It’s got a great villain, actual moments of growth for Black Widow and Nick Fury, and a really tragic origin story for the Winter Soldier himself. The character beats feel real and earned. And of course, the centerpiece of those beats is the relationship between Cap and his best friend Bucky, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier. This movie realizes that a final fight between opponents only works if there are actual emotional stakes to what is happening. You can’t simply throw a hero and a bad, angry guy together and expect anyone to care. There has to be a reason to want a particular outcome to the conflict, and this movie has that in spades. I’ve said before that Captain America is the soul of the MCU, and I think that scenes like this are what prove that. The battle isn’t actually about whether or not Cap will get a computer thing done or whatever. It’s about whether or not he can save his friend. And those are stakes that anyone can understand, and that are universal.

There are a couple of things I don’t like about the movie. Zola having written what basically amounts to a genocide algorithm is amazing. His somehow having saved himself on magnetic tape or whatever is less so. The specter of Hydra’s success here isn’t increased or improved by his ‘survival,’ which is rendered moot only a few minutes after it’s been revealed. I also don’t really enjoy the new love interest for Cap, or Widow’s attempts to set him up. They aren’t criminally offensive, but they don’t really land for me. There are definitely a few scenes that outlast their welcome as well. Fury’s car chase has about one beat too many in it before the Winter Soldier shows up. I also didn’t really need to see Falcon have a meaningless fist fight with Rumlow (Frank Grillo). These are minor quibbles in an otherwise great film, though. It’s a movie that asks important questions both large and small of its characters, and the answers that we get as viewers are satisfying and meaningful. I really feel like it’s a movie that attempts to elevate the place that Marvel movies can have, and despite some shakiness it does an overall great job at that task.

Overall:

Stray Thoughts:

• Giving Cap another veteran to interact with (and a rescue expert at that) was an inspired choice for this movie. It really opens up a lot of opportunities for unforced character development for both.
• “On your left.”
• My wife really hates Bucky’s shaggy, permanently-wet look.
• Steve walking through the Smithsonian exhibit about him is both an excellent moment and the best-executed recap I’ve ever seen in a movie.
• I think the early conversations between Cap and Fury are ethically interesting without being didactic. A little simplistic, but I’d rather than than not have it in the movie.
• Once again, Colbie Smulders would get an entire paragraph if the rest of this movie weren’t so amazing. I hope she’s at least proud of her footnotes.
• This movie has a fight with a savate expert! That’s frickin’ cool.
• I briefly mentioned it above, but the scene with Peggy in the hospital emotionally destroys me. I don’t care if I’m being manipulated. Dementia is the worst thing, and it will always hurt to see it portrayed.
• Post-credits scene 1: Interesting and well-done. Teasing the twins for Age of Ultron is a cool idea. If only the execution in the later film had actually been good.
• Post-credits scene 2: This is the best second post-credits scene in Marvel. Having Bucky retrace Steve’s steps through the museum works on a thematic level and does a great job of setting up the next Captain America movie.
• Stan Lee cameo: Another funny one, but not as funny as the last Cap outing. Moderate quality.