Cheyenne Suarez

New 'Captain America' film flies into Trumpian headwinds

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><br/></div><p>PARIS - With a diverse cast, a core message about unity, and an endorsement of international diplomacy, the latest in the Captain America film franchise which premiered Tuesday presents a vision of the United States out of step with the Trump era.</p><div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMarvelPhilippines%2Fposts%2Fpfbid09rUFYSqXehnZs2iSQ6AXyQdE3XyoC2SNsEFZY2rhsukxfvKgEyQs7ck7p3heUQDcl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500" width="500" height="609" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p>Written and filmed before Donald Trump&#x27;s return as president, the latest blockbuster from Marvel Studios has already faced an online backlash from some right-wingers over supposedly unpatriotic comments by lead actor Anthony Mackie.</p><p>Mackie, the first black actor to play the superhero, became a target last month after attempting to make a point about the universal message of Captain America as an ideal of good conscience and incorruptibility.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2QJyryEI3LE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don’t think the term &#x27;America&#x27; should be one of those representations,&quot; he told a promotional event. &quot;It&#x27;s about a man who keeps his word, who has honour, dignity, and integrity.&quot;</p><p>In &quot;Captain America: Brave New World&quot;, Mackie flies, fights and flings his famous shield in pursuit of world peace alongside flawed and mercurial president Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford.</p><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-3" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhrOyLvPHE/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=540&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A3%2C%22os%22%3A8480081.400000095%2C%22ls%22%3A1471964.2000000477%2C%22le%22%3A1472384.1000000238%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="880" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-3" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>Ross is attempting to negotiate an international treaty with America&#x27;s allies to share a precious new metal discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean, but is being thwarted by his past associations and an international crime gang.</p><p>&quot;This a new genre, a new audience for me -- and it was fun!&quot; Ford told an audience in London of his first foray into the Marvel superhero stable at the age of 82.</p><div><strong>- &#x27;Shared society&#x27; -</strong></div><p>Directed by Nigerian-born Julius Onah, &quot;Brave New World&quot; features a diverse cast including Danny Ramirez and Xosha Roquemore.</p><p>Mackie has taken over from Chris Evans in the lead role of the popular film franchise, with his self-doubt and impostor syndrome a theme in the plot.</p><p>Onah told Vanity Fair on the eve of Tuesday&#x27;s world premiere in Los Angeles that the film&#x27;s main message was about bringing people together.</p><p>He insisted on inserting a line at the end in which Captain America tells Ross that &quot;if we can&#x27;t see the good in each other, we&#x27;ve already lost the fight.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I think it speaks to the moral obligation that we all have to each other in a shared society, even when we might see things differently,&quot; he told Vanity Fair.</p><p>Such sentiments are out of fashion in Trump&#x27;s Republican party, with its hostile stance toward diversity and aggressive &quot;America First&quot; foreign policy.</p><p>In his first three weeks in office, the new US president has pursued a &quot;war on woke&quot; by cancelling federal diversity programs, pulled the United States out of international treaties, and threatened America&#x27;s allies.</p><p>It remains to be seen whether the latest Marvel offering can appeal across political lines in such a polarised environment.</p><p>The Disney-owned Hollywood studio is seen by industry observers as needing a box-office triumph after a string of recent television and cinema disappointments including &quot;The Marvels&quot;, which flopped in 2023.</p><p>Fans of the original 1940s Captain America point out that the messages in the latest film -- and from its lead actor and director -- are true to those of the Nazi-bashing comic strip, which was created in response to European fascism and America&#x27;s isolationism during World War II.</p><p>The film will be released internationally from Wednesday before hitting cinemas in the US on Friday.</p><div><strong>adp/tym</strong></div><div><strong><br/></strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>With a diverse cast, a core message about unity, and an endorsement of international diplomacy, the latest in the Captain America film franchise which premiered Tuesday presents a vision of the United States out of step with the Trump era.</p>

With a diverse cast, a core message about unity, and an endorsement of international diplomacy, the latest in the Captain America film franchise which premiered Tuesday presents a vision of the United States out of step with the Trump era.