Captain America: The Winter Soldier - REWATCH DIARY
- Adam Tye
- May 17, 2019
- 5 min read
Rewatch diary is a thing I am tentatively trying. If I rewatch a movie and want to write down some thoughts about it that are too big to be left alone, but too quick for a full-fat review, I call it a 'diary entry' and use it as an excuse to put it up here. This is the second one now (the first being my Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone Review) so it's slowly threatening to become a recurring series.
I am sympathetic as to why people would claim The Winter Soldier as Marvel's best movie; or at the very least, I can take a guess at the kind of reasons that would fuel that decision. On a cynical level, I imagine it probably comes down to textural stuff like the film's grittiness, it's notable aversion to quips, the way it makes Captain America "badass" and the way it raises philosophical political issues. I say "cynical" because I can't help but think that people use this kind of textural stuff as a way to validate a love of something that doesn't need validating, and that even if it did need broader cultural approval, these arguments would be questionable ways of going about that.
On a more positive note, I think it's because The Winter Soldier undeniably crackles. Its first half is so focused, so dedicated to its mission statement of the above elements that it is incredibly hard to resist. The bludgeoning precision of the opening boat mission (almost a live-action version of Modern Warfare's 'Crew Expendable' Mission), Nick Fury's getaway chase (one of Marvel's most underrated action sequences) as well as the now classic elevator brawl are all fiery shots of adrenaline to the usually staid Marvel fight scenes (even if the scrappy method of coverage would eventually grow bland during later entries). Marcus and McFeely's script is abundant with obvious pleasures, from the fantastic banter between Cap and Black Widow, to the ice-cold debates Nick Fury seems to inspire anywhere (even when he's left alone, he still manages to fall out with his computer). There's a story he tells about his Grandfather in which Jackson's delivery cannot help but invoke memories of his various speeches in Tarantino movies. Alas, the Grandfather story is too short to really do the comparison justice.
The thriller-oriented story also provides maybe the most fitting lifeblood for The Russo's 'boots-on-the-ground' style of direction. The duo tend to favour the kind of grey, handheld visual storytelling that emphasises grounded realism and kinetic action over fantastical flourishes and fluidity. It's an approach I'm usually less interested in and tends to undercut some of their other Marvel efforts (particularly Civil War and Infinity War, which call for a more operatic, poetic kind of direction). However, it's undeniable how well the tone fits The Winter Soldier and whilst the film still falls short of a exhibiting a specific visual aesthetic, the primal feel of the film is spot on. It's not quite Paul Greengrass, but there's a hard-hitting, off-kilter philosophy that is arguably shared.
Where The Winter Soldier starts to lose me is in how the second half can't quite do justice to what precedes it. The film sets up an interesting moral conundrum in which SHIELD - the operation Captain America has dedicated himself to - is finishing work on a project that will be able to identify terrorist threats before they occur before neutralising them ('Operation Insight'). As Cap describes it, this would be ostensibly "...holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection." It pits Captain America against the establishment he has sworn to defend and by extension, it calls into question America's values in the real world. But the film never allows itself to fully engage with this idea once it is revealed that SHIELD has been infiltrated by Nazi's. There is no dilemma here, no nuanced argument to be had. As soon as Cap realises that Hydra is behind SHIELD, the response is obvious and inarguable.
There's something to be said for the film's somewhat uncanny foresight and relevance to the recent showing of Nazism in America today, whilst the idea of Hydra's algorithm utilising people's personal data to identify potential threats to the regime firmly establishes the film as opposed to Futurism. But it also lets the movie shift the blame off of SHIELD entirely. When Fury and Pierce meet at the end, the scene is practically begging for the latter to ask how Fury can feel so unconflicted and righteous, when he too is partially responsible for Operation Insight existing in the first place. The film makes the incredibly correct yet basic moral judgement that even a well-meaning plan can become bad if Nazi's get a hold of the wheel, but it never really grapples with the film's earlier question of whether it is the wheel itself that is inherently bad.
But if that's where me and The Winter Soldier diverge academically, then it is with Bucky that it loses me emotionally. The First Avenger uses Bucky as an elaborate prop - less of a fully fledged character and more an idea for Steve to bounce off and pursue. The gulf between my investment in their relationship and the relationship between Steve and Peggy is a chasm. As a result, every decision and reaction Cap makes in response to Bucky in this film can only work on paper, because it never establishes to the audience why we should care about him ourselves. It can only show us their relationship in the most logical of terms. The flashback scene is clearly inserted to inject audience empathy into the relationship, but it doesn't really show us or make us feel anything beyond simply telling us that Bucky was nice and Steve is his friend. There's no depth - it's just a cheap reiteration of who he was in The First Avenger that exists to show us why Cap will act the way he does towards him. But compare it to the scene where Cap reunites with Peggy who has now succumbed to dementia and the difference in my emotional response is astonishing.
Bucky is a trick - a plot point that is made flesh and then told to the audience why we should care, before moving along too quickly for us to tell if we do. We feel sympathy, but not empathy. He's also supposed to be the emotional core of the film. The two don't mix well together.
The cumulative effect of the above issues isn't enough to sink The Winter Solider, but it is enough to let the air out slowly from something that starts out so fantastically. It's the sort of film that can only suggest to the audience how it should feel, rather than grabbing them by the throat like it so clearly wants to. Perhaps the aftertaste of that might not have been so bitter, if it weren't for how much that kind of problem would infect the MCU going forward.
I'm sympathetic as to why people call The Winter Soldier the best MCU movie. I'm just not empathetic.
★★★1/2
Other Notes:
The original version of this review is from my Letterboxd account. I edited and added stuff to it for this newer upload.
For all the talk of TWS being a political conspiracy thriller, it really isn't. It talks about that stuff, it has Robert Redford in it, but the vast majority of the film is the same kind of Marvel business.
Poor Sam ends up being a good reflection of how I think the film works as a whole. He's introduced really well and plays off of Rogers' character themes nicely, but then at the end he just joins because...Cap asking him is enough? Which it is, at least on a logical level. But it's not very interesting on a storytelling level. I can't help but feel like that happens mostly so we can get Falcon in the final fight. Tragically, after the wings came out, Sam Wilson would never be interesting again.
That car chase scene is really cool, though. Well, mostly the ambush part - the building tension and quick escalation is incredibly effective.
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