ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Civil War

TIFF ’22: The Banshees of Inisherin

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Set upon a fictional island off the coast of Ireland, The Banshees of Inisherin tells the story of Padraic (Colin Farrell), a man who spends his days caring for the sheep and chatting with his pal Colm (Brendan Gleeson) at the local pub. But today is different. When Colm won’t answer his calls for their daily pint, Padraic is confused. When he confronts his friend, the only answer that Colm offers back is that he ‘doesn’t like him anymore’. But Padraic refuses to accept Colm’s rash decision and decides to do whatever he can to make up for… well… whatever it is that’s he done to offend his friend. But as Padraic continues to push, the gap between himself and Colm continues to widen, further shattering what was once a great relationship.

Directed by Martin McDonagh, Banshees is a surprisingly funny and heartfelt film to add to his catalog. Unlike his most recent Oscar-winning work, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but Banshees is far lighter in tone than its predecessor, allowing the quaint surroundings and quirkly conversations to lead the way. 

At least, at first.

Best known for unleashing man’s inner darkness, McDonagh allows his film to operate on a slow burn. Beginning with one man’s spontaneous decision to end his friendship with his best pal, the film open with such buoyancy that the viewer cannot help but be drawn into the madness of McDonagh’s world. But darkness looms on the horizon. By highlighting the humour of the film, McDonagh somehow makes the inevitable release of rage even more shocking and disturbing.

In this way, McDonagh unleashes the true terror of his Banshees. Although the reasons appear insignificant, the ghosts of the past refuse to allow the present to heal. With humour and a heart of darkness, McDonagh highlights the pain that is caused when people hold on to their hurt and how quickly the damage can escalate.

The Banshees of Inisherin premiered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

Lincoln’s Dilemma – Evolving toward freedom

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Abraham Lincoln – The Great Emancipator. Well, yes and no. In Lincoln’s Dilemma, showing on Apple TV+, we see a much more complicated picture of Lincoln’s presidency, especially as it relates to the abolition of slavery. The series, directed by Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman, is done in a style popularized by Ken Burns, in which historians share their insights as we see pictures of that historical era.

The four hour-long episodes outline the evolution of Lincoln’s choices in regard to slavery. His goal during the election was clearly to preserve the Union, and he clearly stated that if that required slavery continuing, that such was acceptable to him. We learn that while there were some who wanted slavery completely abolished, there were many, even in the north, who were perfectly happy for it to continue. The Civil War does not begin in attempt to end the practice. Emancipation came about in large part as a military weapon. This too evolved with time through the war years, until Lincoln eventually pushed for the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. (He knew it had to pass Congress before the war ended and southern states would return.)

This is something of a demythologizing of Lincoln. That is very evident when the film looks at the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, and the controversy that grew around it in 2020. Lincoln is seen as a giant of American history—and for good reason. This series also, though, shows a more nuanced man. He was very much a politician who knew how to work the system. He was slow to come around to the idea of Emancipation—in part because there would be a political price to be paid.

Part of the series revolves around the reluctance of Lincoln to move toward emancipation, and the rhetoric of Fredrick Douglas to push for it. The two men met only three times, but the interplay of their ideas is clear in the series. Lincoln was slow to embrace the idea of emancipation, thinking the restoration of the Union was paramount. Douglas was a constant voice demanding that it be part of the nation’s plan.

There is little of Lincoln’s personal life included in the film (with the exception of the death of his son Willie). That means we see little of the development of his moral and theological ideas. Lincoln’s religion is a subject of great debate and conjecture. He never joined a church. Yet he was very comfortable with biblical and religious language. It’s hard to understand Lincoln and his motivation without trying to delve into those waters (murky though they are).

The series is more than just a look at a historical figure. It is designed to help us think better about the racial issues that still confront us as a nation. As one of the historians notes: “What we are seeing today is really dramatic evidence of when you fail to talk honestly about your history.” The racial tensions that continue today are very clearly connected to what happened during Lincoln’s time and the aftermath of the Civil War. To better understand today, this series asks us to look back at our history for a more complete understanding so we can move on to what will hopefully be a better future.

All four episodes will be available on Apple TV+ on February 18.

Self-Isolation Film Festival: The General

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While we fill the days and nights of self-isolation, this is a great time to discover films that we may have overlooked—especially films from long ago. Buster Keaton’s The General, a 1926 silent film, is thought by some, including Orson Wells and BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine, to be the greatest comedy of all time. It was among the first class of films to be inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. Perhaps you don’t think much about silent films, but you have to admit this film has a pedigree.

Johnnie Gray (Keaton) is a young railroad engineer in Georgia. He has “two loves in his life”: his engine, named the General, and Annabelle Lee. While making a courting call on Annabelle, word arrives that Ft. Sumpter has been fired upon, starting the Civil War. Her brother and father immediately head off to enlist. Johnnie gets to the recruiting station first and tries to enlist, but as a railroad engineer, he’s deemed as more valuable doing that than as a soldier, so he is rejected—even though he tries several times. Annabelle’s family don’t know this and think he’s a coward.

A year later, Annabelle heads north to find her injured father. It happens to be on a train pulled by the General, but when they reach a dinner break and Johnnie is away from the engine, it is stolen by a Yankee spy and his cohort. Johnnie gives chase, first on foot, then by handcar, even on bicycle. Eventually he finds a Confederate troop train and loads it up to give chase, but the other cars aren’t connected to the engine, so Johnnie is in pursuit alone. Most of the film from this point is that pursuit filled with pratfalls on a moving train as Johnnie tries to catch the Yankees, who are trying to stop his progress.

When he finally does catch up, he discovers that Annabelle was a prisoner on the train. He hears the Yankees’ plans to use the train to supply advancing troops. Freeing Annabelle, he steals his train back to warn the Confederates of the attack. Now the train chase begins anew, with Johnnie and Annabelle being chased.

This non-verbal humor may not be what modern viewers expect, but Buster Keaton was a master at physical humor. His acrobatic skills are the basis for much of the humor in his films. But the comedy is also tied to the situation he has created—and it is here that I think we can consider how this film relates to the days and nights of COVID-19.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, “We do not lose control of our lives. What we lose is the illusion that we were ever in control in the first place.” Buster Keaton’s humor is often built around out of control situations. In The General he finds himself on a barreling train, uncertain what he’ll have to do next or what dangers lie ahead. Even though we are staying at home during these days of social distancing, we may well feel that everything is out of control. The pandemic is our train barreling down the track. Each day we find new obstacles, new worries. We have certainly lost any illusion of control in our lives. That doesn’t mean we should just give up. Like Johnnie Gray, we need to face every challenge with courage and determination.  While we may feel like we’re just along for the ride, these are days that call for heroic perseverance.

The General can be streamed at Kanopy and YouTube.

Harriet: Leader to Freedom

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Harriet Tubman was an incredible woman and remains an important part of our history. Born Araminta “Minty” Ross, and later changing her name to Harriet Tubman (inspired by her mother and husband), she would ultimately be nicknamed “Moses”, a leader to freedom. A conductor of the Underground Railroad, she not only escaped slavery herself, but is responsible for freeing approximately 70 other people. She was a vital player in the fight to abolish slavery in the American Civil War, acting as a cook, nurse, spy, and was the first woman ever to lead an armed assault. With that said, I was shocked to learn that Harriet (directed by Kasi Lemmons) is the first feature film made about this exceptional woman.

Harriet was able to tackle the enormous task of retelling a crucial story in history so successfully that I believe this film could (and should) be shown in classrooms around the world. This film is simultaneously real and emotional yet has an incredible hopefulness to it. I can still see Harriet (Cynthia Erivo) holding her hands up to frame the rising sun as she steps across the border to freedom for the first time. She wove her desperation into determination, proclaiming “Imma be free or die”, and did everything in her power to succeed.

Cynthia Erivo effortlessly embodies Harriet Tubman in such a special way. If her performance wasn’t telling enough, she brings her gorgeous voice to the role, highlighting various songs from that time period, which often acted as secret messages to other slaves. Just try not to have chills during the trailer of this film as “Farewell Oh Farewell” plays.

Painted across stunning landscapes, Harriet reproduces impressive costumes of that time period, and takes advantage of light and dark to convey emotion.

The only slight misstep was the story line surrounding Harriet’s visions from God. Harriet was known to be very religious, claiming to have had vision from God, and crediting Him for guiding her through her successful escape and subsequent missions. Although this was imperative to the story, I felt that, closer to the end of the film, they started feeling more like psychic premonitions rather than the voice of God. (Even so, this didn’t detract from the overall quality of the film.)

As a human being, I can barely find the words to express my gratitude to Harriet Tubman for her valiancy and single-handedly shifting the trajectory of history. As a woman, how do I convey my sheer inspiration? How do I convey my thanks for her role in my right to vote? Harriet Tubman was a down right warrior and I don’t want to begin to think where we would be without her.

“I made it this far on my own so don’t you tell me what I can’t do.”

TIFF’19: Harriet

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Harriet Tubman was an incredible woman and remains an important part of our history. Born Araminta “Minty” Ross, and later changing her name to Harriet Tubman (inspired by her mother and husband), she would ultimately be nicknamed “Moses”, a leader to freedom. A conductor of the Underground Railroad, she not only escaped slavery herself, but is responsible for freeing approximately 70 other people. She was a vital player in the fight to abolish slavery in the American Civil War, acting as a cook, nurse, spy, and was the first woman ever to lead an armed assault. With that said, I was shocked to learn that Harriet (directed by Kasi Lemmons) is the first feature film made about this exceptional woman.

Harriet was able to tackle the enormous task of retelling a crucial story in history so successfully that I believe this film could (and should) be shown in classrooms around the world. This film is simultaneously real and emotional yet has an incredible hopefulness to it. I can still see Harriet (Cynthia Erivo) holding her hands up to frame the rising sun as she steps across the border to freedom for the first time. She wove her desperation into determination, proclaiming “Imma be free or die”, and did everything in her power to succeed.

Being such a momentous figure in our history, Harriet will be well worth your time.  It will be released in Canada and the USA on November 1, 2019.

The Beguiled – No Serpent Needed in This Garden

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“You’re our most unwelcome visitor, and we do not propose to entertain you.”

What is it that corrupts our lives? In The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola’s Southern Gothic film set in the Civil War, there seems to be a world that is pure and innocent. But is it really? Is this a fall from grace, or was there a state of grace to begin with?

The film opens as a young girl goes through the Virginia woods picking mushrooms. She is startled to find a wounded Union soldier, barely conscious. She helps him to Miss Martha’s Seminary for Young Women, a school with a handful of young women who have nowhere else to go. Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) agrees to take Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell) in and nurse him to health before turning him over to the Confederate troops as a prisoner. (It is, after all, Christian charity.) But his presence in the school is the opportunity for lust and jealous to grow, particularly among Miss Martha, the school’s other teacher Miss Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), and the oldest student, Miss Alicia (Elle Fanning).

As McBurney regains his strength, he manages to endear himself to the women, perhaps playing them against one another. But things will not go smoothly. In time, the tensions will lead to an accident that will complicate the story even further and lead to a very dark conclusion. By the end of the story, all innocence has been stripped away from these young women.

Coppola makes great use of nature throughout the film. We often hear birds and insects that make us think this is a very pristine world. But even then we hear the far off sounds of warfare. We are reminded that this is already a fallen world. The very fact that McBurney is a soldier tells us that pain and suffering already exist. The fact that the women see him as an enemy shows that they participate in this reality, even as they use the language of Christian duty to justify their actions.

As I began to think about the film, my first thought was that McBurney was a serpent that brought corruption to this Eden. But I soon realized that all the seeds of sinfulness were already present and growing in Miss Martha’s Seminary. McBurney merely sped the growth. Of course it’s also possible to read Genesis in the same way. The Serpent didn’t bring evil into the Garden. That potential already existed within the Man and Woman that God had placed there. The Serpent simply brought out what was already within them. The depth to which all the characters descend in this story is not the work of an outside source of evil. It is the fruition of a darkness that already inhabited them.

Origins Ep. 4 – Making Sense Of It All

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(photo credit: National Geographic/Gavin Hodge)

One of the neatest things about human beings is their ability to communicate with each other.  Over time, we’ve moved on from drawings painted on the sides of caves to texting in the form on digital 0s and 1s. In fact, communication is the lifeblood of today’s society, helping to make sense of life—yet many of us don’t know the history of how it came to be.  In the fourth part of Origins (NatGeo, 9 PM/8 CT Mondays), host Jason Silva seeks to provide illumination on the subject.  In my opinion, it’s not the best episode in the series (the second one holds that title thus far), but it makes a strong statement about the importance of symbols, drawings, and their comprehension in regards to the global society we’re a part of.

Silva begins the discussion of communication in the caves of France and Spain, where hunter-gatherers would tell stories in the form of pictographs scrawled (and drawn) on the rock walls. Strangely, the Egyptian use of cuneiform is only given a passing mention, as the focus quickly turns to rhythm and rhyme and their power in African customs—and in fact, society in general. All you need to do to experience this is think of your favorite song and sing/tap along to the beat.

The story turns to 16th century Europe and a discussion about books written in one’s own language.  There’s a reason why the ruling class wanted tomes of this nature out of the hands of commoners—knowledge is power, and keeping people in the dark prolonged the length of their rule. People who didn’t comply faced punishment including death. But, over time, the masses learned to read and communicate in forms we still access today (Shakespeare, anyone?).

(photo credit: National Geographic)

Of course, everything these days revolves around the internet and the use of binary switches. It just happens so fast that we rarely consider how things got the way they are.  Silva brings the viewer back to the Civil War and the invention of the telegraph to explain.  It was not only a quick way to find out what was going on the front lines, but it became a real-time way for President Lincoln to direct battles, such as the second Battle of Bull Run.  Eventually, Alan Turing pushed us to computing while Arthur C. Clarke helped to bring about the idea of satellite communication. The end result?  Humanity in the 21st century drinks daily from the firehose of data disseminated through their smartphones, tablets, computers, or television sets.

(photo credit: National Geographic)

Rudyard Kipling once wrote, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Words matter.  Sure, there are numerous forms of communication available, but it’s words that help bring about lasting change in societies—and people’s lives, for that matter. One surprising example mentioned in this episode of Origins involved a Christian by the name of William Tyndale. His goal was to create a translation of the Bible people could read and understand. In doing so, he helped decode a language of Greek and Hebrew, adding about 30,000 words to the English language and giving rise to the King James Version of the Bible (still the bestselling book of all time). He paid a hefty price for his vision, but we should be thankful each time we open a book—including the Bible—and learn a little bit more about life, who we are, and where we fit in the grand scheme of things.

Free State of Jones: Reap What You Sow

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Newton (Matthew McConaughey) carries Daniel (Jacob Lofland) across an active battlefield

The Civil War wasn’t the greatest period in the history of the United States, as most people will attest.  A country founded on liberty fought over whether liberty was to be fully extended to all people. Yet in Mississippi, a unique situation developed—a group of runaway slaves and war deserters took over a sizable area of the state independent of either Union or Confederate control.  In director Gary Ross’s newest film, Free State of Jones, he chronicles its leader Newton Knight and the community he established.  There’s some good stuff to be found here, but the film doesn’t quite know what it wants to be and suffers as a result.

Ross begins with a riveting sequence where a company of Confederate soldiers march up a hill and face the Union in battle.  It’s bloody and graphic and sets the tone for the rest of the film.  Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer turned Confederate nurse/medic, wants to help as much as possible.  But when his younger cousin Daniel (Jacob Lofland) is taken out by a sharpshooter’s bullet, Newton decides to take him home to his mother. This is known as desertion, putting a death sentence on Newton’s head.  To keep from having this happen, he flees into the swamp and meets a cast of other runaways—including slaves like Moses (Mahershali Ali), who wears a spiked collar placed on him by his former master.  Slowly, Knight begins to gather their trust and the group begins to add members while defending themselves. Knight’s wife Serena (Keri Russell) flees to Georgia with the kids while Newton begins to help a slave girl named Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) learn to read.  Slowly, she becomes a replacement for Serena.

The group continues to grow and finally has the attention of the Confederate army.  After watching one of his families surrender to the army (and later hang from a tree), they stage a well-orchestrated ambush of the Confederate company, earning a victory in the process.  From here, the Free State of Jones (named after Jones County, Mississippi) is created and its inhabitants—both slave and free—are treated as equals.

The resolution of the film is not what you’d expect—and that’s where Ross makes a major misstep. You see, Free State of Jones would play fantastically as an action film along the likes of a Confederate version of Robin Hood.  But Ross adds in significant elements of a documentary, altering the pacing and changing the feel of the film to a history lesson. As if this isn’t enough, Ross then adds a third aspect to the story—a court case 85 years later involving one of Knight’s descendants.  This is shown in short snippets and is thrown in irregularly, further breaking the flow of the film.  What started out as a battle film is changed into a question of whether Newton’s descendant is part African-American (implying he had a child with Rachel).  One piece on its own would’ve been fine, but all three become a disjointed mess.  Too bad.

FREE STATE OF JONESAs for the other aspects of the film, I think they were well done. The cinematography is outstanding and conveys the time frame well.  The music is subtle enough to impact yet not overpower.  McConaughey is fantastic as Newton Knight, revealing a noticeable and believable shift in becoming the leader and face of the Free State of Jones. Mbatha-Raw, likewise, does well as Rachel, adding an air of cautiousness and enthusiasm to her role.  Sadly, Russell is almost an afterthought in the film, seeing most of her screen time in an awkward conversation with Rachel over a crying baby. It’s unfortunate that the directing and editing let this film down.

For Newton, the biggest point for him involves sowing that which one reaps (Galatians 6:7), since he was a farmer. He even bases the newly created state on this principle, allowing all people to have land and care for it—including the freed slaves.  In addition, he helps to empower the least to be more than they could ever be.  Consider the following clip, where Newton asks Moses point blank what he is–a child of God.  When a person becomes one of God’s children, they are transformed into something they could not be on their own.  The apostle Paul puts it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (1 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV). They can’t be owned (as Newton says) and don’t have to worry about the past, but can look confidently toward the future and the hope Jesus offers.  You see this later in the film when Moses gets his family back and is seen cultivating a field all his own.  It gives freedom a meaning foreign to many of us today.  It’s also a good reminder for us to not take what we’ve been given for granted. Look confidently into an uncertain future and trust God.

Welcome Home[coming]

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Since we’re only a few short days (hours?) from the release of Avengers 2.5… er… Captain America: Civil War, anticipation for the film has reached a fever pitch. Every bus, cereal box and toothbrush seems to be emblazoned with either #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan. Tickets have been selling out at a record pace weeks (WEEKS!) before the films release as Marvel fans salivate at the carnage of their favourite heroes colliding on the big screen and even (potential) deaths for added drama.

Oh yeah, and the return of Spider-man.

Sorry Black Panther. I mean no disrespect, especially since I hear you’re amazing in the film… but the Internet has been buzzing over the latest incarnation of their favourite wall-crawler. Arguably the most popular character in the Marvel canon, Spidey hasn’t even been absent from the big screen for that long. Remember, it was only 2 years ago (!) that we were given the travesty that was The Amazing Spiderman 2. But, all of a sudden, everyone has ‘arachni-fever’ again. The first tease of Tom Holland in costume (or, his ‘underoos’) in the second trailer went viral. The ensuing announcement of next summer’s Spider-man film (including the addition of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man to the cast) made fans pop with enthusiasm.

So, why the hoopla? (After all, as the song says, how can we miss you if you won’t go away?)

Personally, I think it has something to do with the title of the new film – Spider-man: Homecoming. No, it doesn’t have the pop of, say, Civil War (and it is the title of a storyline from the comic adventuress in the 80s) but I think that the enthusiasm stems from what the film implies.

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You see, Spider-man has come home.

When the film rights were sold to Sony in the late 90s, Spider-man was a hot commodity. From the troubled production by James Cameron that never saw the light to the eventual Tobey Macguire films in the early 2000s, Spider-man has remained a Marvel property but only in comics and licensing. In short, Marvel has had to keep their hands off of Spidey onscreen. (It was a similar agreement that Marvel has with Fox regarding X-Men films – and actually the reason why Marvel can’t even use the word “mutants” in their ‘cinematic universe’.)

Actually, the agreement was working out fairly well for both parties. Sony was cranking out Spider-man films—they had to do so in order to retain the rights—and Marvel was busy with their own projects. Sony even had plans to start their own Spider-man cinematic universe with spinoffs and sequels. However, when the Amazing Spiderman 2 turned out to be… well… less than amazing, fans started to turn on Sony. Criticisms of scripts, characters, and pretty much everything related to Spidey had pretty much left the franchise in jeopardy.

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But, after the infamous Sony email leak of 2014, all of that began to change.

All of a sudden, word spread that Marvel was working out a ‘secret agreement’ with Sony, one that would give creative control back to Marvel regarding the character but Sony would reap the financial benefits. Fans rejoiced. Although much of the hype surrounded the fact that Spider-man could finally join the Avengers, the reality is that people were happy that Marvel—Spidey’s creators and the ones who ‘get the character’—could finally tell his stories the way they were intended.

Regardless of what you felt of any of the Spider-man films, it simply felt awkward that he remained in the hands of a company that didn’t seem to care about him as much as Marvel does. Whereas Sony merely used him as a franchise machine, Marvel seems to have a more vested interest in the character himself. (For the record, I’m also not blind to the fact that Marvel sees Spidey as a profit-maker. However, they do genuinely seem to care about how well his stories are told.)

Now, he has come home. Underoos and all.

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There is a sense that Spider-man simply belongs in the hands of Marvel. In the sole hands of Sony, Spidey seemed lost. In an (almost) prodigal-like narrative, the first-born has returned to the rejoicing father. Further, I think that the over-whelmingly positive response from the fans suggests that everyone believes that this is what needed to happen. There is a recognition that he will receive better care at ‘home’.

It’s a need that we all maintain.

Ultimately, I believe that we all cry out for ‘home’. It’s a spiritual need that’s deeply embedded in our hearts. Sometimes, our actual homes don’t provide that sense of refuge or even do damage to us emotionally and physically but we remain on our search until we find somewhere—anywhere—that makes us feel loved and accepted. As a Christian, I believe that that sense of hope can only be found when we realize what it means to be a part of God’s Kingdom. As Spider-man’s story will be told properly in the hands of his creators, so too do our stories make more sense when we reconnect with our Creator. When we experience the love and wholeness that God offers to His children, we experience what it means to truly come Home.

Now to get myself some underoos…

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Captain America Civil War: From Comic to Film

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Captain_America_Civil_War_posterIt’s hard to look at the comic book of Civil War and accurately compare it to the upcoming film since the comics are on a much larger scale. However, for what Marvel Studios has done, comparing it to the books will really bring us an in-depth look at both and allow us to see why the road to Civil War was inevitable.

“There is no right or wrong in this debate, it is simply a matter of perspective…” –Dr. Strange

The road to both Civil Wars’ is both different and similar. The triggering results are vastly different. In the comics, a young group of superpowered kids filming a reality show make a ratings-based decision to take down some super villains that were way out of their league. This results in massive casualties, especially at an elementary school. The social backlash was like no other with many calling for super hero reform while others calling for a ban on super heroes. The reality is that in the Marvel Comics, there are so many super heroes that many of the young people with powers are going out untrained. It was inevitable that something like this would happen and the results begins to draw a line between heroes; some take the actions of those heroes more personally while others feel the actions of those few shouldn’t force them to become government agents.

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Obviously, as seen in the trailers, the comic books took a similar route where the leading voice for the pro-registration of super heroes is Iron Man while the face of the resistance is Captain America. But in the films, if we look through the history we can see that the road was also inevitable. As the trailer suggests, New York, Washington DC, and then Sokovia marked areas of massive destruction that involved the Avengers. Although each incident wasn’t started by the Avengers, the outcome brings about fear and uncertainty by governments and people. Similar to how Batman v Superman attempted to show a fear by governments in Superman, Civil War will show us that as well, however we have a history of events and also an invested connection with the characters that will hopefully make for a more compelling and true story. The conflict in this film has its seeds in Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It is no surprise that Tony Stark would side with the idea of being regulated by the government. From the first Iron Man film to Age of Ultron, Tony Stark has seen his inventions and, at times, actions turn to something sinister. Although we are not sure if something in the film hits him as deep and personal as the comics, his ideology differs from that in Cap that he would view government oversight as a good thing. Meanwhile, Captain America: Winter Soldier showed us what Cap really thinks when governments try to stop wars before there even is one. With the seeds of Hydra still fresh, Cap knows that the best hands the Avengers can be in is their own, a neutral party that stops the villains that no government task force can actually stop.

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The other issue is the matter of secret identities. In Age of Ultron, we were introduced to Clint Barton’s family. If Hawkeye is forced to register, he then has to give up his secret identity which can put his family in harm’s way. It is an issue that was brought up in the comics that ultimately resulted in one of the biggest reveals in comic book history. Can a hero revealing his secret identity to the public be a good thing, or is it the biggest mistake they can make?  The mask of the hero isn’t the one they wear while fighting crime, but the one they put on in public. To take that away not only puts their life in danger, but everyone around them in danger. So naturally, we see that Hawkeye is on Team Cap for the film (and Ant-Man) as a secret identity is not just about him, but about protecting his family.

The question is, how far will Civil War go? Will Tony do the unethical to get to the future he feels is needed? Will Cap be able to sway any of Team Iron Man to fight his side? And, which side will we choose? The reality is, that both sides will be right and that is what will make the story compelling if done right. What are the moral obligations of these heroes and how should they be handled? When new heroes rise up as is the inevitable now, what is the protocol for younger ones who want to be like their favorite hero? As a citizen, you don’t want untrained heroes going around causing mayhem, no matter how much good they are doing. This is most likely the fear Iron Man has and why it makes him right.

“Don’t play politics with me, Hill. Superheroes need to stay above that stuff or Washington begins telling us who the Super Villains are” Captain America

At the same time, the corruption in politics will ultimately abuse their power by having a handful of weapons of mass destruction at their fingertips. And if the government ultimately starts using heroes, what will stop other governments from doing the same thing? And what if a super villain attacks another country not within their jurisdiction of the government, what is to stop the politicians from deeming it not worth the time? Cap’s moral center would never allow such a thing, and that’s why he is right as well.

cap moral reveal

Ultimately, whether we are looking at Team Cap or Team Iron Man, both sides have legitimate reasons to side with which one they so choose. They have always been on opposite sides of the spectrum when moral obligations are concerned, but that blend is what keeps both sides in check. But as we know in these films, Hydra and bad politicians is the main reason why they should govern themselves. Free of jurisdiction, but with a set of standards that the public is well aware of and a commitment to train new heroes as they rise up. I am not sure how Civil War on film will end, if it will stay true to the comic or will it change. One thing is for certain, in the end they have to remember one thing, why do they do what they do? Even the most noble of things can be wrong if the reason for them are for selfish reasons. But when we put others above ourselves, then our actions will have far greater reaching impact and rewards.