Fear Vs. Freedom: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review
Could Captain America: The Winter Soldier
be Marvel's The Dark Knight ?
Fear versus freedom is a question that has been ingrained in American society since September 11th, 2001. Since that tragic day many films have handled controversial issues surrounding not only terrorism, but also the subsequent Patriot Act legislation that followed. Since that piece of legislation allowed the government to keep an extra close eye on Americans to keep them safe, many films, TV shows, books, and comics have tackled the issue. Specifically pertaining to the world of superheros, the Marvel comic book crossover Civil War tackled this subject through the topic of superhero registration. It was probably most definitively handled, however, by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008 by posing the concept that you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. After Nolan did such a great job tackling that issue by using Batman, when it looked like Captain America: The Winter Soldier would deal with the same Patriot Act inspired issue the question became, "could this be Marvel’s Dark Knight or just another liberty versus security story to fall by the way side?" Find out after the break….

While I don’t know if Captain America 2 ranks up their with a film like The Dark Knight as far as being in the top 100 films of all time, it does match it as a defining freedom versus security commentary, but in a very different way than The Dark Knight. For one, while it has the symbol of fictional patriotism in Captain America, it also deals directly with the United States government via SHIELD, something The Dark Knight couldn’t really do. The film does this by using the Chitauri invasion of New York in The Avengers as their 9-11 level event to justify the atrocities on freedom being executed in Captain America 2.


As much as Captain America The Winter Soldier breaks down the Steve Rogers character, one thing the sets it above other solo Marvel Studios film is that it is as much of a SHIELD film as it is a Captain America one, and not to the films detriment. The Russo brothers manage to dig deeper into the psyche of Steve Rogers while at the same further developing the core SHIELD team of Nick Fury, Falcon, Maria Hill, Black Widow, and Agent 13/Sharon Carter, as well as developing the great Robert Redford as the menacing Franklin Pierce throughout the film.

Confirmed: EPIC
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