COMIC-CON 2010: 'Captain America' director has different spin on hero: 'He's not a flag-waver'

LA Times ^ | 07.21.10

[Perdogg]

The director of "Captain America: The First Avenger," the 2011 summer blockbuster that will coincide with the character's 70th anniversary, says that the screen version of the hero will be true to his roots -- up to a certain point.

"We're sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers," said Joe Johnston, whose past directing credits include "Jurassic Park III" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." He's a guy that wants to serve his country but he's not a flag-waver. We're re-interpretating, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was."

[a fool in paradise]

"He wants to serve his country, but he's not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver," Johnston said.

jin·go·ism  –noun
the spirit, policy, or practice of jingoes; bellicose chauvinism.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.

jin·go·ism
n. Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

If America is NOT number one, show me which nation is better.

[a fool in paradise]

Some pundits will pounce on all of this as another desecration of an American touchstone, but how many of them have ever read the books? The character, created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, was certainly unconflicted about his country and its mission during the clear-cut days of the 1940s, but it didn't always stay that way. In late 1974, for instance, in the months after President Nixon's resignation, Steve Rogers chucked the star-spangled costume and changed his hero name to Nomad (although, by 1976, Cap and original artist Kirby had the hero in bicentennial mode).

Yes and the liberals at Marvel Comics recently had Captain America and the Falcon criticizing the "antigovernment" "racist" teabaggers (huh huh, guffaw).

[a fool in paradise]

In 2007, Brubaker told the New York Daily News: "What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on -- and giving speeches on -- the street corner against the George W. Bush administration, and all the really right-wing fans want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam Hussein."

The Left wants Crap Americant to spit on the nation's leadership and spout Code Pinko propaganda.

The "Right" (or traditionalists) wanted Captain America, 70 year published character, to engage in a fantasy skirmish with a tyrannical dictator.

[who knows what evil?]

People in the comics industry are generally a bit to the left of Saul Alinsky and Karl Marx...

[a fool in paradise]

Marvel Studios put itself on the map with two "Iron Man" films that racked up a combined $1.19 billion in box office and almost half of that business ($571 million) was beyond the U.S. and Canada.

More Hollyweird revisionism to appease foreign markets. Hollywood in the 1930s shelved content that was critical of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

This is not a good business model or an ethical decision.

Hollyweird is casting their lot in the foreign markets.

Recall that Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was distributed and promoted in Lebanon by a terrorist network (recognized as such by our government).

"You" sold us out. No wonder you don't want Crap Americant waving a flag.

[a fool in paradise]

For Johnston, the imperative is an artistic one, not a commercial one. He wants a character that's more complicated than a flag, and a movie that entertains without borders. "Yeah, and it's also the idea that this is not about America so much as it is about the spirit of doing the right thing," the director said. "It's an international cast and an international story. It's about what makes America great and what make the rest of the world great too."

[Time Masheen starts] "We're gonna take you back, to the year 1939 when Charlie Chaplin and his nazi regime enslaved Europe and tried to take over the world... ...But then an even greater force emerged, the "Un"! And the "UN" un-nazied the world - forever." < /idiocracy >

[a fool in paradise]

Wonder if they will include the retrocontinuity that established that Steve Rogers was NOT the first to take the experimental serum.

Y’see, Marvel now has it that poor black men were subjected to inhuman guinea pig testing before the white guy got the “good” stuff.

No joke.

[Slings and Arrows]

[Crim]

No ..it’s “Captain Omerica”....

[al_c]

You can still fly Old Glory. Just turn her upside down until 2012.

Never! Unless my house in under attack, the stars are upper left.

[Retired Greyhound]

"Unless my house in under attack, the stars are upper left."

Your house is under attack, FRiend.

[al_c]

I knew you would say that.

I hated it when the lefties did it during the Bush administration, and I hate it now. I refuse to fly my flag inverted.

[Retired Greyhound]

Fair enough. But if not now, when?

Our way of life is under attack. The lefties burn flags. I wouldn’t compare their nonsense to a legitimate distress call.

But I do understand and respect your devotion to Old Glory. I pray that she remains Glorious.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m surprised he isn’t waving a Mexican flag. Thanks Perdogg.

[al_c]

Fair enough. But if not now, when?

Perhaps if I am under physical attack from a foreign enemy.

But I do understand and respect your devotion to Old Glory. I pray that she remains Glorious.

Indeed! Let's make it happen in November and again in 2012!

[Retired Greyhound]

“Perhaps if I am under physical attack from a foreign enemy. “

There is a foreign enemy in the White House, but I hope and pray that you a never physically attacked.

[JSDude1]

This is going to suck just like “G.I. Joe”.