retro-the-best....: [New post] Red Skull shows his true colors in new Captain America pic

Friday, March 4, 2011

[New post] Red Skull shows his true colors in new Captain America pic

Red Skull shows his true colors in new Captain America pic

dailypop | March 4, 2011 at 2:55 pm | Tags: hulk iron man captain america thor avengers marvel comi, red skull captain america | Categories: Captain America | URL: http://wp.me/p4kUt-2n6

The support and excitement for the Captain America film continues to grow as the lead villain has finally been revealed in all of his glory. Meet Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull (via Entertainment Weekly).

Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger

There has been an uproar in the comic book community about the lack of swastikas seen in Captain America movie collateral and images from the location filming. Cries of anguish over Marvel Entertainment misrepresenting a comic book character and being politically correct for overseas sales have flooded message boards from the instant that the Hydra logo was seen on armored vehicles, soldiers and now the Red Skull himself.

From a studio's point of view, it is important to not only refrain from offending or inciting the audience by portraying the Nazis, a very real group of people who were active during WWII. From a practical standpoint, if the film fails in portraying real Nazis as anything but what they were, it would run the risk of being too graphic for a family-targeted movie. If real Nazis are depicted as too far from the real thing, it makes a slight on historical fact and runs the risk of being pantomime or farce.

From the comic book purist point of view, saying that Captain America fought the Nazis in comics therefore we should see this on screen is flawed. Cap also fought werewolves and other goofy monsters. A creation of the time, Captain America made a bold statement in its first issue by depicting the hero landing a right cross on Hitler's jaw long before the United States entered what was considered a foreign war. The inclusion of Nazis in the comic fueled this political agenda. It was targeted to G.I.'s and children alike, acting as a rallying cry to support the troops.

Since then, the comic has served a variety of purposes and been seen as both a political and adventure comic. After WWII ended, Cap was briefly an undercover school teacher with Bucky posing as his star pupil. He was also known as a 'Commie Smasher.'

cover to Captain America Commie Smasher

Insisting that the movie mirror the comic book is a difficult decision, especially given the numerous directions the printed character has taken and his massive revamping in the 60's when Stan Lee came up with the clever idea to bring him out of a frozen prison into the swinging 60's.

Captain America on the cover of a reprint magazine

The Red Skull was often shown in a pair of garish green belted overalls in the classic comics, later updated to a slick officer's uniform. A creation of Hitler's to counter the American patriot Captain America, the Red Skull was a tactical genius but also bent on world domination, even over Hitler's regime. Portraying the Red Skull as the leader of the organization known as Hydra not only supports this part of his character but it also builds continuity that will no doubt be seen in subsequent Captain America films.

For anyone still concerned about the inclusion of Nazis in the 2011 Captain America movie, there is this transcript of dialog from the movie between the Red Skull and Hitler:

Description below via 'Intruder' here.

The footage begins with the title card "Norway, May 1942″ we see told older men in a stone castle-like interior.

The walls are shaking, dust and dirt falling.

The wall implodes inward as a Nazi soldiers come rushing in, and examine a crypt in the center of the room.
And then Johann Shmidt (Hugo Weaving pre Red Skull) makes his entrance from the huge hole in the wall.
He orders the surviving old man to hand over "The Tesseract." The man tells Shmidt that what he is looking for is just a legend.
Shmidt responds, "then why go through so much work to conceal it?" The crypt is opened, and inside is the bones of a crusader holding a misty crystal white cube.

Shmidt picks it up, and says "The Tesseract was the prize of Odin's collection."

But he isn't fooled. He throws it down on the ground, smashing it to bits.

This is not what he was looking for.

He then turns his attention to the wall, which contains a large wood caving of Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life.

In the wall he finds a hidden compartment.

He pulls it out and opens it.

Blue glow fills his face. Shmidt says to the Fuhrer "You haven't seen this yet, have you?"

Hitler responds, "It's not for the eyes of ordinary men."

Shmidt "exactly."

Additionally, comic book writer Fred Van Lente (author of a forthcoming prequel comic to the movie) recently spoke about the presence of Nazis in the movie and told Newsarama:

A Red Skull panel from a vintage Captain America comic by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Nrama: There is the notion out there among fans that the role of Nazis might be downplayed in the movie.

Van Lente: It isn't. Captain America: First Vengeance is chockfull of Nazis, particularly once we start getting into Johann Schmidt's origin in chapters 3 and 4. They're not downplayed. Schmidt runs an organization called Hydra, which starts as a part of the Third Reich power structure, and so therefore they are Nazis.

I can sort of see why people are like, they're not seeing a bunch of guys in SS uniforms or Gestapo uniforms running around in the Super Bowl trailer— that's because many of the Nazis in First Avenger wear Hydra uniforms.

It is not some kind of rewriting of world history. There are Nazis in the movie, I've read the script. It is not trying to pretend that the Nazis didn't exist, or that World War II didn't happen the way we all know it from history.