Captain America is an American fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941) from Marvel Comics’ 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. As of 2007, an estimated 210 million copies of “Captain America” comic books had been sold in 75 countries. For nearly all of the character’s publication history, Captain America has been the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum, in order to aid the United States government’s imminent efforts in World War II. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with a nearly indestructible shield that can be used for defence and can also be thrown as a weapon.
This film takes the audience on an alternate journey of the WW2 era that also brings an A-list comic book character (Captain America A.K.A. Steve Rovers) into the mainstream and the cultural consciousness.
It is 1942, America has entered World War II, and sickly but determined Steve Rogers is frustrated at being rejected yet again for military service. Everything changes when Dr. Erskine recruits him for the secret Project Rebirth. Proving his extraordinary courage, wits and conscience, Rogers undergoes the experiment and his weak body is suddenly enhanced into the maximum human potential. When Dr. Erskine is then immediately assassinated by an agent of Nazi Germany’s secret HYDRA research department (headed by Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull), Rogers is left as a unique man who is initially misused as a propaganda mascot; however, when his comrades need him, Rogers goes on a wartime crusade that truly makes him Captain America, the soul of the freedom to pursue health, wealth and happiness, and his war against Schmidt has begun.
Primary audience:
- American’s of all ages, British and French (due to their joint involvement in the Second World War).
- Those who are interested specifically in war films and the superhero genre
- Both males and females
- Gravitates towards fitting into the mainstream psychographic due to the focus on safety.
- Short-term audience due to their lack of involvement in the product before and after the release of the film in cinemas.
Secondary audience:
- Those who are die-hard fans of the original comics based around the protagonist; considering themselves nerds.
- Tends to be male in majority and acts as a subculture, hence it being a secondary audience.
- Tends to act as a resigned/reformer audience due to their political stance and the desire to change order in the mainstream culture.
- Long-term audience due to their previous involvement with the franchise means that they are more inclined to buy merchandise related to the IP (intellectual property) and are more active members of a Fandom.
The movie comes with a lot of experience behind the creative and visual engine: director Joe Johnston previous helmed Jumanji, Jurassic Park III and The Wolfman, and brought along experienced fantasy-film cinematographer Shelly Johnson, who lensed Jurassic Park III, Sky High and The Wolfman. Joining them was visual effects supervisor Christopher Townsend, who worked on Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Lightning Thief, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. The film required a lot of heavy duty visual effects; for the first 20 minutes of the film, Chris Evans’ body was shaved down until it met the 90 pound standard that his character is said to have in the comics.
The time he spent rallying support for troops overseas is shown in a montage decorated with old 40’s style propaganda wrapped up in a musical number. This could be seen to be homage to musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century, which would serve to satisfy those of the target audience who desire to see a superhero film based in this era.
The nature of this montage truly captures the spirit of homeland America during the Second World War, making the events more believable and realistic to the audience as well as doubling as a mode of storytelling for Steve’s time as a “performing monkey” as you see . Not only this but the fact that the producers and director worked with composers to orchestrate a song that fits so well with the era, as well as the brass instrumentals that act as sound motifs throughout the film when introducing Cap in all his glory.
References/Parallels to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981: Steven Spielberg):
- Both are set in the same era, so costumes and iconography often bare similarities, including a similar colour palette and musical composition.
- Schmidt refers to the fuehrer digging for treasure in the desert – in Raiders, we see the Nazi’s in the desert seeking the Ark of the Covenant – like Schmidt, the believe possessing a treasure will give them access to great power.
- In Raiders, the Nazi’s end up having their faces melted off their bones – likewise, in the pursuit of power Schmidt has had his face disfigured and his face has become a horrific mess of bone and blood due to the use of an artefact too powerful for human control.
- The instant the Tesseract flares up and kills Schmidt is reminiscent of this moment.
- Finally, it is noteworthy that the director’s previous experience involves working in the visual effects department of both Indiana Jones and Star Wars.
This film fulfils three needs for the primary and secondary demographic:
The Affective; watching the film for the interpersonal relationships between characters (e.g. Rogers and Carter, Rogers and Barnes, Carter and Philips) and using the product to satisfy their emotional needs.
The Social Integrative needs; encompassing the need to socialise with the family, friends and relations in society. If the viewer watches a production because their friends are, it is to maintain relatability and identity within the group (both this and the affective need could act as a way of taking the role of a character and project it onto someone who they see as similar to said character in real life).
Finally, the Tension-free needs; using the media as a means of escapism and to relieve tension and stress from ones life.
The red, white and blue are obviously iconic within the semiotics of Captain America, the clue is in his name, but what really makes him is his old fashioned, single-minded drive to preserve what migrants brought to the American Continent years ago, no matter how much it upsets the world of today.
This film presents a moral and ethical code to strive for and that everyone feels is what the world, as a whole, deserves. At the end of the day, everyone has felt like the little guy, and we all were.