Iron Man Yet Again
Over at Facebook Gregory Feeley commented that both Iron Man movies have Hollywood happy endings. Tony is still rich and powerful. He gets the girl, and he is -- sort of -- hapyy. I wrote:
I agree about the Hollywood endings. But there are elements in both movies that undercut the Hollywood glitz. The gritty misery of Afghanistan and post-Soviet Russia. The desperate anger of Ivan Venko and the utter decency of the Afghan doctor. This is the world outside Tony's bubble, which he really never leaves -- except to be Iron Man, encased in his suit. And the question of weapons production and the American military industrial complex. There is no nice resolution of that in either movie.
posted by Eleanor at 9:35 AM
1 Comments:
Movies and comix, like most pop culture (not the same as popular culture, which is actually culture, that sustains individuals and communities), leave us ultimately unhappy in a the same way that eating nothing but popcorn for three days will do.
So I obsess instead on history and historians and trends and objective that run through our national expression and behaviors, economically and culturally, since the beginning of the colonial eras.
This can be depressing, which pop culture isn't supposed to be, since nothing has really changed historically, it seems, as we're in the depths of the same rhetoric and tactics to re-enslave African Americans and put women back in the kitchen and nursery.
Yet history gives me energy and exhilaration, while pop culture makes me feel sick and tired, and really depressed.
Go figger.
Love, C.
Post a Comment
<< Home