The LA Times featured a few words from Joe Johnston (THE ROCKETEER) about CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.
“We’re sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers. He’s a guy that wants to serve his country, but he’s not a flag-waver. We’re reinterpreting, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was.”
He wants to serve his country, but he’s not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver, he’s just a good person.
We make a point of that in the script: Don’t change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier; you have to stay who you are inside, that’s really what’s important more than your strength and everything. It’ll be interesting and fun to put a different spin on the character and one that the fans are really going to appreciate.”
Why does it so often seem that Hollywood filmmakers tend to take exactly the wrong messages from comic books?
The Captain America of the comics, particulary in the WWII era, was indeed a “flag-waver”. He should be: he’s the symbol of all the postive ideals of the country. He is also its premiere solider. This is not a conflict.
You can be a very patriotic and proud of your country without being jingoistic. Jingoism is defined as a kind of extremism, a highly aggressive or even belligerent form of nationalism that favors warfare as the primary tool of statescraft.
Patriotism on the other hand, is a variety of idealism; a loyalty to and love of your country, pride in its values and of the welfare of your fellow citizens.
And that, I think, is the perfect description of who Steve Rogers has always been, whether or not he agreed with whatever policy was currently in force.
New Promo picture via YahooMovies