farlaff said:
The notion that, in the movie, Cap represents recent times US seemed so obvious to me I am a bit surprised few others have discussed it. Damn, when the "vilain" got them to fight their asses off, it seemed to me like they (the directors) would finally make some veiled criticism on US's general position as "defenders of the world" (something which got much, much better with Obama, I'll admit it). Like in "you can do it without talking properly or without caring for diplomacy, but the consequences can be terrible". But then he not only defeated IM, he saved all the others (single handedly, it appears) AND sent a "be my friend again" letter that was meant to say "I can do whatever I see fit and everything will be fine". Hence, the message that you can be a total douche and still come out okay. Your assertion of Bucky being Israel is quite interesting BTW. |
It all depends on perspective, though. It's also worth noting that Iron Man wasn't "defeated" by Cap when Cap was being the "bad guy", he was defeated when HE was being the bad guy - Iron Man let his desire for vengeance overwhelm his rationality, and it was then that Cap had to "beat" him.
I'd say the ending was suitably balanced. It sends the message that "morality" is never quite so clear-cut.
Iron Man didn't represent the rest of the world, he represented, at various points in the movie, those who would enforce rules strictly without consideration of context, those who would absolve themselves of responsibility by doing others' bidding, and those who would hold people to account for things they couldn't possibly have controlled.
Hence why he ended up going into the "he must be destroyed, he killed my parents" mode at the end. He became more concerned with vengeance than justice. Thus why Cap had to beat him.
But more than that, think about it - if Bucky is Israel, then we're talking about those who were harmed by Israel, seeking vengeance. Note that Bucky, in reaction to "programming", did great violence, too. Israel doesn't oppress the Palestinians because it's evil. It oppresses the Palestinians because of what Germany did to the Jews during WWII - it has put a trigger in their psyche, and those who seek the destruction of superpowers make use of that trigger.
Ultimately, Israel doesn't attack without provocation or trigger. And terrorists provide those triggers, in the hopes that the superpowers, the powerful nations, will destroy each other as they fight over the right way to deal with the situation. (Captain) America always jumps to the defense of Israel, while other nations such as England tend to be more critical, and other nations (Black Panther) are more than happy to actively call for the destruction of Israel, and are quick to jump to the assumption that they're at fault, even when they're not.
The whole thing is quite multi-layered, and I think it does a good job of being a commentary, especially, on the situation with Israel and Palestine, and the global political attitudes towards the topic.
Notice that, in the end, there's no true villain except "vengeance". Even the "bad guy" was just an ordinary guy who was hurt by the actions of the Avengers, and sought vengeance, and when he had gotten it, he realised that it hadn't made anything better, and went to commit suicide. Terrorists aren't inherently evil people, generally. They're people who have suffered greatly, who seek out someone to blame, someone to take vengeance on, and latch onto whatever ideology or group can provide them with that vengeance.
