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Superhero films and the American military (Captain Marvel)

grmltr

grmltr

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,754
This is a weird topic, as I enjoy annual superhero films. What's weird is acknowledging the marketing slant towards pro-military and borderline recruitment ads. As seen below:



There has been a relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon for a while, going back to Iron Man. Funnily enough they bailed for a time due to "unreality".

https://www.wired.com/2012/05/avengers-military/

However, pro-military marketing is back. Does this affect your superhero viewing?
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,102
I hate it when pop culture goes out of its way to make the military seem awesome and aid in recruiting, but Captain Marvel is a soldier so it was always gonna be kinda hard to avoid for this character in particular.

Still not a fan of it, though.
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,764
Yeah Carol was always gonna have a military background. Not a fan of using it for recruitment, but hell their ads are practically video game or comic book movies already in how unrealistic the sell is. It's funny because most people join up for the steady pay and college tuition and not the dumb over the top commercials.
 
MisterHero

MisterHero

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,934
Marvel paid a US serviceman to call Carol the "First Lady of Marvel".

That's the only propaganda here
 
Rose Red

Rose Red

Member
Oct 26, 2017
265
Air Force has the best propaganda. I mean, SG-1 was a thing and Colonel McGyver was better advertisement for them than 1000 Bay movies.
 

Werd

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
472
Reminds me of the Battleship movie, that was pretty blatant. The problem is when they accept so much government aid in military hardware/shooting locations that they end up giving some creative control on what kind of commentary can be done. I doubt Captain Marvel was ever in danger of anything too edgy there though, and I do plan on seeing it.
 
JJD

JJD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,516
PlanetSmasher said:
I hate it when pop culture goes out of its way to make the military seem awesome and aid in recruiting, but Captain Marvel is a soldier so it was always gonna be kinda hard to avoid for this character in particular.

Still not a fan of it, though.
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She wasn't always like that. When she was a spy and when she got depowered and hanged on Madripoor with Wolverine she wasn't that patriotic/militaristic.
 
Soupman Prime

Soupman Prime

The Fallen
Nov 8, 2017
8,589
Boston, MA
Cool video. Wonder if Brie will be the new Evans and visit the military whenever she can. She seems like a great person so may be able to fill the shoes of perhaps the greatest Chris.
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
MaverickHunterX said:
i Always took Man of Steel to be negative with the Miltary, especially the ending.
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They're happy to let themselves be shown getting absolutely massacred on screen in sci-fi stories. Just showing military stuff on screen, even in a losing light, is often enough to get people interested

Were they usually make changes is in the soldiers personalities. You'll notice that the US army characters (the colonels and the woman) are all likable, earnest characters with not even a hint of moral grey or dislikability about them. The soldiers that all die are shown fighting to the death and dying heroically.

Likewise, look at Transformers or Godzilla. None of the military characters are shown as particularly bright but that's part of making them seem down to earth. Every single one is shown as incredibly earnest, well meaning, definitive good guys who never faulted, coward out or show any sign of human personality at any point.

The reason they pulled their support from idependance day was only because of will Smith's character dating a stripper, not anything else. They don't care if the military looks bad, only that soldiers look good.
 
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Dude Abides

Dude Abides

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,382
Mainstream culture in any imperialistic country will tend to glorify the military, at least in a support the troops way.
 

Deleted member 31817

Nov 7, 2017
30,876
From what I remember wasn't Iron Man kinda anti-US? What with the whole military industrial complex ending in the hands of terrorists and the big bad being an American.
 
Razgriz-Specter

Razgriz-Specter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,581
Siggy-P said:
They're happy to let themselves be shown getting absolutely massacred on screen in sci-fi stories. Just showing military stuff on screen, even in a losing light, is often enough to get people interested

Were they usually make changes is in the soldiers personalities. You'll notice that the US army characters (the colonels and the woman) are all likable, earnest characters with not even a hint of moral grey or dislikability about them. The soldiers that all die are shown fighting to the death and dying heroically.

Likewise, look at Transformers or Godzilla. None of the military characters are shown as particularly bright but that's part of making them seem down to earth. Every single one is shown as incredibly earnest, well meaning, definitive good guys who never faulted, coward out or show any sign of human personality at any point.

The reason they pulled their support from idependance day was only because of will Smith's character dating a stripper, not anything else. They don't care if the military looks bad, only that soldiers look good.
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Huh? They pulled support because of Area 51.
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,670
Psychoward said:
From what I remember wasn't Iron Man kinda anti-US? What with the whole military industrial complex ending in the hands of terrorists and the big bad being an American.
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Lindsay Ellis kinda touched on this in her Transformers videos.

The military is totally fine with the state being or specific types of capitalism being portrayed negativity so long as the military is portrayed positively.
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Razgriz-Specter said:
Huh? They pulled support because of Area 51.
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Okay, this wasn't were I originally read it but apparently it was both the stripper and Area 51that upset the pentagon, area 51 being the thing that upset them the most:

https://ahtribune.com/culture-media/1774-civilianization-pentagon-hollywood.html

They also apparently didn't like that it was civilians who defeated the Aliens, not the military. They would have butchered that film!

It's a good article though, maybe not super on topic but I recommend people read it.

"In movies subject to this process the characteristics of recklessness, incompetence, deceit and so on are civilian traits, not military ones. The result of this is a semi-consistent worldview across a range of fantasy movies that says that the problems of the world are civilian problems, not resulting from the military's behaviour.

In reality, as the biggest, richest, most violently powerful organisation in the world the Pentagon has greater means than anyone else to inflict the consequences of human vice on people around the world. While Hollywood is rarely known for being realistic, the 'soft censorship' of civilianization exacerbates this problem, with considerable political consequences. Hundreds of millions of cinema-goers are being repeatedly told that the reasons bad things happen are because of ordinary citizens, and not institutionalised military power on a massive scale. This makes it seems like in the real world wars are not the forces of murder and destruction they really are, but are rather the background noise to the evils of human nature."
 

Deleted member 50498

User-requested account closure
Banned
Dec 6, 2018
2,487
JB1981 said:
OP:

Have you seen this video? If not, you should. It's great


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What is this? Where is he getting these statistics? For all I know, most of these veterans can be from the Vietnam era.

And this is the Army, which is probably the worst branch one can join if you want to enlist. As for the education benefits, the requirements for the Post 9/11 GI Bill:

Veterans who have served at least 90 days of active duty service after September 10, 2001 and received an honorable discharge will qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. To qualify for the full benefit a Veteran must have served at least 3 years of active duty after September 10, 2001.
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Here

Because of the military, I have no student loans or a mortgage. I have coworkers still paying off their student loans from undergrad like most educated Americans in this country.

The military is not a bad deal if you do it right, but imo, people do not like or want to take orders and deep down are not physically fit. Running sucks if you're not fit and running miles is a non-starter especially with set standards.
 
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