Celebrated by many (including Rachel) is Atlantic senior editor Ta-Nehisi Coates' guest column for the New York Times. He wrote about taking his son to see the Marvel mutant superhero film "X-Men: First Class," and noted that the film (set in 1962) was a piece of American historical fiction:
Here is a period piece for our postracial times — in the era of Ella Baker and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the most powerful adversaries of spectacular apartheid are a team of enlightened white dudes...
“First Class” is not blind to societal evils, so much as it works to hold evil at an ocean’s length. The film is rooted in its opposition to the comfortably foreign abomination of Nazism. This is all about knowing your audience.
Marvel
Michael Fassbender as Magneto in "X-Men: First Class."
That audience, of course, is largely what Kent Jones and I witnessed in the theater when we enjoyed the film yesterday: grade-school kids, comic-book aficionados and action-film buffs. But history plays a much bigger role, particularly in a film for which the Cuban Missile Crisis is a central stage.
The very American racial allegory of the X-Men is a somewhat obvious one: a oppressed minority group (mutants) is discriminated against by the dominant, majority group (humans) because they are different and they engender fear because of that difference. Professor X has most often been likened to Martin Luther King, Jr.; his friend and rival Magneto, to Malcolm X. Whether or not the allegory holds up under closer inspection, that's what the story presents.
But how can a film purport to show the mutants' struggle for acceptance (and in some cases, dominance) without honestly depicting the racial and societal realities of the time in which it's set? I'd agree with Ta-Nehisi that the X-Men, more than any comic-book heroes, owe a particular allegiance to the times in which their stories take place. They can never be "just a movie."
Ta-Nehisi expanded (and clarified) his argument in a follow-up post on his Atlantic blog (contains film spoilers):
I wasn't really interested in how X-Men comports with the liberal dream of America, so much as I was interested in the fact that the X-Men were conceived during the same year as the March on Washington, the same year Malcolm X gave his "Message To The Grassroots" speech, the same year Medgar Evers was shot, the same year white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church...
I'm not arguing that X-Men should have been "about" the Civil Rights Movement, or that black characters should be immortal. The appropriate comparison for me is "Mad Men." The show is about an exclusively white world, but it is never blind to race. I can't think of only one "racial" story-line, and I am fine with that. But race is always there, in the subtext, in the side comments, in the jobs which black people work.
Another spolier-filled piece Ta-Nehisi links to examines the film's whitewashing of racism and sexism at greater length. It's also worth a read.
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I don't know - I feel the Xmen franchise has been ruined by the disasters of Xmen 3 and Origins, so I wasn't even going to approach this movie with a 10ft pole - but I've been hearing some favorable things about it... It may be time to break down and finally go see it.
First Class blows those last two out of the water. Best summer movie so far.
Stick with your first instinct. If you are going to it in hopes that this movie will rescue the franchise and reestablish the X-men as it should be under the Marvel brand you will be sadly disappointed. It is a good movie, but as historically inaccurate or fictitious as it might be about American history pales in comparison to how in accurate the movie is in X-men history. The movie should in no way be marketed as an X-men film as other than the character names there is no connection to the original X-men concept at all.
It gets the storylines wrong, and even some of the individual characterizations, which is understandable given the X-Men have a 50 year history. But it gets the major characters: Xavier, Magneto, etc. right, and the story is lots of fun.
You are unaware of the fact that there are at least two hundred thousand separate Marvel-Earth timelines? (The official numbering of the universe of the Avengers movies is Earth-199999.) And you call yourself a comic-book nerd.... Pfah!
But I thought that if a different Marvel-Earth timeline was intended, such a timeline would be indicated? If there's no mention of a "special timeline", isn't it implied to be the "normal" one?
From Glee to Pixar to The X-Men to the Obama Presidency, Liberal commentary is being ruined by the reflexive need to judge everything as "Not Liberal Enough." Any of these things has a purpose and a plan, whether it is artistic or political, that by its nature cannot satisfy everyone's impulses and yet we insist on miring ourselves in these conversations.
How about we liberals start making the things we personally want instead of condemning everything that doesn't satisfy our personal impulse as "insufficient"?
Liberals can't make everything we personally want-that's impossible. As I'm not a filmmaker, I can't make films that would express my "liberalness." Same goes with music, literature, art-you name it. I can only do as much as I can do.
That being said, I can hold filmmakers accountable for the messages that they portray in their movies. The idea that X-Men can be seen as a metaphor for Civil Rights, but ironically avoids the topic in the movies is a topic for conversation.
I don't think that the author is condemning them, but it's a good point and it's important. Race is such a touchy subject, but it still needs to be discussed if we are ever to move forward and any opportunity that is presented-we must take it! He is totally within his right to point out that there was a chance, it was missed.
Did you miss the point or what? The critique had NOTHING to do with "not liberal enough." It is a series of cogent, contextual observations...
Not liberal enough?
Republicans have Rino's (Republican in name only)
What is the liberal version of that?
Or maybe we do not even want to go there?
Let's be fair: Glee is being ruined by incoherent plotlines and uninspired storytelling.
Otherwise, I tend to agree with you. There is a tendency to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. One has to ask if the midterm results would have been the same had so many liberals and progressives not been discouraged by less-than-ideal health care reform bill.
Far more dangerous than a feeling of "not liberal enough" is our tendency to get distracted by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and representative's peen shots. If we have any chance of success in '12, we need to focus. Right now, we're hopeless.
This film was not about race relations. This was specifically about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the relationship between Xavier and Erik. Too have included MLK and Malcolm X would have severely detracted from the story they told. Besides, the subtext is there. Woman are objectified. Both sides are almost exclusively white. The film may not have spelled out racism but it was appropriate to the times.
More importantly, the X-Men have forever been an allegory of discrimination. Just because it does not show YOUR discriminated group well-enough in your opinion, does not mean that it is ignoring it.
I agree that there could have been more of a racial subtext, particularly given the time frame of the film, but to be honest the film, and the X-Men in general, have always been about anti-discrimination of every kind.
Thats what makes the X-Men so great, every minority group can relate to them, everyone who's ever felt like a freak and those of us who still feel different from the rest of mainstream society.
The film stays true to the spirit of the source material in that the X-Men are blind to race because racism flies against everything that they stand for.
I could understand making the villains, the government, and in the interest of character development, even one of the heros a little less color blind, but to be honest this isn't a film about Civil Rights in the 1960's. Its a fictional story about two friends with diverging philosophies and how they came to stand against one another.
If all you can see is a lack of historically accurate racism, then you kind of missed the entire point of the movie and the X-Men in general.
I worked for Greenpeace in 1986, and when Star Trek 4, the one with the whales, came out many where upset that there was not even a mention that some humans where trying to save the whales at the time. In the end though the movie was one of the best public relations and fund raising coups for the movement ever. Sometimes it's best to let people be comfortable with a story, and they might not even know they are being enlightened while their being entertained.
The third movie and the fight against the cure made me wonder if it could also be a parallel to the gay-rights movement. I have been to speeches about Christian movements to try to pray the gay out of me and used to hear scientists looking for a cure to the potential "gay gene." Every time I watch the third X-Men movie it makes me proud to continue fighting for my rights to be free and others like me to be comfortable with who they really are.
Actually the film is deeply flawed. A strong feminist like Mystique needs Magneto to tell her how to be herself. Darwin (an African-American character created until 2006 since all the original X-Men were White) is the first mutant to die, like many other Hollywood movies that kill African-Americans first. Magneto, a Holocaust survivor, is the bad guy and the most interesting character yet he never delves into his Jewish heritage much and why it's justifiable for him to kill and others not so much. Xavier is meant to be an intellectual, yet there is never a good conversation scene between him and Magneto, 4 writers and they couldn't even do this simple scene; or at least the decade of the 1960s.
And sorry September, but most groundbreaking art forms tend to be Liberal because they push the limits, where as static art is conventionally conformist and dies out.
Magnus isn't evil, he is merely willing to go a step further to protect his people and is willing to meet escalation with escalation until his people are safe. By any means necessary.
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. are already in the movie since Magnus and Charles are each cut from the same cloth respectively. Magnus isn't a monster and Charles isn't a saint, but they fight for a greater good along their own paths.
I think you're really reaching with your analysis. It's a summer movie, chill.
Exactly what do folks think Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were talking about with the X-Men? Heck, about their own lives as Jewish men in a world dominated by non-jews? To say that this film, which captured the spirit of Lee and Kirby's stories were not focused ENOUGH on race relations from that time is absurd.
Quite frankly, the reviewer is simply looking for things to be exactly the way they want the story to be, so it personally appeals to them. That level of ego is it's own special mutant power, and they may want to deploy it by joining the film industry and making their own film.
Exactly WRPrintz.
Thank you.
I think some people fail to remember what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby went through in their lives and how it informed their work. I also think people forget just how controversial MARVEL Comics were back when they began in a DC Comics dominated world. Just the books themselves; just the characters themselves. The very idea of Spiderman flew in the face of Superman. The X-Men and the Fantastic 4 into the face of the Justice League of America. I could go on, but I'll spare myself from me.
But, dang it. I saw this one. I paid my money. I bought some popcorn and a drink. I went into a darkened room and for two hours THINGS BLEW UP!
I was not there for education. I was not there to become socially conscious (even though I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1960's).
I was there to watch a comic book movie, get away from all that, and I was successful.
Cannot we just for a bit once in awhile leave the serious s*** outside, please?
THINGS BLEW UP AND THE GOOD GUYS WON!
It's a moooooovie
'Nuff Sed !
And we shall call this "Moff's Law"
We might call it "Moff's Law" or we might not. I shall not. As for everyone else they may decide for themselves.
BTW: Funny cat videos are highly political.
You don't have to think about the deeper meaning of art. You may decide for yourself just how deeply you want to think about it and you'll still be enjoying it for what it is. That's Moff's law. Those of us who seem to be analyzing it to death are still enjoying it for what it is.
Yeah, but the author of the linked piece sez I should "shut up" if I do not wish to be serious about commenting on art. That is, frankly, BS, IMO. Also asks "why did you click on the post if all you were going to say is, 'its only a movie [or whatever}'?" (paraphrase). That is BS too. The answer is, "I wanted to read it." :)
Uh, no, the author said to shut up about telling others to not be serious. Maybe you only read the first and last paragraphs though.
Maybe I did. OK I am willing to admit I did. The Funny Cat Video crack got me. I have cats. Cats always have deep politico/social agendas. Ergo, there are no funny cat videos. They may seem funny, but they are not. :)
The film is deeply flawed. A feminist like Mystique needs a male to tell her how to be herself. Darwin, an African-American Mutant is the first to die, like many other Hollywood cliches, but it's more insulting given this character was not an original member of the all White Original X-Men but was later created in 2006. Magneto is a holocaust survivor who doesn't really explores much of his Jewish heritage after the introduction, and given he eventually in the stories becomes pro-mutant Fascism seriously needed a great debate and clarification needed to be shown in the film as to not seem vain and anti-semitic. Xavier is supposedly an intellectual, yet he seems so sure about his decisions he has barely any conversations with his friends regarding the actions he's taken, I propose to you isn't this a heavy character flaw showing arrogance and idiotic personality?.
Four writers made this movie happen, what a shame.
Isn't X-men an Allegory for Puberty, not race? I understand the impulse do to read it as a race story with the Nazi involvement and Magneto being Jewish and all, but that's the easy, surface read of the movies. In reality their story is about a new generation discovering itself, and marking itself as different from the old. What legacies will it create. What will it be known for. You can even see this contention in how the new mutants somewhat reject the teaching of the old, but also much choose which of the predecessors to follow. Which already exiting philosophy will they pick up and begin new work with. Ultimately it's about growing up and carving an identity for yourself.
I think there is an even bigger point to make that is being completely missed that this is based on a COMIC BOOK. Why does everything have to have subtext and appeal at an intellectual level. This movie was about fictional characters with super powers. I think that if there is any subtext that it is as WRPrintz points out that both of the creators were Jewish.
Fantasies aren't always created from reality.
Have you Read Civil War?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_(comics)
There is always a subtext in the big ones.
brian
Did you know most superheroes were created by Jews? Superman, Aquaman, Captain America, Fantastic 4 and Spiderman to name a few. If you get the chance read a book titled Up UP and Oy Vey! It's all about comic books the their Jewish creators.
This discussion reminds me of a "The Secret Language of Leadership" by Stephen Denning. How leaders inspire action through narrative.
The book investigates how story telling has an ability grab us in a very personal level that is quite unique when comared to other communication methods.
I highly recommend the book as a very practical text for anyone who needs to lead and inspire.
It certainly sounds as if the makers of this film have a firm grasp of subject matter discussed in the book.
I've always interpreted X-Men as an allegory for being gay.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/06/first-class-the-latest-chapter-in-the-x-men-gay-rights-parable/239959/
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/06/06/236993/x-men-first-class-gay-rights-and-the-intelligence-community/
That's the great thing about fiction like this. It can be interpreted in many ways.
That would be why, when Hank was "outed" (their word in the movie) to his boss, he shrugged it off with "You never asked, so I never told." (Don't worry, that's not a big spoiler - if you've seen the commercials at least.)
The reason this fits as a better allegory than that of race is that you can't really hide your race from your friends and parents. X-Men has traditionally dealt with issues such as who can pass and who can't, and who's closeted vs. who's out. It's actually relatively important to pretty much all the classic X-Men origins.
As for the movie, I thought it was phenomenal. I don't know if it was supposed to carry any political message's torch, but it was a great movie-going experience.
I don't want to argue that it's a better allegory though. It just makes sense to me because I'm gay. All my friends read X-Men through junior high and high school. We spent a lot of quarters at the arcade playing the 4 player X-Men arcade game. They were all straight, but we were all outcasts in some way.
The reason I appreciate fiction that creates a fantasy world that runs parallel to the real world is because it allows people to relate over their differences when differences aren't the same. X-Men abstracts the experience of being marginalized in a way that anyone who is marginalized in some way can relate.
Grrrl - have you seen the post over at The Mary Sue (A Guide to Girl Geek Culture) about the intentionality of LGBT/civil rights themes in the X-Men?
A quote from Zack Stentz one of the writers for X-Men First class (in response to someone saying "It's just a movie dude. Just a movie."):
(emphasis mine).
Ah, authorial intent. I value it like a precious metal. Some people don't.
An awful lot of writers have contributed to X-Men over the years, and they each bring their own thing. Of course I get a little giddier when I get that a writer is intentionally making a gay allegory.
Is the racial struggle over the last 200 years the only struggle for equality that has ever happened in the world? Stories are used to teach lessons about being better people. Why does it have to be about what you want it to be about. Why can't it be about the lesson itself of being better people to each other and not your version?
Excellent point. And I agree. I think that anyone who has ever felt alienated - for any reason - can relate.
Because it's fiction and people will always approach it from where they came from and who they are. Different people will related to it in different ways. We're not all going to interpret brianavguy's version.
Wasn't asking for you to take my view. I don't have a view.
If you're saying other views are wrong or incorrect, then you do have a view. You're just assuming your view is the default one while every other view is mutant.
I agree that it was inexcusable to kill the only black guy who was on the 'good' side. It was nothing more than the usual Hollywood bull@!$%# where the non-caucasian characters are disposable, or villains.
Despite that, and that it fails the Bechdel test, I still enjoyed the film, and I argue that it works much better today interpreted as a metaphor for homosexuality. Mutations (on the whole) are hidden, and you wouldn't be able to tell by looking whether someone was a mutant, the same way you can't tell just by looking what someone's sexual orientation is. Then you have the slogan of "
OutMutant and Proud", and Hank even made a "Don't ask, don't tell" reference.I have never been a fan of Marvel comics or their superheroes. But the underlying premise for most comics has been good v. evil and the superheroes standing up for the small people. Comic books have been touching on political matters for a long time. It goes way back to the superheroes opposing Nazi's during the WWII era. The X-Men are not the only heroes that are making political statements. Superman has come under attack because he has renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of the world. This does not sit well with a lot of older people which I doubt even read the comic book. My preference has been for DC comic book heroes, particularly the Dark Knight. I also like Spawn which touched upon political matters regarding the beginnings of Spawn. There are various DC and Independent comics that have discarded the strict good v. evil stories. Only comic aficionados understand the evolution of comics and the superheroes who are portrayed.
I can't deny the movie had a race problem. The two minority characters had minor roles. And they're both obscure. And there's a much better-known X-Man who goes by Angel (who was actually one of the original team - and who was an important supporting character in the third movie), who is nothing like the one in this movie (except for the name and the wings), which makes it even more confusing and makes the one in the movie seem even more out of place. Of those two, one dies and the other becomes evil (which, actually, is what she did in the comics, too, FWIW). Oh, and she was randomly made into a stripper. (Who somehow managed to hide her wings the whole time, but that's another matter.)
The thing is that I had the opposite problem. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Most of the rest of their families were killed. My grandmother lost her husband and her two-year-old son, and, after hiding with false papers, on the run, living in fear, got turned in and sent to a concentration camp. To her dying day, she could never speak of what happened to her there. But it was always with her. Always.
The movie took that and turned it into a backdrop. They fictionalized it. Turned a Nazi torturer into a cartoonish villain. Made the whole thing part of a comic book action movie. Hinted at the horrors inflicted, but then used that to drive a fairly standard revenge plot. And the Jewish survivor becomes himself, not just a murderer but a villain and a terrorist. One who seeks to start a war to remake the world because he believes himself part of a master race.
In a way, it's good that the audience is being exposed to that story in a way that many of them might otherwise not be. It's a story that needs to be told. But, at the same time, it's a backdrop to a very fictional story... when there are all too many people already claiming that the Holocaust never happened or was, at the least, greatly exaggerated.
Mixing real history with fiction is problematical. What you put in can be just as much of a problem as what you leave out.
As for the X-Men themselves... they've been claimed as an allegory by/for many groups. Jews, gays, minorities in general, puberty, and more... I think they can be all of that or none. It's the story of a group of people trying to do right even as society looks down on them for being outsiders, born different than others. We're all outsiders in some way. Some more than others, but I think it's something everyone feels to a degree. Which is part of what makes their story so compelling to so many people.
So I saw X-Men today and watched as "Darwin" was given too much Power. As a result he dis-Intergrates, as being punishment for coveting (as he unwillingly watches her directly leave his grip) the Product of a Bi-racial relationship... who is also a turncoat stripper... Is That racist enough for you
It reminds me of american history, as well analogized by the movie artificial intelligence.