Ppeople could debate whether The old guard it’s a superhero movie, with its blessed existence outside of the Marvel-DC dick metering contest and not a spandex sample.
For me, the movie is as if the Avengers and the Justice League were reunited with the Fantastic Four and joined with the X-Men. He did what superhero movies are supposed to do: present a world where the best of us fight for what’s right, but none have ever done before: present a world that feels like mine.
The first time the characters Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) are recognized to be in a relationship, you hardly notice.
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The old guard It begins with a violent shooting, after which you discover that his group of four mercenaries, led by Andy from Charlize Theron, are immortal.
After being turned into Swiss cheese by a flurry of bullets, their bodies heal. Exhausted from the terrible experience of dying and coming back to life, they all take a nap in a train car, and the camera looks at Joe and Nicky looking at each other.
Are they…? They could be …? Those two tough male action stars hugging each other? Even if it were left like this, it would be profound. But then it turned much more.
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s new Netflix action movie lit up social media over the weekend, with audiences marveling at the feeling of having seen a good summer box office hit amid a pandemic, proof that the movies of popcorn have a future at … home premiere as theaters remain closed; that “feeling” can be replicated.
Whether or not you classify the movie as a “superhero movie” depends on how picky you want to be about the definition of “immortal mercenaries.” But anyway, The old guard It is revolutionary. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either the first movie without gay superheroes, or the extremely (extremely) rare action movie featuring bizarre characters and acknowledging their romance.
The scene that has received the most attention, especially among gay audiences who never thought they would see something like that in a movie like this, occurs when they kidnap Joe and Nicky. They have been knocked out by the gas and Joe, who arrives first, begs Nicky to wake up and let him know that he is fine. He mocks one of his captors, who mocks homophobically: “What is he? Her boyfriend?”
Outraged, Joe calls the guard a boy and delivers a moving speech that explains that what Nicky means to him is so much more.
“This man is more to me than you can dream of,” he says. “He is the moon when I am lost in the dark and the heat when I tremble with cold. And his kiss still thrills me, even after a millennium. His heart overflows with the goodness that this world is not worthy of. I love this man beyond all measure and reason. He is not my boyfriend. It is everything and it is more. ”
He claims her love. And then they kiss. As the audience’s heart was shattered, gay viewers especially couldn’t believe what they were seeing. “I went back to watch this scene four times to make sure I was really really seeing a prominent gay love story in a major action movie,” Marc Snetiker wrote on Twitter.
(That Joe is played by the same actor who played the Disney villain Jafar in live action. Aladdin, a prissy queen who is among the most obvious in Disney’s long tradition of coded gay homosexual villains, is the chef’s kiss to all gay food.)
As the film continues, he doesn’t lose track of their relationship. The small moments end up being more meaningful than might be expected, such as the very logical view of the two checking each other out after each violent shooting, making sure the other is well before continuing. If details like that seem obvious, tell Hollywood.
Plus, there’s the entire backstory of the Charlize Theron character, who spent hundreds of years in her immortal existence with another woman as a life partner. It is not explicit if they were romantic, but the intensity of their love for each other was telegraphed loud and clear.
There is a valid inclination, as wonderful as these scenes are, to be cynical, to be happy with the presence of these characters but suspicious of how obviously the film wants a cookie for inclusion. (Could you name other character traits for Joe and Nicky that aren’t “gay,” for example?) It’s a fair criticism. But sometimes you just want to give the cookie. That speech was enough to earn him.
That heartbreaking heat covers the entire film with palpable emotionality makes sense if you know of Prince-Bythewood’s often fallen work of Love and basketball to Beyond the lights. It is also fitting that the first black woman to direct a comic book film brings with her such an innovative portrayal.
“I love this man beyond all measure and reason. He is not my boyfriend. It is everything and it is more.“
The speech about why there hasn’t been an explicitly LGBT + superhero is exhausting. Thor star Tessa Thompson made the headlines when she confirmed that her character Valkyrie is bisexual, claiming you’ll see her “find her queen” in the next Thor: love and thunder, but there has been nothing on the screen to recognize it yet.
(He also said that a woman in a flashback is a past lover, but then again, that was never explicitly discussed, only hinted at. Or in the end it had to be explained after the fact in an interview with the actress.) .
It is almost laughable. Back in 2015, Marvel President Kevin Feige announced that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be getting an LGBT + superhero in the next 10 years, a literal decade, and we were supposed to applaud that. 10! Years!
Fortunately, that moment seems to come earlier. It was announced that the studio’s first openly gay superhero will debut in Chloe Zhao. The eternal, which is currently slated to launch in 2021. In addition, it will also have a partner and children.
There is no doubt that we have Joe and Nicky and those beautiful scenes in The old guard Because the movie exists outside of Marvel or DC Universes, which it tracks: Progress has always been forced to happen outside the confines of conventional power structures.
The best we could do was reclaim the bell-shaped moments of these films like ours, and make the rest feed on what we do best: comedy and sarcasm. A good example is Kyle Buchanan’s hilarious rating of “What is the gayest Marvel movie?”, Which features this highlight: “I have never understood Marvel’s reluctance to introduce a gay character into his movies, mainly because you’ve Have you seen those movies? They’re happy, honey.
It is not that a movie needs to have gay characters for the community to identify with or embrace it. But, for Ragnarok’s love, it would be nice if at least one had a homosexual or two flying.
Identity in superhero movies is important because the whole concept of superheroes is inherently about identity. These are extraordinary people forced to, at one time or another, confront the unique parts of themselves that make them different from others, things that you cannot change but that others might judge. They work through shame and resentment for these traits, evolve to celebrate and be empowered by them, and consider the burden of embracing them.
There are many reasons why fans of the genre connect so deeply with these stories, but the main one may be the intense emotionality of that journey. With that there may also be some envy. How wonderful would it be to take that thing from you that makes you different, that you even feared, and handle it like a real superpower?
The past few years, then, have brought decisive moments when it comes to identity in superhero movies. The celebration of black culture and power in Black Panther. The renegade representation of feminine strength and tenacity in Wonder Woman.
After years of isolated examples of gender and race representation in superhero movies, examples that fans of these characters confiscated and protected, these two movies were like manna from heaven, an unexpected abundance so gratifying it felt like nothing short of miraculous. Especially with Black Panther, the culture arrived pure and without filters, as are the most impressive superpowers.
I don’t think there should necessarily be a “totally gay superhero movie”. (Although I wonder how it really will be).
It could be argued that it is more powerful that representation exists in the way that it does in The old guard. The characters’ sexuality is practical and irrelevant to their ability to kick their ass full and complete, but they are also given the dignity to express and show their love, which is extremely consistent in their daily lives, and has been for a millennium. Which is almost as long as it seems we’ve been waiting for this
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