I have the perpetual problem of not being able to enjoy films pop culture artifacts due to a critical and inquisitive nature. I am the one who people hate watching films with when I point out that everyone fits a racial trope or that the film doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. This, coupled with an endless supply of sociological journal articles relating to race, gender, stereotypes and class prevents me from engaging with the new blockbuster films that are always coming out.
Recently I was invited to watch Guardians of the Galaxy with a group of friends and was shocked by the blatant sexist imagery and remarks as well as the overt connection between the protagonists and american media’s portrayal of terrorism against the country.
Within the film, the super villain is Ronan, an ultra conservative fanatic who seeks to destroy the Xandar people exemplifies this in his quote here.
“They call me terrorist, radical, zealot because I obey the ancient laws of my people, the Kree…. and punish those who do not. Because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father, and his father, and his father before him. A thousand years of war between us will not be forgotten”
The terrorism of Ronan and his army closely mimics the representation of terrorist organizations by the American media. As radical religious fanatics who hate the “way of life” of Xandar and are willing to suicide bomb to make their point known, this parallels the war on terror and the representation of the other as fanatical religious terrorists, who are willing to do anything to destroy the American way of life.
On the other side of the equation, there are the “Guardians of the Galaxy”, who are seen as reckless criminals until their military intervention in Xandar results in the destruction of Ronan. The connection between the US military policy and the media’s interpretation of both their own and the terrorists actions are so blatant that it seems that it must be intentional.
Perhaps that I am reading too much into this, seeing various social and political undercurrents being represented in popular media where they don’t exist. On the other hand though, Hollywood films have always been a means to look at the American psyche, whether it be Iron Man and the American Dream or Captain America and the Korean War, popular culture both shapes and is shaped by societies opinions on the political.
This is the curse of the sociological imagination.