I’m sorry. Did I step on your moment?
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff, as she removes her disguise and speaks to a rather befuddled HYDRA agent Sec. Alexander Pierce, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Hey, did anyone see the recent Saturday Night Live From Home episode when Cecily Strong (as Jeanine Pirro) throws a drink off-camera, as Colin Jost had a glass of water dumped on him? That had to have been Scarlett Johansson doing that, right? Stunt coordination, stage combat skills, and comic timing? Is there anything she can’t do?
Anyhow, the Russo brothers are magnificent directors. They have the respect of actors and crews with whom they work, and they have the gratitude of the Disney execs for whom they’ve made billions. Captain America: Winter Soldier benefits from many excellent qualities, and when I do publish my Top Five of the MCU, Winter Soldier will probably have a place on that list among the five. The stunt coordination, the acting, the editing, and the story were all behind-the-counter-secret-stash top top top quality. SPOILER ALERT: I mean, casting Robert Redford as the secret villain was brilliant. It really blew my mind when I saw it in the theater. For so long, he had been cultivating his reputation on screen as the perennial white hat, so when he shoots his maid, I remember feeling so betrayed, which is exactly the emotion the filmmakers wanted me to feel. The best directors know to push those buttons at just the right moments, and there’s so much that most audiences don’t even think about that goes into the narrative setups and the emotional payoffs: it’s the lighting, the music, the scenery, so much more than just what the actors say and do.
The moment that I mentioned with Robert Redford murdering his maid was in his home, with the sound of crickets chirping outside; he was relaxed in his PJs, opening the fridge for a midnight snack; Renata the maid says goodnight; we are relaxed; Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier is there!; oh no, he’s there to assassinate Sec. Alexander Pierce; in one wideframe shot, left to right, there’s Bad Bucky in near total darkness, then there’s Pierce dimly lit by reflected lighted bouncing off kitchen appliances in the background, a huge bronze Buddha head under a high wall- or ceiling-mounted accent light, and well-lit Renata heads for the door; she wears a black collar that from a distance looks like her head is separate from her body, just like the Buddha head next to her; Sec. Pierce starts making conversation with the Winter Soldier as though they know each other; huh, that’s weird; then it dawns on us that he might be with HYDRA, as he talks about Dr. Arnim Zola, who had tried to kill Steve and Natasha in a previous scene; Renata the maid returns to retrieve the mobile phone she left behind; and there at 68 minutes, almost at the exact halfway mark of the film, Pierce realizes he has to murder his maid, and he shoots her. That scene is a film professor’s wet dream. Besides the fact that the midpoint in the story arc happens at the halfway mark, it’s so perfect in almost every way. The symbolism with the shadows and the lighting could not represent the different characters’ innocence more clearly.
So, what didn’t I like about it? Well, mainly I hated how they treated Scarlett Johansson’s character. Scarlett Johansson might be have created the sexiest woman ever to appear in a Disney movie, but that doesn’t mean they have to slut shame Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff at every opportunity. The line “she’s comfortable with everythang” carries so much baggage that I think Marvel can responsibly leave that behind in the 2010s. Everyone from Tony Stark to Steve Rogers, and even Bruce Banner (who has a PhD in Bio-fucking-ethics), they all saddle her character with that tired ass drama every movie she’s in until Avengers: Endgame (2019), by which time everybody has finally realized Natasha has had enough. It’s like the filmmakers didn’t know how to add more complexity to her character beyond her trying to fix Captain America’s love life or improve her own. Batting her eyelashes and showing her cleavage might have been enough if this was the nineties (and plenty of film scholars would argue it wasn’t then either), but Black Widow is a really complex and damaged character, who just happens to be sexy AF. I am really glad that she will finally be able to ride solo in her own movie later this year. In the words of another greater MCU heroine, it’s about damn time.
Stay healthy, stay safe, stay home. Peace, friends.
Rosliw Tor Raekül 