If you have not yet seen this movie
I recommend it. Even if you have not yet seen a Marvel movie I recommend it.
It stands on its own two feet.
It is also doing something new and good in the face of the racial and gender inequalities rampant in our world –
and of course in Hollywood and the world of cinema. It is also sheer good fun - and a truly radical political movie.
Marvel Comics does politics? Well, yes, it always
did. Politics is all about the structural
uses of power, and Marvel’s Super-heroes and villains have always had differing
kinds of power to use or abuse. These
range from Stark’s brain-power and the totally undemocratic freedom his
billions give him, through the Godly (rather than God-like and also therefor undemocratic)
powers of Asgard’s inhabitants and
enemies, to the brute power of the Hulk and
the secret power of SHIELD.
Super-hero Captain America has a
different kind of shield, and it contains elements of vibranium; which connects with Black Panther, a movie largely set on Wakanda, the secret
African state that is powered by this rare and immensely powerful mineral.
Lets start with the title. The American Black Panther Party was formed
just months after Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created their Black Panther in 1966
for Fantastic Four Issue #52. T'Challa (the Black
Panther). T’Challa took on the Fantastic Four, and by forcing them to split up he defeated each individually, proving his
superior strength and intellect.
This was just a couple years after
the Civil Rights Act was passed and just one year after Martin Luther King’s
Selma-Montgomery March, the Watts Riots and the murder of Malcolm X. Black Panther was Marvel’s first superhero of
African descent and the first black superhero in mainstream American comics.
Huey P. Lewis said the panther
was a fitting symbol for his movement because
a panther doesn’t strike first, “but if
the aggressor strikes first, then he’ll attack.” We cannot separate the political
questions that draw the current movie and the previous movement together.
Vibranium itself has political
importance in differing ways. In the
suit that Black Panther wears it absorbs kinetic energy from incoming bullets, blows,
and bombs, stores it and then releases it back into the world, turning the power
of the aggressor back onto them. That can be seen as a political allegory. The stronger
you beat me down the stronger I will rise.
Oppression will give rise to resistance
and fuel rebellion.
Vibranium is also a technological energy
source. Its very existence
raises questions in Wakanda. Should it’s secret power be revealed and used to help the world’s powerless,
bringing advanced Vibranium tech to those in need? Should it be weaponised to bring about
revolutionary change through violence?
Or would it be better for the
world not to know about it at all – and also keep Wakanda safe?
And of course the fact that Vibranium
is found in Africa reminds us of the diamonds and precious metals that the West
has plundered from Africa over the centuries, and the rare minerals found in
places such as the Congo that are now essential
to so much modern tech. These parts of
Africa suffer from “resource curse”, the source of so much corruption and violence
today, funding militias and civil wars.
As Helen Lewis wrote in the New Statesman “Black Panther is not
just smart and politically aware for a superhero film – it’s smart and
politically aware, full stop.”
So this film has enormous political
relevance and valance. But what is it
like as movie? I think it is hugely
entertaining and exciting. It was
created from a thoughtful script written by two Black American writers, Joe
Robert Cole and Ryan Coogler, Coogler also Directed. It is very well acted with an obviously
intentional bringing together of Black actors from across the diaspora. It is beautifully designed by Hannah
Bleacher, photographed by Rachel
Morrison and scored by Ludwig Goransson .
Black Panther cost
around $200 million to make, and it is all up there on the screen.
I am not going to reiterate the
plot. Go see the movie to discover
that, but I do want to praise the cast – and the casting.
T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is the
new king of Wakanda. Lupita Nyong’o is his ex-girlfriend and maybe
future bride. Danai Gurira as Nakia Okoye leads his female bodyguard and is
the Wakanda Special Forces’ General.
Letitia Wright is T'Challa's sister
Shuri and tech genius, and Angela
Bassett is his mother Ramonda.
Daniel Kaluuya is W’Kanbi, T’Challa’s
oldest friend and Michael B. Jordan is
Erik Killmonger, his intended assassin and usurper. Among
the rest of the cast we see Andy Serkis (we actually see Serkis rather than just another of his brilliant motion-capture
creations) as the rather pantomime villain Ulysses Klaue, pronounced Claw,
Martin Freeman as the CIA’s sympathetic Everett K. Ross, and Winston Duke as M’Baku, leader of another Wakanan tribe.
So there we have a water-shed movie with a Black Writer/Director, four roles for powerful Black actresses and four for Black males. I do not want to distinguish these
actors’ performances. I think they are
all excellent and a good ensemble. I
was, however, pleased to see the British
actor Daniel Kaluuya, who I spotted as a talent in the BBC’s series The Fades back in 2011, and who was of
course nominated for an Oscar for his role in Get Out.)
There is no doubt that Chadwick
Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are the headlining stars, but this dramatis
personae is a unique, radical and
important development in a blockbuster Hollywood movie. The
Marvel team deserve the highest praise for getting it made – and for making it
so well.
And for a blockbuster this is a very subtle
movie. We might think that Killmonger is
the villain, but wait; he has an MIT Degree and is an ex-US Navy Special Ops SEAL,
formerly employed by his government to disrupt foreign governments by ‘any
means necessary’. He has vowed to kill
T’Challa in revenge - I will not say for what -
but also to become King and use the power of Vibranium to bring about a
Black Panther style revolution back in the USA. He is not the villain. He represents both the USA, with it’s
diplomacy by assassination, and also the political Black Panther movement’s
desire for inter-racial justice. He believes
that ‘death is better than bondage.’ Killmonger is the true Antagonist, and a
worthy one. “I think the best villains
are ones that have a point of view that’s relatable and that you can empathise
with,” screenwriter Joe Robert Cole said in a recent interview.
The casting of Michal B. Jordan in
this role has reverberations. In 2013 he
starred in Fruitvale Station,
Coogler’s first full length film dramatizing the last days and death of the
black man Oscar Grant III at the hands of white San Francisco Police. That movie was also shot by Rachel Morrison and
scored by Ludwig Goransson. Another good team. Enjoy.
