A Boalian Viewing of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (Spoilers)

comicbook.com

In Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, the first chapter analyzes The Poetics as descriptive of theater as an instrument of social homogenization. Boal treats all narratives with an Aristotelian structure as propaganda. Captain America: The Winter Soldier has such a structure, and promotes a libertarian view of government surveillance justified by fear tactics as un-American.

In short, Aristotle's "coercive system of tragedy," according to Boal  presents an individual who, due to his or her hamartia, or fatal flaw, stands outside the social norm. The tragedian uses empathy to help us identify with the protagonist. Through the recognition of his or her error and the ensuing catastrophe, the protagonist's hamartia is purged from society. Our empathy leads to fear that the same could happen to us, and we are supposed to experience catharsis, or rejection of the anticonstitutional flaw we share with the protagonist.

Boal divides this process into four stages:

First Stage ~ Stimulation of the hamartia; the character follows an ascending path toward happiness accompanied empathetically by the spectator. Then comes the moment of reversal: the character, with the spectator, starts to move from happiness to misfortune; fall of the hero. (37)

Captain America's (Chris Evans) hamartia falls under Boal's fifth type of Aristotelian conflict: "Anachronistic Individual Ethos Versos Contemporary Social Ethos." (45) His world view is defined by 1940s patriotism, and the belief that America stands for honesty, loyalty and freedom. His world view stands in contrast to that of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who is leading the development of weapons of mass destruction for S.H.I.E.L.D. As Cap observes, "This isn't freedom; this is fear." Our empathy for him is facilitated through a pair of audience surrogates: Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Sam offers a human alternative to Cap's superhuman invulnerability. As a veteran of our current wars and the leader of a PTSD support group, Sam represents an identifiably human reaction to war. Black Widow is a female alternative to the male-centric world of superhero movies. As Rob Keyes notes on Screen Rant, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow has emerged as the leading superheroine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has yet to produce a film with a woman in the title role. Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson is meant to connect the audience to the humanity of our service-people in a film about a superhuman soldier, and Johansson's Black Widow is a major connection point for Marvel's female audience. The trio's moment of reversal comes with Nick Fury's apparent assassination, and their fall when Cap and Black Widow are bombed out of the bunker. They become fully rejected by the contemporary social ethos of militarization justified by terror.

Second Stage ~ The character recognizes his error - agnagorisis. Through the empathetic relationship dianoia-reason, the spectator recognizes his own error, his own hamartia, his own anticonstitutional flaw.

The protagonist and audience surrogates realize that they've been serving HYDRA under the guise of S.H.I.E.L.D. By situating the audience in sympathy with Cap, Falcon and Black Widow, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely imply that we share their interest in anachronistic values of righteous battle for freedom against the modern culture of fear and government surveillance.

Third Stage ~ Catastrophe; the character suffers the consequences of his error, in a violent form, with his own death or with the death of loved ones.

Neither Captain America nor any of the deuteragonists die. The Winter Soldier (the antagonist situated as an anti-Captain America), however, represents a death of Cap's best friend. As Falcon observes before the showdown, "Whoever he used to be, the guy he is now, he's not the kind you save - he's the kind you stop." In other words, the Winter Soldier is not Bucky. Widow's exposition earlier in the movie is more explicit: she talks about the Winter Soldier as a "ghost".  Cap's loss of Bucky Barnes to HYDRA crystallizes his alienation from the contemporary social ethos.

Fourth Stage ~ The spectator, terrified of the spectacle of the catastrophe is cured of his hamartia.

Captain America's hamartia, at its root, was mistaking S.H.I.E.L.D. for HYDRA. More universally, he mistakenly ascribed his own anachronistic prioritization of freedom to the culture of fear promoted within the government. Since he and his collaborators are the ones with whom Marvel wants us to identify, Captain America: The Winter Soldier serves to comment upon the current culture of government surveillance justified by fear of terrorism within a science fiction fantasy narrative.