Now, I want to tell you right off the bat. This movie is bad. It’s not a “so-bad- it’s- good” type of movie. It’s just a bad movie. Any attempt at finding some humor or enjoyment from CAPTAIN AMERICA (1979) is pretty much lost in its dreary, uncomfortable level of bad. This movie gives its audience no chance at connecting with the characters or the story. Watching this movie, it feels as if there is no reason for the audience to even care about what’s going on. Instead, this movie allows the audience to sit back, absorb a meaningless story, and feel unaccomplished at the end.
The entire movie feels just like one long origin story. Not, however, the origin story that many know about Captain America. This movie, instead, shows Steve Rogers as an ex-marine turned sensitive artist, living in a van. One day, inspired by the story of his father, the patriotic man who originally coined the name “Captain America,” Steve Rogers decides to conceptualize a superhero based on the name. Dr. Mills, a man working on a new serum that Steve’s father started a long time ago, calls in Steve and asks if he would like to participate in the experiment, since he has similar DNA to his father.
After Steve finds a friend of his father dead, he is attacked and killed. Dr. Mills, using the serum, brings Steve back to life. The serum, however, leaves him with heightened strength and reflexes. Dr. Mills convinces Steve to bare the name Captain America, and equips him with a suit based on his drawing, as well as a new weaponized van and motorcycle. After one of Dr. Mills’ assistants is kidnapped, Captain America must save her and stop the evil Lou Brackett from figuring out how to build and detonate a neutron bomb.
Now, though the plot doesn’t sound fantastic, it also doesn’t show just how unrealistic and uncomfortable this movie really is. There are so many moments where I had to sit back and say to myself, “Why?”
Instead of providing any reason for the actions in this movie, the filmmakers just let whatever they want to happen, happen. If this film had taken just a few moments to explain some of their actions, I believe that it would have been more well received. Unfortunately, this film leaves audiences shocked at just how little this film cares about the story that is Captain America.
One aspect of CAPTAIN AMERICA (1979) that I do want to give some credit to is the acting of Len Birman (Dr. Mills) and Steve Forrest (Lou Brackett). Though both of these actors have a terrible script to work with, they both seem to embrace their characters and do what they can. Len Birman acts through the awkward dialogue and creates a since of wonder and excitement in creating Captain America. Steve Forrest, on the other hand, adds a needed physicality to this film’s villain. Lou Brackett is not written to be a villain who can cause fear in the audience, but Steve Forrest is able to make this villain eerie just through his stature and demeanor. Both of these actors were the only two people in this film that seemed to bring a sense of professionalism.
With Captain American being a symbol of bravery and honor in today’s Marvel Cinematic Universe films, it’s incredibly disappointing to see the character go through this tremendous downfall. In a way, maybe this character needed to go through this failure to become the well-written, incredible character that he is in film today. If I had to make a suggestion, I would say to stay away from this film. It goes beyond the sometimes “so-bad- it’s-good” type of movie and instead, becomes something that is barely watchable. If you do want to watch this film, my suggestion is to watch CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER directly afterwards to bring you back up from the low that CAPTAIN AMERICA (1979) causes.
Written by Willian Staton, Retro Movie Reviewer -- Click here to read William's reviews
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