David Edelstein on the politics of movies

Our critic David Edelstein says even comic-book blockbusters can convey ideological messages:

Whenever I start talking about movies and politics, many people say, "They're just movies! They're entertainment!"

To which I say, "Wake up!"

Any film, even a comic-book blockbuster, can have political messages -- right and left, smart and dumb.

Consider three recent #1 hits:

What galls some people, though, is that Russell Crowe's Noah values the Earth itself over humanity, which is shown ravaging the planet.

So is Noah a climate change-disaster allegory? In part I think it is, though Noah learns the hard way that humans matter, too.

The question is whether this is anti-Scripture, or what I think -- a timely re-imagining of an apocalypse story the Bible leaves sketchy.

• "Noah" reviews: Critics mostly admire ambitious take on biblical epic
• "Noah" barred by censors in United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain

How's this political? It conforms to a message made explicit by, among others, former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who opposed higher education funding because, he said, colleges are "indoctrination centers for the Left" doing -- I swear -- Satan's work.

I'll admit my own prejudice -- that society's best hope is an educated populace. But "Divergent" is certainly a powerful warning of what happens when ideology crowds out compassion and tolerance.

• "Divergent" stars on Shailene Woodley and why this isn't "The Hunger Games"

The Captain, who fought with the Greatest Generation in World War II, witnesses the birth of a new age of weaponized surveillance drones that track and kill suspected enemies of the state. He takes on so-called patriots who think national security trumps civil liberties.

Unlike, say, whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, no one can accuse Captain America of being un-American!

What's the takeaway? It's that we need to look beyond spectacle and understand that even popcorn escapist movies can be urgent and politically engaging. To argue otherwise -- to say, "They're just movies!" -- is willful blindness.

And that's political, too.

• "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" breaks April box office record with $96.2M
• "Captain America" star Chris Evans to quit acting after Marvel films

For more info:

• "Noah" (Official site)
• "Divergent" (Official site)
• "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (Official site)
• David Edelstein at New York Magazine

More from David Edelstein:

• The Best Actor also-rans
• Philip Seymour Hoffman: An appreciation
• What movies to see (or avoid) this holiday season
• "American Hustle" and "Her": Two great American comedies
• David Edelstein on the scariest movie ever