First appearing in 1941, Marvel Comics’ star-spangled super soldier, Steve Rogers/Captain America, has become one of Marvel’s most recognisable and celebrated characters not just for his super patriotism but also for being a prominent member and leader of Marvel’s premier super team, the Avengers. Having successfully made the jump to live-action, Cap is now a widely celebrated, mainstream superhero and, given that today is Independence Day, this seems like the perfect excuse to pay tribute to the star-spangled man with a plan himself!

Released: 14 December 1990
Director: Albert Pyun
Distributor: 20/20 Vision / Columbia TriStar Home Video
Budget: $3 million
Stars: Matt Salinger, Scott Paulin, Kim Gillingham, Francesca Neri, and Ronny Cox

The Plot:
As the United States and Nazi Germany go to war in 1943, polio-stricken Steve Rogers (Salinger) is transformed into a superhuman solider, codenamed “Captain America”, and frozen in ice for fifty years after saving the U.S. from a ballistic missile launched by his Italian counterpart, Tadzio de Santis/The Red Skull (Paulin). When he awakens in the modern world, Steve finds the Red Skull alive and well and planning to brainwash President Thomas Kimball (Cox) in order to usurp his pro-environmentalist legislation.

The Background:
Since his debut in Marvel Comics, Captain America has had a bit of a tumultuous history; for a time, the Star-Spangled Avenger was the most popular patriotic superhero in all of comic books but, after the War, the popularity of superheroes began to falter and the character was literally put on ice for about ten years. Upon being revived and joining the Avengers, Cap once again returned to prominencein Marvel Comics. Along the way, Cap featured not only in a crude animated series in the 1960s and guest starred in some of Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s 1980s cartoons, but also a couple of live-action television films in the 1970s before Cannon Group founders Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus acquired the rights to the character in 1984. Six years of development hell caused the script to go through numerous rewrites and director changes before Albert Pyun came onboard and targeted a theatrical release date to coincide with the character’s fiftieth anniversary; eventually, however, the film was released straight to video and is regarded extremely unfavourablyand has also gained some meritas acult curiosity if nothing else.

The Review:
The first thing to note about Captain America is that the DVD transfer quality is absolutely dreadful; it genuinely looks like a VHS copy of the film was simply spliced onto the disc and left at that. It’s by no means an amazing film anyway but actually going to the effort of properly converting the film to DVD would have gone a long way to make the viewing experience a little less unsightly. The second thing to note is how drastically the film changes the Red Skull’s origin story; usually, he is Johann Shmidt, a crazed Nazi super soldier hellbent on obtaining power and spreading fear across the entire world but, here, he’s a much more tragic figure. Child prodigy Tadzio de Santis (Massimilio Massimi) is abducted from his family, who are killed right before his eyes, and forced to endure Doctor Maria Vaselli’s (Carla Cassola) experimental super soldier process by the Fascist Italian military. While the Italians are pleased by the procedure’s results, which transform its subjects into beings of incredible strength and intelligence but render them a bloodied, skeletal beast, Dr. Vaselli draws the line at subjecting the boy to the procedure and flees to America, leaving Tadzio to be transformed into a maniacal super soldier.

Vaselli flees and defects to America and, over the next seven years, perfects her procedure; “Project: Rebirth” is now capable of transforming even the weakest, frailest man into one as “fast and as strong as an athlete”. Wishing to create an entire regiment of super soldiers, the military are only too pleased when Steve Rogers, a young man crippled by polio, volunteers for the process; Steve, who is the epitome of the All-American boy, with a loving family, is determined to live up to the example set by his father, who died in service for his country. His girlfriend, Bernice “Bernie” Stewart (Gillingham), is distraught at Steve’s decision to leave, but promises to wait for him for as long as it takes for him to come back. Steve is taken to a rather unimpressive, dungeon-like laboratory hidden beneath a traditional American diner and, under the supervision of Dr. Vaselli and Lieutenant Colonel Louis (Michael Nouri), is subjected to a painful procedure involving lots of flashing lights and sparks. The result is the sudden increase of his muscle mass and his transformation into “Captain America”, a name specifically chosen to evoke the spirit of the good ol’ U. S. of A. Unfortunately, while the procedure is a success, a Nazi agent infiltrates the bunker. Although Steve uses his newfound strength to dispose of the Kraut, Dr. Vaselli and a number of other bystanders are killed in the fray. Dr. Vaselli takes the secret of Project: Rebirth to her grave and Louis is left with a single superhuman soldier rather than an army.

Bypassing such formalities as training, Steve recuperates from his injuries and is immediately dropped into the deep end. Garbed in a garish red, white, and blue fireproof uniform and carrying a circular, frisbee-like shield, Cap easily infiltrates a Nazi base, where the Axis forces are planning to launch a ballistic rocket at the White House. The rocket is guarded by Tadzio, now transformed into the hideous Red Skull. Say what you will about the film but the make-up effects on the Red Skull are actually pretty good; it’s a shame, then, that he only appears in this guise for a brief scene in the film. Anyway, the two have a bit of a punch up but, finding himself evenly matched in strength and outmatched in ferocity and strategy, Steve ends up strapped to the rocket after being pricked by the Red Skull’s little hand-needle-thing.

When Cap tries to take the Red Skull with him, his Nazi counterpart severs his own hand to escape; despite his desperate situation, Cap is able to deflect the rocket from its course, much to the awe of one young Thomas “Tom” Kimball (Garrette Ratliffe), and ends up buried in ice in Alaska. We are then treated to a montage as the next fifty-odd years pass; in that time, Tom grows up to become not only Ronny Cox but the President of the United States! Additionally, the Red Skull undergoes extensive plastic surgery (making him more like the Reg(ular) Skull!), raises a daughter, Valentina (Neri) to be his best hitwoman, and becomes the head of a shadowy crime family behind the assassination of many celebrities and political figures. Rather than kill Kimball, whose pro-environmentalist legislation angers the military-industrial complex, the Red Skull instead intends to kidnap the President and brainwash him to avoid turning him into a martyr (which, apparently, is much less trouble than paying for and organising an assassination; who knew?) Steve’s frozen body is finally discovered by a team of researchers and he breaks free, disorientated and initially believing himself to still be in the 1940s. Even when Kimball’s friend, reporter and conspiracy theorist Sam Kolawetz (Ned Beatty), tracks him down and explains what’s happened, Steve refuses to believe that it is anything other than a Nazi trap. Not even an attack by the Red Skull’s forces convinces him and it is only after feigning car sickness, stealing Sam’s car, and meeting Bernie’s daughter, Sharon (Gillingham), that the weight of his predicament finally hits him. After Bernie (and, it seems, Sam) are killed by Valentina and Kimball is successfully kidnapped, Steve resolves to head to Rome (begrudgingly taking Sharon along with him) to confront his nemesis once more.

The Nitty-Gritty:
In many ways, I have to admire Captain America; it’s not a million miles away from the source material, especially as established in Marvel Comics at the time, and is clearly limping along on fumes rather than benefiting from a big budget. Surprisingly, the film even goes to the effort of name-dropping Namor the Sub-Mariner and Jim Hammond/The Human Torch, hinting that this is a world where costumed heroes are actually present (although conspicuous by their absence).

I mentioned the make-up effects on the Red Skull before and they really are impressive. Sadly, though, it seems the bulk to the special effects budget was spent achieving this effect as Cap’s infiltration of the Nazi base is woefully pitiful thanks to some obvious miniatures and, while I appreciate how faithfully the filmmakers recreated the Captain America costume, Cap really does look like an absolute clown running around in what looks like a really hot and uncomfortable latex suit with floppy rubber wing-ears and chucking a shiny oval shield that often looks far too much like plastic. Cap’s action scenes aren’t really up to much, either; the film’s chase and vehicle sequences are far better than the fight scenes, which are shot very frantically, feature an abundance of loud, exaggerated sound effects, and don’t really showcase Cap’s amazing strength or agility in any significant way.

Of course, any Captain America story has to deal with Steve being a man out of time and Captain America is no different; similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation, though, this is largely glossed over. In the space of a few scenes, we see Steve confused and gawking at the then-modern world but, while he’s heartbroken to find that Bernie has aged into an old woman, married, and had a daughter, he quickly acclimatises to his new situation. After catching up on the last fifty years using VHS tapes, Steve immediately focuses on the bigger picture: tracking down the Red Skull using Dr. Vaselli’s diary. Sharon helps bring Steve up to speed and actually proves very helpful in Rome as, unlike Steve she can actually speak and read Italian; unfortunately, despite initially appearing quite a ballsy and independent young woman, Sharon quickly becomes little more than a babbling, screaming hindrance who is constantly overwhelmed by the events happening around her and who even ends up being taken as a hostage when they reach Rome.

Having learned of de Santis’ tragic childhood, and donning his God-awful suit once more, Cap infiltrates the Red Skull’s castle. It turns out, though, that Kimball doesn’t even need his help as he escapes his cell out of his own initiative (which perfectly fits with Kimball’s forthright and practical nature); he even teams up with Captain America for the finale (leading to one of the cheesiest thumbs-up ever), which sees Cap overpower all of the Red Skull’s goons. Although the Red Skull activates a bomb, Cap distracts him with a recording of his abduction as a child and finishes his Nazi counterpart off by knocking him to an explosive death with his shield. With the Red Skull dead and his daughter down for the count, Steve saves the President, ushering a new environmental age, and once again disappears into legend.

The Summary:
Man, that was a tough watch. Even the power of nostalgia can’t really save Captain America, which was another of the few live-action comic book adaptations I grew up with as a kid. It tries, desperately, to be this fun, action-packed little adventure but it just can’t seem to kick into the higher gear necessary to hit whatever tone it’s going for. Matt Salinger does a decent enough job as Captain America but, while he looks the part with his square jaw and All-American physique, the costume does him very little favours and he’s one of the oddest, most wooden actors I’ve ever seen. He constantly looks baffled and out of his depth, which you could argue is fitting considering Cap is massively out of his element in the modern day, but it seems more like he was told to act like a complete goof rather than as a cheesy but forthright icon. The Red Skull and Ronny Cox and some of the special effects make it worth a watch for those curious to delve into this dreg of a film but even the most die-hard Captain America fans will have difficulty defending this one.

My Rating:

Terrible

Have you ever seen Captain America? If so, what did you think of it? Do you agree that it is a pretty dreadful film overall or do you, perhaps, have a soft spot for it? What did you think to the Red Skull’s make-up and Captain America’s suit and portrayal? What was your first exposure to Captain America and where do you rank him against other superheroes, where Marvel or otherwise? What story or character of his is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating Captain America’s star-spangled debut this month? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below.