Captain America?


I remember seeing this film back when I was only 14 years old and was amazed by it. I loved the classic 1940's/50's view of the future style. And now that I've gotten older I've learned to appreciate a lot more aspects of this film. I think what people don't get about this film is that fact that it intentionally was poking fun at a lot of the far-fetched over the top future visions present during the film. I got it, but it's quite obvious not everyone did. In no way was this film trying to be serious, it was trying to be fun and shed some light on an older side of Hollywood that's rarely seen. It's just unfortunate to see it received so poorly by critics and movie goers.

Sorry to rant on, my main point however is how this film is almost virtually identical to "Captain America: The First Avenger" in so many ways. The cinematic styling throughout the film, the sort of steam-punk weapons and devices, etc. They're similar in so many ways. But of course Captain America was so well received because well....it's Captain America. An icon to the Marvel franchise and a staple in American History. The film is very good, but Marvel has had a lot of success with recent films and I think the public craze over their films in recent years is what kept the public interested in this film overall.

I guess my point is this, when you take something that has already had a backing elsewhere, be it in a comic book series, TV series, book series. It already has a mass following with this public, and while it is under more scrutiny in terms of accuracy in how the story is told. It's almost a given people will enjoy it and pay to see it regardless. It's just sad to see films like Sky Captain, The Rocketeer, etc. get overlooked because people don't know about them. I just know that I enjoy this movie, and there is still a solid list of people out there that know a good film when they see it, and this film is just that

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It's pulp, not steampunk. Steampunk implies a an ironic look at a Victorian world, with steam-power and clockwork mechanisms, largely inspired by the works of Jules Verne and H G Wells, as well as the Edisonnades of the late 1800s. Sky Captain is derived from the pulp novels and movie serials of a later period. Steampunk is a reto form of science fiction, while pulp was a more forward-looking form. They cover a lot of the same ground stylistically, but you can't really lump a 30s/40s pulp adventure in with a Verne scientific romance, just because both have airships. Heck, Verne isn't steampunk because he was a period writer depicting visions of future technology. In that sense, he has more in common with EE Smith or Lester Dent than KW Jeter of James Blaylock or contemporary steampunk writers.

Captain America and the superheroes of the 40s were inspired by the pulp heroes of the 20s and 30s (and earlier, in the case of Tarzan). They had the same grandiose villains, wild machinery, and a structure that emphasized plot over characterization (that would come over time).

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The proper term you are looking for for this style of art is called 'dieselpunk'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_derivatives#Dieselpunk

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Dieselpunk is just a synonym for pulp.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"

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I tend to think that diselpunk is more of a visual or material technology style, while pulp is more of a character and dialog driven style. "Sin City" was pulp but not dieselpunk and "Captain America" was dieselpunk without being pulp.

I think a lot of pulp science fiction was neither pulpy nor always very dieselpunky, instead trying to portray a vision of a high tech future. Diesepunk seems to represent a fantastical past, not a fantastical future, much like steampunk. They're really the same, with steam traded for diesel, art deco instead of beaux arts or art noveau sytling, more electromechanical than brass clockwork and more Big Band than Victorian.

Just because something is set in the 1940s it doesn't make it dieselpunk nor does it make it pulp.

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