Anthony Mackie Tells Moviegoers to Do Better
Anthony Mackie is doing his damnedest to make sure nobody wants to see Captain America: Brave New World. After that snafu where he said Captain America shouldn’t be associated with America (which he “clarified” without actually saying he meant anything different from what it sounded like he meant), Mackie did an interview with Variety. It’s mostly low-key and casual, with an amusing story about his first scene with Harrison Ford that is pure Ford. But, of course, the interviewer asked him about the rumors that Red Hulk, one of the movie’s villains played by Ford, is a commentary on President Donald Trump. This is something test audiences noticed – or thought they noticed – according to a Vulture article that questioned a source from the film’s crew, which the source said the reshoots did their best to change. Mackie’s answer when asked about the link between Red Hulk and Trump laid the blame on the audience:
“I hope, as a country, we’re tired of all the political jousting… Let’s just go to the movies and chill the fuck out… We could’ve made this motherfucker yellow and it would’ve been a problem.”
Sorry, you don’t get to politicize movies for a decade and then blame the audience for seeing political allusions in your new film that involves an evil President. Hollywood has no one but itself to blame for moviegoers not trusting them to tell a straightforward story that’s free of a political agenda after the deluge of girl bosses, unabashed Trump commentaries, identity politics, and other woke stuff people are sick of having to sit through to see two superpowered people punch each other. And the star of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was dripping in anti-American sentiment, race-obsessed storytelling, the denigration of a classic superhero (who happens to be the symbol of America), and one of the dumbest lectures ever uttered before a camera, really has no business putting the onus on the audience to get over it. “Let’s just go to the movies and chill the fuck out.” We’d love to; perhaps you smug hypocrites will let us one day.
And that’s the worst part, and something the left does all the time: the gaslighting. The nerve it takes to pretend that the audience is seeing ghosts in this instance is astonishing. The years of steadily tanking box office, the declining ratings of the Oscars, and the abandoning of once solid and reliable franchises because they pull a heel turn and go woke make it clear that the audience had enough of this a long time ago. You can’t get obliterated and then suddenly take the other side’s argument as your own and pretend you’ve been on this page all along. The prevalence of this tactic makes me believe even more that those Red Hulk impressions were true and that he was a commentary on Trump, at least in earlier versions of this endlessly reshot movie. (Speaking of which, Mackie also downplays the reshoots, despite Tim Blake Nelson, who plays the other Hulk villain they gave to Sam Wilson, saying they made the movie twice.)
And this is not going to help them. Captain America: Brave New World is not tracking well, and if the rancid reactions from the test screenings are any indication, it won’t have good word-of-mouth to rely on after it premieres. Wagging your finger at the audience and telling them they’re crazy if they read anything into a movie made by a company that has dragged them into the culture wars constantly over the past few years is just another reason for them to avoid it. It’s also another indication that Hollywood truly hates its audience. There’s no acknowledgment of why people have their backs up even if the Red Hulk/Trump thing was never intended (which I doubt more and more every time Mackie talks), just an attitude of, “God, can’t you just move on?” I guess we’ll find out if they can in a couple of weeks.
Let us know what you think of Anthony Mackie’s newest viral quote in the comments!
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