I didn’t think I was going to like Captain America. I expected it to lack nuance and the characters to be flat because it was one of the first produced for the MCU and I wasn’t yet aware that Marvel had a new vision for the stories. It surprised me. It had heart and I found the characters to be believable. Though Cap isn’t enough of an anti-hero for me to truly get excited about the character, the character is decidedly who he should be. And at least he had drinks.
Two short glasses of Schnapps from Augsberg poured from a bottle by Dr. Erskine, Captain America’s creator. This was the scene that was supposed to define the value for Captain America’s mission. What better way than by sharing a couple of nips from a bottle of his mentor’s hometown hooch…a remembrance of something lost…because of evil.
In the course of two bar scenes, we see about 14 beers (good dark beers) being consumed. The first one serves to flesh out some of the characters on Captain America’s team of Hydra hunters. What better way to get to know someone than around a table with beers. The second serves as a victory celebration, not uncommon in the denouement of films, particularly war films.
7 short glasses and a bottle of some unspecified brown drink. Brown drinks in movies and TV are tough because brown liquor is just alcohol that has taken color from aging in barrels and that includes whiskey (all of them), brandy, rum and now it’s being done with gin to some extent. So unless you can read a label or one of the characters announces what they’re drinking, the audience has no idea. Interestingly, Rachel, a member of the Black Liver Project, informed me that usually these brown drinks are actually iced tea (which totally makes sense) so any kind of assessment based on the way it looks is worthless. I tend to search for clues, but then ultimately I defer to context. In this case, it’s a bunch of international mercenaries (the kind of thing that happens in World Wars) with a focus on Americans…which says bourbon to me, but then it’s England so Scotch or Irish whiskey seems likely. I’ll leave it loosey-goosey. If anyone has better clues, let us know.- The last item is the strangest circumstance I’ve seen. Johann Schmidt/Red Skull stands before his troops, tiny table before him holding a single bottle and a small stemmed glass with clear liquid. He takes the glass and toasts “Hail Hydra” to his faceless stormtroopers and drinks. Do people do that? Usually when you make a speech and offer a toast, everyone else in the room has a drink as well. One thought I had that maybe I didn’t pick up on is that this is somehow a special super villain juice he needs to survive/be strong. Making ones leader demonstrate power as a ritual does make this little pep rally a bit more sensible, but if he’s just doing a shot of sambuca before his minions…that’s kind of odd. If anyone has a better sense of what’s going on shoot me a message explaining and I’ll share it with all of the other people who don’t get it.
First piece of the MCU tallied. Next up: Agent Carter
