The Suicide Squad Solidifies the Genre-Crossing Brilliance of Comic Book Films
Scorsese called superhero movies aren't cinema. He followed that up with an opinion piece in NYT.
So, you might ask, what’s my problem? Why not just let superhero films and other franchise films be? The reason is simple. In many places around this country and around the world, franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen. It’s a perilous time in film exhibition, and there are fewer independent theaters than ever. The equation has flipped and streaming has become the primary delivery system. Still, I don’t know a single filmmaker who doesn’t want to design films for the big screen, to be projected before audiences in theaters.
The MCU's Kevin Feige, however, while proliferating this franchise film and television universe, is also focusing on filmmakers from that independent auteur club. Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler, Anna Boden, Chloé Zhao, Shane Black, and Cate Shortland are all from a non-franchise mentality when it comes to film. These are the directors whose careers and artistic output mimic those amazing groundbreakers of the 1970s from which Scorsese built his early bones.
James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is a great ride but it is also a genre film that transcends the comic book genre. It is The Dirty Dozen with costumes and superpowers.
In March 1944, OSS officer Major John Reisman is ordered by the commander of ADSEC in Britain, Major General Sam Worden, to undertake Project Amnesty, a top-secret mission to train some of the Army's worst prisoners and turn them into commandos to be sent on a virtual suicide mission just before D-Day. The target is a château near Rennes where dozens of high-ranking German officers will be eliminated in order to disrupt the chain of command of the Wehrmacht in Northern France before the Allied invasion. Reisman is told he can tell the prisoners that those who survive the mission will receive pardons for their crimes. — The Dirty Dozen
While his is not the first genre film featuring comic book characters, The Suicide Squad is so good, so fun, and so well put together, its very existence puts concrete to the future of all superhero projects.
As a teacher of music to eighth graders back in 90s Chicago, one of my favorite lessons was about opera. "Opera," I'd tell them, "is a form not a style of music. You can have a classical or romantic opera. You can also have a rock opera, a hip hop opera, and a country opera."
They'd then be tasked to write and perform an opera with music of their choosing and of subject matter that was relevant to them. Let me tell you, the rap opera about O.J. Simpson was a trip.
The flip side is true of the super-powered beings in the MCU, DCEU, and within the film and TV which use these 'gods among men' as characters.
Logan is a straight up western. The classic western Shane is featured throughout and Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart's melancholic take on age, loss and the frontier mentality confirm it.
The Thor trilogy covers the Mythology genre of Clash of the Titans and the endless list of movies about Hercules.
Captain America: The First Avenger, while not Saving Private Ryan or The Great Escape, the WWII film is its own thing and Joe Johnston remains true to the period from the propaganda to the uniforms and language. Regardless of the super soldier juice Steve Rogers has injected in him, this is as American as apple pie and John Wayne.
Spider-Man: Far From Home channels the teen comedies of John Hughes as well as a host of RomCom tropes while still being about a kid with the powers of a spider.
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is both a science fiction movie as well as introducing comic fans to Afro-futurism on the big screen. It also manages the classic 'brother vs brother' family drama.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a Cold War spy thriller.
Avengers: Endgame and both Ant Man movies are tried and true heist films.
Doctor Strange covers both the fantasy and martial arts genres. Also Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Blade, Ghost Rider, and Man Thing are all horror movies. On top of them, you have Brightburn, Constantine, and The Crow.
Not mainstream at all, the superhero thing has even been done in the pornography genre including such brilliant titles as The Trans-Tastic Four, Wunder Woman vs The Executioner, and parodies involving Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Iron Man, and The Hulk.
I'm excited about all of this because a) I love movies and b) I love stories involving super-powered people. The full-on genre bending done by those who love both as much as I do promises a great future for film.
