Captain America | |
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Directed by | Albert Pyun |
Screenplay by | Stephen Tolkin |
Story by |
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Based on | |
Produced by | Menahem Golan |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Philip Alan Waters |
Edited by | Jon Poll |
Music by | Barry Goldberg |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 97 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3 million [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] |
Captain America is a 1990 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. It is directed by Albert Pyun and written by Stephen Tolkin, from a story by Tolkin and Larry Block. It stars Matt Salinger in the title role and Scott Paulin as his nemesis the Red Skull, with Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Francesca Neri, Michael Nouri and Melinda Dillon. The film produced by Menahem Golan for the now-defunct 21st Century Film Corporation.
While the film takes several liberties with the comic's storyline, it features Steve Rogers becoming Captain America during World War II to battle the Red Skull, being frozen in ice, and subsequently being revived to save the President of the United States from a crime family that dislikes his environmentalist policies. [7]
While the film received a theatrical release internationally, it was released direct-to-video in the United States. It received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, though it has since developed a cult following. [8]
In 1936, in Italy, the Fascist government kidnaps child prodigy Tadzio De Santis and uses him in a project to create a supersoldier. The procedure's inventor, Dr. Maria Vaselli, objects and defects to the United States.
Seven years later, the American government finds volunteer Steve Rogers, a frail polio survivor. The formula cures Rogers' ailments and gives him superior strength and endurance, but before more supersoldiers can be created, Vaselli is murdered by a Nazi spy working with Lieutenant Fleming. The now adult de Santis, with red-scarred skin from Vaselli's earlier procedure, has now become the Red Skull, with physical prowess equal to Rogers, and plans an intercontinental ballistic missile strike at the White House. Rogers, code-named Captain America, is sent to neutralize the threat. He penetrates the Nazi launch compound, but the Red Skull ties him to the missile. Captain America grabs the Red Skull's arm, forcing him to cut off his own hand to escape being taken along. A young boy, Tom Kimball, photographs Captain America over Washington, D.C. kicking the missile off course to crash in Alaska, burying itself and Rogers under the ice.
In 1992, Tom Kimball is elected President of the United States. He pushes environmentalist legislation that angers the military-industrial complex headed by now-general Fleming. Fleming meets with the Red Skull and leaders of a global shadow organization. Since the war the Red Skull has raised a daughter, Valentina, and become the head of a powerful crime family who murdered Americans who were against militarism and fascism, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy. The Red Skull notes the assassinations caused the public to posthumously venerate those people and instead orders Kimball's kidnapping and brainwashing.
Rogers' body is found frozen in ice. He revives and escapes, making international headlines and alerting both Kimball and the Red Skull. After escaping Red Skull's thugs, Rogers brushes off reporter and Kimball's childhood friend Sam Kolawetz, who has long hounded the Skull, and hitchhikes to his wartime girlfriend, Bernice, in California. She has long since married and has a daughter, Sharon, who helps Rogers catch up. Valentina and her thugs kill Bernice while looking for Rogers. Learning that Kimball has been kidnapped, Rogers and Sharon recover Vaselli's diary and learn Red Skull's original name. In the Red Skull's childhood home they find a tape recording of the murder of his family. Sharon gets herself kidnapped as a distraction to allow Rogers, who dons his costume, to enter the Red Skull's castle.
Kimball is rescued by Captain America, and they lay siege to the castle. Red Skull pulls out a remote trigger for a nuclear bomb, but Rogers distracts him with the recording of the De Santis family's murder. Before the Skull recovers, Rogers uses his shield to send him off a cliff, killing him, and as Valentina prepares to kill Rogers, she is hit by his returning shield. United States Marines arrive, save the President and arrest the kidnappers. Rogers and Sharon embrace, and a news voiceover announces Kimball's environmental pact as agreed upon by countries around the world.
Captain America had a long and tumultuous production history. The film rights were originally purchased by Universal Pictures, who planned a theatrical feature-length film starring Jeff Bridges as Captain America, and Peter Fonda as the Red Skull. The writer, Jeffery Sprouse, later revealed a script and pieces of concept art that also included Falcon, Heinrich or Helmut Zemo, and Bucky Barnes as characters, when he was interviewed about the project. The film ultimately never got made due to issues reacquiring the rights. [ citation needed ]
The rights were then sold to The Cannon Group founders Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus in 1984. [9] Initially Cannon regular Michael Winner ( Death Wish 1–3) was attached to direct a script by James Silke. [9] However, in 1986, Winner scrapped the Silke script and recruited British television writer Stan Hey ( Auf Wiedersehen, Pet , Dalziel and Pascoe ). According to Hey, the film involved a stolen Statue of Liberty plot by an elderly Red Skull aided by a female death cult and Steve Rogers working as an artist. [10] Later, after some negative feedback for the Winner & Hey version, Winner started over, working alongside Stan Lee and Larry Block, with an advertisement released with their names listed. [9] Michael Dudikoff was set to play the title character, and Steve James would play Sam Wilson/Falcon. By 1987 Winner was off the project and actor-director John Stockwell came aboard with a script by Stephen Tolkin. [9]
Golan left Cannon in 1989, and as part of a severance package he was given control of 21st Century Film Corporation and allowed to carry over the film rights to the Captain America character. [9] Director Albert Pyun, who had previously worked at Cannon, was brought on board and worked with the Tolkin script that originally started at Cannon. [9] In an interview with Cinefantastique , Tolkin explained some of the changes that he made from the original comic, including changing the appearance and character of the Red Skull: "I didn't think people wanted to keep looking at this horrible skull face forever". [11]
Dolph Lundgren and Arnold Schwarzenegger were both considered for the title role. Val Kilmer was offered the part, but turned it down to work on The Doors instead.
Pyun originally wanted two different actors to play Rogers/Captain America; one before and one after his supersoldier transformation. He wanted Matt Salinger to play pre-supersoldier Rogers and Howie Long to play post-supersoldier Captain America. However, Marvel insisted only one actor play the character.
Pyun also wanted Captain America to use his "tactical" black suit in the film, to reflect his appearance in the comics at the time, but this too was rejected by Marvel, who wanted him to retain his classic costume.
Principal photography began in 1989 and was completed in 1990. Though the production originally planned to shoot on-location in Italy, budgetary issues meant that shooting moved to cheaper Yugoslavia, and the script was heavily rewritten as many scenes couldn't be shot as scripted.
Filming took place in the cities of Zagreb and Dubrovnik, and at Jadran Film Studios. Other scenes were shot in Los Angeles. Entertainment Tonight also visited the set during making of the film, airing a segment in August 1989.[ citation needed ]
Stan Lee filmed a cameo appearance that was ultimately cut.
The film was intended for release in August 1990, [11] to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Captain America. [12] Several release dates were announced between Fall 1990 and Winter 1991, [13] but the film went unreleased for two years before debuting direct-to-video and on cable television in the United States in the summer of 1992. [14] In UK, 20/20 vision released the VHS in 1991 prior to its release in the United States. [15] The film was given a limited theatrical release internationally. [16] In the Philippines, the film was released as Bloodmatch on December 11, 1991 in a double feature with a Snoopy film; posters miscredit Jean-Claude Van Damme as the "martial art instructor". [17]
The film was invited to screen as part of the 2013 Comic-Con in San Diego in July 2013. [18]
The film also had its debut on Cinemax Asia. [19]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the studio cut of the film an approval rating of 12% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 3.70/10. The consensus states: "Lacking a script, budget, direction, or star capable of doing justice to its source material, this Captain America should have been left under the ice." [24] Many reviews and publications stated that the film is not quite as bad as many reviewers had said and that the director's cut was better than the studio version. [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]
In one of the few contemporary reviews, Entertainment Weekly critic Frank Lovece wrote, "The movie isn't merely wrong for kids – it opens in pre-war Italy with a sequence in Italian with subtitles, and a machine-gun slaughter – it's just all wrong", and decried the "shapeless blob of a plot" in grading the film "F". [14] Variety called it "a strictly routine superhero outing" and "this fantasy adventure is missing the large-scale setpieces" that audiences have come to expect. [30]
IGN gave the two different reviews for each different versions, the unfavorable rating for MGM version and the average rating for the Collector's Edition version. [31] [32] Cinelinx's Victor Medina rated the film B−, but rated the overall DVD grade C− because of the DVD video transfer and the lack of extras. [33]
In 2016, Flickering Myth's Neil Calloway said, "It's not a great film, and is really only of interest as a pre-MCU curio for hardcore Marvel fans." [34]
The film gained some cult followings. [35] Film Trap's Justin Decloux mentioned the film as the one of Albert Pyun films he has liked. [36] 411MANIA's Bryan Kristopowitz rated the film 10.0/10.0 as the B cult films review. [37]
The film was first released on VHS and LaserDisc [38] by 20/20 Vision (UK VHS) in 1991 and by Columbia TriStar Home Video (US VHS and LD) in 1992.
The film was released on DVD as part of the MGM limited edition made-on-demand series. [16]
A Blu-ray Disc of the film was released by Shout! Factory on May 21, 2013 as a Collector's Edition which features a widescreen HD presentation and brand new interviews with director Pyun and star Salinger. [39]
Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely Comics, a corporate predecessor to Marvel. Captain America's civilian identity is Steven "Steve" Rogers, a frail man enhanced to the peak of human physical perfection by an experimental "super-soldier serum" after joining the United States Army to aid the country's efforts in World War II. Equipped with an American flag–inspired costume and a virtually indestructible shield, Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes clashed frequently with the villainous Red Skull and other members of the Axis powers. In the final days of the war, an accident left Captain America frozen in a state of suspended animation until he was revived in modern times. He resumes his exploits as a costumed hero and becomes leader of the superhero team the Avengers, but frequently struggles as a "man out of time" to adjust to the new era.
The Red Skull is the alias of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by France Herron, Jack Kirby, and Joe Simon, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1, in which his secret identity is revealed to be George Maxon. It would later be retroactively established that Maxon was merely a decoy who was working for the real Red Skull, Johann Shmidt. Other individuals, including Albert Malik and Shmidt's own daughter Sinthea, have also adopted the Red Skull persona.
The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested heavily in the video market, buying the international video rights to several classic film libraries. Some of their best known films include Joe (1970), Runaway Train (1985) and Street Smart (1987), all of which were Oscar-nominated.
The Watchdogs are a fictional right-wing terrorist group appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as enemies of Captain America.
The Falcon is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was introduced by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan in Captain America #117
Sharon Carter is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #75. Sharon Carter is a secret agent and an ex-field agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury. She is the main love interest of the superhero Captain America / Steve Rogers. Sharon Carter was originally the younger sister of Peggy Carter. She was later retconned as Peggy's grand-niece because of the unaging nature of comic book characters.
Cyborg is a 1989 American martial-arts cyberpunk film directed by Albert Pyun. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker, a mercenary who battles a group of murderous marauders led by Fender Tremolo along the East coast of the United States in a post-apocalyptic future. It was followed by the sequels Cyborg 2 (1993) and Cyborg 3: The Recycler (1994).
Menahem Golan was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He co-owned The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid-budget American films, primarily genre films, during the 1980s after Golan and Globus had achieved significant filmmaking success in their native Israel during the 1970s.
Crossbones is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Mark Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer, the character first made a cameo appearance in Captain America #359, before he was fully introduced later that month in issue #360 and his name was revealed in issue #362.
Sinthea Shmidt is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by J. M. DeMatteis writer and artist Paul Neary, the character first appeared in Captain America #290. Shmidt is the daughter of the Red Skull and an antagonist of the superhero Steve Rogers / Captain America. She has occasionally used the codenames Sin and Mother Superior. She is also the leader of the Sisters of Sin and an ally of Hydra.
Helmut Zemo is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella and Sal Buscema, the character first appeared in Captain America #168. Helmut Zemo is the son of Baron Heinrich Zemo and the thirteenth Baron Zemo in his family lineage. He is a recurring adversary of the Avengers, especially the superhero Steve Rogers / Captain America. The character has also been known as Citizen V at various points in his history.
"The Death of Captain America", also known as "The Death of the Dream", is an eighteen-issue Captain America story arc written by Ed Brubaker with art by Steve Epting and published by Marvel Comics. The arc first appears in Captain America #25–30. The first issue of the story arc, Captain America #25, was the highest selling comic for the month of its release. The story arc had wide-sweeping effects throughout the Marvel Universe and was accompanied by the miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America.
Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci. During World War II, Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull (Weaving) from using the Tesseract as an energy source for world domination.
Heroes United is a series of direct-to-video animated superhero films from Marvel Animation. They are the first full-length direct-to-video CG animated features created by the animation studio. Both films are available to stream on Disney+.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Jenny Agutter, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Rogers joins forces with Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) and Sam Wilson (Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier (Stan).
Uncanny Avengers is a comic book series first appearing in the October 2012 debut of Marvel NOW!, published by Marvel Comics. The series follows an interconnected fictional superhero team, featuring members from the Marvel Universe. The team is united by Captain America upon the conclusion of Avengers vs. X-Men. Uncanny Avengers is also known as Avengers Unity Squad.
Captain America, a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in comic books produced by Marvel Comics, has appeared in multiple films since the character's inception in 1940. Republic Pictures released a fifteen-part Captain America serial film in 1944 that was the first film to feature a Marvel Comics character, though it deviated significantly from the comic book source material. Two made-for-TV films, Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon, aired on the American broadcast television station CBS in 1979. A feature-length film directed by Albert Pyun was originally planned for a wide theatrical release in 1990, but received only a brief theatrical release in the United Kingdom before being released in the United States as a direct-to-video film.
Captain America: White is a six-issue Marvel Comics limited series written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale. An homage to Captain America comics from the Golden Age of Comic Books, the series focuses on the relationship between Steve Rogers / Captain America and his sidekick Bucky. It is the fourth and final comic in Loeb's and Sale's "Color" series, following Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, and Hulk: Gray. The series is noted for its extensive production delays, with seven years elapsing between the release of the first and second issues.
Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Carter, also known as Agent Carter, is a fictional character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise portrayed by Hayley Atwell, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Carter is depicted as a British MI6 agent and member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve who became Steve Rogers's love interest during World War II. Following the war, she become one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D., eventually serving as the Director. Atwell has received critical praise for her depiction of the character.
Captain America (Matt Salinger) rescues our kidnapped President (Ronny Cox). Columbia Pictures is now set to release the 21st Century Production in August.
AFTER 3 years of shooting, the final and the best CAPTAIN AMERICA VERSION IS HERE... A FILM CELEBRATING 50 years of CAPTAIN AMERICA [-] FROM MENAHEM GOLAN PRODUCER OF SUPERMAN...