This past weekend a friend and I went to see Wonder Woman. Yes, we contributed to the $100,000,000 box office sales. No, we did not think the acting was great–but who goes to superhero films for the acting? And, yes, the action was lit.
The movie was something else too. Wonder Woman follows the legacy of American comics as a piece of social commentary. The American superhero films present a discussion on our challenging world. Beyond the appeal of the sculpted face of Gal Gadot or the comedy of Chris Pine's performance, was the social work of director Patty Jenkins and the American Superhero industry. For years, now, we've seen Marvel and DC Comics project onto the world intense action scenes, bad–absent The Dark Knight–performances, and social commentary. While we notice the social commentary of these films in general and Wonder Woman in particular, we should ask ourselves: "What is the social commentary?"
If you're like most of us Black millennials who are invested in the problem of race and racism in this country and power and psychology throughout the world, then you won't get caught up in the beautiful lead actors or the exaggerated fight scenes between Olympic Gods. You may ask–wonder, even–if the message delivered in Wonder Woman is good or bad, right or wrong. I asked myself this a few times at the end of the film and I began to think the message is somewhat bad and somewhat wrong.
Wonder Woman pushes the idea that social change is exclusively driven by extraordinary people. You have Woman Woman (an Olympian), Steve Trevor (a crafty spy), Charlie (an excellent marksman), Sameer (an amazing con man and polyglot), and a Native Regiment Solider that doubles as a tracker. These folks are not normal people. They have their issues like most of us, but they are presented in such an extraordinary way that we forget they're not regular degular smegulars. Here comes the intrinsic problem of the film: where are the regular degular smegulars?
The film presents an obstacle in the American political imagination, which suggests that Rev. Dr. King, Pres. Obama, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur, to name a few of my favorites, were an extraordinary league of people fighting oppression. If we believe that–that social change is ushered by great people, then we are forgetting the thousands of people who engaged the political and social word in the background. We remiss those who labor in the dark. Some of which, Auntie Fannie Lou Hammer included, are at the back of our minds and away from our memories. This obstacle, as presented by Wonder Woman, signals something else.
If only the really good people can be agents of social change then what about the rest of us? What about the school teacher? The pastor? The football coach? The art student? The mailman? The two guys going to see a superhero film? What is our role, the extraordinary and ordinary citizen, in the republic?
Enjoy the film!
