Psychology of a Hero: CAPTAIN AMERICA

freedom is for everybody freedom is for the entire world that's why cap really appeals to me it's a high price cap represents not just for people from the united states but people all over the world the best of us he just believes in truth and justice and doing what's right nobody's better at this yeah than cap steve rogers is captain america [Music] whoa yeah yeah that is popcorn filmmaking at its absolute absolute finest hello and welcome to cinema therapy i'm jonathan decker and i'm a licensed therapist i love movies i am alan seawright i'm a professional filmmaker i need therapy and i'm eating pie pie apple pie because this week we celebrate our nation's birthday and so we're going to be talking about captain america in our psychology of a hero segment so interesting thing about captain america people love him around the world i lived in asia i lived in mexico i saw kids running around captain america people love him even if they're not crazy about the united states yeah why do you think that is i think it is because captain america stands for all the things that america should stand for you know what you're doing yeah i've knocked that adolf hitler over 200 times he is a patriot without being a blind adherent and nationalist to an agenda he just believes in truth and justice and doing what's right and decency which is theoretically what the united states of america stands for in practice this is awkward we love our country but we've got work to do we we get that yeah and and cap represents not just for people from the united states but people all over the world the best of us right especially because he goes from somebody who follows orders to somebody who questions everything and he's going to do the right thing and that may mean opposing his leaders or holding them accountable or even actively defying them yeah congratulations cap you're a criminal and i think that's the inroad for people who both love the united states and people who don't love the united states is that he's willing to stick it to the people who deserve it yep so that leads us to this moment do you want to kill nazis is this a test yes [Laughter] i don't want to kill anyone i don't like bullies i don't care where they're from well there are already so many big men fighting this war maybe what we need now is a little guy huh i can offer you a chance only a chance stanley tucci is a national treasure global treasure i don't know everything he's in he makes better choo choo choo choo gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci you don't know the name but that's that guy from the hunger games thanks stanley 2g thank you for being amazing so he says do you want to kill nazis and i love steve's response i don't want to kill anyone i don't like bullies i don't care where they're from let's talk about the concept of use of violence use of force enjoying it versus not enjoying it you know cap is always looking for a diplomatic solution first yeah always tries to talk to people first doesn't revel in the violence doesn't seem particularly happy about committing the violence it's a last resort it is a last resort for him he's not excited about it he doesn't enjoy hurting people but he loves protecting and defending yeah not just freedom but people who are innocent people who are in harm's way and whereas you have schwarzenegger in the 80s would do these really graphic kills like a cool one-liner you're fired you know like not only did he kill but he enjoyed killing like he he enjoyed and that made him macho and that made him manly and well and john mcclane and die hard is like so flippant about just murdering people [Music] it's very funny i shouldn't be laughing because we're promoting a completely different set of values yeah look it's funny to watch in a movie if you saw someone like that in real life it would be horrified yeah it's true and cap is someone to aspire to in reality for sure cinema therapy is brought to you by lisa's popcorn go to lisaspopcorn.com use our code cinema therapy and get 10 off of your order if you don't we'll be very sad and also you won't have popcorn while you watch your movie and why would you want to watch a movie without popcorn you wouldn't that would be dumb you should get popcorn use our code cinematherapy at leasespopcorn.com get our code use our thing get 10 off eat popcorn popcorn movie movie popcorn go do it the serum amplifies everything that is inside so good becomes great bet becomes worse this is why you were chosen because a strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power but a weak man knows a value of strength and nose compassion thanks i think whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing that you will stay who you are not a perfect soldier but a good man what are your thoughts filmmaker well it's a very simple scene very simply shot the script is really strong and the sentiment may be a little bit idealized there i'm not sure that every weak person who becomes strong is just and righteous like we saw in in megamind with jonah hill's character week became strong didn't go so well enjoy your flight yeah it you can easily take that and abuse it but the subtext of what he's saying is that you're already a strong man you're just weak physically yeah and you know some of these men who are physically strong are weak in character yeah the sentiment is beautiful it's a lovely scene well acted well and that's that's cap's greatest strength not everybody who's weak if they became strong would handle it well so there's suffering and then there's what happens when you have success and we were talking about this earlier the concept of of cap has no power and then he has all the power and how his life experiences prepared him for that what about you and we're having success with this channel we're having a lot of influence a lot i guess alan says to me he's like it's weird we have fans he says that to me every shoot we've had fans for a while and still every time still weird do you remember the weekend that we blew up thanksgiving of last year i remember you calling me and saying that we had to make a pact to keep each other from becoming [ __ ] yeah because we went from three in like in like a weekend we went from 3 000 to what was it like a hundred and something thousand yeah in just a few days and we were all over thanksgiving weekend are you seeing these numbers oh my god okay it's happening everybody stay calm what's the procedure everyone what's the procedure what's going on give thanks we did and i i had that worry i'm like we can't lose not only what makes the show special but what makes us us right is at least trying to be good men yeah failed miserably we're huge [ __ ] and a bunch of a-holes okay so cap does his duty follows orders defeats red skull and then loses peggy because he's gonna give his life for the cause which is you know the hero's death trajectory that he probably assumed he was always on sure wakes up 70 years later and nick fury's trying to get him out in the world and cap's initial reaction to all this not hardcore but it's fairly avoidant it's a lot you're going to be okay yeah yeah i just i had a date that line is the saddest line it's the saddest ending to a movie for me yeah at least a superhero movie you know yeah it's pretty grim right and then it goes right from that into like the happy upbeat yeah there's a bit of a disconnect there but he's initially avoidant and then fury's trying to get him back into the world and cap true to his character when he's needed he's there but i do want to talk about this moment now if you want to follow us on social media we are on facebook twitter instagram and reddit uh on most of those we are therapy underscore cinema except for on facebook we're just cinema therapy right but you can find us you can follow us you can interact with us because we love hanging out with you online because we're socialists no that's that's not what social media you're not on brand for today's episode is that about what social media is that not what captain america believes in son just don't anyways uh so okay it's gonna be an hour before they get scrambled in asheville national ah do you let me know what's happening here do we you need men in these buildings there are people inside and they're gonna be running right into the line of fire you take them to the basement or through the subway you keep them off the streets i need a perimeter as far back as 39th why the hell should i take orders from you it's the most new york cop thing to ever say i need men in those buildings oh man what a solid script also i don't know if you've ever noticed but you know when he uh there's the chitauri who's like he grabs his arm and like cuts it off and holds the gun do you ever see the arm dump out of the gun did you know i never noticed that it's super quick you'd never notice but like it just like spills out cuts the arm off swings the gun and the arms goes it's so gross that is a brilliant detail so in the avengers uh tony because tony's alone wolf he i think he kind of sees himself as the de facto leader yeah but ultimately everyone takes orders from cap willingly including stark including hulk and hulk smash i mean historically just you know from the comics cap is generally the leader of the avengers obviously in the comics they've broken down and reformed and there's been 97 different avengers teams but steve rogers is the captain he has an innate sense of leadership of what needs to get done and he's the best person to sort of marshal the forces yeah and you know tony is arrogant and narcissistic you can watch our episode psychology of a hero on tony stark yes right there it's excellent but tony is also smart enough to realize very quickly that when we're in combat nobody's better at this yeah than cap so i'm just gonna let him tell me what to do yeah he's probably got a better experience his confidence but it's also he's not gonna ask people to do things he won't do himself right especially when it comes to giving people orders or this is what needs to happen now if you're if you're managing a team it needs to be collaborative but ultimately you know we've got a team at cinema therapy different people play different roles we all have a voice in what happens but depending on the role whoever fills that role they have final say and this is what happens here that's that's how this team runs and the only way that works is if people act in integrity if they're willing to listen to others and and receive their feedback and not just say i know best and here i go and cap is both those things and he's willing to do the work yeah he's not sitting up there like loki in the tower telling everyone else what to do now loki ultimately joins the fight but i think that's just for vanity and in winter soldier which how much do we love winter soldier three thousand oh well played i see what you did there why is winter soldier arguably the best mcu movie well for one they snuck a 70s paranoia thriller into my comic book movie like three days of the condor stuff like that yeah three days of condor all the presidents men and they did a fantastic job of it two the action sequences are absolutely spectacular but the biggest reason is they take captain america and completely deconstruct his entire belief system and world view and he responds in the most captain america way possible which is to not just hold fast to what he was doing before yeah he holds to his principles which means what i was doing was wrong without my knowing it so now i'm going to fix all of those problems and do something else it's the highest integrity possible response so speaking of loyalty versus integrity captain america was loyal to america right there in the name and he's the star-spangled man right and in winter soldier he realizes that loyalty to principle is more important than loyalty to a group right and cap don't get me wrong i'm sure he still loves his nation he still loves the people but he's not loyal to the government he's not loyal to all these people who are corrupt he's no longer taking orders no he's loyal to his ideals exactly and i think that's why he resonates globally and the fact is if you're a part of a any group religion political party family group and they are saying in order to be part of us you need to do something that you know here to be wrong if you know it's wrong then the obligation is to do what's right yeah but my favorite moment in winter soldier is when he's uncovered that shield is hydra yeah or at least there's hydra all throughout it like insinuating itself yeah and he does a call to action to a bunch of people who are not soldiers right you know a bunch of analysts and techies and yeah whoever and we get this moment attention all shield agents this is steve rogers you've heard a lot about me over the last few days some of you were even ordered to hunt me down i think it's time you know the truth also steve rogers gives good speech shield is not what we thought it was it's been taken over by hydra alexander pierce is their leader as well i don't know how many more i know they're in the building they could be standing right next to you they almost have what they want absolute control they shot nick fury and it won't end there if you launch those helicarriers today hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way unless we stop them [Music] i know i'm asking a lot [Music] the price of freedom is high always has been and it's a price i'm willing to pay and if i'm the only one then so be it i'm willing to bet i'm not [Music] did you write that down first what's it off the top of your head it gives good speech i literally got goosebumps right wow the whole thing oh damn and then right after this frank grillo comes and he orders the analyst to launch you know to launch the helicarriers i'm not going to launch those ships captain's orders move away from your station caps orders yep oh so good it's so good i think we can only inspire people if we walk the walk and the price of freedom is high but it's a price i'm willing to pay freedom is for everybody freedom is for the entire world and it's a high price it might mean giving our lives more often it means taking stances that people make fun of us or challenge us or hate us for yeah right but we have to do what's right and that's why cap really appeals to me so we get to age of ultron where we realize something so not only does cap not really have a life right we all admire cap's integrity but he's also kind of a stick in the mud about it language language he's kind of a blowhard oh wait hey you got some acorns on you kid yeah so the language moment how does that inform the character you know it's undercutting drama with humor but it's also telling you things about who and what he is and what he's trying to be like he recognizes he's like sorry guys sorry guys it just slipped out just slipped out like it's it's such a great little moment of like adjusting what his guiding principles are like yeah his core principles are staying the same but you know all this stuff that worked in the 40s right we can adapt and grow we can learn some stuff well and if he chooses not to use language like that's fine but sure but the the thing is no matter where you fall on the issues you believe strongly that this is the right way to be but then you try and impose that on other people right right and that was capped early on for sure by age of ultron he's trying to catch himself he's trying to but this scene with tony really really shows us where he's at i'm to miss him though and you're going to miss me there's going to be a lot of manful tears a lot of manful tears it's such a jost waiting line yeah well it's time for me to tap out maybe i should take a page out of barton's book build pepper a farm hope nobody blows it up the simple life you get there one day i don't know family stability guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago i think someone else came out a tech bro you all right i'm home so we talked about this in our stark episode tony's journey is from selfishness to utter altruism yeah and cap is the reverse but at this point his journey cap sees total altruism total selflessness as a virtue but he wants nothing for himself right he is just completely devoting his life to others which sounds like a beautiful ideal it's actually not a very balanced way to live your life but there's a couple quick points i want to make the first is at peggy carter's funeral i asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either and she said compromise where you can where you can't don't even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right even if the whole world is telling you to move it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree look them in the eye and say no you move that is the mission statement for steve rogers life that is absolutely it a lot of people don't like the little quasi steve rogers sharon carter romance they think it doesn't work it falls flat he should his heart belongs to peggy all these things here's why i like it when he kisses her even though it doesn't go anywhere because all sorts of other stuff happens i think that's the moment where he's like it actually might be nice to have something for myself yeah you know to have a relationship to have a person in my life now in civil war we see the rift between tony and cap and cap doing anything and everything to protect bucky even sacrificing his relationship with tony to protect bucky and i want to talk about the moment where tony says to steve that shield doesn't belong to you you don't deserve it my father made that chill and then cap drops the shield [Music] it's interesting because we've been talking about loyalty versus integrity right and here throughout civil war is being incredibly loyal to bucky at times it looks like at the expense of his integrity yeah because bucky is a terrorist now he's the winter soldier he's doing all these terrible things but steve you know rightly or wrongly is loyal to bucky because he knows he wouldn't do those things yeah and you know maintains his integrity because he's correct he is right yeah when he drops the shield that is him maintaining his integrity maintaining his loyalty to bucky and saying look i'm going to choose to remain loyal to my friend who has done nothing wrong he's a victim yeah my integrity is worth more to me than my entire identity is as captain america see this is why i love having these conversations because my take on it is completely different but i think that's totally valid i look at this as one he doesn't feel worthy of the shield because he nearly killed one of his best friends to protect another best friend and the fact is even if he feels right that he did right by bucky like it's hard he doesn't feel like this upright he just did something kind of awful right granted you could say tony made him do it and i'm not going to argue the point one thing cap does is he uses his shield to disable right instead of to kill which is something john walker you could learn a lesson from i see him dropping the shield because he doesn't feel worthy also between captain america winter soldier and captain america civil war steve's trust in government is completely eradicated yeah the things they've asked him to do the corruption the manipulation and i think he has lost his faith in america as an institution at that moment here's how i know i'm right you may argue in the comments that i'm wrong that's fine here's how i know i'm right in infinity war he introduces himself as i am i am steve rogers he's not captain america anymore right and i think to him he's now fighting for the world and he's fighting for his friends i think he's lost his faith in america which is such a dark thing to do with that character yeah from a storytelling perspective it's what you have to do the marvel cinematic universe is so good at in each individual movie and then over the course of several films taking our characters to their darkest most depressing worst place yeah what can you do to captain america that brings him lower than no longer trusting america yeah absolutely and so this brings us to something that really really speaks to me after all that happened making amends happens pretty fast pretty quickly yeah and you might think well that's a cheat it took so much effort to break the friendship why should it be so easy well they've both been through hell already also because it took so much effort to break that friendship yeah i find in my life that when i've had a friendship for a long time we're really really close and it takes a lot to ruin it rebuilding it goes a lot quicker because you've got all that history of it being good before it got bad and you both wanted right i mean cap and tony both want this to be okay when tony brings out the shield tony i don't know why i don't think steve putting the shield back on says i still trust the american government no i think what it says is i love my nation i love these ideals and i'm going to represent and this is true whether you are from france or from england or from india this is true whether you're catholic or lutheran or jewish or muslim or atheist lgbt you know black white whatever you are we it would be nice to live in a world where nobody judges you for any characteristics other than just how you show up and who you are right the unfortunate truth of the human condition is every one of us represents you know i think of that song from hamilton [Music] the world has its eyes on you the people that you interact with you represent and to me camp taking up the shield is not saying america's great and all of his decisions are wonderful i think he's saying i love my people i love these ideals a lot of others are mucking it up but the best i can do is represent it well and that's a message that transcends the united states of america that's a message for all of us this is such a great scene i love that up angle too okay here's come on cap the door's little [Laughter] so nervous and right there that little smirk that little tiny smurf uh-huh and then of course the door's like ah yeah never worried never doubted for a second i knew it oh so good that's perfection okay and let's let's watch the next clip as well [Music] oh yeah yeah oh man my theater went so nuts i knew it [Music] [Laughter] i want to see this movie in theaters again that was the best experience boom i love that frame oh my gosh oh nice i just the frisbee uh it's so great it's so good that is popcorn filmmaking at it's absolutely absolute finest i oh man so much fun and just the the weight and the beefiness like the lightning when he pulls the lightning up and then like slams it down on him you just feel like it's just crushing him to the ground oh oh okay so do you think cap could lift the hammer you said you thought he could originally at the party he absolutely could he was he was sparing thor's feelings i don't know if he was sparing thor's feelings or just because he had so much integrity he's like i got a shield i'm good yeah i don't i don't need to do this yeah well and then he there's no grandstanding there's no boasting yeah so of course after this he decides to finally do something for himself he lays down his arms he lives a life of peace with peggy what do you think of that as an ending for cap as a character i think the way end game wraps up cap's character and iron man's character as not the exact opposites of where they started yeah but they both landed in a very healthy place for themselves that was very different from the place that they started yeah and cap finally taking some time for himself i mean did anybody walk out of that movie theater feeling like ah he didn't earn that right everyone was very satisfied i know i was definitely satisfied i love captain america i love steve rogers i love what chris evans brought to the role i'm glad they rolled the dice on him because he played a lot of cocky arrogant characters before yeah oh you're hot why thank you so are you and i'm not afraid to cry he did humble and earnest and integrity so well character means a lot to me because i you know he goes from saying language to when he's fighting himself you know oh you got me like oh you got to be me and then he's like that is america's ass and my favorite thing is all the times he's like i can do this all day and then when he finds out yeah i know i know what he sees himself doing he's like yeah i know i know the idea of journeying from someone who's trying to be a good person but is kind of a goody two-shoes to still holding to your integrity but lightening up a bit is very much my journey so that lands a lot with me as your roommate in college i can attest to the just a smidge of self-righteousness it's true it's just a smidgen it was there so yeah uh why what do you think about cap why do you love them i see a lot of myself in captain america because i'm a very like mission oriented driven person right i have a thing that i'm supposed to do and i am very focused on it and have always been that way and my life has been kind of a really a process of kind of lightening up a little bit learning to roll with the punches a little bit and um i've i've never had a problem with self-interest i've always kind of yeah bit of a narcissist it's okay working on it go to therapy you know his journey is so healthy emotionally not a perfect soldier but a good man and ends in such an interesting place that is not at all what you would have expected anywhere up until you know very near the end of avengers in-game so if you're looking to become more like cap actually building characters strengths and virtues in your life is a process and i as a therapist i'm here to help you i've created the strengths builder guide for captain america and those are available on our membership site which you can find right here the strength builder guides give you actual exercises and tools to develop these types of virtues in your life and to be this type of hero that's why it's the cinema therapy hero's sight checky checky likey likey become a hero or a superhero so until next time the price of freedom is high but it's a price i'm willing to pay that is america's ass really that didn't even and watch movies nice it is america's ass though yeah you see that thing it's beautiful popping it's it's so beautiful for spacious thighs [Laughter] that is

Channel: Cinema Therapy

Views: 470,027

Rating: 4.9664702 out of 5

Keywords: cinematherapy, cinema therapy, mental health, counseling, therapy, mental health therapy, Jonathan Decker, Alan Seawright, Captain America, Steve Rogers, Chris Evans, MCU, Marvel, integrity

Id: rIqbJBpsJLo

Length: 31min 45sec (1905 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Annual-Tune]

People around the world love captain america because he stands for what america should stand for, what's good about america. he's a patriot, but not blind,