James Gunn’s Superman Is The Movie We Need Right Now
“Nana korobi ya oki.”
For those of you not up on your Japanese, it’s a proverb that translates to “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” It emphasizes the importance of resilience and perseverance. That sentence could easily be the epigram of all of human history. Civilizations rise and fall, wars come and go, peace reigns and is subjugated, and bright shining democracies descend into brutal fascist dictatorships. History echoes. Furthermore, it sings. I believe sincerely that our music will continue until discord crushes the human race under a mountain of animosity, or the better angels of our nature harmonize humanity into a perpetual golden age.
Lately I’ve been thinking that humans have been falling down a lot. Moreover, we’re having a difficult time getting up. The reasons are legion, everything from our own selfishness, economic disasters, governments that care more about billionaires and the bottom line than they do about people, otherization based on race or gender, and a myriad of other considerations. Social media and hate baiting or rage engagement has only compounded these problems.
Yet more than anything, I think it is our profound lack of empathy and compassion for our fellow humans that has made this issue exponentially worse. In fact people like James White of the Alpha and Omega Apologia Church and theologian Joe Rigney have gone so far as to call empathy a sin. Empathy to White, Rigney and others of their ilk is dangerous, toxic, or as Elon Musk put it, “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.” As a Christian, the concept of empathy as a sin could not be more antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ. In point of fact I think it is a profoundly evil idea. Our inability or (even worse) our conscious decision not to understand the lived in experience of people who are different from us politically, religiously, artistically, ethnically, et al, has caused immense physical, mental, and emotional pain. Personally, it is in these moments of darkness that I turn to movies for solace and succor.
Enter James Gunn’s upcoming film Superman.
I say this in all earnestness and without a shred of hyperbole; Superman is the movie we desperately need right now.
On Wednesday, May 14th at 12PM EST, DC Studios dropped the first official trailer for James Gunn’s Superman and I was overwhelmed. The color scheme, the visuals, the soundtrack–all of it made me feel like I was ten years old again. Of course the Snyderbros and those who are economically invested in the anger algorithm, defecated in their diapers and wailed to the high heavens, but I don’t want to give them anymore air time. I hope they enjoy their box of misery. I’ll be over here smiling with anticipation.
One of the most discussed elements of Gunn’s trailer was how much Superman seemed to be getting his Kryptonian kiester kicked. Put aside for a moment the fact that it addresses the often heard complaint that Superman is too impregnable, I want to discuss an important element people keep ignoring. Namely, how often Superman keeps getting back up.
The fundamental tenet of Stoicism is that we can’t control what happens to us, we can only control how we respond to it. The Man of Steel exemplifies this. Superman can’t control how any one person is going to respond to his actions. He can’t control it when the next kaiju attacks Metropolis. He can’t control if his fellow superhumans are going to turn on him. Yet in spite of all this Superman continues to make the virtuous choice, the right choice. He is meant to inspire the people around him. That’s why my favorite sequence in the whole trailer is when Superman crashes into the sidewalk and someone helps him get up. Helping others is what Superman is all about. When Superman says “Hey buddy! Eyes up here!” and then soars into the stratosphere, it’s not just a pithy quip but an invitation for us to look up, to be kind, to be empathetic, to be compassionate. Superman shouldn’t reflect the world, the world should reflect Superman. In a time when we are so self absorbed, when Instagram and selfies are more important than sympathy and sacrifice, Superman’s fundamental goodness is a frank reminder of the potential of what we can be.
Another aspect I appreciated was framing the initial trailer around Lois’ interview with Superman. While some were upset at the defensiveness and lack of composure from Superman (and their arguments are valid) I was more interested in Lois’ approach to the interview. I’ve always believed that integrity and strong ethics are cornerstones to effective and authentic journalism. Any journalist worth their salt stays informed, asks difficult questions, and doesn’t shy away from where the truth leads them. It’s a lot like science in that way. I admired Lois’ ability to approach the interview objectively despite her romantic involvement with Superman. Additionally, despite Superman’s emotional reaction, Lois persists in her line of questioning. Sadly, we live in a world where objective truth is being eroded. People can’t even agree on what constitutes the truth anymore even when verifiable facts and statistics are presented before them. Instead gaslighting rules the day. In an age where we are forced to deal with specious terms like “alternative facts” and “fake news,” Lois — and by extension James Gunn — reminds us that as Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
I recognize that James Gunn’s latest Superman trailer didn’t work for everyone. I would argue that the inability to successfully market movies as in years past is a significant reason. However, I choose to focus on how this trailer made me feel: optimistic, hopeful, and above all aspirational. May we all strive to be aspirational and follow this iteration of Superman’s tagline.
Look up.
