{"id":17017,"date":"2025-07-17T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/17017\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:37:10","slug":"conservatives-are-losing-it-over-supermans-basic-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/17017\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives Are Losing It Over Superman\u2019s Basic Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read all about the hysterical right-wing reaction to writer-director James Gunn\u2019s Superman reboot and the claims that it features \u201cwoke\u201d Superman propaganda because the alien protagonist is represented as an illegal immigrant, according to YouTube commentator and professional loon Ben Shapiro. He also compared<\/a> this kindly Man of Steel to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, \u201cwhom he accused of having a \u2018deep hatred\u2019 of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

This all seemed silly at first, yet at the same time made me more apt to like the movie, as did the resulting conservative calls for a boycott that failed spectacularly. Superman cruised<\/a> to a highly successful opening weekend box-office take and surprisingly good reviews as well.<\/p>\n

However, nothing prepared me for the film\u2019s clear evocation of Israel\u2019s genocidal attacks on Gaza. We\u2019re now living in such a state of weird self-censorship that Gunn himself is denying that\u2019s what\u2019s being represented in the film, saying<\/a> as vaguely as possible, \u201cThis is a movie about kindness, and I think that\u2019s something everyone can relate to.\u201d He\u2019s also made the absurd statement<\/a> that, though the film is political in a way, \u201cWhen I wrote this the Middle Eastern conflict wasn\u2019t happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote it before 1948? Come on, James Gunn.<\/p>\n

Whatever he might\u2019ve begun with in the writing process, the actual images onscreen are so manifestly meant to evoke Israeli attacks on Gaza that it\u2019s jaw-dropping. It\u2019s actually a grim shock, while watching this light blockbuster entertainment, to suddenly be confronted with a desert setting and ragged, unarmed, brown-skinned citizens up against tanks and depersonalized heavily armored white soldiers aiming assault rifles about to massacre them.<\/p>\n

Special attention in these scenes is devoted to the clusters of children who are going to be slaughtered if some miracle \u2014 that is, Superman \u2014 doesn\u2019t save them. The deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli forces has been perhaps the greatest agony of witnessing the many reports of this US-backed horror show.<\/p>\n

This kind of displacement is familiar in American filmmaking, in response to censorship pressures and fears of alienating audiences. One typical way of depicting the Vietnam War in 1970s films, a war the United States lost in 1975, was simply replacing it with another war in the narrative, whether fictional or nonfictional, relying on audience preoccupation with Vietnam to provide the real context<\/a>.<\/p>\n

George Lucas, for example, who was in line to direct Apocalypse Now (1979) before Francis Ford Coppola took on the job, has acknowledged that the original Star Wars (1977), with its freedom-fighting rebels up against the much bigger and better-equipped Empire forces, \u201cwas really about the Vietnam War.\u201d And director Robert Altman frequently asserted<\/a> about M*A*S*H (1972) \u2014 which was set during the Korean War and focused on the manic, martini-swilling pranks of surgeons trying to patch up maimed and dying teenage soldiers on the chaotic front lines \u2014 that nobody making the film or viewing it on first release was thinking of anything but the Vietnam War that haunted American consciences.<\/p>\n

So James Gunn, take these 1970s directors as an example of sane outspokenness and what it\u2019s like to have a spine. You know you\u2019re deliberately evoking the genocide in Gaza. Just say so.<\/p>\n

It seems odd to segue from that topic into a review of the otherwise larky new Superman. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I admit. My tolerance for Superman in his many incarnations has always hovered around zero, in spite of his admirable history as a 1938 Nazi-fighting hero dreamed up by children of Jewish immigrants, the working-class team of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He\u2019s the square Ken doll of superheroes. But David Corenswet (Hollywood, The Politician) is unexpectedly charming and relaxed in the Clark Kent\u2013Superman role, having no trouble uttering his squeaky-clean \u201cWhat the hey, guys\u201d dialogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane in Superman, 2025. (DC Studios)<\/p>\n

The cast in general is appealing. As reporter Lois Lane, reconceived as a punkish tough-talker already involved with Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) is personable and helps create effective romantic scenes, which is no easy task. And even Skyler Gisondo (Licorice Pizza, Booksmart), in the usually thankless role of cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, gets some decent laughs when his deep source for Lex Luthor\u2019s evil plans is a selfie-addicted airhead with a crush on him named Eve (Sara Sampaio). It\u2019s probably not an accident that dark-haired Portuguese model-actor Sampaio\u2019s long hair is dyed blonde and layered in a way that makes her look like she\u2019s temporarily strayed away from the Fox News desk.<\/p>\n

Gunn has shrewdly kicked off this reboot with an image of Superman in defeat, with blood and dirt marring that too-handsome face and too-silly superhero suit. He has to whistle for his dog, Krypto, to come and drag him home to the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica to gather his strength and return to fight the monstrous tech bro version of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), CEO of the evildoing LuthorCorp. Superman is powered by a kind of Radical Nice ethos that he believes comes from the last recorded words of his parents, whose images (played by Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) are projected around him in the Fortress. \u201cHe finds it soothing,\u201d explains his head robo-servant, with C-3PO-like devotion.<\/p>\n

The garbled second half of their message will eventually be translated by Lex Luthor\u2019s team, however, and when released on social media, results in a pile-on that calls into question Superman\u2019s entire mandate of helpfulness with regard to the people of earth. Just think about how To Serve Man<\/a> turned out to be a cookbook.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s get back to the dog hero \u2014 a heavily CGI\u2019d dog hero, but still, a dog hero \u2014 which always gets points from me. I figured Superman\u2019s red-caped canine is unlikely to get killed, so I didn\u2019t have to worry about him through the whole movie. He\u2019s based on Gunn\u2019s real dog, Ozu, a rambunctious rescue that Gunn is slyly exploiting to gain the film additional popularity, which is working like a charm. It\u2019s reported<\/a> that Krypto is so popular, he\u2019s inspired a 500 percent rise in Google searches seeking info about dog rescue and adoption.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Superman\u2019s dog, Krypto, in Superman, 2025. (DC Studios)<\/p>\n

Comic relief and occasional practical help is provided by the Justice Gang, made up of Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion, quite funny in a terrible blonde bowl cut), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi). Kenyan American actor Gathegi\u2019s Mr Terrific is the standout here. The character is a deadpan genius, and the effortlessly suave Gathegi can get laughs even with stoic straight lines, such as when he says, in the face of epic destruction, \u201cAnd that\u2019s why you don\u2019t create a pocket universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

His big action scene involves saving Lois Lane by throwing with calm assurance a series of combustible spheres at Luthor\u2019s Raptor henchmen to the sunny pop tune \u201c5 Years Time\u201d by Noah and the Whale. It\u2019s a kind of surreally delightful music video breaking out in the middle of the film, and it\u2019s the most lovable superhero feat I\u2019ve ever witnessed. Get this man a starring role!<\/p>\n

But factor into the film\u2019s little delights the sudden twinges from such scenes as the torture practices in the secret prison run by LuthorCorp, where people snatched off the street who\u2019ve helped Superman or written unflattering blog posts about Lex Luthor are held indefinitely. The smooth glass-box prison looks nothing like \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d or US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, and so far there\u2019s not much specific right-wing protest against those scenes. In general, jaded commentators tend to string along with Fillion, who used<\/a> the familiar line in reaction to right-wing fury, \u201cIt\u2019s just a movie, guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

But infuriated conservatives like Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Kellyanne Conway and former TV Superman Dean Cain are right about one thing: it ain\u2019t just a movie. They\u2019re freaking out for a reason: the possibility of the tide shifting increasingly against them in public opinion on a number of hotly contested issues, reflected and fostered by pop culture phenomena like Superman. For conveying persuasive ideological values, beliefs, and attitudes, it\u2019s hard to beat the immediate emotional impact of popular cinema.<\/p>\n

That fast 500 percent jump in dog rescue searches is just one tiny indication of its power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I read all about the hysterical right-wing reaction to writer-director James Gunn\u2019s Superman reboot and the claims that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-17017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}