A frozen super soldier wakes up in 1990 to face the Red Skull once again.
About the Film
Captain America is a 1990 American superhero film directed by Albert Pyun and based on the Marvel Comics character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The screenplay is credited to Stephen Tolkin and Lawrence Block. Menahem Golan produced it, and the production companies were 21st Century Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment Group and Jadran Film. The music is by Barry Goldberg, and the film carries a PG-13 rating. Filming took place in Croatia, began in 1989 and was completed in 1990.
How It Got Made
Menahem Golan left Cannon in 1989, and as part of his severance package he was given control of 21st Century Film Corporation and allowed to bring the film rights to Captain America with him. Albert Pyun, who had previously worked at Cannon, joined the project and worked from the script by Tolkin that had originally started at Cannon. That history explains why the film feels like the product of a smaller studio with big ambitions.
The Plot
The story starts in 1936 in Palermo, where Italian scientists run experiments that produce a boy with superhuman strength. He grows up to become the Red Skull. Seven years later, in 1943, Dr. Maria Vaselli works on a project to create a new type of American soldier. Only one test subject survives, Steve Rogers, who becomes Captain America.
Rogers is sent to Germany to sabotage the Red Skull’s rockets, but he is defeated and ends up frozen in ice. In 1990 he is thawed and returns to a world that has moved on. He discovers that the Red Skull has become the center of a criminal family plotting against President Tom Kimball, whose environmental policies they dislike, and he sets out to protect the president. Along the way he hitchhikes to California to find his wartime girlfriend, Bernice.
The Cast
Matt Salinger, the son of author J. D. Salinger, plays Steve Rogers. Scott Paulin plays Tadzio de Santis, the Red Skull. Ronny Cox plays President Kimball, and Ned Beatty plays Sam Kolawetz, a reporter and childhood friend of the president. Darren McGavin plays General Fleming and Michael Nouri plays Lieutenant Colonel Louis.
Melinda Dillon, who shared the screen with McGavin in A Christmas Story, is also in the cast. Kim Gillingham plays Bernice, Francesca Neri plays Valentina de Santis, also called Sin, and Carla Cassola plays Dr. Vaselli. For a low budget comic book production, it is an unusually experienced group.
A Superhero Before the Boom
This film arrived long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe made comic book movies a dominant genre. Comparisons with the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger are natural, and they show how much the genre and its budgets have changed. The 1990 version is smaller and more earnest, and it looks and feels like a picture from its time.
That does not make it worthless. Its willingness to treat the hero sincerely, with a World War II origin, a long freeze and a man out of time, gives it a charm that bigger productions sometimes lack.
Themes: Patriotism and a Man Out of Time
The film is built on two ideas. The first is patriotism, which is shown in Rogers’s willingness to risk everything for his country. The second is the fish-out-of-water story of a soldier waking up in a world that has changed. Rogers must learn what has happened to the people he knew, and his search for Bernice gives the story a human side.
The political plot, with a president threatened by a crime family because of his environmental stance, also gives the film a surprisingly topical angle for 1990.
The Red Skull
Scott Paulin’s version of the Red Skull is rooted in the film’s Italian backstory, which makes him very different from the Nazi villain familiar from the comics. He is a man shaped by experiments and by the loss of his own family, and the film gives him an extended history before he reappears in 1990. Whether viewers accept that change depends on how closely they expect the movie to follow the comics, but it does give the villain a clear motive.
Release and Reputation
The film largely bypassed American theatres and found its audience on home video. Over the years it has become a cult curiosity, discussed mainly by fans of early comic book adaptations and of Pyun’s directing career. Many viewers return to it to see how Captain America was handled before the modern era of superhero film.
Final Thoughts
Captain America (1990) is a flawed but sincere attempt to bring a classic hero to the screen. It has a strong cast, an unusual origin story and a plot that mixes World War II with a political thriller. It will not satisfy viewers who expect modern effects, but fans of comic book history should find it worth watching.
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