Do you remember when we were happy? Before COVID and the election and all the job cuts? We used to just be happy.
What happened to us? I was having a hard time writing about Guardians of the Galaxy (directed by James Gunn), and then I finally realized why. It’s such a happy movie it almost feels wrong watching it in our pandemic-ridden time.
We’ve been robbed of some of our joy and happiness. And blaming someone won’t do any good. That doesn’t bring the happiness back. The blame game never does. No, our pre-virus life has been taken from us and although we’ve learned how to live with it, as best we can, we still feel the loss.
It’s like that excitement you used to feel as a kid. Do you remember that? The way the smallest thing could get you really excited: A new toy, a piece of candy, even, well, just the idea of going to the movies. I can remember that excitement. I hope you can too. But, here’s the thing, I can’t feel it. Not the way I did as a kid. That pure joy of childhood excitement leaves us as we grow up and learn to find other kinds of excitement.
And I think, really, that’s what makes Guardians such a great movie. When Star-Lord, a.k.a. Peter Quill, a.k.a. the fabulous Chris Pratt, comes dancing along in the opening scene of Guardians you realize you are seeing the pure joy of an adult acting like a child. Quill dances around to “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone on a dark alien world like he’s having the time of his life. He’s a big kid, and channeling Tom Hanks and Adam Sandler before him, he captures that sense of childhood fun and innocence just perfectly.
What happened to us? I was having a hard time writing about Guardians of the Galaxy (directed by James Gunn), and then I finally realized why. It’s such a happy movie it almost feels wrong watching it in our pandemic-ridden time.
We’ve been robbed of some of our joy and happiness. And blaming someone won’t do any good. That doesn’t bring the happiness back. The blame game never does. No, our pre-virus life has been taken from us and although we’ve learned how to live with it, as best we can, we still feel the loss.
It’s like that excitement you used to feel as a kid. Do you remember that? The way the smallest thing could get you really excited: A new toy, a piece of candy, even, well, just the idea of going to the movies. I can remember that excitement. I hope you can too. But, here’s the thing, I can’t feel it. Not the way I did as a kid. That pure joy of childhood excitement leaves us as we grow up and learn to find other kinds of excitement.
And I think, really, that’s what makes Guardians such a great movie. When Star-Lord, a.k.a. Peter Quill, a.k.a. the fabulous Chris Pratt, comes dancing along in the opening scene of Guardians you realize you are seeing the pure joy of an adult acting like a child. Quill dances around to “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone on a dark alien world like he’s having the time of his life. He’s a big kid, and channeling Tom Hanks and Adam Sandler before him, he captures that sense of childhood fun and innocence just perfectly.
In fact, he goes those actors one better by adding in just the right touch of sadness that makes the childish fun bittersweet. After all, Quill is dancing to a cassette tape that his dying mother gave to him. Pratt knows exactly how to make us love his big kid role, something he had already played to perfection on Parks and Rec as Andy Dwyer: Be foolish and the butt of the joke and silly, but know what to say at the right moment to make the girl fall for you.
And, in this case, that girl is Gamora (played to devasting perfection by Zoe Saldana), who comes in kicking Quill’s butt as a green whirlwind. Gamora is no timid love interest. She doesn’t need Quill or anybody else. Until she gets caught with the rest of the Guardians and sent to the interstellar prison Kyln.
And that is where the best scene in Guardians comes. Gamora is the “adopted” (because she was kidnapped) daughter of Thanos. Since Thanos has killed thousands of people on countless worlds, the other prisoners on Kyln want to make Gamora pay for Thanos’ atrocities. When she walks ahead of an angry mob to her cell, one prisoner shouts, “No cell is going to protect you for long.” Gamora ignores them all, strides into her cell, and seats herself down primly. She looks steely and clam, ignoring the threats. But a moment later a prisoner with bared teeth bangs on the glass of her cell and shouts, “You’re dead,” and we hear Gamora gasp and then watch as she lets out one small, shaky breath.
It’s a small scene, just a moment, but in that scene we feel all of Gamora’s fear. She is alone, hated, and in danger of being killed. And so Gamora is afraid. She’s afraid of dying. And so are we.
Now, my friend Alex will tell you, nobody ever dies in comics. And he’s right. But that doesn’t matter. It’s not Gamora who’s going to die. It’s us. We don’t think about it most of the time. But we know it.
I do want to acknowledge that many people suffer with depression and anxiety or just feel more keenly the weight of mortality than others of us. But we all know that the end is coming sooner or later. Mostly, we keep hoping it will be later.
And that’s where the virus comes in. We used to feel safe. We could go anywhere we wanted, shake hands, hug a friend, even put our arms around a stranger’s shoulders and sway together to the music of a concert. Now if someone in a store coughs, do you hold your breath? Do you shrink back if a stranger comes too close to you? Or, even if you think that the virus is just a political gambit and will be gone by November, do you still have that little sense of doubt in the back of your mind? Do you worry if you’re the one who coughs?
Superheroes don’t die. But we can. And so, when we see Gamora afraid, we know we are not alone. We don’t have super strength or ninja-like fighting powers. But we can have courage. And you only can feel courage when you are afraid. That’s what courage is, moving past the fear. Thor and Captain America are so powerful they don’t ever seem to be afraid. Cap can jump out of a plane without a parachute.
But not Gamora. She can be killed, and so she knows fear. Just like us. Still, Gamora charges into battle anyway. And we can be brave too. We might not have to fight with our hands, but over our lifetimes we will be called on to fight injustice and racism and sheer cruelty. We know we don’t have forever, and that means we have to do what we can to make this world a better place while we’re here.
And, in this case, that girl is Gamora (played to devasting perfection by Zoe Saldana), who comes in kicking Quill’s butt as a green whirlwind. Gamora is no timid love interest. She doesn’t need Quill or anybody else. Until she gets caught with the rest of the Guardians and sent to the interstellar prison Kyln.
And that is where the best scene in Guardians comes. Gamora is the “adopted” (because she was kidnapped) daughter of Thanos. Since Thanos has killed thousands of people on countless worlds, the other prisoners on Kyln want to make Gamora pay for Thanos’ atrocities. When she walks ahead of an angry mob to her cell, one prisoner shouts, “No cell is going to protect you for long.” Gamora ignores them all, strides into her cell, and seats herself down primly. She looks steely and clam, ignoring the threats. But a moment later a prisoner with bared teeth bangs on the glass of her cell and shouts, “You’re dead,” and we hear Gamora gasp and then watch as she lets out one small, shaky breath.
It’s a small scene, just a moment, but in that scene we feel all of Gamora’s fear. She is alone, hated, and in danger of being killed. And so Gamora is afraid. She’s afraid of dying. And so are we.
Now, my friend Alex will tell you, nobody ever dies in comics. And he’s right. But that doesn’t matter. It’s not Gamora who’s going to die. It’s us. We don’t think about it most of the time. But we know it.
I do want to acknowledge that many people suffer with depression and anxiety or just feel more keenly the weight of mortality than others of us. But we all know that the end is coming sooner or later. Mostly, we keep hoping it will be later.
And that’s where the virus comes in. We used to feel safe. We could go anywhere we wanted, shake hands, hug a friend, even put our arms around a stranger’s shoulders and sway together to the music of a concert. Now if someone in a store coughs, do you hold your breath? Do you shrink back if a stranger comes too close to you? Or, even if you think that the virus is just a political gambit and will be gone by November, do you still have that little sense of doubt in the back of your mind? Do you worry if you’re the one who coughs?
Superheroes don’t die. But we can. And so, when we see Gamora afraid, we know we are not alone. We don’t have super strength or ninja-like fighting powers. But we can have courage. And you only can feel courage when you are afraid. That’s what courage is, moving past the fear. Thor and Captain America are so powerful they don’t ever seem to be afraid. Cap can jump out of a plane without a parachute.
But not Gamora. She can be killed, and so she knows fear. Just like us. Still, Gamora charges into battle anyway. And we can be brave too. We might not have to fight with our hands, but over our lifetimes we will be called on to fight injustice and racism and sheer cruelty. We know we don’t have forever, and that means we have to do what we can to make this world a better place while we’re here.
And if you read my friend Sandy' blog post about Guardians of the Galaxy too, you'll find that she wrote about her mother's passing which is connected to this film for her. I bet her mom was pretty brave, too, because she taught her daughter to be brave enough to share that important story with us. So I hope you will be brave, too, when you need to be.
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