The imperialists have been giving this movie a
hard time in the reviews, focusing almost
completely on artistic criteria, as well as
contrasting it with the same-titled, '60s British
puppet series. This reviewer has never seen the original "Thunderbirds" TV puppet series, but neither will most of the movie's younger-than- average audience in the united $tates, so it was time to see what was going down here politically speaking. Actually, it is hard to tell whom the audience of this movie is intended to be. The protagonist Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) is goofy and wears braces. He is supposed to be an "adolescent," but few male teenagers would admit to identifying with him. He seems to have a budding romantic and sexual interest in the "blossoming," slightly younger-looking grrl Tintin (Vanessa Anne Hudgens), so maybe this is some more romance propaganda for young grrls in the united $tates. However, this incipient intimate relationship isn't really developed in the movie beyond some awkward accidental body contact and blushes. On the side, Alan is Euro-Amerikan, and Tintin is not. This is interesting from the viewpoint of MIM's recent resolutions on cross- cultural breeding.(1) MIM opposes the theory of bloodline, regardless of whether an oppressor nationality is involved in a culturally diverse intimate relationship with an oppressed nationality. For a movie that sets out to create an opposition between u.$. firefighters / emergency persynnel, effectively, and oppressed nationalities—"Thunderbirds" is comparatively good. The heroic Tracys are depicted as being Euro-Amerikans with British friends; the villain The Hood, played by Ben Kingsley, is "Eastern," and his ruthless henchman Mullion has black skin. The Hood isn't exactly portrayed as being a terrorist. On his way to rob a British bank, he neglects to avoid drilling through a monorail support pylon, but this is more of an afterthought. His goal is to rob banks and make the Thunderbirds look bad in the process. (He steals their vehicles and equipment.) Before he began his career as a supervillain, comprador- bourgeois The Hood owned an illegal mine, which collapsed. The Hood was left for dead, while his brother Kyrano and some workers were saved by the Thunderbirds. The Hood's conflict with the Thunderbirds seems to be more of a persynality conflict. The nerdy, sexually-seductive European womyn Transom in The Hood's group warns The Hood not to run into the monorail, which suggests that such destruction would have been out of the ordinary. "Thunderbirds" clearly shows that the Thunderbirds and pink-color-obsessed Lady Penelope are economically privileged, even ridiculously wealthy. The Tracys themselves live in a mansion on a tropical island. This is supposed to be more of that Ayn-Randian capitalists-as-heroes, Batman crap, but ends up making the Thunderbirds look ridiculous. And narcissistic. The Thunderbirds have what look like exaggerated Abercrombie & Fitch portraits of themselves covering their cheesy, mission-only elevator doors. If this were meant to parody the bourgeois-superhero idea, then we must praise "Thunderbirds" for succeeding. "Thunderbirds" is also clear to point out that the domestic workers in the mansion are oppressed nationalities. The Malaysian Kyrano comes off as being a pool cleaner.(2) The female cook is his wife Onaha, played by the Indian actress Harvey Virdi. In an interesting twist on the theme of pseudo-feminism, Kyrano's daughter, Tintin, is physically much stronger than the Euro-Amerikan boys, Alan and his science-wizard friend Fermat (Soren Fulton), but is not larger than them. She also has her half-uncle The Hood's telekinetic ability, while nobody else has the same ability. Additionally, it is very briefly mentioned at the end of the movie that there is a "Madam President" in the world. The juxtaposition of pseudo-feminism with the powerful pink "material girl" Lady Penelope may be misleading for oppressed-nation grrls to see. At one point, Tintin and Fermat criticize Alan for his hot-headedness. Tintin criticizes Alan for being an asshole when he disparages Fermat, who stutters. Alan does not take their criticism at first, but later realizes that they were right, and apologizes. Fermat accepts the apology and rests his head on Alan's shoulder when they are locked in the freezer. Another positive element of "Thunderbirds" is that it upholds the idea that identity has no bearing on whether a persyn's ideas are correct. Although his "nerdiness" and obvious correctness undermine this point, it doesn't matter that Fermat is so small, stutters, or is so young-looking. It doesn't matter that Tintin has female biology. And while it is a little bit difficult to say that Alan is a child due to the type of work he will have access to (being a Thunderbird, elite emergency persynnel), he still gets grounded, ignored because he's a "kid," and has to go to school to learn useless things, as well as reactionary ideas, in an individualist-competitive environment. Early in the movie, Alan daydreams during a trigonometry class. His asshole European teacher with female biology(3) castigates and humiliates him for not paying attention during a lesson on the Pythagorean theorem. There is no attempt by anyone to criticize Alan on an intellectual level. Later, goofy Alan is bullied by another, smaller white boy. Frankly, most of the world's jobs and even most of the jobs in the united $nakes do not need a persyn to ever know that a2 + b2 = c2. Even if trigonometry were that important, children should not be physically forced to learn it. Learning math is not against humyn nature, and it should not be treated as if it were. While algebra, trigonometry, and other math, are certainly useful under socialism, that does not justify Alan's teacher's style or even the whole school system under capitalism. In a version of "Thunderbirds" made in a socialist people's republic, Fermat, backing up Alan, refuses to turn in an assignment. Fermat is suspended. Alan asks Tintin out, but Tintin rejects, saying that there would be too much baggage; they should just be friends. To increase their funds, the Tracys speculate in stocks. They lose a lot of money. In a "pre-emptive" strike, the united $tates launches a nuclear missile at Pyongyang. Korea does not respond in kind, but starts to evacuate the city. The Tracys detect the missile. Against everyone else's wishes, Alan, Fermat and Tintin pilot one of the Thunderbirds' aircraft and collide with the missile. In its original setting, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room to work with in "Thunderbirds." The whole movie seems to be centered around being united as a family, or the myth of the nuclear family. Importantly, Alan never leaves his situation inside the Trancy family, and he is eventually reconciled with it subjectively (think "Spy Kids," but not quite as bad). Combined with the imperialist politics and pseudo-feminism, this movie deserves a negative to neutral rating. Leaning toward neutral because some of the other content in "Thunderbirds" makes it preferable to totally reactionary shit like "Die Another Day" (2002) and "Agent Cody Banks 2" (2004). Notes: 1. "Resolutions on Cross-Cultural Breeding," http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/crosscultural2004.html 2. In the TV show, Kyrano had to "turn his back on material gain" to get this job. "Kyrano," http://www.fab1.co.nz/characters/kyrano.htm 3. The teacher is a gender oppressor despite having female biology. "Clarity on what gender is," http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/gender98b.html ; "The Oppression of Children Under Patriarchy," http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/mt9child.html
|