Advertising of the "superhero" film Deadpool from the very beginning was intrusive and annoying, and a separate PR campaign was organized for Russia: the main actor of the film, Ryan Reynolds himself, came to Moscow, showed his knowledge of the Russian language, performed at a closed screening for the media and at the Ivan Urgant show, where he put on a hat with earflaps and with all his might invited me to the cinema.
This advertisement continues to this day. On Kinopoisk, there are only a couple of negative reviews against dozens of positive reviews. And the official press, from the liberal Kommersant to the sort of state-owned Russian newspaper, and ordinary viewers - all are supposedly in a wild delight. The trailer for the film, although it already has an 18+ rating in itself, was still broadcasted in cropped form on Channel One both in evening and morning shows, convincing viewers not to miss this "masterpiece" created by the Marvel film studio, which, by the way, is owned by Walt Disney, which means Deadpool is a Disney-approved creation.
What's so hooked on copywriters around the world? What is the moral of the film?
Plot of the film
The main character is the mercenary Wade, a former special forces soldier, on account of which 41 corpses. As he puts it about himself - "I am a bastard who lives by extinguishing even more bastards." Wade falls in love with the prostitute Vanessa and "happily" lives with her for a year (happiness with Vanessa is shown by a kaleidoscope of scenes with their sex, which make one turn away from the screen not so much because of frankness, but because of perversity), but suddenly finds out that he has cancer several organs at once, and already in a critical stage, without the possibility of treatment.
He is found by a secret organization and offers healing - by introducing a certain gene. The operation takes place under the control of a sadistic scientist named Ajax, who is just going to sell what comes out of the main character. After the operation, Wade escapes from Ajax thanks to his new super-regeneration and immortality abilities.
Promotional video:
He wants to return to Vanessa, but is afraid that she will not accept him due to the fact that as a result of the experiment his entire body was disfigured. Hoping that Ajax has the ability to heal him, Wade, taking the name Deadpool and a red suit (so as "not to get stained with blood"), goes in search of the one from whom he recently fled.
On the way, having defeated several dozen people (most of the murder scenes in the film are shown cheerfully and with humor), Deadpool in the final of the film kills Ajax himself, since he can no longer help him, and Vanessa turns out to agree to accept her lover as he is there is. As the film progresses, Wade listens to the notation of two "good" mutants who are trying to guide Deadpool on the right path and take the X-Men (a team of mutant superheroes from Deadpool's progenitors). Wade rejects the offer to "be good" in a rude and obscene manner.
That's the whole plot, which, obviously, could fit into a much shorter period of time than 108 minutes. The only thing with which the authors of this "masterpiece" filled the time in order to somehow enter the time frame of a full-length film: jokes of different levels of vulgarity, scenes with violence, sex and, most importantly, a pederastic theme.
Propaganda of perversion under the guise of humor
The theme of perversion, one way or another, is present throughout the film, mainly in the form of short inserts in the video sequence or in the dialogues of the characters. Let's start with the harshest - in one of the scenes describing Wade's "romantic relationship" with his beloved, for a few seconds it is shown how our superhero acts as a "passive", and his girlfriend, with the help of improvised means, plays the role of a man.
Wade begins his meeting with his best friend (the bartender) with a request for a "blow job" - an alcoholic cocktail of that name. Wade calls his enemy "Francis" and "baby boy", makes him "love notes" out of corpses, as Ajax calls it. The camera often focuses on the fifth point of the protagonist and other men, including naked, and Wade himself does not mind speculating on the topic of the male body and genitals, both his own and others. The same can be seen from the poster on which Deadpool is dressed in a tight red suit with a woman's backpack, turned his back to potential moviegoers and holds his buttocks with his hand.
The very behavior of the protagonist looks cutesy, mannered. He philosophizes on the importance of external beauty for a man. There is also an episode in which Wade calls Ryan Reynolds - that is, himself, the actor playing Deadpool - handsome, and claims that he would not have achieved success if it were not for his looks.
A couple of passages as illustrative examples:
It should be noted that humor is today one of the main tools for introducing vices into society, since it allows you to endow negative or even unacceptable topics for public discussion with a positive emotional background. In the film Deadpool used most of the methods of propaganda of perversion by means of cinema, which are detailed in the video review of the same name.
Aesthetizing violence
Another topic is violence. As already mentioned, in the frame, Deadpool kills several dozen people with all the following and splashing out details. Most of the scenes of violence are shown as something fun, like play (in several episodes, Wade uses the opponent's head as a soccer ball). His desire to kill everyone who may somehow know something about the location of his enemy is explained not by the desire to restore justice, but by a selfish desire to regain his appearance at any cost.
There is also a cross-cutting storyline of a Hindu taxi driver who fights for the love of a woman with his cousin. The story ends with the taxi driver taking the cousin in the trunk to dismember later, for which the protagonist praises him. Moreover, the hero himself frankly admits that the murders give him pleasure.
Attitude to the relationship "personality-society"
As already mentioned, besides Deadpool and Ajax, there are two more "good" mutants in the film - Colossus and Warhead, they are from "X-Men", and the whole film persuades the hero to join, do good and save the world. But Deadpool rejects the offer with varying degrees of rudeness.
Separately, it is worth highlighting that the Colossus, unlike all other characters, speaks in a normal, literary language, while the rest of the characters communicate with slang and swearing.
Naturally, since the main character and narrator in the film is Deadpool, and the positive characters who read the lectures are shown gray and boring, the audience should be exactly on Wade's side, on the side of a swearing, angry man with the habits of a bugger, who, though, seems to be fighting with evil, but does it for selfish motives.
The image of female characters in the film
There are two types of women in the film - the frivolous beauty and the female soldier. Vanessa plays the role of a frivolous beauty, who works as a waitress in a strip club. Another type of women is represented by two heroines - the student of Colossus and the assistant of Ajax. Moreover, both have tremendous superpowers and all they can do is fight and kill.
Despite the fact that Vanessa and Wade's line is positioned as a love story, their relationship is shown as a continuous sex marathon. After the forced separation, Wade allows Vanessa to mourn him for more than a year, being sure that she will not accept him with a spoiled appearance, tracks her down, admires the rear view. And in the finale, when Vanessa sees Deadpool's true new face, she says, "I can't wait to ride that face."
All this filth, perversion and vulgarity is wrapped in an attractive Hollywood wrapper, which allows the audience to form a positive attitude towards the demonstrated behaviors. The only question is, what is the main thing - the outer shell or the content?
Drugs: Alcohol and other drugs appear multiple times in the film in a positive context. In the scene of farewell to friends, Wade leaves them "a legacy" 116 kilograms of cocaine, and his comrades are going to "get high in the trash."
Sex: Mentioned mainly in a perverted form, the hero himself not only in his behavior, communication and manners is similar to a homosexual, but also voluntarily participates in one of the scenes of Sodom "love".
Violence: The protagonist knows no mercy and kills all his enemies in the most brutal way, enjoying the violence. The scenes of the murder are shown with humor - the propaganda of sadism and the aestheticization of violence.
Moral: Created supposedly for the amusement of the public, the film, under the guise of humor, promotes perversion, violence, cruelty and selfishness. The superhero actually turns out to be a "bastard" (he calls himself that), who, due to circumstances, fights against evil. The main motive for his actions is the desire to restore his former external attractiveness.
Author: Elizaveta Kvasnyuk