The Winter Soldier What's in a Name? Captain America: The Winter Soldier

[TalismanRing]

Interesting article [What's in a Name? Captain America: The Winter Soldier] written political analyst William Bradley. Or maybe I think so because it mirrored my thoughts when hearing so many people question the title, from the use of the colon instead of an ampersand to how the "Winter Soldier" isn't enough in the film to warrant being in the title.

The title though works on two levels. Yes, the title refers to a nemesis of the piece but as a concept it far more fittingly describes Steve Rogers, especially in this film with the choices he makes. He is the ultimate winter soldier.

As Bradley sums up:

Will Cap be a "sunshine patriot" and summertime soldier who follows his values when it is convenient and slips away when the heavy cold weather comes? Or will he be the winter soldier who perseveres in his beliefs, no matter what he must go up against as a result?

That's the movie. Hence the title.

The two quotes which were the origin of the term and from which Brubaker drew inspiration.

These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. -- from The American Crisis by Thomas Paine, December 1776

We call this investigation the 'Winter Soldier Investigation.' The term 'Winter Soldier' is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out. -- Lieutenant John Kerry, USNR, representing Vietnam Veterans Against the War at the Winter Soldier hearings, April 1971

 

[Heretic]

This is exactly the point that I was making last night in the review thread. Nice to see that Ed Brubaker has confirmed that he was thinking about Thomas Paine when he came up with the name.