X-Men First Class in the early '60s Cuba missile crisis

Film review: X-Men First Class

The X-Men saga, in particular the current X-Men First Class, is entertainment meant especially for young people and on that level alone, it succeeds. The X-Men franchise is all about action, fantasy, spectacle and special effects wizardry with superheroes and supervillains morphing into plain human beings and back again, and using their powers to save themselves and the world. Most of the young heroes and heroines also look cute.

For troglodytes who may not have heard of X-Men, these are mutants with unique superpowers like telekinesis and the ability to fly. The mutants are part of the new evolution of the human race which began in the last century. Didn’t Darwin say man evolved from the apes in the course of millennia, and now seems like the human being has reached another higher state — the more powerful X Man?

On another — broader — level, X-Men deals with experiences that may interest thoughtful, mature viewers, dealing with real-life conflicts, like discrimination and oppression, self-acceptance and pride and good-versus-evil. The mutant characters are different from the rest of humankind and for that reason, as a new race, they are ostracized, discriminated upon, feared as a threat to human society.

Should these “second-class citizens” even try to be “normal” creatures. like African-Americans of yore who passed for white and kept it a secret, or closeted gays? Should a pretty X-Man (X-Woman?) accept sexual abuse? Should they accept their being different? A step further, should they be proud of their being different? Another challenge would be: Should they go with the good (represented by Prof. X) or side with the bad (Magneto)?

We all know the characters — though maybe not all of them. They have names that suggest their superpowers, like Beast, Raven, Storm, Mystique, and most popular of all, Wolverine. They are led by two elderly gentlemen called Professor X and the intense, angst-ridden Magneto. Once upon a time, the two were the best of friends. Their names then were Charles Xavier who became Prof. X and Erik Lehnsherr who became Magneto.

X-Men First Class goes back to the salad days of these two warring foes, with younger actors playing them (James McAvoy as Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto) and the other mutants, except for Wolverine who makes a surprise cameo at a bar, looking oddly like Hugh Jackman today. I have yet to check the claim of a friend, an X-Men fanatic who says that Wolverine has never aged, which makes me wonder, wasn’t he ever young once (Jackman is catching up with look-alike Clint Eastwood, and Eastwood is in his mid-80s)? XMFC shows why X and Magneto are what they are now; for example, each other’s nemesis, why one is wheelchair-bound and the other hates humankind with a passion.

While kids may thoroughly enjoy the movie on its own terms, those who are familiar with contemporary world history or the culture of the era will appreciate it even more. Nostalgia buffs may revel in ’60s fashion which is modish but not too mod, for psychedelic art would burst later in the decade. Women then dressed like Jackie Onassis, no, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy who wore trendy mini dresses that bared the knees. Rightfully, production design is functional and does not attempt to compete with the action, the visual effects and the characters.

The credit titles design also harks back to the time when the famous titles artist Saul Bass did his memorable work in The Cardinal, Exodus and Walk on the Wild Side, among other ‘50s to ‘60s Hollywood movies. Somebody in X-Men uses the word “groovy,” a now-obsolete ’60s word only Austin Powers would be heard saying. But then, loony Austin Powers belongs to the ’60s. Too much stylishness or comic satire would have been inappropriate for X-Men First Class, with its serious tone.

Still, more than its depiction of the lifestyle, the look and lingo of the decade, XMFC evokes the era’s social and political mood. Yes, this is the Fabulous Sixties, when Kennedy was King (like King Arthur of Camelot) and Russians were the greatest security threat to the US, followed by China. For greater evocation of the era, the movie gives us glimpses of the famous Kennedy broadcasts on BxW TV.

For the benefit of the new generation who may have missed their history lesson, there was the Bay of Pigs fiasco that could have triggered World War III. Russian ships were on their way to deliver nuclear arms to allied Cuba, a US neighbor, which was something the Americans, led by President Kennedy, would never allow, thus Kennedy sent US ships to block the passage. Such political strife in a “non-serious” superhero movie based on comic books?

Why not? Makes it richer. Even lovers of “pure entertainment” may benefit from it. The tense moments during the Cuban missile crisis is the climactic setting of XMFC, with a major action sequence showing warships from the contending countries — democratic United States and communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — bracing themselves for hostile encounter and both sides actually releasing a volley of missiles into the sky (never happened in real life), like thousands of arrows flying into a medieval fortification in ’50s adventure movies. Will the X-Men merely stand by and watch?

The military crisis could have erupted into the first nuclear war ever, a prospect brilliantly parodied by Stanley Kubrick in his long-titled black-and-white classic Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Even the round table at the conference hall in XMFC, where the officials and bureaucrats decide the fate of the world, reminds us of the iconic interior shot in that Kubrick film, lit overhead by a large crown of lights as though it’s patterned after a spaceship,

If the story of XMFC is set during the Cold War, its opening sequence happens during another, earlier era — the Holocaust which shows the young Magneto in a brutal, traumatic moment in the hands of a Nazi chief at the concentration camp, played by Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Wild Things, Frost/Nixon, JFK). What next for the X-Men? Make that where next? Having visited two modern epochs in First Class, will we see them in a future outing in Abbottabad, sharing expertise with and helping the Navy SEALS deal The Terrorist his death blow? With these super warriors, the possibilities are limitless.