Learning To Listen...: The Value of a Life: Thanos, the Avengers and the Culture of Death

No Seriously, Don't Read ANYTHING, or EVEN SCROLL if you haven't seen it yet!

There a number of different of angles from which I watch a Marvel movie. On one hand, I recall my childhood years, when I collected (mostly Marvel) comics, grew to love that world/universe/multiverse, its characters and its stories, and I find myself often giddy with joy at the idea that they can be portrayed on the big screen in a manner which both bears a recognizable resemblance to those childhood images, while also taking them to new levels. On the other hand, I view them as someone who has since had the opportunity to broaden his appreciation of different stories, in both literature and film, and has come to believe that things like good dialogue and dynamic character development, which is both consistent and evolving, as well as other signs of genuine quality, such as good writing, acting, and directing, are not too much to ask from any genre of movie. And finally, of course, I view them as a Catholic priest who is always looking for reflections of genuine Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, not to mention having concern for the moral positions being advocated by the heroes, or even for the way in which more complex moral questions are explored by the conflicting perspectives of various characters (more on my approach here). Since all of these perspectives exist in one mind, which has become a professional at overthinking, I am not uncommonly plagued by the reality that the movies I care most about are the ones I end up being most conflicted about. It is not uncommon for me to highly anticipate a movie, and walk out LOVING it (for reasons a, b, c, and d) and HATING it (for reasons e, f, g, and h). Thus, when someone asks me whether I liked Avengers: Infinity War, I can only think to answer in the words of Vision in the last Avengers movie...

I begin with this consideration because the very aspect I am going to comment on, in this latest and biggest epic in the Marvel saga, I feel is handled strikingly well in some ways, and notably poorly in others.

One thing this movie succeeded at was being very intriguing from the very start. Launching straight into the action, picking up right where the after-the-credits scene of Thor: Ragnarok (my thoughts on that one here) left off, we see the immediate devastation resulting from the encounter between Thanos and the remaining population of Asgard. And in this opening sequence, the first words we hear from Thanos, not only beautifully foreshadow the rather shocking ending, which I must admit was entirely unexpected by me, but also characterize him in a manner that explains the importance of his ridiculous quest for destruction. When we first hear the villain speak of his agony at being so certain that he is right, we might be unsure what to think at first. Is he serious? Is he insane? Is it a little bit of both? When we finally hear him explain his reasoning, a careful listener might notice how disturbingly familiar his thinking is, in our culture today.

The notion that overpopulation is the cause of so many of the evils from which we suffer, which leads some to the tragic conclusion that taking countless innocent lives will actually help to rid us of these evils, is one of the upsettingly common notions, which leads many to so aggressively support such evils as abortion and euthanasia, even if often under the guise of supporting the supposed "lesser evil" of contraception. And yet, as the film progresses, we begin to see Thanos as one of the more complex Marvel villains we have seen thus far. He carries himself with this dignified air, which seems to hope that his good intentions will distract us from the insanity of his plan, yet also to simultaneously not care what we think, because of the firmness of his own conviction. "The hardest of decisions require the strongest of wills." His conviction is so strong that his solution is, not only necessary, but is actually "salvation" from the evils that plague is, that he is quite convinced every one else is the enemy and he will "watch the sun set over a grateful universe." It is sick. It is horrifying. And yet, it is the manifestation of the culture of death (St. John Paul II addressed it well here), which influences so many who continue to be convinced that those of us who believe so strongly in the value of every human life, that we cannot support such as evils as abortion, euthanasia, and even contraception, are in fact the enemy. And yet, in the movie, we hear these "enemies" of Thanos repeating to each other their insistence that "we don't trade lives," as they fight to save one another and an anonymous (yet no less valuable) half of the lives in the universe.

And yet, it might be argued that the idea of pointing toward the dignity of human life is a bit undercut by the lack of the gravity of death the movie leaves viewers with. One of the funnier lines in the movie is also one of the more ironic. Eitri warns Thor, before his heroic stunt to restart the forge: "It'll kill you." And Thor answers, "Only if I die." And Eitri fittingly replies, "Well... yes... that's what 'killing you' means." As tragic as the many deaths of the heroes may feel, does this really leave us with a sense of what death is?

It has been pointed out no shortage of times that superhero movies (and perhaps Marvel, in particular) make it difficult for viewers to attach any weight to deaths that are meant to be heroic and/or tragic, because so few of these characters seem to "stay dead." Well, this movie takes that to a whole new level, as we watch most of our heroes turn to ash... but, knowing they will be back somehow. Let's consider the choices of who died for a second. Considering the originals (nearly all of whom were left alive) have already made A LOT of money for Marvel and it's widely considered to be the case that some, if not most, of those actors will soon 'hang up their capes', it might be argued that killing them off would have seemed a bit too convenient. But, since they basically did the opposite, by killing off all of the ones that they stand to still make A LOT more money off of (whose sequels are expected, and at least one is officially announced), doesn't it make it seem even more cheap? Granted, they still leave plenty of room for suspense, as we wait a year to find out HOW they will come back from this and what role Captain Marvel and the other heroes absent from this movie might play in the final solution. And it might make us wonder if the originals would even somehow sacrifice themselves to save the newbies - making the whole "we don't trade lives" thing deliciously ironic! If that were the solution, it might make the ending of this movie equally convenient. Even more importantly, though, if something like that occurs, will it simply be focused on bringing back the "heroes", or all of those countless anonymous, but no less valuable, lives? I'm willing to be optimistic that it will be the latter. So, then the remaining question is who will actually be dead in the end. Ironically, one of the deaths not included in that fateful snap (which is likely to be undone all at once) is one that some of us might especially hope to see reversed, simply because of the awful way it went down (this article on the matter is worth reading).

Meanwhile, one of the other ways that the Avengers movies have successfully pointed toward the value of every life is in the way in which the team is made more rich and full by the dynamic interactions between the very diverse characters. Each one brings something different, which often becomes even more poignant when they stand next to each other, as they stretch and challenge each other (more here). In fact, even Guardians of the Galaxy had this same quality, which is especially impressive, considering those diverse characters include a talking raccoon and a walking tree (more on them here)...

So, naturally, seeing these two teams collide was a long awaited pay off. How well did they deliver on it? Pretty well, considering the momentousness of the task (even if some of us still would have hoped for a bit more). Given the sheer volume of characters brought into this one epic conflict, it would have been nearly impossible to give them all a very significant sampling of ongoing development or meaningful interaction. Naturally, they had to make their choices of who would get the most of this kind of attention. For this reason, it is understandable that some of us will simply have to accept a fair amount of disappointment at not seeing some of our favorites get a bit more attention. Furthermore, it is not surprising that they paid particular attention to those which involved interactions between Avengers and Guardians.

Of these interactions, the one I will focus on, as a brief closing thought, is that between Tony Stark and Stephen Strange. The idea of pitting these two strong (read arrogant) personalities against each other was a very interesting choice, which I ended up appreciating in the end. For one reason, to be quite blunt, one of the reasons I didn't care for the Doctor Strange movie was simply because I thought even Ant-Man was a more interesting and entertaining attempt at recreating Stark's conversion-oriented origin story. However, the difference between their respective conversions comes across strikingly by their interaction in this movie. Stark's conversion was driven by an awakened sense of responsibility (albeit plagued by his Messiah complex). Strange's conversion was more about the prideful skeptic reluctantly having to accept that there is actually more to reality than he is aware. So, here you have them fighting beside one another to attempt to save the universe and these qualities come across loud and clear. Stark is desperately fighting to prevent Thanos from achieving his goal, at all costs. He is consumed by the thought that they MUST stop him! Only Strange is capable of believing that there just might be an alternative. So, after using the Time Stone to look into the future, he returns to the present, prepared to do the one thing he promised he would not do (and would not have decided to do on his own) because "this was the only way." Why? We'll find out next year, I guess (here's hoping it's good). Tony cannot believe it, but Strange is inviting him to trust that there is more to reality than either of them fully understands. Perhaps we have experienced someone in our life who has challenged us to believe that there is more to reality than we know, even if we might find them a bit absurd at times, someone who has challenged us to have faith. Thank God that person is in our lives, because we are probably not the same person thanks to their influence. It is amazing to see how every life has far more value than we could possibly imagine!