OPINION:
“Superman,” which opened in theaters on July 13, isn’t woke, woke critics insist. The movie is really about “kindness,” especially kindness to “immigrants,” says writer and director James Gunn. And If you don’t agree, you’re a “jerk.”
When I was growing up in the 1950s, “The Adventures of Superman” was my favorite television show. “Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Look, up in the sky! It’s a dude with a cape fighting for “truth, justice and the American way!”
I didn’t know that Superman’s creators were two Jewish kids (like me) from Cleveland, and during World War II, the Last Son of Krypton fought Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
Now, there’s something rotten in Metropolis. Mr. Gunn has turned the Man of Steel into a Man of Mush.
He told an interviewer for The Sunday Times: “Superman is the story of America. … An immigrant that come (sic) from other places and populated the country, but for me, it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Superman (aka Kal-El) wasn’t an illegal immigrant. He was sent to Earth by his parents from a dying Krypton.
Do we really need a lecture on “basic human kindness” from a Hollywood hack who compares the president to Hitler and was fired by Disney for posting crude, sexual humor?
The political left’s agenda is lousy with kindness, such as allowing the slave labor of children, the cancel culture and keeping Jewish students from class to protest the war in the Gaza Strip.
The illegal aliens confined to detention centers such as Alligator Alcatraz aren’t strange visitors from another planet but rather gate-crashers from places distinguished by their poverty and brutality.
They didn’t come here to protect and guide us but rather to exploit and victimize us.
All four of my grandparents were immigrants. They came to America to escape persecution and build a better life, not to demand free everything and spread gang violence.
President Trump’s supporters include folks whose families came from countries such as Italy, Ireland, Poland and Cuba. First lady Melania Trump is from Slovenia. This administration doesn’t hate immigrants; it hates what illegal immigration is doing to this country.
Mr. Gunn’s “Superman” is dripping with political correctness. In the movie, the movie’s namesake cooks for Lois Lane and, as they say, supports her career. If the two marry, will he wash dishes and change super diapers?
Villain Lex Luthor is an egomaniacal genius and billionaire industrialist who becomes obsessed with Superman. It’s a wonder Mr. Gunn didn’t give him Trump hair.
There’s a 10-minute scene in the movie where Clark and Lois anesthetize the audience by discussing geopolitics, revolving around whether Superman should have stopped a war. Is he a pacifist or an isolationist?
Superman was never unkind or insensitive in any of his incarnations, but did Mr. Gunn have to turn him into a wimp who weeps like a little girl?
Originally, Superman stood for truth, justice and the American way.
Truth means facing reality unflinchingly, seeing the world as it is. Justice is treating individuals according to their merits and not making excuses for bad behavior based on race or class.
The American way was a balance of freedom and order. You might say the real Superman fought for a constitutional republic.
The Talmud says, “Kindness to the cruel is cruelty to the kind.” Was allowing 20 million unvetted aliens into our country kind to the Americans those illegals maimed and murdered?
My mother, whose husband served in World War II, once had to wait hours in a hospital emergency room crowded by illegal aliens who were sucking up services for which they never paid.
With Mr. Gunn’s Superman, the possibilities for sequels are endless: Superman fighting misgendering, Superman demanding income equality and Superman taking a stand against climate change. Too bad he doesn’t have a sidekick. Zorhan Mamdani would look great in tights. Of course, they would have to be the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Heroes are meant to inspire. They should reflect eternal values.
A real-life hero died at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a year ago. Corey Comperatore was a husband, a father of two and a volunteer firefighter. When an assassin fired at Mr. Trump and into his crowd of supporters, Comperatore used his body to shield his daughters. The bullets did not bounce off him.
A man who gives his life to protect his family: That’s the kind of heroism you don’t find in superhero movies.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
