How might things have been different if Marvel had decided to produce a “Black Widow” film that opened in 2017 to explore the past of Natasha Romanoff?
The newly released, oft-delayed, film from director Cate Shortland, straddles a few different timelines, but the bulk of it occurs immediately after the events of “Captain America: Civil War”. The film is a kind of precursor (in hindsight) to the two-part existential showdown of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame”. The idea of a “Black Widow” film has been long gestating, notably absent amidst the still poor rate of female-led superhero films, and Marvel and Disney have never really been able to offer a clear explanation why Natasha Romanoff, an original Avenger, has often seemed to enjoy less interiority than her counterparts. Natasha’s death in “Endgame”, an act of heroic sacrifice or ignominious rudeness depending on who you ask, seemed to kill any chance of giving Scarlett Johansson a headlining turn as Natasha.
But even as Natasha lies dead in the “now”, movie-magic can take us to that haunted past. And, so, Natasha Romanoff gets her day. And it’s no longer 2017, which means that “Captain Marvel” and “Wonder Woman” have predated her as lone-woman superhero films. But, then, Natasha Romanoff is not a God, nor a human with alien DNA – she is a mere woman. And, when we meet her in the opening sequence of “Black Widow,” she is a mere girl.
It is 1995 and we meet a young girl in her suburban neighbourhood in Ohio. She enjoys, it seems, an all-American life – scientist mother, office-drone father, and younger impressionable sister. But the peace is almost immediately pierced in an opening scene that spurs them to make a sudden change of location. Natasha and family will soon be leaving the comforts of suburbia for a hideaway in Cuba. And it’s there that this illusion of family is shattered – Natasha is a young girl destined to be part of a rigorous programme training an army of young girls into Russian super-soldiers. Goodbye, Miss American Pie. Hello, assassin.
Marvel films, at their best and at their worst, all fall within the overarching brand of their role within the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the case of the studio-house as productional auteur – MCU films are very clearly films existing within a particular framework. Within that framework, though, “Black Widow” is Marvel as a spy adventure. And that prologue in particular sets up a distinct swerve from the typical superhero shenanigans that ground the MCU at large. But, of course, this is still a Marvel film working within a timeline of achieving certain goals, so Shortland’s spy adventure does not endure forever.
We jump to the “present” a decade and a half later, skipping any time with Natasha as assassin. Instead, we find Natasha on the run after the events of “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), a fugitive from the law. Without her trusted Avengers to depend on, she is at her loneliest in years. It is just the right time for her past to catch up with her. The illusionary family is forced back together when the presumably defeated Red Room and its mastermind, Dreykov, reappear with implications for Natasha and her sister. And from there, Black Widow (and “Black Widow”) begin to uncover the past while trying to build itself a future.
It’s impossible not to read the external behind-the-scenes events into the world of the film. It’s a welcome change to see an MCU film that is not overtly shackled to the world around it. Johansson gets a chance to explore contours of Natasha’s identity that feel out-of-place next to “end-of-the-world” drama of the larger Avengers story. There are some moments of potential depth as we watch her stare into space, with longing. There are depths there to consider. How does a defected assassin work as a hero? She’s joined by able performers David Harbour as “father” Alexei, Rachel Weisz as “mother” Melina and Florence Pugh as “sister” Yelena. The film’s general thesis – from a script by Eric Pearson (story by Jac Schaeffer Ned Benson) – is trying to wrestle with ides of culpability and the cost of being a hero. And the distance from the other Avengers allows some room for something murkier, and yet… not quite. The film’s final third, its weakest, is very obviously still saddled by the implications of making its hero truly culpable for harm.
But, beyond the textual ways that “Black Widow” feels to be grappling with so many things beneath the surface, close-reading the film seems to be dependent on reading it alongside the production of the film itself. And, recent behind-the-scenes developments felt instructive to the film at hand. In late July, Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against the conglomerate. Her contract had been negotiated pre-pandemic and would include a percentage of the box-office revenue. In the pivot to streaming, and Disney’s same-day release of the film on their platform with a compulsory subscription fee and an additional 30USD premier-access cost, they refused to negotiate the contract. They’d lose out on box-office revenue, but they would earn a likely hefty sum from subscriptions. A hefty sum that that Johansson would not benefit from without the requested contract negotiations.
I found myself reading the actions of Johansson within the context of Black Widow and “Black Widow”. Johansson has enjoyed an ambivalent relationship with the media, prone to precipitating soundbites that feel myopic as a white-cisgender woman in Hollywood, but also perceptive about sexism and issues facing (mostly white) women in ways. Sometimes the conversations have eclipsed her talent and her recent pair of Oscar nominations were a reminder of her abilities when freed from the reins of the MCU’s flattening of Natasha and her offscreen ambivalence.
But in many ways, Johansson’s fight with Disney paralleled Black Widow’s own fight within the film. In the final act of the film, Black Widow is finally able to enjoy her face-to-face time with Dreykov (Ray Winstone in a performance that feels less than thrilling). Like clockwork, he launches into a typical spiel about his power. His plan to use his army to – take over the world? Something to that effect. Specifics, and purpose is unclear. All this power in service of what? The film doesn’t answer, and neither does Disney. Like Dreykov, Disney is all-powerful. Amassing power, though, in service of what? World domination, perhaps. But to what end?
It’s been intriguing to watch the response to Johansson’s suit. Oh look, a rich woman trying to get richer. Who cares? And yet…Disney has never been the underdog in any fight. And their eliding of their own culpability in the contract breaking by positioning Johansson’s lawsuit as one of greed in the face of a global pandemic felt particularly ironic for a company that famously corralled their employees back to work at their theme parks during the pandemic. Their obfuscating of liability by invoking the pandemic spoke to a larger issue, beyond Disney, the beginning of the streaming wars and the ways that studios would stand to benefit.
The complicated struggle between theatrical release and digital releases have been accelerated by the pandemic, but it’s one that will have years in its engine. The purity of the theatrical experience is one question, but the truth is that ultimately studios, as corporations, are neither pro or anti streaming or theatricality – they are pro making money, and that’s what Johansson’s suit gets to. If they can negotiate stars, and directors, out of the dividends then that gives them more power to amass. And even when it doesn’t realise it, traces of Disney’s fingerprints are all over the final generic act of “Black Widow”.
Johansson is good, better than she’s been given the opportunity to be before in any previous version of this role, but still is in many ways stunted by the vision the MCU has for Natasha. Because this isn’t really a film giving Natasha what she deserves, but a sleight-of-hand set-up to propel Pugh’s Yelena as the future of the Black Widow. What “Black Widow” does is calcify and problematise the very idea of Natasha on screen. It won’t change the dial on how you think of her.
I’ve always found Johansson’s onscreen ambivalence in the role much more compelling compared to the pivot to humour that marks the key heroes within the MCU. It’s a matter of taste; that ambivalence announces itself as monotone for many but from my vantage point it’s a stabilising consistency that pierces the Marvel inclination to undercut their moments of tension with humour. Johansson can be funny, but her approach to Natasha is rarely consistent and it’s something I welcome amidst the freneticism that marks so much of the other entries. In “Black Widow,” she exists in the same framework just on a bigger platform. Pugh, as her younger sister, is the devil-may-care side-kick to Natasha’s stoic leader. Weisz and Harbour play comedically off each other. In a dinner-table reunion, Johansson’s stoicism is positioned as out-of-place. In a later moment, Yelena enjoys a heartfelt bit of remembering that Natasha does not.
Pugh is an engaging actress that I’ve always enjoyed, but here she feels tedious in major stretches in the same way that the relentlessness of many Marvel heroes irks me. She’s good, but there’s such an incessant movement to her work that makes it complicated. Natasha is acted upon more than active in her story, but it lends itself to a drawing of a breath. It’s why the film’s best fight sequence is an early moment before contexts abound. It is a scene of a solidarity Natasha fighting on a bridge with an, at the time, unknown assailant. Later in the film, Yelena will say that Natasha poses as if someone is always watching. But Johansson’s ambivalence feels more natural than the film’s positioning of Yelena as someone always “on”.
The more “Black Widow” begins to stack itself, the more it threatens to upend itself. It never undoes that goodwill. It’s pleasant, and it’s surprisingly moving in moments you anticipate but still manage to upend you. It’s clear the way it’s on a mission of course-correcting, not just as penance for Natasha but for all women. It makes the ending machinations a bit effortful in ways that are hard to ignore, especially a choice Natasha makes to put herself in danger in a final fight sequence. But it’s well-intentioned and it’s specific. It’s also an elegy, though. The MCU has never known what to do with Scarlett Johansson, and this entry hasn’t quite solved that. They’re looking ahead to Florence Pugh. Not that Johansson needs my sympathy on that end, but it still feels like a loss. Pour one out for Natasha Romanoff. We barely knew her.
“Black Widow” is now available for streaming on Disney+.
