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COMIC
BOOK ANALOGIES TEACH TOLERANCE IN X-2: X-MEN UNITED
 X2:
X-Men United, directed by Bryan Singer, takes
many of the famous comic book characters into the White House.
One of the taglines is "First, they were fighting for
acceptance. Now, they're battling for survival." A voiceover
at the beginning reminds filmviewers that evolution has produced
beings that look like humans but have superhuman powers; soon,
Smithsonian Museum visitors are informed that the present human
race emerged from a marriage between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. X2 begins
where X1 left off, with Magneto (played
by Ian McKellen) already captured by human authorities. A school,
presumably for the gifted, run by Charles Xavier (played by
Patrick Stewart), the planet's top telepath, as before enrolls
mutants who learn how to live with non-mutant humans. Most
mutants, led by Xavier, believe that they can help the planet
on an equal basis with humans, using their powers, but Magneto
wants mutants to rule. In other words, Xavier is the equalitarian,
Magneto the imperialist, providing models that filmviewers
will analogize to Democrats versus Republicans, Colin Powell
versus Donald Rumsfeld, Europeans versus Americans, or whatever,
though some of the very young audience may interpret the conflict
as one between children and adults. The conflict among mutants
is suppressed for most of X2 because
they are threatened by General William Stryker (played by Brian
Cox), now retired, who is bent on eliminating mutants from
the planet; his son is a mutant whom he has disowned. Stryker,
who comes across as a latter-day Nazi, plans a pretext
for the genocide (or mutantcide). Accordingly, early in
the film, renegade teleporting mutant Nightcrawler (played
by Alan Cumming), having been brainwashed by Stryker, tries
to assassinate U.S. President McKenna (played by Cotter
Smith).
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McKenna
then supports Stryker, at the advice of his incompetent
sycophantish advisers, favoring the Mutant
Registration Act (which recalls the Alien Registration
Act of the McCarthy period and the current equivalent,
the Patriot Act). Stryker then arrests Xavier and all his
students; he hopes to use another alien turncoat, Yuriko
(played by Elsie Hu), to control Xavier, who in turn will
telepathically kill all mutants. (A subplot, with adopted
children in mind, has Wolferine (played by Hugh Jackman)
searching for his birthparents. In another subplot, Iceman
(played by Shawn Ashmore) comes out to his parents as a
mutant, though the reaction to his heartbroken mother is
as if he were gay. In actuality, he is gay!) Accordingly,
when Magneto escapes captivity, the mutants unite to stop
the planned annihilation. (The appropriate tagline is "The
time has come for those who are different to stand united.")
One approach is to eliminate Stryker, the other is to appeal
to the president directly, but the outcome is not in doubt;
clearly, the mutants have to survive so that X3 will
be at the box office next year. When the threat is over,
the previous quarrel among mutants resumes, just as onetime
U.S. allies Saddam Hussein and the Taliban became characterized
as monsters after they were left alone to carry out their
own agendas. Adults attending X2: X-Men United should
be advised that many small children will not always understand
the dialog or perceive what is happening and hence will
talk repeatedly during the film to ask the meaning of what
is going on; however, that distraction may at least keep
adults awake in case they are bored by how the mutants
occasionally masturbate their unusual powers or become
confused about their roles. The many obvious analogies
in the movie, which serve as agents of political socialization,
prompt the Political Film Society to nominate X2:
X-Men United (which mistakenly is not called X-People
United) as best film on human rights and
best film on peace for the year 2003. MH
OTHER
FILMS TO WATCH
Manic shows
teenagers at a mental institution. L'Auberge
Espagnole depicts European college students.
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