Just because kids will figure out a way to see "The Suicide Squad" doesn't mean
they'll understand everything they see in the movie. Here are some "R-rated" or otherwise
"adult" moments in "The Suicide Squad" that will soar over the heads of younger viewers.
Although they're never seen, we are informed that Nazis built Jotunheim after World War
II, when they came to Corto Maltese seeking asylum
and hoping to continue their experiments. Couple this with the eventual reveal of
Jotunheim's inner workings, where faceless prisoners are held in obscene conditions,
shuffling their feet in cramped cells, and you get a fictional horror reflecting a real one.
For an adult, such imagery coupled with the words "Nazi"
brings to mind the most repulsive horrors mankind has ever witnessed,
including painful, often deadly experiments on thousands of prisoners without their permission.
Of course, none of this involved an enormous starfish from outer space.
But as an adult, there's a reason why words like "Nazi" and "experiment"
carry connotations with such power that a blockbuster filmmaker would invoke them
when trying to elicit a sense of repulsion from his audience.
So, while the superhero subject matter may sometimes be silly,
that doesn't make it any less of a good opportunity to engage the young person
in your life about the very real horrors that once unfolded here on planet Earth.
When an adult hears the very first words spoken in this movie — "Hello, I'm Johnny
Cash" — perhaps they'll realize they're hearing "Folsom Prison Blues," a song the legendary Man
in Black performed to a crowd of inmates at Folsom State Prison in 1968. Against the wishes of many,
this performance — and the groundbreaking live album that came with it — gave inmates hope and
made them feel like human beings, something very important to Cash, who was a hero to the working
class, downtrodden, and incarcerated until the day he died. Appropriately,
the song plays over footage of Savant sitting in prison, occupying himself with a bouncy ball.
In the same vein, when an adult hears the rousing track "People Who Died" play over the opening
credits, perhaps they'll realize that this is a song by poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll,
and that all those people in the song really did die in the ways being described.
For greater detail about many of those unfortunate acquaintances
of Carroll — born to a working-class Irish family in New York's Lower East
Side — perhaps the adult may have read Carroll's autobiographical book "The Basketball Diaries,"
or at least seen the 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio film of the same name that starred Leo as Carroll.
"I need some money real bad."
From Louis Prima to Pixies, the "Suicide Squad" soundtrack is as catchy as it is a gateway to
multiple generations, and the multiple subtexts these musicians bring to mind.
James Gunn is a master at using pop music to give added dimension to a scene,
and he selects most of his soundtracks while he writes his films,
creating scenes around the feelings and associations that a song carries with it.
To a younger person, maybe the songs just sound cool. So this is your chance to talk about
music old and new — and the more they know about these musicians,
the more they'll appreciate the film next time they watch it.
A couple decades back, an urban legend spread from coast to coast about a certain movie star
(who will not be named here — you have search engines) who supposedly had a thing for gerbils.
It's not true, but it evidently captured the imagination of an entire generation,
many of whom probably still think there's something to it.
Flash-forward to today and you have an antagonistic dynamic in "The Suicide
Squad" between Ratcatcher II and the Thinker. In one contentious moment,
she asks him, "Do you want a dozen angry rodents crawling up your ass?"
to which he responds, "My answer may not be what you expect."
The exchange seems more likely to get a laugh from an adult than a teen,
possibly because that adult remembers the pre-internet days when the urban legend was
spread from locker room to locker room. It also perhaps reflects a generational divide,
with an older person more likely to laugh at another's perceived "kink,"
while younger generations are probably more apt to expect anything.
So, teens, tolerate your mom and dad if they laugh at that joke — there's a whole history behind it.
Adults, don't be upset if your teen says you shouldn't laugh at such things — tolerance and
acceptance are never bad instincts to possess, even when we're simply overanalyzing a throwaway
line about the sex life of a fictional evil genius with wires and metal sticking out of his head.
To a younger person, Viola Davis' Amanda Waller is the quasi-bad guy who deploys Task Force X on
their mission, and blows up their heads if they try to escape. But if you're an adult who knows
anything about the source material, you're aware that Waller has been the driving force of this
modern Suicide Squad since the late '80s, and is far and away its most morally complex character.
In 1987's "Secret Origins" #14, we learned that Waller grew up in Chicago,
had five kids — and then watched her son killed, daughter attacked, and husband slaughtered while
trying to avenge them. When the police refused to help, she had the wherewithal and determination
to go back to school, use her education to land a job with the federal government,
and then embark on a mission to make sure "metahumans" would never hurt civilians again.
Kinda gives you pause when you consider that Waller being knocked unconscious by
her mutineering staff is played as a triumphant moment worth cheering.
Want to engage the young person in your life in a conversation about the shortcomings
of law enforcement? The desire to take the law into your own hands — and why that can
make the problem worse? The slippery slope of vengeance? The moral implications of treating
prisoners as something less than human beings with rights? Amanda Waller is your gateway.
While it's easy to watch a superhero film and say
"Batman is a vigilante. Isn't that cool?" it's a lot more important (and hopefully,
rewarding) to delve into the moral complexities of such characters. Sooner or later, every kid
needs to learn that most people aren't good or bad, but instead dwell in the grey area between.
"I'm a superhero!"
Perhaps no superhero series depicts characters in that grey area better than the "Suicide
Squad" movies, where villains are heroes, heroic figures hide their darkest secrets,
and the monster at the end of the movie is a sullen interstellar captive
subjected to decades of rendition. Who knows? Such a discussion might not just
be good parenting, but it might also give them a deeper appreciation for the movie.
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