Spiderman
Directed by Sam Raimi
2002

See our review of Spider-man 2 also


Overall, the latest Spiderman movie falls short for entertainment value;
it is far from action packed, with a plot and dialog that are best
described as trite. But the saving grace of the movie is the political
message at the end (which this review will be giving away).

Spiderman is the story of an ordinary boy, Peter Parker, who was bit by a
spider on a high school class trip. In narrating the beginning of the
movie, he says that his life story revolves around a beautiful woman. That
is an unfortunate characterization of the life of someone who ends up
devoting himself to fighting evil. But in the end the best political
message is wrapped up in this romantic subplot.

Of course, the spectacular evil Spiderman fights is the super villain
kind, but most of his time is spent fighting the ordinary evil of people
hurting other people. Essentially, on an individual scale, Spiderman is
fighting for a better world. But he is targeting crime on a small scale:
individual robberies and violence. Spiderman lacks any kind of systematic
analysis of the causes of evil that he is fighting, and as one man running
around New York City putting out fires (sometimes literally), he can't
really expect to make any progress towards ending all the violence that he
is trying to prevent. His time would be better spent fighting the causes
of crime (for instance poverty) and fighting the biggest murderers and
thieves in the world: the imperialists.

MIM does not agree with the idea that individual heroes are required to
fight evil (individual heroes with super powers). But we appreciate the
message that ordinary people can become heroes because of their
circumstances (though we're not waiting for our heroes to develop
superpowers). Rather than looking to individuals we take a more scientific
analysis of the world and argue that it is the people who make history.
Extraordinary leaders come from ordinary people who rise to the occasion
of their material conditions.

Ironically, it was the romantic plot that provided the most important
political message in the movie. When the woman Peter Parker was in love
with finally declared her love for him, he decided he could not be more
than friends with her. In order to devote his life to fighting evil in the
world he walked away from romance. This is the asexuality that MIM praises
as a superior romantic practice. It reflects a devotion to the people and
an understanding of responsibility to the people that supercedes romantic
cultural influence. Peter Parker said "With great power comes great
responsibility." The great power he refers to is his Spider-power. MIM
would take this quote and apply it to the power of the people to end
hunger, stop deaths from preventable diseases, end wars, stop the
destruction of the environment, and build a world where no group of people
has power over other groups. All individuals have the power to take up
this fight, and particularly here in the imperialist countries where we
benefit from this suffering around the world, we have a responsibility to
do so.