Can anyone really be free?

Black Widow (2021)

Everybody talks about wanting to be free, free from any encumbrances, free to say and do as he pleases, free as a bird to move around. The caged dog looks at his stray counterpart on the other side of the fence with contempt for the freedom that he enjoys. On the other hand, the stray longs for the time when he does not have to scratch his head looking for his next meal.

We think we are free by living with our loved ones or within communities that we find commonalities. Sad to say that even within societies, certain norms and mores exist that one is excepted to conform to. Challenges are bound to happen with the members in the spring of their youth; the young feel restricted with educational exposure. They want to be free of any restrictive chains that bog them down.

Like it or not, it is not easy. Wilfully or not, we are tied down. A society is paved towards a particular direction by the instructions laid down by the majority. To reach greater heights, these laid laws need to be progressive in keeping with the changing times and their corresponding challenges. One cannot hope one archaic rule to apply to the end of times.

The Black Widow story is set before Avengers: Endgame, where Black Widow sacrificed herself trying to undo Thanos' snapping of fingers. It starts with Natasha Romanoff's (Black Widow) childhood in 1995 Ohio. She discovers that her parents had to flee to Cuba to escape arrest by the authorities. She soon discovers that her parents are Russian sleepers in the USA and that her family is just a front for espionage. In Cuba, Natasha's father (Red Guardian - Russia's answer to Captain America) is apprehended by Dreykov. Melina, her mother, is inducted as a chief scientist in the Red Room to research the mind. Natasha and her sister, Yelena, are enrolled on the Black Widow programme to churn out efficient lean, mean mind-controlled female assassins.

Along the course, Natasha escapes, join SHIELD and becomes a fugitive. When apprehending a rogue Black Widow, Yelena is sprayed with Red Dust, which removes her from the clutches of the Red Room mind control.

The rest of the story involves Yelena joining forces with Natasha to break their father from prison, influence their mother to reveal the location of the Red Room and destroy Dreykov to free all the Black Widows.

The word here is free. In the post-credit scene, we are told that Natasha had died, killed by Hawkeye. So, Yelena falls into the trap of Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (Val) to avenge her sister's death. So much for being free. It looks like Yelena, like a Black Widow who was under the control of Dreykov before now, maybe under the thumb of possibly HYDRA.

Interestingly, HYDRA believes that humanity cannot be trusted with freedom. When freedom is taken away, they resist. Wars have taught them that humans become most resourceful, efficient and laborious under pressure. Hence, humanity has to surrender its freedom willingly. Sometimes it needs to be done without their realisation.

(P.S. This is a through and through a feminist movie. Almost every assassin, sharpshooters, armoured henchmen (who could be women) and the main characters are female. The theme of freedom and removal of ovaries hint at such an agenda. The male characters are weak. Look at the almost drunk-like Red Guardian and Natasha's sidekick/love interest Rick Mason who yearns for her approval by bending backwards to get the things she wants.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.