Exploring PTSD in The Falcon and Winter Soldier
Marvel is known for big action and well-balanced comedy across its huge universe. However, every once in a while they touch on the human experience in a way that can be very powerful, so today we’re going to take a look at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and examine how it explores Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
When we catch up with Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, we’re introduced to a man who is being haunted by a violent past. Ultimately, he is having to come to terms with everything that his body did during his time as the Winter Soldier. Riddled with trauma, Bucky is facing PTSD and must go on a deeply emotional and impactful journey to heal.
So what is PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Well, it is a serious condition that can affect anyone who goes through a physical or emotional trauma in their life. The effects of PTSD can last from weeks up to decades, it varies from person to person. PTSD is a very real and present condition that permeates within people’s lives and our societies in a multitude of ways which makes it an incredibly important topic to explore through storytelling. With that said, let’s take a look at how the filmmakers, without explicitly mentioning it, have showcased the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, experience with PTSD.
From 16:28 all the way to 18:11 we are a witness to Bucky Barnes’ dream world where he remembers the assassination of one of his targets, as well as the murder of a bystander who had seen his face. From many accounts of people suffering from PTSD this vivid remembering and dreaming of traumatic events are accurate.
When we come out of Bucky’s terrible dream, we realise that Bucky is sleeping on the floor, almost like he feels that he doesn’t deserve any sense of comfort. This is a great way of showing us that he is riddled with guilt and doesn’t care for any source of support or comfort
At 18:20 we now meet Mr Barnes in the psychologist’s office. This frame is incredibly powerful in a few ways. First, he is completely centred within the frame, but his size remains very small. In fact, we can fit exactly 10 Bucky Barnes’ into the frame. This choice represents Bucky’s mental state — he’s not at all confident and less powerful.
Next, let’s take a look at what’s around him. If you see, he’s sitting in front of a serene picture, but if we take a closer look, we realise that the picture is cut almost completely in half.
A shard of light slices through the image creating two sections — one covered in light and the other in the darkness. It suggests a representation of his brain, one half in complete darkness, the other half in the light. He’s not all quite there yet.
At 18:24 we’re treated to an unusual camera angle, we’ve gone from being very wide to incredibly close, a kind of extreme close-up on his eye. Yet we’re not just on eye level, the filmmakers have put the camera up very high at a strange angle so that we don’t get a clear view of Bucky’s entire face, in fact only his actual eye is in focus. For some perspective, it’s important to note that most films and TV series when going from a wide shot to a close shot will go through a medium shot to facilitate a smooth transition. Here, the filmmakers have instead jolted us from a wide shot to an extreme close-up, jarringly entering his space. It’s almost as if the filmmakers are trying to make us feel as uncomfortable as he is.
When we arrive at 18:31, we’re privy to three unusual shots that speak volumes about Bucky Barnes’ mental state.
Generally, when looking at one character’s face, we would then cut to the second character in the scene to see how they are communicating with the first character. This gives us the power dynamic between the characters. In this scene, we cut to a psychologist who is much bigger in the frame than Bucky was in his initial shot, this lets us know that in this particular situation, she has more power.
At 18:53, we break from the to and fro between the psychologist and Bucky Barnes, and we’re treated to the first shot where we truly see the full head of the psychologist:
but the difference between this shot and Bucky Barnes’ initial shot is that she again takes up much more of the frame. However one extra detail comes to light here, we can tell she is not his adversary. You see cinematically the audience has been trained to recognise, when putting two characters on either side of the frame they are creating some sort of conflict — the left-hand side typically for protagonists and the right-hand side for the antagonist. But in this case, both characters are in the middle of the frame, they both want the same thing for Bucky, for Bucky to heal.
Referring to the painting mentioned earlier, some of you might be wondering why the psychologist doesn’t have one behind her
This is a good question. If we think about it, during a session a psychologist should probably have calming paintings and artwork behind them for the patient to view. In the case of the Winter Soldier, the painting is behind him. So why have the filmmakers done something which isn’t necessarily correct? Well, it seems they’ve chosen to convey the characters rather than a real psychologist’s office. Let’s face it, this is Marvel so super-soldiers, wizards and magic exist, reality is a fluid concept.
Later in the first episode, we see Bucky Barnes on a first date with a potential suitor. Unfortunately, as previously stated, PTSD sufferers almost always have some sort of trigger and unfortunately, this lady lands on a trigger of his. From that moment, he pushes her away, his guilt and trauma completely take over. Many people who suffer from PTSD state how difficult it is to have interpersonal relationships due to these triggers. It isn’t until they can unearth these triggers, do they start to learn the emotional control enough to form deeper bonds.
I feel the filmmakers for Falcon and the Winter Soldier created a very compelling emotional journey for Bucky Barnes which I hope they return to complete in later stories. So next time you are watching a film or TV series where a character suffers from some mental or emotional trauma, check how the filmmakers have chosen to tell the story in new and interesting ways.
