X on the ballot?

A talk with Bryan Singer

Contrary to what happens in most election years, the movies seem to be taking stronger positions than the candidates are. Countering the right-wing patriotism of The Patriot is the ambiguous liberalism of X-Men, Bryan Singer's adaptation of the popular, long-running comic book about contending teams of good and evil mutants battling over the future of the human race. It can be read as an allegory of racial and sexual intolerance, of reactionary witch hunts, of fascist elites, even of AIDS anxiety. It has a pseudo- political campaign within the film itself -- Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) with his anti-mutant movement riling up the public's fear and hatred of the unknown -- that has spilled into the "real" world of the film's promotion through bumper stickers and fake demonstrations. Do the filmmakers hope that the movie will win the vote of viewers turned off by the bland platforms of Bush and Gore?

"The advantage the X-Men have is that they're not politicians," muses Singer. "They're superheroes. So it's a lot more fun. It's entertaining. But I think the social aspect of the film is a big draw, touching on the fear of being alone, of being an outcast, the fear of the unknown."

The X-Men were an unknown to Singer when he was offered the project as a follow-up to his hit The Usual Suspects and the disappointing Apt Pupil. "I was reluctant because I didn't know anything about it. As soon as I learned what the X-Men were, I became very fascinated and involved. It wasn't just the characters, the amazing powers, but the underlying philosophy. Trying to find your place in the world despite discrimination and fear. It dealt with very universal concepts using the superhero genre."

Singer makes the genre his own with the opening sequence, a flashback to the way Magneto discovers his powers while being separated from his parents at Auschwitz. A twist on the Holocaust background of the bad guy in Apt Pupil (also played by Ian McKellen), it calls to mind the nightmarish past of The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze.

"A bit coincidental, this relationship with Apt Pupil," demurs Singer. "Because actually in the comic book, Magneto's parents were killed in Auschwitz, and a lot of the comics focused on that history. But I do see the similarities with films I've done. Good and evil in them are not easily defined or black and white, as with the criminals in The Usual Suspects, the boy in Apt Pupil, and now the heroes and villains in X-Men. It's no surprise that the comic-book X-Men emerged in the '60s, when social upheaval was everywhere, society was changing, things were becoming more complex, and people were realizing the world was more complicated than they thought. Before, there was always a do-good, good-versus-evil mentality in popular art. In the '60s, with the civil-rights movement and the Vietnam War, things became gray. Then along came the X-Men. I don't think it was a coincidence."

Since the '60s, the X-Men have accumulated four decades worth of fans, many of them now with access to the Internet and all very protective of their mutant maverick role models. No film since Titanic or The Phantom Menace has undergone so much pre-release scrutiny and debunking, much of it Web-based. Because of budget and schedule constraints and the need for secrecy, Singer was unable to test-screen the film, so when it was unveiled last weekend in New York for a promotional junket, he was understandably anxious. Did the critics and fans vote favorably?

"Quite overwhelmingly," is the response. "It's taken me off guard. It's very vindicating."
-- P.K.

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