In the spring of 2012, a few months after filming The Avengers and just before reprising his role as Captain America
for a third time, Chris Evans played the rebel who leads a ragtag, rag-wearing
lower-class community in a revolt against their decadent overseers in Bong Joon-Ho’s
English-language debut Snowpiercer (released
in the U.S. in 2014). For the film’s South Korean director, the challenge was finding
the right clothes and camera angles to hide the actor’s Marvel superhero physique in order to
assure his credibility as the malnourished leader of the revolutionaries. This
problem provides an apt metaphor for the
Weinstein Co.’s marketing and distribution of the movie. Analyzing the
Weinsteins’ involvement with and public statements about Bong’s film and its intended audience in trade
publications, I will argue that the distribution company used a discourse of
distinction built on aesthetic value judgments in order to rationalize and justify
decisions based on financial considerations. Their challenge was finding the
right language to disguise the sci-fi action blockbuster as a small indie movie
better fitted for online and on demand distribution rather than a wide
theatrical release.
