The Mercenary Use of “Like a Prayer” in “Deadpool & Wolverine”
Quick introductory summary for those not versed in decades of superhero stuff: “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the latest, gargantuan Disney’s Attempt to Save the Billion-Dollar Superhero Industryhis golden goose of the last 20 years.
Comic book movies have entered a deep creative and commercial crisis after Robert Downey Jr.’s farewell to the character of Iron Man in “Avengers: Endgame”. An era of movies, comic book stories and pop obsessions has opened and then closed with perfect timing, dictated by the actor and the character who have characterized it most: sometimes the universe has a sense, a logic. If it weren’t for the fact that Disney – the custodian of almost all the rights to the Marvel universe in cinema and on TV – makes little use of logic, especially .after having swallowed up FOX. Stop now that he has finally got his hands on a treasure trove of characters like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and so on? No sir. We have to find a way to convince people that they want to see a new re-establishment of the mutant universethe third in less than 30 years. In the face of two successful and accomplished trilogies.
Ryan Reynolds on Madonna’s Couch
Fast forward and we come to Ryan ReynoldsHollywood star whose superpower appears to be the ability to convince anyone to do anything. An example? He persuaded his colleague Hugh Jackman to return to the role of Wolverine, taking back his announcement that he would be leaving the role for good. No small feat, considering that, like his colleague Downey Jr., Jackman nailed the perfect exit with “Logan” (2017), another film about mutants, but outside of trilogies and franchises. A hard, moving self-contained title, so praised by critics that they even half-thought about sending it to the Oscars.
With these credentials, Ryan Reynolds got himself a pass to the Ciccone residence. It does inform us that songs like “Like a Prayer” aren’t sitting on a licensing shelf, available to anyone with deep enough pockets to buy the rights. Not if you want to use Madonna’s 1989 hit you have to find a way to meet her and convince her. So Ryan Reynolds went to Madonna’s house – as he told People – asking the singer’s staff what to call her (can you say to Madonna “hi Madonna, it’s Ryan”? Apparently so). He arrived prepared, with a montage of the final scene in which he intended to insert the song. A song that the singer seems to be particularly jealous of.
Reading between the lines of Reynolds’ statements, the explanation of how he got Lady Ciccone’s yes is easy to understand: Pop star’s son is a fan of the first two Deadpool movies and put in a good word for it. Reynolds explained that Madonna also provided unspecified “notes” on how best to use the song. Notes that Reynolds and the producers were quick to follow to the letter. Thus “Like a Prayer” ended up in the final scene of the film, complete with Reynolds as the superhero quotable telling the audience “we’re at the final sacrifice scene with a Madonna song!”
All’s well that ends well? Not really. Because the aforementioned sacrifice or alleged sacrifice did not specifically need “Like A Prayer”. Under the guise of quotationism, “Deadpool & Wolverine” makes mercenary use of an unforgettable 80s pop hit. The brilliant attack of the song, Madonna’s intense voice reflecting on the mystery of life, the pop musical crescendo serve to create a mood of nostalgia, recognition, expectation. Like when, during a 90s-themed disco night, “L’Amour Toujours” by Gigi Dag starts. Only there is a coherent use of an iconic song of Italian disco, which everyone in the room waits for all night and when it starts, the crowd screams and starts singing “poporopo”.
The fig leaf of Deadpool citationism
The citationism of “Deadpool & Wolverine” – whether endogenous to the superhero universe, music or referring to pop culture more broadly – from a disruptive element in superhero storytelling it has become the fig leaf of a huge creative crisisgigantic, which goes far beyond the universe of superheroes.
The meta-narrativethe one in which the text dialogues directly with the audience, with the characters addressing the spectators in the room or interrupting the fiction of the story to reflect on it, it is a stylistic figure of the present. We could define it as post-postmodern. It is not a new element, perhaps not even its recurrent and systematic use. What makes it different is its capitalistic use by mega entertainment entities.
So let’s go back to Madonna’s living room, who together with *NSYNC, The Goo Goo Dolls, Fergie, Avril Lavigne, Aretha Franklin, Green Day and Hugh Jackman said yes to Ryan Reynolds, to theusing one’s music to create a relaxed atmosphere of familiarity and nostalgia. We have already talked about the nostalgia effect used as in a waiting room or in a bar with a soft atmosphere to create well-being and relaxation, artfully exhuming this or that pop hit, but here we go further.
Deadpool in fact spends the entire film making fun of Pantalone, aka Disney, mocking her with vulgar vulgarity for her giga-corporation maneuvers that eat, blend, buy, exploit everything. But when he presses play on the stereo and “Like a Prayer” starts, blasted at very high volume so that nostalgia slaps our eardrums, an atrociously cynical doubt arises. Whatever this is.the final stage of the commercial exploitation of meta-textual narrative: corporations willing to be ridiculed in public if it allows them to continue making money relatively easily and safely.
Since Disney is Disney, Pantalone’s pockets are so deep that Ryan Reynolds will get an audience on any sofa, Madonna’s, Green Day’s, Avril Lavigne’s. We’re not talking about a famous song artfully and surprisingly placed at a point in an original and stimulating film to give us the final coup de grace. It’s “Like a Prayer” blasted out of the box from the promotional trailer – rigorously edited in time with the pop song – because nostalgia must be teased starting from the promotional campaign.
Far be it from me to criticize Madonna or the others, probably convinced by the enthusiasm of their children, of their fans, by the desire to reduce a bit the mythological aura that suffocates certain hits of the past. It would have been nice, however, to be on the couch next to Madonna and say to her: “But who makes you do it? Who makes you do it, taking chestnuts out of the fire for others, giving them permission to mercenarily use a piece that you are obviously still very fond of? Let them find a way to stimulate an emotion, a feeling, an idea, without taking down the licenses of other people’s work from the shelf.”
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is in Italian theaters from July 24, 2024.
