The logic of leniency, played out on a universal stage
WASHINGTON - In the climactic action sequence of "Star Trek," the year's most popular movie, the new, younger Captain Kirk does something novel for a big summer action flick: He offers leniency to an enemy.
Turning to a puzzled Mr. Spock, Kirk explains that showing leniency toward the rival Romulans could promote trust and increase the chances of reconciliation, for the betterment of the galaxy.
"It's logical," he declares.
But before the data-driven Spock can process this unique piece of information, the Romulan leader, Captain Nero, seems to remember that he's in an American action movie and is expected to act accordingly. He snarls that he would rather be blown to shreds than accept a nickel of kindness from Kirk, who promptly obliges him.
It's hard to know what the filmmakers intend to convey through this age-of-Obama moment. Movies, even summer action flicks set in the imaginary future, reflect their times, and so "Star Trek" includes a pointed reference to genocide and draws heavily on the fact of Spock's mixed parentage, as he struggles to find his place straddling the worlds of Vulcan and Earth.
President Obama, in a recent interview, said he arranged a private screening of "Star Trek" because everyone said he was so like Spock. (One suspects they weren't only referring to mixed parentage, however.)
But if Obama, munching popcorn in the White House screening room, saw in "Star Trek" a sign of how the world might regard his overtures to Iran and other enemies of the United States, he can't have been too satisfied.
The president has positioned himself as a realist who nonetheless believes there is a benefit in presenting a less threatening face to the world. His critics, led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, consider making overtures to enemies a form of weakness and argue that history, if not nature itself, compels a perpetually hard-line stance on national security.
"Star Trek" can't resolve that debate any more than Ensign Chekov can secure Vladimir Putin's cooperation in arms-control agreements.
But the movie does illustrate the extent to which Obama is challenging deeply ingrained attitudes.
Action movies are among America's greatest exports. "Star Trek" is probably heading for a $500 million global gross, while even a prestigious drama like the recent Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio adaptation of the respected novel "Revolutionary Road" didn't top $75 million. Even a very successful comedy like the recent "I Love You, Man," doesn't translate overseas - too much talking - and thus finishes somewhere short of $100 million.
But blockbusters are constructed for the international audience, with relatively little dialogue to minimize difficulties in non-English-speaking countries and a maximum of special effects. This makes most action movies simple, and enhances their mythical qualities. And myths, at least those surrounding American-made entertainment products, not only favor violence over diplomacy, and vengeance over leniency, but strive to provide a narrative justification for violence and vengeance.
Thus, both Kirk and Spock, whose histories were only loosely depicted in the 1960s TV series, are given parents who are killed by Captain Nero.
This fact doesn't so much torment the fatherless Kirk as give his life purpose and direction: He begins to achieve his God-given potential, tempering his undisciplined nature, only when he sees a chance to confront Nero.
Spock gets the worst of it: Nero destroys the planet Vulcan - a civilization of six billion people - as revenge for a future atrocity against the Romulan people for which he blames Spock personally. Nero accomplishes this with the flick of an eyebrow, though an "artificial black hole" is mentioned as well. Fortunately, a few Vulcans, including Spock's faux-British father, escape but the six billion people are gone forever.
In the movie's conception of good and evil, both Nero and Spock are acting appropriately in avenging perceived wrongs, and the proof of Nero's evil and Spock's virtue is mainly in the fact that Spock prevails: God, science, nature, and the special-effects team at Paramount all combine to create a universe in which force and justice go hand in hand.
No wonder Nero rejected Kirk's overtures. Cooperation, in this universe, is indistinguishable from submission. Peace is inherently dishonorable.
Obama, who once gave the British prime minister a pile of American movie DVDs as an official gift, should probably resist any impulse to give "Star Trek" to his future negotiating partners. Hollywood, in this instance, doesn't favor Obama.
Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. "National Perspective" is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond. He can be reached at canellos@globe.com. 