Last weekend prolific B-Movie filmmaker Albert Pyun passed away at the age of 69, after a years-long struggle with multiple sclerosis and dementia.

It is with a great deal of shame and embarrassment that I must admit that up until a month ago, I didn’t know who he was. That is, until two weeks ago, when, as I was doomscrolling reddit headlines whilst nursing my morning coffee, one headline in particular stuck out; it was a request from Albert’s wife, Cynthia, asking that his fans reach out to him in his final days with words of love and comfort.

I lingered on this for a moment, dwelling in a self-reflective reverie as I pondered loss, family, and the joy of art and creation. Unfortunately, my day was continuing without me, so I moved on and ultimately forgot about the headline, until a few days later, when he (and Cynthia’s request) were the subject of a YouTube video from the folks at Red Letter Media. In their video, they highlighted two of his films, one of which (“Cyborg”, 1989) I was surprised to remember having watched on cable as a kid. As it turned out, Albert had quite the extensive filmography under his belt, having directed 55 separate projects, according to IMDb.

Determined to set aside a couple of hours from my day to enjoy one of his works, I perused his many titles and picked a movie. I could have gone with “Cyborg”, which stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and a lot of kicking, or I could have gone with Mr. Pyun’s first film, 1982’s “The Sword and The Sorcerer”, but there was another title that caught my attention – that demanded my viewing – 1990’s “Captain America”.

Years before the abomination that is The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) swept the lands – like so much unchecked capitalism does – Disney was busy focusing on their animation renaissance and Marvel was busy going bankrupt. During these tumultuous years, the once mighty comic book company made multiple attempts to bring their characters to life via the big screen. It had worked for their rival, DC Comics, with the success of 1989’s runaway hit “Batman”, so why couldn’t it work for Marvel? It should be pointed out that a Captain America movie had been in the works since sometime around the late 70’s/early 80’s, and that by the time the movie as we know it was under way, they were rushing to release it in 1990, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the titular character. The movie did manage to finish production on time, but it wouldn’t be released until 1992, when it was unceremoniously dumped straight to video.

What Marvel had hoped to be their financial savior, turned out to be something far more special: B-Movie Gold.

The film starts off with a speed-run establishing both our protagonist and antagonists’ backstories, something that used to be common practice among screenwriters, but in today’s age of endless franchises it is generally frowned upon, as modern filmmakers would much rather drag out 25 minutes worth of character establishment into one overly long and drawn out franchise ad, or “origin story” feature film. It should be of note that the first half hour of the movie covers the entire plotline of the 2011 MCU version. It’s WWII, Red Skull is created, Captain America is created, the two fight, and Red Skull ties Cap to a rocket aimed at the White House, which Cap manages to knock off course by kicking it really hard, at which point it crashes into a snow drift somewhere in Alaska, and our hero is frozen in ice for 50 years.

Flash forward to present-day 1992, where the President of the United States is planning to enact sweepingly progressive climate action. Warned by a former general turned congressman – who in no way resembles Nebraska’s very own Don Bacon – that the climate bill is bad, our president, who is clearly good because the movie said so, politely tells him to get out of his office. We then establish in the following scene that General Congressman is in fact in league with an evil cabal of wealthy elites, bent on world domination, the leader of which is Red Skull. Red Skull devises a plot to kidnap the president, in order to implant a mind control device in his brain.

Miraculously, back in Alaska, Captain America is discovered by some researchers, and in a sequence that may or may not have been a nod to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, he thaws out and escapes. This immediately becomes frontpage news around the world, because the movie needed it to, and Red Skull sends his daughter and several unnamed hench-people to kill him. Luckily, the president’s childhood best-friend (and a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist) is able to rescue Cap just as the baddies arrive.

Eventually, after a bit of a slow middle act, Captain America goes to Italy to fight Red Skull and rescue the kidnapped president. Our hero prevails, our villain falls comedically over a cliff, and the movie ends with our hero looking straight into the camera, which is a totally normal way to end a film.

This movie has its flaws. It’s low-budget. The pacing lags in places. The acting of its leads was lacking. However, Albert Pyun was a master at doing a lot with a little, and as bad as this movie may be, had it been left in someone else’s hands, it could have been a lot worse. There’s an earnestness to this movie, a sincerity that I find absolutely lacking in modern comic book movies. Yes, there were moments that were unbearably cheesy, and yes, even a few moments that I couldn’t stop laughing at; but I would gladly share this movie with friends, and I would gladly watch it any day, over watching another tired MCU product.

My condolences to Mr. Pyun’s family, and my thanks to Mr. Pyun.

“Captain America” is available for free with ads on YouTube, and David Schildman is available for free with ads at his desk: David@omahadailyrecord.com.