ok I just finished the movie and am Filled With Thoughts
look at the masks here. the inclusion of masks in their character design is interesting because neither of these characters really need a mask like traditional superheroes do. traditional superheroes wear masks to conceal their identities, but Captain America is a cultural icon so everyone knows his identity, and the Winter Soldier is an assassin for HYDRA, which is his entire identity. neither of them have any reason to wear a mask outside of visual storytelling; for Cap, it's part of his iconic look; and for Bucky, keeping suspense because we (the viewer) don't know who he is until the big reveal. but I like to think there's a little more to it than that.
just look at what the masks look like. for Cap, it covers his upper face. it protects his head and eyes. it resembles the helmet he wore as a soldier. he's someone who protects
then look at Bucky's. it covers the lower half of his face like a muzzle. he's something to be leashed. controlled. the only protective gear he wears is his goggles, but even those are quickly removed.
which brings me to my next point!!! in every fight scene where both Bucky and Cap were involved, Bucky "shed layers" of his mask before eventually revealing his identity. the audience's first time seeing him (when he attacks Nick Fury), he has the mask and the goggles, so only his forehead is visible. the next time we see him, he's wearing the full getup, but after the goggles are damaged by Natasha, he removes them. he wears the mask for the duration of the fight until it's dislodged by Cap, where both he and the audience see his face for the first time. and after that, the mask no longer comes back into play. why would it? the mystery the mask created has been solved. we know who the Winter Soldier is. and more than that, the mask is a visual representation of the hold HYDRA has on him. it's a muzzle, remember? it comes off when he meets Steve on the bridge. it stays off even while they fight on the helicarrier, where Bucky breaks free for good.
which again brings me to my next point: the final helicarrier fight. it starts out with Bucky, without his mask, vs Cap, who's wearing his full uniform. but it ends with a maskless Cap vs a maskless Bucky. I always love masks as a visual storytelling device because of how they represent personas. we saw it in the beginning of the movie, where the Winter Soldier persona was set up as the antagonist and where, after the mask is removed, Bucky's persona is revealed. at the end of the final battle, it isn't Captain America vs The Winter Soldier anymore. the masks are off on both sides, and it's Steve Rogers vs Bucky Barnes. what's more, Bucky doesn't fully break free from the control until Steve tells him that he's "with him 'till the end of the line." and what really gets me here is that Steve isn't saying it as a shredded superhero with an invincible shield. he's saying it as how Bucky remembers him: bloodied and beaten, but refusing to bend. and that's what Bucky sees: the sick kid who got his ass handed to him every day but who always went back for more. he didn't see a mark, or a mission, or even Captain America. he saw Steve Rogers, and that's why he was able to shake HYDRA's hold.
some other things I'd like to point out is how they move during fights. Cap is light on his feet; quick, efficient. he's not just moving quickly, he's conserving energy and limiting damage to himself and the environment. he lands on the balls of his feet to absorb damage, he rolls to come out of falls. Bucky, on the other hand, is almost unhinged in how he moves. he lands with his full weight, making no moves to absorb the impact; it makes him faster, but damages his body and the environment. he creates collateral damage wherever he goes--not just what's around him, but his own body--to get the job done. whereas Cap is clearly trained to keep himself and everything around him as structurally sound as possible.
another thing that's always stood out to me is the Winter Soldier's theme. and here I'm gonna put on my musician hat and clown makeup:
from 0:15 to 1:02 it establishes an eerie almost human sound, almost like a scream. and if you listen to Bucky's as he falls from the train, it almost sounds like a remix of his scream. and from 1:02 on, the sound slowly turns more and more mechanical and starts building up into the theme. but what I really love about this is the audible shift from a human(?) scream into mechanic/electronic effects. much in the way Bucky went from human to weapon.
I'm sure more things will come to mind later but for now these are just the surface level things I noticed.
