locations that have nothing to do with aging are the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The film revolves around three people who suffer from death in different ways. George is a working-class blue-collar, because he can talk to the dead and establish a special connection with the dead world; on the other side of the earth, a French journalist named Mary has just experienced a terrible near-death experience. She has already shaken her understanding of life, and even has an irreversible impact on her life in reality; as a student in London, Marcus has just lost her closest person-twin brother Jason , So he is desperately trying to find the answer. Each of them is desperately searching for the truth behind the matter, and their lives have finally begun to intersect, because they all believe that the world after death is possible or certain, and it is forcing their future to be changed forever. .
The above is the general plot of the latest American movie "Hereafter", directed by Clint Eastwood. I want to talk about the director aside from the movie. But the fact is, to talk about Clint Eastwood, one must start in the 1960s. In fact, as early as 1955, Eastwood began to appear on the American screen. The starting point of time was set in the 1960s, not only because the "Red Dead Redemption" trilogy (1964, 1965, 1966) made Eastwood the most beloved idol star of the year and the spokesperson of American cowboys, but also That was an extremely important year in American history and even human history. The "lost generation" is being covered by the "beat generation." Human rights movements such as black and feminism are surging. Sexual liberation rock music miniskirts, jeans, plastic products... have also become popular around the world since then. While the post-war conservatism has come to a complete end, the emancipation of human minds has surpassed the highest roof in history. It can be said that modern society and modern life in the true sense began in that year. Of course, these have nothing to do with the ambitions described in this article. The purpose of these statements is to show that Eastwood is a modern man living in modern society even though he is over eighty years old.
The meaning of modern people's life is not the classicism's meritorious deeds and the eternal fame. "Meaning" is not a reliable thing, and its value is extremely dubious. In my opinion, the core issue of modern life is to realize or complete oneself. The individual's responsibilities and obligations to the group are not important. The free growth of the individual (including birth, old age, sickness and death) is the maximum value of human beings. As for merit and good name, they are only derived, not the purpose of life. It is the free growth of these individuals that can organize a relatively harmonious human group, and it is to ensure that the maximum presentation of individual values can prevent a nation or country from dying in an aging society.
In other words, it is completely fragile and shameful to take root or "qualificationism" to encounter modern life. As the "famous performance artist of the older generation", Eastwood abandoned his name as if. He is full of enthusiasm and awe while starring in many movies, but also directing many masterpieces. The questioning of the human legal machine in "The Suspicious Cloud", the gaze on life and love in "A Million Baby", the meditation on "Cruel of Justice" and "Aging Youth" in "Never Forgive"...they All shocked and hit the soul directly. It can be said that these three films uniformly express the heavy and empty aesthetic style of Eastwood's film works, and this aesthetic style is Eastwood's, that is to say, it is individual.
"From Now on" follows the above-mentioned aesthetic style. However, as agreed by those who have watched the movie, this is not the best movie in Eastwood, and it can even be said that it is not a good movie. The long and dull narrative, and the three unrelated clues finally overlapped too coincidentally (especially the love at first sight between the female reporter Mary and the psychic George). It is probably not the dullness itself that makes people sleepy, but the disorder of logic and rhythm. , And the latter is sufficient to breed the former. In other words, when content (plot) and form (film narrative strategy) violate each other, the result can only be so.
Even so, I still have to praise Eastwood. What this movie allows you to see is not the success or failure of a director, whether it is aging or not, but just let you see an individual's difficult thinking about life and death. If you don't tell you the name of the director, you can't imagine that it is an old man's work. Its experimental nature, prudent attitude and exquisite language can only come from the hands of a director who maintains desire and vitality for his profession. We don't know when Eastwood will die, and we can't seem to guess when he was born. He is a modern person, a modern individual, a modern artist, and modernity has allowed him to surpass the age imprint that an ancient individual could not get rid of—modernity makes him the ultimate, not the decline. (Column)
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