I always feel that "The Burning Years" is a very contradictory film. It's hard to say it's not a masterpiece, every actor gave a very good performance, Brad Pitt became famous, Anthony Hopkins did another great performance; even in the Hollywood of the nineties , its soundtrack is also top-notch; it was born in the Oscar "Super Golden Generation" movie in 1994, and the epic temperament of grandeur, elegance and tactfulness displayed in the lens language was unique in the 1990s; Its narrative time span is nearly seventy years, and every description in it is extremely vicissitudes of life. These are the rare contributions of "Burning Years" to epic movies.
But on the other hand, "The Burning Years" has many irreparable flaws: "The rhythm is always crucial," says the editor Anne Kautes. In "The Burning Years," rhythm has become a The big failure - the emotional transition is too fast, the narrative is not prioritized, only focusing on characterization and ignoring the ductility of the story line, all due to editing without a big picture and a sense of rhythm. The key to the success or failure of an epic movie lies in editing skills, and in this regard, "The Burning Years" is obviously not superior.
I wonder why so many pros and cons are concentrated in such an epic. Although the actors' performances and James Horner's soundtrack are excellent, they can't help Edwardswick's directing ability. In my eyes, he's a great director, "Glorious Battles," "Blood Diamonds," and "Blood Diamond" all show how good he is, but he still can't be considered great. What he has achieved in the epic field with decades of energy can't even surpass that of Peter Jackson, who is a half-way through the epic road - at least "The Lord of the Rings" has become the greatest fantasy epic, and Edwards Wick None of his films have ever reached the pinnacle of epic. It may be a luxury to put him on par with David Lean, but with the script of "The Burning Years", he is very likely to surpass "Dances with Wolves" director Kevin Costner, and he has the same Failed. Before the "Glorious Battle", he had a good start. After that, in "The Last Samurai", he was almost a complete failure. His ups and downs may be related to this defect that he has been unable to control.
Therefore, the contradiction of "Burning Years" is also the contradiction that Edwardswick himself has always faced: good enough, but not great enough. There are all kinds of directors in this world, and maybe Edwardswick doesn’t want to be the greatest one, but it’s not very comfortable to be entangled for a lifetime because of his obsession with epic movies and the contradictions in them. thing.
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