John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. In the same year, the U.S. government increased its troops to Vietnam. The subsequent series of political murders and the continuation of the Vietnam War made the youth of this period no longer believe in their own government. They regarded politics as a politician’s trick. Known as the "Beat Generation". At the same time, various civil rights movements have emerged: women's liberation, anti-racial discrimination, and anti-gay discrimination against the Vietnam War. The demonstrations and the riots that have risen from it seem to happen every day. In 1969, there was a "Stone Wall Incident" involving homosexuals and the police. Coincidentally, the film "Midnight Cowboy" was born this year. I have seen many comments about the film. Almost many people label this film as a "gay movie". In China, I don’t know who translated the title of the film "Mdnightcowboy" into "midnight cowboy". Translating the original "cowboy" into "cowboy" inevitably adds a layer of ambiguous meaning. In fact, "cowboy" in the United States represents an American spirit represented by western cowboys. In my understanding, this spirit is more derived from the heroism of the image of "cowboy" in the early Hollywood movies. The protagonist of the film Buck (starring Strongwater, who is the father of the famous movie star Julie Angelina) came from Texas to New York from Texas wearing a traditional cowboy costume, dreaming of becoming an excellent "male prostitute." In New York, he met and got acquainted with the dirty vagrant Risso (starring Dustin Hoffman) who occasionally scams a small amount of money. After spending his little money, the two are about to be caught Difficult to survive in the demolished house. This film, which won the Oscars for "Best Director", "Best Picture" and "Best Adapted Screenplay" three heavyweight awards at the time, seemed to be a "dirty, messy" film by many people at the time, but This also cannot erase the film’s status in the hearts of many fans, because first of all, Dustin Hoffman’s performance is really impressive after shocking, his performance that does not miss any traces even overshadows the protagonist Qiang Walter. , Although John Water's performance is equally wonderful. Secondly, this film is obviously influenced by the French New Wave film aesthetic movement at that time. The shooting technique is avant-garde and bold, and it has Freud's dream-like reminiscence images of the stream of consciousness and a traceless editing of fantasy future scenes. Many people define the friendship between Buck and Risso in the film as the so-called "comradeship relationship" and some even play with the details to prove it. This of course has something to do with the romantic Chinese translation of "Midnight Cowherd", and more to the ubiquitous homosexuals and transvestites in the film. Personally, I think that filmmakers seem to be looking for a balance in such a turbulent society and the unhealthy people derived from such an environment, such as perverted gays who worship God, and unethical relationships between men and women. The innocent friendship of complex relationships. And this kind of friendship comes from the hard life of Buck and Risso. Because the traditional American cowboy spirit represented by Buck has disappeared in big cities like New York, and his approach is not to say everything from the beginning, abandoning this kind of spiritual endorsement, he has been struggling to maintain it in a narcissistic emotional state. The role of this kind of spiritual spokesperson, and his indifference to the feelings of men and women comes from the spiritual shock he suffered in earlier years: the fact that his lover was gang-raped. Hoffman, the tramp Risso, doesn't seem to have any fantasies about women, but he used to ridicule homosexuals in a bar. The fantasy of the beach belongs to the daydream of a small person. He seems to be like that all the time: he seems to have no face and skin, occasionally doing a little evil of abduction, but always worrying about his own survival. His fantasies were rekindled by Buck's "American Dream of Prostitutes", so much so that he desperately maintained his friends' dreams. Finally, when Buck brought the aspirin he had bought with his first "reward", he said: When you can buy aspirin, maybe I would have died long ago. It seems that they have doubts about their friends’ dreams of prostitutes, but in fact they have doubts about the society they live in. At this time, it is not the demolition building they live in that is really messy, but the American society that has caused many morbid conditions. Finally, after Buck got the money from the murder and robbery, he took the seriously ill Risso on a trip to Florida. On the way, he changed into a new outfit and threw the cowboy outfit he was proud of into the trash can. He gave up the cowboy spirit, and Choose to find a normal job again and be a steadfast person. Just as he told Risso about his plan in the car, Risso was dead...
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