Written by Yang Shiyang) "Nigger is the most powerful word in English." Sitting in the bar, Lee, a white lawyer in the Simpson's defense team, said this quietly. This sentence was like a magical weapon, instantly shattering all the exaggerated decorations that enveloped this case, and revealed the most true, hardest but most secret core of the "century case" of Simpson's wife murder case.
Perhaps no criminal case will have as much influence as the Simpson Wife Killing case. From news, movies, books to documentaries, the follow-up report at the time, to the review after many years later, this case involves The celebrity's bloody cases have been repeatedly consumed countless times. From this perspective, this time, the drama version of "American Crime Story" is either an absolute success or a complete defeat. There is no possibility of a moderate evaluation. Fortunately, Ryan Murphy, who has successfully developed dramas such as "Plastic Surgery Room" and "American Horror Story", reproduces this story that is almost "boring" in terms of themes.
As a new play in 2016, "American Crime Story" is by no means the most eye-catching one in terms of the cast alone, even if it has a lot of big names. Compared with "Twilight Deep Blue" starring Jennifer Lopez, "11 22 63" starred by "Fu Lanlan" and adapted from Stephen King's novel, it is slightly inferior, not to mention Dou Sen and Uncle Hugh's "Night Shift Manager", although the actors of "American Crime Story" are not the most dazzling at first glance, the choice of every actor is almost irreplaceable.
As a series that strictly remakes a true story, director Ryan Murphy has chosen the most awkward and most respectable method for portraying any person-extreme restoration. Not everyone is familiar with Jr. Cuban Gooding. Even though he has won the Oscar, but if you look closely at his role as Simpson, you will find that this decision must be made after many choices. From many angles, he is indeed similar to Simpson himself. Although the young Cuban Gooding does not have the sharp face angles and stature like the professional football player Simpson, many of his manners and expressions are obviously practiced after many imitations. Of course, this casting is just the tip of the iceberg for this "God Restoration" American drama.
If you are a veteran drama fan and are interested in the Simpson case, the big case of the century, compare the members of the celebrity lawyers with the actors in this American drama, and you will find that everyone—really everyone— -From appearance to expression, from behavior to speaking intonation habits, all have been strictly corrected. The self-righteous arrogance and pretentiousness of the chief lawyer of the lawyer team played by John Travolta, the hidden scheming of the famous black lawyer Johnnie Cochran, played by Courtney Vance, and David Hugh in "Friends" Simpson's friend Robert Kardashian, played by Mo, moves like a textbook. More importantly, if you compare the shapes of these actors and real characters, you will find that the two, sometimes even the decree patterns, are exactly the same. This feature film dismantling the case is even closer to the harshness of the documentary. . Not to mention the props and details that reflect the real environment at the time.
Unlike several popular American dramas with pure fictional themes in the same period in 2016, since "American Crime Story" chooses to head-to-head with historical events, it is destined to need to dig out the psychological depth from the surface of the well-known story. Therefore, this drama is particularly cleverly shifting the visual focus from "events" to "characters".
In the past, people talked about Simpson’s wife murder, and they focused more on "who is the real murderer" and how Simpson exonerated. However, the show quietly shifted its focus. To some extent, this movie The protagonist of the American TV series is no longer Simpson himself. This once dominating rugby star and film actor has become a "starter". His alleged involvement has actually set up a stage for prosecutors, judges, journalists, lawyers, whites and blacks. People have appeared one after another. Some people became famous by this battle, some people were completely defeated, some people saw this defense as a once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity, and some people simply saw it as a search for justice and truth. By the time the defense of this case progressed, it was gradually separated from whether Simpson was the murderer. It became a catalyst that triggered the anxiety of the American public society, a valve that allowed everyone to vent their depression and fear.
Perhaps few people care, the most important scene actually appears at the beginning of the play quietly, and even that scene has nothing to do with the story. It was a simple scene, with a somewhat vague image, showing the riots that took place in Los Angeles in 1992. At that time, four white police officers assaulted an unarmed black citizen, but the police were eventually found not guilty, which triggered widespread violent protests. When the Simpson case occurred, the aftermath of the massive riot was far from abating from people's hearts, and the hostility between black and white skin was still on the verge of breaking out. Simpson happened to have the factors to ignite all of this. He is a black man. After he became famous, he has been trying to eliminate his black origin characteristics, stay away from the activities of the black community, get close to white girls, and find a speaking teacher to correct his accent, but all this has not been discovered by some lower-level black compatriots. They are instinctive. I feel that Simpson is the spokesperson of his own ethnic group. Simpson's imprisonment must have been a victim of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s long-standing tradition of racial discrimination. From this perspective, this group of people began to not ask right or wrong, but only looked at closeness.
Gradually, Simpson’s defense team also began to understand that what they needed was this kind of “external public opinion force”, so they quickly turned the bow and began to look for the racist remarks of the police in order to get all the evidence from the procedure. The chain becomes untrustworthy. So far, this simple murder case has evolved into a battle of public opinion and psychological struggle. Arbitration by Japanese judges, the proportion of blacks and whites in the jury, the prosecution's consideration of whether to use white lawyers or black lawyers, the defense's consensus on using public emotions, and how to use the media... In the end, everyone was involved in the public The whirlpool of public opinion, the private life is completely destroyed, everyone is desperately hiding their dark side, and everyone is also desperately shaking out the misfortune in the opponent's private life, the other party’s marriage, children, and even the beach nude photos when they were young It was turned over and found out as evidence of defamation. All this has become a personality fight, not a criminal defense. In the end, as a criminal case itself, it is destined to have a victorious and a loser. But in fact, the scope of this case has transcended the distinction of black and white, and everyone has been destroyed to some extent. When we waded across the dirty river and walked to the shore, others watched that we had successfully escaped, but only ourselves knew how long the dirty smell needed to evaporate. Therefore, rather than saying that "American Crime Story" was extremely successful in restoring the unsolved case, it is better to say that it penetrated the dark side of everyone's heart through that case.
This series skipped the trial screenings and got the ten episodes directly scheduled. At present, its standard exceeds all competitors in the same period. According to the plan, its second season will tell about new cases. If it still adheres to this "clumsy" and solid shooting method, this series may be remembered for a long time.
(First published in "Beijing Youth Daily," deleted and revised)
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