Text | Miss Meow
What is the relationship between dogs and humans? When I watched Hachiko, the loyal dog, I burst into tears as Hachiko waited for the return of the master who passed away. When I watched Togo, I was moved by the 425-kilometer race between the elderly Togo and his master to deliver the vaccine to the god of death.
Darwin once said: "The love of man has become a dog's instinct, almost beyond doubt".
I believe this statement.
stills
The movie "Antarctic Adventure", remade by Disney, comes from the 1983 Japanese movie "Antarctic Story". Although it is the same story, the "Antarctic Story" filmed in the third person is more cruel and more real, but why is there another "Antarctic Adventure" after it?
I think it's more to record the warmth between animals and people!
"Antarctic Adventure" directed by Frank Marshall, starring Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Jason Biggs, etc., was released in the United States in 2006, with a duration of 120 minutes, and also won the satellite award for the best youth DVD of the year Film.
Jerry guides Maya to save the Doctor
In the film, the director uses the montage technique and adopts the narrative mode of segmented cross and two-line parallel to connect the two main lines of "the active rescue of the owner Jerry" and "the independent survival of the dogs" in an orderly manner . It reflects the simple and unrepentant feelings between people and dogs: dogs are loyal to their owners, and their love for their owners has become an instinct; they survive independently, and the spirit of unity is worthy of our hearts and tastes; people also It is necessary to release the spiritual shackles and obtain inner peace through the rescue of the dog.
In film, the most basic element is the camera. The main way to connect lenses is montage, which can be said to be a unique means of expression in film art.
Today, I will take "Antarctic Adventure" as an example to briefly analyze the application of montage techniques and analyze the unique charm it brings.
1. What is montage?
Montage means "editing" in French, but in Russia it was developed into a theory of the combination of shots in a film, which is based on the content of the film and the psychological sequence of the audience. A lot of shots, and then put together according to the original idea.
It can be divided into: narrative montage, performance montage and rational montage. The former is a narrative method, and the latter two are mainly used to express.
Montage often presents a variety of faces in the specific content and aesthetic pursuit of each film .
Therefore, no matter how the montage is divided, in short, it is to splicing together different scenes such as far, medium, near and special according to a certain logic, showing a special tension, in order to achieve the purpose of highlighting the theme and bringing a good viewing experience. .
2. Three expression techniques of "montage" and their application in film
1. Cross Montage
Cross montage, it connects two or more plots that happened in different regions at the same time, alternately and indirectly together quickly and frequently. The development of one of the clues often affects the other clues. Arousing suspense, creating a tense atmosphere, and strengthening the sharpness of conflicts are powerful means of grasping the emotions of the audience.
In "Antarctic Adventure", the narrative technique adopts the method of cross-montage, with two parallel lines and cross-narrative, which not only enhances the contradiction of rescue work, but also highlights the tense atmosphere of independent survival of the dogs.
Jerry and the doc go looking for meteorites
In the first part of the movie, with the help of the guide Jerry, Dr. McClellan successfully got the Mercury meteorite. He encountered great danger on the way to and back, especially the Dr. almost lost his life twice. This introduction paved the way. The importance of dogs to people during their Antarctic expedition has paved the way for the dogs to wait for rescue.
Maya rescues the doctor from the ice cave
Then the two started to evacuate due to physical reasons, and the capacity of the plane was too small, so they had to plan the next trip to pick up the dog. However, the worsening weather made the rescue plan come to nothing.
Then, Jerry's isolated road to help began.
He returned to the United States to find a number of agencies successively, and the other parties said that they could not immediately start rescue, because this was the largest snowstorm in Antarctica in 25 years. At this moment, the director showed us the dogs in the Antarctic. On the fourth day after the owners left, the strong wind in the Antarctic blew the flag of the station down.
Jerry ran around to rescue the dogs, and the dogs broke free from chains to defend the flags of their owners. The extreme weather conditions and the tense atmosphere made us a little moved and a little worried.
Jerry didn't give up and continued to find Dr. McClellan's house. He sincerely requested to apply to go to the Antarctic again, but the doctor said: "It's totally impossible. It's been so long, you have to find a way to forget it all." The director will The camera cuts back to the South Pole. This is the 15th day that the dogs survived independently. When they saw the seabirds that fell in the distance, the dogs got excited and started the team hunting process under the leadership of the leader Maya. At this time, the atmosphere was still tense, but the teamwork spirit displayed by the dogs was touching.
sled dogs
Jerry fell into isolation in the middle and thought about giving up, but fortunately he untied the shackles of his mind.
Five months later, Jerry went to Dr. McClellan's celebration banquet. His remarks touched the doctor. The doctor returned home and fell into deep thought, and finally made up his mind to join the rescue team.
In the footage that followed, we saw the dog Max foraging alone, found the ice hole where the Dr. once fell, and saw a dead whale, but this was also the seal's food, so in Max's With the cooperation, a group of dogs started a nervous and orderly battle for food with the seals, which was thrilling and exciting. In the process, Maya was bitten on her leg. The dog's battle for food reflects the cruelty of nature and the harsh living environment, and also praises the teamwork spirit of the dogs.
Eisenstein, the founder of montage theory, wrote in "The Theory of Montage": "The alignment of two montage fragments is not the sum of the two, but more like the product of the two, because in the quality of the alignment results Never be different from each individual ingredient."
Dewey falls to his death
In the film, Jerry's rescue and the independent survival of the dogs are both independent and mutually dependent. The intersecting narrative method presents the 175 days of the dogs' survival in front of the audience.
We are infected by the dog's tenacious independence, team spirit, they are strong. At the same time, the guide Jerry's rescue journey has experienced rejection, untied the shackles of the soul, embarked on the rescue road alone, moved the team members, and went to Antarctica to rescue the dog together, which is also our spiritual growth road.
Griffith's aesthetic effect believes that the narrative structure of the film is connected as a whole in a parallel and intersecting manner. The change of the scene and the angle of the lens omits unnecessary parts in the event process, making the narrative concise, highlighting the relationship between the characters and the mentality and personality of the characters in the event, full of dramatic tension, and more unique to the film narrative. overall rhythm.
In my opinion, the director used the art of cross montage to portray the story into everyone's heart. In everyone's life, there are always moments that are beating your soul, whether to move on, regardless of whether or not to understand. Open the shackles, pack lightly and move forward? Here, through two stories, let us see the process of dogs racing against death, the process of human nature, and the persistence of people and dogs.
2. Reproduce the montage
Reappearance montage, also known as repetition montage, is to display an image or a certain shot multiple times, so that the plot of the film can be linked, so that the artistic conception of the film changes from light to strong, and the artistic expression changes from weak to strong, so as to achieve The role of characterizing characters and deepening the theme.
Repetition does not refer to the repetition of the same shot, but to the repetition of the same thing in different ways in different shots, and these repetitions may be objects, dialogue, sounds, etc.
Jerry and the Doctor search for meteorites
In "Antarctic Adventure", the most common photos are of dogs, although sometimes they are very obscure, either in albums, watercolors, or real photos. The director deliberately arranged the appearance of the dog photos, which strongly highlighted the ups and downs of the atmosphere of the whole plot to highlight the deep emotion between humans and animals. In the film, there are a total of five appearances of the human and dog photo process, and each appearance of the photo appropriately sets the stage for the storyline.
The first time was at the Antarctic base. Dr. McClellan came all the way to search for meteorites in Mount Melbourne. Before departure, they took a photo with the sled dog as a souvenir, but it was this photo that was not shown yet. It will touch the heart of both of them.
The second time was when Jerry returned to the United States, hoping to rescue the dogs left in the Antarctic. After being rejected, Jerry went to Dr. McClellan's house and took out the picture of him and the dogs when he set off to look for meteorites. , but the doctor's refusal made the atmosphere instantly freeze.
Antarctic polar night, dogs watch the aurora
The third time was when Jerry was disheartened and returned to his RV. He unloaded the bicycle in the RV. The moment he got up, the camera showed a picture of the dog on the table. At this time, Jerry's mood sank to the bottom. Alone and helpless, he could only sit on the reef by the sea and miss the dogs.
For the fourth time , after Katie's persuasion, Jerry, who escaped reality, found the Indian family who had raised sled dogs. He brought the dog's photo album. The Indian told him a story about his father and the sled dog. : My father was attacked by a black bear and passed out. When he woke up, all the dogs around him were gone. My father insisted that he must find a sled dog, he must go, he may not be able to find a sled dog, but he must go, just like Jerry’s now The situation is the same, to unlock the shackles of the soul can only rely on themselves.
Jerry goes to the Indians
For the fifth time , Jerry, who was relieved in his heart, made up his mind again to go to the Antarctic continent. No matter whether the dogs were still alive, he must go, so he came to the doctor's celebration dinner, said goodbye to the doctor, and kissed the doctor who came home in the evening. When looking at the child's face, I accidentally found a picture of dogs in Antarctica, and there is a sentence on it: (My hero is the dogs who saved my daddy: The heroes in my heart are these dogs, because they once saved my daddy. father's life).
Then Dr. McClellan fell into contemplation. He looked at the photo with the dogs that Jerry once sent, and after some thought, he made up his mind to go to Antarctica with Jerry.
Due to the use of repeated montages, a photo runs through the entire plot, allowing us to see the director's intentions. The artistic conception of the film has changed from light to dark, and the artistic expression has changed from weak to strong, so as to portray different characters and connect people with people. The unbroken friendship between the dogs continued.
3. Mental Montage
Psychological montage is the modeling expression of the character's psychology and an important means of psychological description in the film.
A montage expression technique that directly penetrates into the inner world of characters through the combination of camera shots or sound and painting, and visualizes, concretizes, and vividly presents inner activities to the audience, such as flashing thoughts, memories, dreams, and hallucinations of characters. , imagination, reverie, thinking and even subconscious activities.
In the movie, the psychology of the characters is mainly rendered through two characters, the first is Jerry's psychology, and the second is the doctor's psychology, but their psychology is deduced from a silent perspective because of the combination of dogs. .
Jerry and Katie
Jerry's psychological changes: Jerry has gone through three more obvious mental journeys in total.
The first time was when all the staff of the Miketown base evacuated the South Pole. He applied for a plane to the chief in charge, but was told that it was impossible. When he returned to the room, Katie also said sorry, and Jerry sat quietly and thought. , the camera immediately returned to the dog in the Antarctic. At this time, Jerry was angry and regretful. He regretted that he had fastened the chain too tightly and the dogs couldn't break free.
The second time , when he asked Dr. McClellan to return to the South Pole, the doctor's refusal made him forget about it. After Jerry returned to the RV, he saw the picture of the dog and sat quietly on the rock by the sea. This was the process of Jerry's intense struggle and his inner struggle.
The third time , it was the decadent Jerry who came to the Indians who raised sled dogs and apologized to him, but after listening to the stories of the Indians, he knew how to untie his inner shackles, and he still insisted on going to the South Pole.
Jerry searches for the key to unlock the shackles of the mind
If it wasn't for Jerry's insistence, we wouldn't have seen the dogs being rescued. Every time we refuse, we see the picture of dogs surviving independently in Antarctica, and the two are combined with each other.
Psychological changes in Dr. McClellan also experienced two very noticeable inner changes.
When they first arrived in Antarctica, when they had to rely on sled dogs to complete the expedition mission when they learned about the weather conditions, the Doctor did not have too much affection for dogs, but only used them as tools. Even if the dogs once saved their lives, he may have been touched, but when Jerry found himself and applied to return to the Antarctic, his sentence " There is absolutely no possibility, you have to forget all this" will only be done to complete the science The image of the doctor who ignores life while task is vividly portrayed.
The second time , Jerry came to attend his celebration party. He said that he once told Jerry that he had to fight for his own pursuit. The doctor returned to the celebration party with a little thought.
When he got home, he saw a painting by his son with eight dogs and a sentence: "My heroes are these dogs, because they once saved my father's life", which made the doctor fall into After thinking about it, it turns out that in the child's mind, the dog is a hero, so he was saved by the hero.
Picking up the group photo once sent by Jerry again, the doctor's feelings for the dog have changed significantly. He decides to go to Antarctica with Jerry to save the hero.
Jerry and Dr. McClellan
It is the use of psychological montage, the combination of lens and picture, that allows us to see the psychological changes of the characters. Although the portrayal is more subtle, it also shows the essence of a good story. The core of a good story is change. The phrase "to fight for one's own pursuit" not only tells people about themselves, but also reminds us that the dogs in Antarctica are always fighting for survival. These psychological descriptions enhance the artistic charm of the film and play a role in shocking the soul.
Dogs see their owners return
3. Conclusion
In "Antarctic Adventure", the director successfully demonstrated the warmth between humans and dogs through the use of cross montage, recurrence montage and psychological montage. The scenes of dogs surviving in a desperate situation are also because of their trust in their owners. With loyalty, their spirit of solidarity is worth savoring.
Darwin once said that love for people is a dog's instinct and cannot be questioned.
Yes, at the end of the film, after seeing Jerry and others, the remaining 6 dogs madly run towards them is touching, which just confirms this sentence.
In the end, people also obtained their inner redemption by rescuing dogs, and wrote another great emotion in the world: the never abandonment of people and dogs, and the eternal loyalty of dogs to people.
-Finish-
Reference: "Antarctic Adventure"
About the author: Miss Meow, share warm words and grow with you!
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