cinema used to be the best place for young people in the town, where they could make friends with their lovers or spend weekend nights. But not anymore: the last movie was John Ford's "Red River Valley". Western heroes like John Wayne ran wildly on the screen, but young people just waited indifferently for its end.
This story comes from "The Last Movie". This 1971 movie was deliberately made in black and white, which made the youth in the movie appear much "cold": it was a small Texas town in the 1950s, and the empty highway seemed to always be windy and sandy, local. High school teams are the hottest topic in the area, and young people will find that there is only one girl in the small town who looks "fashionable".
Like all youth movies, love is indispensable, but those loves are too "realistic": maybe because of boring (the male protagonist finds his first girlfriend ugly, but it does not prevent them from dating), perhaps because of desire (the male protagonist is opposite The basketball coach’s wife said "I love you" just to have sex with her), or because of vanity (the heroine only slept with her ex-boyfriend because she didn’t want to be a virgin), or just to find excitement (the heroine let the hero elope Marriage seems to just want to surprise everyone)...
In fact, this is also the normal state of youth. "It's just because I'm too young, I don't know how to deal with these things." In the movie, the owner of the movie theater, the retired Cowboy Lion King, told the young people like this. At the end of the movie, the scene again dissolves to the empty, sandy street, which seems to be a metaphor for part of the truth: for youth, certain parts of the world are too boring, and no one will know what to do when facing them.
Peter Bogdanovic, the director of "The Last Movie," was a new Hollywood figure on the same level as George Lucas in the 70s. However, their two routes are completely different.
Lucas also made a movie about American towns, "American Style Painting", you may have seen it. Unlike "The Last Movie", "American Style Painting" is a typical Hollywood youth film full of vigor: everyone is full of vigor and purpose. Obviously, Lucas's purpose is also very clear. A few years later, he shot the first "Star Wars" and found his movie utopia in the distant future.
Peter Bogdanovic’s utopia is in the past. He likes old guys like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock. He grew up watching classic Hollywood movies (actually, the movie theaters and old movies where youth movies appeared, roughly mirroring the director’s own growth. Experience, such as "Four Hundred Strikes", such as "The Man from the Wind Cabinet"), and he wanted to make a classic movie like that.
The retired cowboy "Lion King" in "The Last Movie", Peter Bogdanovic's actor is Ben Johnson. Ben has not only played supporting roles in many classic Western films, but he is also a real cowboy. Legend has it that he can win in rodeos when he is more than 70 years old. However, Ben didn't want to take this role, saying that this guy talked too much, and he hated talking. Peter asked John Ford, the great western film director, to help persuade him, but Ben still didn't agree. Finally, Peter said, Ben, you don't understand that this role will give you an Oscar. Ben agreed. Sure enough, with this role, Ben Johnson won the best supporting actor Oscar that year.
Another big director related to "The Last Movie" is Orson Wells, and the style of black and white movies is said to come from his advice. Peter Bogdanovic is a super fan of Orson Wells and a year-end acquaintance. He had a long-term conversation with Orson Wells and later published the most famous book about Orson Wells. One of "I am Orson Wells".
However, these did not make "The Last Movie" gain a greater reputation (just like the recommendation on the book's girdle does not make the book more popular). In fact, Peter Bogdanovic did not become those old guys he loved in the end, but became marginal in Hollywood—you know, for nostalgic people, it’s not surprising that other people do. So fast, I won't look back to see what corner you are staying in.
A few decades later, the special effects that "Star Wars" is proud of have become a bit outdated. At least for me, I am not interested in watching it in the cinema again; I would rather watch "The Last Movie" in the cinema again. , It seems a bit interesting to spend two hours to let some weeds grow in my heart. This is one of the magic of time: the past and the future have become the past, and the past in the past seems to have become the present-please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I don’t like those fashionable blockbuster films anymore, but art movies here. Do placement ads.
I know that film is not just pointing to the current world, it can also take you into deeper dreams, and blockbuster films are obviously the most convenient way to create dreams (this kind of differentiation has already appeared in the early days of the film, look at Lumi El and George Mérieux’s movies are known). Regardless of whether the movie is about the present or the dream, it will have a relationship with our lives (some people even think that maintaining the ability to dream is more important than recognizing the present). Naturally, this cannot be the criterion for distinguishing between good and bad movies.
Film critics have put forward a standard to distinguish between good and bad movies, whether watching a movie makes you feel like a waste of time. I like this standard. It varies from person to person, so it's not so arbitrary. Therefore, a good movie means that no one will leave ten minutes after the opening (a film critic claimed to treat bad movies this way), and no one will snore when watching a movie (a person of mine just sees a bad movie) I will sleep soundly), no one is reading Weibo, no one is calling, no one is chatting (well, I’m actually complaining, some people really like to do these three things when watching movies).
According to this standard, I still think "The Last Movie" is more exciting than "Star Wars".
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