In the 1950s and 1960s, the black civil rights movement began to flourish in the United States. After the U.S. Supreme Court announced the abolition of the apartheid system in schools across the country in 1954, the conflict between blacks and whites who pursue racial discrimination has not disappeared. Instead, it intensified. In 1963, on the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the liberation of blacks, hundreds of thousands of blacks and anti-racist whites held a grand rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Pastor Martin Luther King, the leader of the black movement, delivered the famous speech "I have a dream..." at the rally. With the assassination of Martin Luther King, a greater wave of black movement broke out across the United States; the U.S. Congress was forced to amend the Civil Rights Act three times. In ideological fields such as politics, culture and art, this trend has also received rapid and enthusiastic responses. Carmichael, the leader of the National Anti-Violence Coordination Committee, put forward a political proposal to fight for "black power", and a strong "black art movement" emerged in the cultural field. Even in the field of language, black has begun to replace the insulting word negro. "The black is beautiful" became a fashionable slogan at that time. Faced with this black movement sweeping across the United States, Hollywood, which has always been conservative and good at keeping up with fashion, will naturally not remain indifferent. In fact, it has begun to catch up with the changes in the values of the times in order to adapt to the social psychology and the needs of the audience. Since the 1950s, the American film industry has gradually changed the long-term depiction of black people as savage and rude inferiors, and the production policy of appearing only as servants, drivers, nanny and other minor roles, and began to let more people Black people have taken the lead, and there have been many images of black people portrayed from the front. In some of the more excellent films, the black protagonist is even higher in personality than the white in the film. Such as "Break the Chains" (1958)> "Young People" (1960), "One Potato, Two Potatoes" (1964), and "Hot Night" (1967), which won the Oscar for Best Picture. This film is a representative work created in this context. It dared to challenge the deep-rooted notions of racial discrimination in American society and created an astonishing record at the box office that year.
The film sets up an extremely attractive and even "explosive" dramatic situation: John, a black doctor from a humble background and once married, and a white girl from a superior family fall in love, but the parents of both parties have to spend a few hours Complete the difficult process from receiving this shocking news to making your own decision. As Mrs. Prested said: "This is not a night to talk about happiness... This is a sad night." This is only a few hours in the play, for several citizens of the United States of America in the film. It is indeed extremely difficult: what they have to cross is not only the entire history of the United States of America, which is full of racial discrimination, but also a reality that still daunts countless people-the old Prunsty warned his son: In many states, this is a jail sentence; even if the law changes, it will not change people’s views on this matter.” Matt told the young lovers: “There will be 100 million people in this country because of your union. And feel shocked, angry, and frustrated."
However, the sharpness and profoundness of the film does not stop there. It not only touched on the sharp racial conflicts in American society through the family disturbance caused by the bold love of Joey and John, but also set the flash point of this conflict on a firm anti-racist and a radical freedom of the family. The newspaper manager who advertised his philosophical views. The film's description of Matt is undoubtedly ironic. This old liberal who has instilled the idea of racial equality in his daughter since he was a child has not only to overcome historical and practical obstacles, but also to overcome a bigger obstacle-his own obstacle. He had to fulfill his vow for more than 30 years, and had to face the racial consciousness hidden deep in him. This liberal "old revolution" encountered real "new problems" with his daughter. The person Joey brought back made him feel embarrassed, angry, and at a loss. His first reaction was to call to verify the identity of John, hoping to find out that the black man was nothing but a shameless liar, so as to free himself from the crisis. But it is obvious that the real problem lies in the racial prejudice deep in his consciousness. When he realized that John was indeed a kind-hearted young man, he felt not relieved but depressed, and he had long lost interest in verifying the more convincing history of this black doctor. Therefore, after a brief exhaustion of the "first defeat in the war", he became irritated, and regardless of his daughter's determination, his wife's hints, and the advice of his old friends, he wholeheartedly tried to prevent the marriage that made him angry...The film did not take American society The sharp racial conflict in the middle is simply portrayed as a sharp confrontation between a stubborn and reactionary white supremacist and a black man, but through the gap between the words and deeds of an "anti-racist fighter", it reveals more deeply. The deep-rooted concept of race in American society and a more stubborn and "potential racism" make the film have a more ideological and reflective spirit than the direct criticism of racism. This point of view is not only reflected in the white image of Matt, but also in the shaping of another father, Prunsty Sr., who "has a great contrast" with him. He was also trapped in the kind of latent "racism" and couldn't extricate himself from it. He was timid and inferior and hesitated to move forward between racial differences, so he held a firm negative attitude towards his son's choice. As for the attitude of the maid in the film who denounced her as a "climbing black desperately" because of her compatriots' achievements, it is even more intriguing. It should be said that the film reveals this deep-rooted racism in American society very deeply and sharply. In fact, despite the impact of anti-racism trends in the 1950s and 1960s, the Hollywood screen depicting black people Films began to increase, and black characters began to take up more important positions, appearing in positive images such as doctors, police officers, and detectives. However, for the most part, the main thrust of this change was just a new Hollywood box office strategy. It makes those viewers who suffer from racial discrimination get a cathartic satisfaction from the scene of black police detectives beating white gangsters. And this catharsis obviously has no power to change the concept of racism in American society. By the 1970s, black people had evolved from being a powerful detective into a purely sexual symbol. In the 1980s, people finally saw in "Rocky" the scene where a black boxer was beaten to the ground by a white boxer.
Compared with the two fathers, the portrayal of the two young people in the film indicates the courage and determination of the new generation to challenge traditional concepts. It also makes the film have an idealistic color in revealing reality. And at the end of the film, when we saw Matt (or rather the director) “smartly” avoiding the race issue and awakening with “love” to successfully resolve the conflict, we finally returned to the typical In Hollywood's "daydream", although this "daydream" does contain irresistible sincerity. We also have to admire the profound and sleek combination of American directors in dealing with social issues. In fact, the director of the film Stanley is not only an ideological director, but also a filmmaker who is good at dealing with drama conflicts. The film is basically an indoor play, with very limited scenes, mainly driven by the dialogue of the characters. In the limited time and space of the film, Stanley uses the foundation of the original and its excellent shots and scene scheduling to make the plot move forward in an orderly and very compact manner in multi-level clues, and it is full of tension and suspense. feel. At the same time, he also added some outdoor scenes such as John and Joey returning from the airport and the Dryden couple out for relaxation, making the film more life-like.
The director of the film, Stanley Kramer, is a well-known director and producer in the United States. He entered the film industry in the 1930s and worked as a screenwriter, editor and even cleaner in the props department, and later as an assistant producer. After the war, he felt that it was difficult to develop in a large company, so he founded his own independent production company and attracted people's attention with the "After Winning" launched in 1949. Later, due to the lack of power of the small company, Stanley attached his company to the Columbia company, but maintained his own independent production rights and launched business cards such as "Noon" (1952). Since 1955, Stanley has started his career as a director, and he has attracted the attention of film circles by focusing on the ideological nature of the film and paying attention to themes of great social significance. Stanley's films are mostly low-cost small productions, without luxurious scenes and gorgeous packaging, but with a social consciousness that pays attention to dramas to win, so he is regarded as a "realistic" director in the United States. He has been dealing with sensitive black issues since the 1950s, and photographed the masterpiece "Break the Chains" (1958). Later, he turned his attention to themes of international politics, filming "On the Beach" (1959), which showed the serious disaster caused by atomic war to the human spirit, and "The Nuremberg Trial" (1961), which exposed the crimes of the Nazis. In 1961 he won the Oscar Special Award "Owen Tilberg Award" for "continuous high-quality creation".
The choice of actors in the film also shows Stanley's "boutique" consciousness. The actors of the Drydens, Spencer Qusser and Catherine Hepburn, are both outstanding Hollywood actors and have worked together for many years. The outstanding performance in this film made them both nominated for Academy Awards. Catherine won her second Oscar. And Spencer unfortunately died of illness when the film was about to be completed, making the film the last time the two performed together. In the film, Sidney Poet, who plays the black doctor, was the number one black movie star in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. He started in the film in the 1950s. He has a wide range of roles and can adapt to a variety of different roles. He is eye-catching by portraying positive black images such as doctors and detectives. He starred in "Break the Chains" and "The Hot Night", and later won the Oscar for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in "The Wilderness" (1963), thus becoming the first black actor to receive this honor. His success played an important role for a large number of black movie stars on the screen in the 1970s, and he himself turned to directorship from the 1970s.
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