1.
"Bringer of the Dead" is an American movie released in 2009. It mainly tells the story of two American soldiers bringing death news to the relatives of the fallen soldiers. There are many ways to die. The dead person may be a father, a daughter, or a grandson, but the meaning of death is always the same, lost, lost forever. Those who walked to the battlefield have already carried death on their backs, but both the parties and their relatives have never been truly prepared to accept the fact that death has come, and no amount of preparation has been able to reduce the grief and pain of loss. .
Will is an outstanding soldier who suffered a bomb attack in Iraq and was seriously injured in the process of rescuing his colleagues. Will returned to the United States for treatment, and some sequelae of the eyes and legs were left. Will will be discharged from the army with only three months left, and the army arranges for him to partner with a veteran to take the responsibility of notification of the death. This veteran has been in charge of the war death notice for many years. On the first day, he told Will to convey the news of the war death in formulaic words. There should be no physical contact or red eyes with tears. They represent the country. The soldiers are not crying children.
Will has a beautiful girlfriend, and they occasionally get together overnight. This girlfriend has another fiance. She wants to get married with her fiance, but she also enjoys the happiness of being with Will occasionally. Will always watched the girl come and go indifferently, listening carefully to her feelings for his fiance. Will always said it was okay, he had a good time and didn't want to find someone to settle it down. The girl understands in her heart that Will has true feelings for herself, just pretending to be chic and it doesn't matter, that's why she keeps talking about her fiance.
Under the leadership of the veteran, Will began to learn to use a non-emotional tone, reciting the standard statement of the death notice. Wrapped in a straight military uniform, Will held back his bitterness and sorrow. He was not the grass and looked at the people in front of him crying and screaming, how could he not be moved. After each mission, Will and the veteran always go to the bar and use strong alcohol to numb their inner tremors. However, the veteran always only drinks water. He has passed the stage of dependence on alcohol, and countless death notices are long enough to paralyze all feelings.
Some wounds will heal, some pain will fade away, but some injuries will take away part of the body, leaving a big hole in the heart. There was such a hole in Will's heart. It was left when Iraq was hit by a bomb. At that time, Will and the rest of the team were caught in the rain of bullets. Will was the only sober and calm person. He pulled the group of frightened colleagues away from the line of fire one by one, and hid a soldier with a broken leg under the car. But the car exploded immediately, and the soldiers' flesh and blood splashed all over Will's body on the spot. Will is not a hero, he killed the soldier, and this death left a hole in Will's heart.
Whether it is crying or anger, everyone who learns that their loved ones have died in battle cannot conceal the intense sadness in their hearts. There is only one exception. That is a woman who lost her husband. When Will and the veteran came to this woman, she greeted him directly and asked: How did he die? I could see that the woman was a bit sad, but she calmly thanked Will and them, and shook hands with them one by one, understanding that they were unwilling to bring news of death. At that moment, Will saw that this woman, like himself, had a hole in her heart. In addition to loss, death also brings a deep sense of guilt.
Will began to approach the woman on his own initiative. At night, he parked the car outside the woman's house and watched in the dark how the woman could not shed a tear, telling the young child about her husband's death. During the day, Will followed the woman to the mall to see the woman furious when she saw the soldier's recruitment instructions for the young man, and excitedly reprimanded the death of her husband caused by joining the army. Will drove the woman and her son home, and started visiting the woman and her son from time to time. This woman is not beautiful. Will likes her because he understands her unspeakable and silent pain, and he also knows that she must also understand his pain.
The woman understood Will's intentions, and she wanted to get closer to Will, but she couldn't. The death of her husband brought back the lost love and locked the woman tightly. Women’s stories are not special, as many military wives have experienced. Because of his long career on the battlefield, the husband has become irritable, the opponent has become alienated from the children, and the wife increasingly prefers that her husband is not at home. When she rejected Will, the woman cried for the first time. She told Will that she took her husband's shirt out of the cabinet to clean it and dry it when they came to notify the death of the war. Early in the morning, the woman remembered the husband who hadn't changed. She couldn't help taking out her husband's shirt from the cabinet and smelling it, but only smelled a strong anger on the top. So the woman washed away the annoying breath, and the husband's death notice arrived. However, when the news of death came, the sadness was still so great, but guilt and self-blame blocked the outlet of this sadness, and the woman had to suppress the sadness in the bottom of her heart, allowing it to take root and grow upward.
Will finally couldn't help but hug the parents who lost their children. He had been in the hell of war, and he knew that grief needed to be comforted. The veteran was very angry and taught Will severely. The veteran quickly turned back to show his favor to Will. It’s not that the veteran didn’t understand the sadness, but the heavy sorrow had already crushed the life of the veteran. Will was the only warmth he had, and he could no longer lose this warmth. . The veteran started drinking again, and the two of them fished and laughed together, fought together, and had a fight at Will's girlfriend's wedding together. Will finally opened the hole in his heart in front of the veteran. The veteran said nothing, but cried bitterly after Will turned around. The grief of the two men found their way out.
Will went to the woman again. The woman is packing her luggage and moving to another state with her son to start a new life. The woman refused to leave the new address to Will, and she didn't want Will to visit them. But she promised to write down Will's address and keep in touch by letter. Will is satisfied. He knows that although it will take a long, long time, the hole in his heart will eventually heal.
2.,
"Bringer of Death" won the Silver Bear Award at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival. Since the background of the story is the same as the war in Iraq, and the release time of the film is also the same, so "Brother of the Dead" is often compared with "The Hurt Locker". But in fact, in terms of themes, "The Messenger of the Dead" is more similar to the Japanese movie "The Enemy", both of which are about how the living face death and how to say goodbye. "The Death Messenger" and "The Enemy" belong to the same film with a smaller format, a simpler shooting technique, and a relatively plain plot. The two also have a strong similarity in the story layout, both are matched by a veteran and a novice, and then the novice will look at this parasitic work on death from the eyes of the novice.
In contrast, I personally like "The Messenger of Death". Although the filming technique of "Encouragement" is more detailed and the atmosphere is also subtle and thin, but the style is extremely "Japanese typical". The core intent of "The Enemy" is that the dead will not dissipate because of death. The living need a complete farewell to let the dead go and let life continue. The enchanter is the one who lets the farewell be done. With an extremely serious attitude, he makes the last stop of the deceased's life solemn and decent, so that the living can obtain spiritual comfort and regain the courage to continue. In "Encouragement Division", novices engaged in the work of encampmentation initially entered the industry because of helplessness and because they had no other choice. However, with the encouragement ceremonies one after another, the novices felt relieved and relieved from the process of enshrining the deceased, and then felt honored and respected for the work of the encampment teacher. This kind of narrative technique and perspective is very often seen in Japanese movies. Whether describing tea ceremony, ikebana, kendo, or geisha musicians, Japanese people are always used to start with a serious attitude and end with reverence, which fully reflects their profession. There is no high and low spirit. Therefore, the overall performance of "The Encouragement Division" is expected.
In all fairness, the plot of "Bringer of the Dead" is not beyond expectation, and it fully reflects the attitude of Americans, especially American soldiers, when facing the death of others. The trauma of war and death closed the character's heart and suppressed emotions. But a tiny crack gradually penetrated the locked high wall, and finally broke the shackles of true feelings. In American movies, there are still relatively few implicit sketches like "The Messenger of the Dead". There is no delicate warmth, no heart-piercing self-destruction in the film, and the technique is very plain and the perspective is very calm. When death suddenly comes, we grieve; when death is already stationed, we accept; when death cuts the wound, we wait for the comfort of time, let forgetting take us forward. When the sword of death is swung down, it not only takes away everything from the dead, but also leaves great pain on the living. There is no word or hug to make this pain disappear. There is no antidote and no choice in death, and this is The true face of the end of life.
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