Keywords: Hardcore Prison Break, Real Life, Real Story Adaptation
39 keys in 400 days
Go out of the prison gate with honour
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01
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter. The first work in the new 4K repaired 3D version, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is full of memories.
The trio, who was young and immature, has developed differently now.
Emma grew up beautiful, and Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry, was embarrassed. No matter how his appearance changed, his height became the largest short version of his acting career, the transformation from a young idol to a powerful actor. , Is the only way Daniel must and the only way.
Although Daniel has become the richest person in the UK from 13 to 19 years old by virtue of the "Harry Potter" series alone, for this British boy who really loves acting, the amount of pay is not important and challenging. The roles and themes are what he urgently needs now.
After starring naked in the stage psychodrama "Horse Lovers" and causing sensation and controversy, in 2007, only 18 years old Daniel took the "December Boy" as his transformational work. This is his determination to take off the little magician. Another bold attempt on glasses.
Of course, for thousands of "Ha fans", it may not be easy to accept at first, but Daniel's efforts have conquered the fans.
In the later period, Daniel challenged different types of roles. The lawyer in "The Woman in Black", the college student in "Kill Your Love", the circus youth in "Victor Frankenstein", the most attractive The most impressive thing is probably Manny the dead body in "Swiss Army Knife Man" or the FBI agent in the crime biographical film "Absolute Domination". Almost every role is not repeated, and the acting skills have become remarkable in the constant tempering. .
Today’s film "Escape from Pretoria" is adapted from real life. Daniel will play Tim Jenkin, one of two white South Africans. In 1978, they were regarded as terrorists and imprisoned for participating in the secret anti-apartheid operation of the African People's Congress, and planned to escape from prison.
02
In 1973, it was an extraordinary period of South Africa's "apartheid" movement.
Blacks are treated unfairly and can be shot in the street without a reason, while whites enjoy juice and sunshine on their exclusive beach.
Two white men (Jenkin Tim and Stephen Lee) were arrested and imprisoned for their participation in opposition activities to fight for the equal rights of blacks. Of course, neither of them wanted to spend half their lives in prison, so an escape activity began like this.
But as the most severe prison in South Africa at the time, they could not bring pens, radios, and newspapers, let alone discuss politics with each other.
It is more like a concrete tomb.
Under such severely guarded conditions, it is already very difficult to escape from prison. Our protagonist Jenkin (played by Daniel) has chosen another escape method-with a key, and then walked out of the prison gate, dignifiedly chasing freedom. I also watched various jailbreak movies, and it was the first time I saw him in such a straightforward and unpretentious way.
Because Jenkin discovered that the keys of the prison guards were all very ordinary old-fashioned iron ring keys, an immature idea was formed in his mind.
During the day, they undergo high-pressure inspections over and over again and a lot of manual labor in prisons.
At night, they contemplated how to escape from prison.
In the dead of night, Jenkin sat on the bed and stared at the lock.
03
On the 23rd day, Jenkin discovered through experiments that he could make a wooden key and leave here.
Although others find this idea too whimsical, don't you always try it if you have a chance?
This is how an interlocking, tacit cooperation plan was born:
During the day, with the help of his fellow prisoners, Jenkin observed as many keys as possible on the guards' bodies, collected materials from various places, and in the evening he drew the shape of the keys based on his memory and made them bit by bit.
Finally, the effort paid off.
On the 73rd day, Jenkin produced the first key and successfully opened the iron door of his room at night.
Who knows, there is still a door outside, and he found that this iron door can only be opened from one side of the corridor, that is to say, even if the person inside has the key, it can't be opened.
How to do it?
After many attempts, he found that he could use a broom to connect with a wood to open the door of the room from the outside.
It succeeded, but an accident happened.
In the process of retrieving the keys with a broom, because the material was made of wood, the hand was so strong that half of the keys were broken in the keyhole, and they were almost found by the prison guards.
Fortunately, he used chewing gum to get it back in a hurry, otherwise it would be unthinkable.
Then they opened the third iron gate, and then they saw more iron gates (the screenwriter is a ruthless man).
They wanted to give up many times, but after all they had previous experience and had to continue, because this was the only way to escape from prison.
Of course, their plan was not smooth. The guards in the prison kept watching them, searched their rooms from time to time, and even threatened them with verbal questioning.
None of this defeated their "prison escape". The three partners cooperated with each other to repeat their daily prison life while carefully searching for bugs in the prison to prepare for leaving here. After opening iron doors one after another, they carefully hid the keys they made in various places. The people in the prison were full of expectations, looking forward to one day they could go out.
Of course, the "prison escape" is not all smooth sailing. When they opened the fourth door, they met the guards and hurriedly hid in a closet next to them. There was their sweat on the ground, but fortunately, the guards on night shift thought it was a house. The water leaked and escaped by a fluke.
On another occasion, during a search, the prison guard found a model for making the key, and everyone's heart thumped so hard. Fortunately, the prison guard thought it was a photo stand and escaped again.
Finally, at the 404th day.
When Jenkin had built the 39th key, they knew that this day had arrived.
Even if the paperclip used to pull the door in the closet was discovered by the prison guard, it still did not arouse suspicion. It's really the right time, the place, and the people. They opened one, two, and countless doors, and finally came to the last door.
Looking out from the hole in the door, they could clearly see the outside world, and they were full of excitement.
Do you think it can be opened?
Of course not, they tried all the keys in their hands, and none of them could open the last door!
Depressed, even desperate. what to do? Do you choose to give up or give it a go?
When Leonard among the three found that the last door turned out to be a wooden door, he didn't hesitate and started to chop the door.
The movement of cutting the door was very loud, very abrupt in the empty prison.
In the end, they managed to escape the prison by avoiding the sentry through the mirror. On the way, they saw the guard who was guarding them, lowered their hats, got into a taxi, and left the place.
In the car, they laughed, screamed, wept with joy, and rushed to the next part of the journey.
04
In this film, the process of escaping from prison is shown for a long time, but there is a theme that always runs through, that is, equality. In South Africa at that time, blacks were arbitrarily insulted. In prisons, whites were still higher than blacks. Blacks became targets of arbitrary beating and scolding, and even death was treated as a joke.
After escaping from prison, it was the beginning of their long struggle.
After the three fled, the largest raid in South Africa’s history ensued. They crossed the border to Mozambique, Tanzania, and then to London, where they once again joined the African National Congress of South Africa and continued to oppose apartheid until 1991. pardon.
At the end of the film, the three of them got in a black taxi, as if it reflected the lifting of the separation between whites and blacks. This global struggle against oppression and injustice ended in the collapse of the apartheid system in 1992.
But this is also the biggest slot of the film:
Excessive depoliticization , although under the name "adapted from real deeds", the film’s introduction to the social background and the entire event is extremely short, and the depiction of human nature and inner heart is relatively simple, which have been magnified to a certain extent. The plot has a single weakness .
In other words, as long as the background is an era without surveillance, as long as the male protagonist is good at carpentry work and handing keys, whether he goes to jail for supporting racial equality or because of over-defense will not affect the development of the story. Moreover, after watching the movie, he did not see the uniqueness of the protagonist’s thoughts and actions in the anti-apartheid movement, which is inevitably a little regrettable.
In general, "Escape from Pretoria" can be regarded as a relatively novel prison escape drama. There are many remarkable points in the film's conception and the performance of the actors. Of course, if you prefer superb and hearty prison escape films, Xiaoji recommends you to watch "Shawshank's Redemption", "Escape from Sobibor" or "Escape of the Golden Cicada".
Different creations, hurry up and pick Xiaosi~
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