"A Night to Remember" is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous American historical researcher Walter Lauder. The story is true to life from before the Titanic sails to the aftermath of the entire shipwreck. The complete process of "The Fall of Giants". Forty years later, Hollywood remakes this British masterpiece, packaged with magnificent visual special effects and romantic classical love stories, which has set off a heated discussion about the Titanic around the world.
Half of the success of Cameron's "Titanic" belongs to the Hollywood film industry, and the other half is attributed to this "Ice Sea Sunken Ship." Because the former's description of disaster scenes and the restoration of historical events are completely based on the latter, even if it is a humanistic proposition such as character, class nature, or humanitarianism involving ideology, the latter is copied without any novelty. .
Different from "Titanic"'s two-line staggered plot layout, "Ice Sea Sunken" follows the chronological narrative of event development, emphasizing the documentary nature of the film and the functionality of restoring history. The film looks neat and balanced, the narrative is impartial and comprehensive. It can be classified into the category of "classic Hollywood film" defined by Bazin: "appropriate, balanced, harmonious in form, respect for tradition, imitated, not pushy, technical and calm. The idea of controlling the audience’s reaction.”
In the filming years of "Ice Sea Sunken Ship", film special effects had not yet invaded the film industry, nor were they sufficient to support the director to create spectacles in the film. Therefore, the focus of narration naturally fell on the restoration of historical events. Up. 13 minutes after the start of the film, an iceberg warning telegram was used to set up suspense for the development of the story, and then the frequent telegram scenarios explained why the telegraphers missed important telegrams. The impetuous and arrogant society of the whole society is at a glance. This is the film. The second half of the plot laid the groundwork for it. In addition, the film advances through the layers of the plot, spares no effort to find the possibilities hidden in the details, and gradually reveals the nodes in the causal logic chain. The audience as a bystander is omniscient and calm and objective. In "Titanic", these details are buried under the bright line of the love story. The reason why the giant wheel hits the iceberg is no longer a part that the director needs to deliberately explore, but the key is how to show a modern version of Romeo and Juliet.
What followed was the difference in the narrative strategies of the two films. The whole film "Ice Sea Sunken" had a calm and relaxed rhythm, mostly using fixed-lens photography. During the narrative process, the dramatic elements in the event were also minimized, using "Rashomon". "" style multi-point and multi-angle narrative method, from point to surface, trying to completely restore the whole picture of the shipwreck process. "Titanic" is full of passion, accidents and conflicts. A large number of motion shots capture the dynamic results of the development of people, ships and events, and amplify the uncertain factors contained in the story itself. The audience is more driven by the fate of the characters. , And the sinking process will be placed in a relatively secondary position.
Of course, as a British film, "The Shipwreck in the Ice Sea" also maintains the European film tradition of paying more attention to sociological significance and humanistic value, paying more attention to the living conditions of various groups and classes, and not frequently intervening in personal destiny. The context of emotions. For example, in many cases, director Roy Baker will focus his lens on individuals at different levels of British society, such as Sir Lady Ratchard, church pastors, and low-level manufacturing workers. Although everyone is in a hurry, the whole society is The mentality and the state of survival are all in sight. "Titanic" draws on the former's detailed depictions of the gap between the rich and the poor, class consciousness, and the decline of the giant wheel, but the depiction of human nature and class nature has considerable secular characteristics and commercial elements.
The cabin level or character class emphasized in "The Shipwreck in the Ice Sea" is actually misplaced. As an aristocrat, Sir Lady Ratchard and a female nouveau riche are an example. The former is noble and elegant, but the latter is always showing off his family history (with British irony). The two are emotionally and There is a clear differentiation in value orientation, but in the course of the story that follows, the weird "different ways to the same goal" (the two showed the same sense of class superiority when they boarded the lifeboat), Roy Baker's thorough view of class relations , Was abandoned by Cameron's new work. Although he tried to criticize class culture and prejudice from the standpoint of humanity and humanity (arranged the love between Ruth and Jack), he played down the cruelty of class distinction through a kind of cross-class love to satisfy the public's psychology. Demand, strive for the recognition of cultural consumption orientation. For example, as a member of the upper class, Ruth does not recognize her aristocratic status in her heart. Regardless of the obstruction of her mother and fiance, she is willing to fall in love with the "lower class" Jack in the last class, unlike most aristocrats. Refuse to "self-devaluation" and refuse to give up the superiority conferred by class nature. In fact, no matter what era, these are obstacles that are difficult to surpass in the class nature. From this point of view, "Titanic" is easier to please the public than "Ice Sea Sunken", and it has a more consumer function, while the latter is more reflective and more reflective when examining people and their behavior from a sociological level.
In fact, the Western media paid so much attention to the sinking of the Titanic because the incident itself contained Western society’s reflection on the development of British capitalist industrial civilization.
On the train at the beginning of the film, the two couples disputed the newspaper report about the "Titanic". The second officer read the newspapers "Mankind's Pioneering Work" and "City on the Water", but satirized the luxury of the facilities on the ship (a typical duplicity). The gentleman next to him couldn’t listen anymore, and asked, “Are you a foreigner? Don’t you be proud of this ship?” This reflects the exaggeration and eagerness of the entire British society. This is the director’s sinking of the great ship. The first foreshadowing below. After that, the director used Strauss’ waltz to compare with the sound of ticking telegrams, implying that the telegrams of other ships were used to transmit navigational information, while the telegrams of the Titanic were full of flirtation, bragging and glitz of the rich. As a faction, this high attitude alluded to the failure of the approaching ships to sail for rescue in the later period. Of course, there are too many introspections in the film. They all point the finger at the arrogance of British society. No wonder the first mate who survived the catastrophe looked at the floating corpse in front of him and said: "I blame human beings for being too arrogant. I don't believe that all this really happened."
"Ice Sea Sunken Ship" was filmed in 1958. After the "Marshall Plan", Britain had already taken off the "emperor's new clothes". At that time, British society began to reflect on it collectively. The Industrial Revolution created "the sun never sets," but it also allowed Britain to pamper itself for nearly two hundred years. Before World War I, the Titanic was born out of an unforgettable obsession with once glorious. However, this product of industrial civilization, although known as the "unsinkable sea fortress", was "accidentally" sunk on the first voyage. It not only mocked the so-called ruthless conquest of nature by mankind, but also made it lingering. The British nobles who wished to step down the altar finally admitted their decline. This is the isomorphism between "Titanic" and "British".
In fact, looking back at the evolution of European ideology and culture in the 1960s, we will find that the film is in a cultural transition period when modern social criticism is moving towards modernity cultural subversion, and modernity encounters postmodernity. The modernity constructed by the foundation is facing a situation of collapse and disintegration. The Titanic, as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution, is regarded as a product of modernity like skyscrapers. Its sinking indicates that modernity, a perfect presupposition based on rational fantasy, has been ruthlessly subverted in reality. , Reminiscent of some scenes in the earlier movie "King Kong" (King Kong climbed to the top of the Empire State Building to do whatever he wanted), it is not difficult to find the huge influence of postmodernist cultural thoughts on the film creators, but in fact, the filming of the Titanic Such subjects also reflect society's introspection of the utopian ideology constructed by modernity, and it is a collective reflection on the pedigree of modernity discourse in the literary and art world.
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