temperance American Twenties of the last century to make time, it became a source of inspiration for Hollywood crime movies. The ban on the Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment allowed the gangs to smell the banknotes. Criminal organizations represented by Al Capone made amazing profits from the sale of bootleg alcohol, and his empire was gradually established.
1987) Chicago, which set the background of the era at the end of Prohibition, had just begun the Great Depression, and the unemployment rate continued to rise. A large number of unemployed people needed to live on relief. This is also Al Capone’s imperial gold. The time when the stack of bricks reaches its peak. Al Capone’s money empire was once indestructible. He was also called the "underground mayor" of Chicago by the media. This image is somewhat similar to the "Godfather" Vito Corleone who holds the five largest underground groups in New York. Place. Corleone belongs to the old-fashioned Sicilian gang. He speaks of loyalty, responds to requests, does not make promises, does not ask for rewards or pay attention to family history. No matter how poor the seeker is, he only needs to announce his friendship with him. Keep people’s worries at heart", but he also has the right to ask the other party to do something to pay off this worthy debt of favor at any time. Although Al Capone is not a Sicilian, he controls the Italian gang in Chicago. He can take over the empire in the hands of Johnny Torio from an unnamed junior to the empire in the hands of Johnny Torio, and make the government unable to find it for a long time. Any flaws in crime depend on wisdom, courage, and cruelty when necessary. He also pays attention to morale, helping the weak and the poor, and his history of struggle has even become the "American Dream" in the hearts of some young people. Although the law was set for the maintenance of justice and order, in that era, huge behind-the-scenes transactions made the court's justice completely lost and it was difficult to find justice. Capone's almost omnipotent influence and sense of justice make people think that in a society where the police are corrupt and the government is incompetent, only gangs can help people find justice. However, just like Mario Zopp’s quote from Balzac at the beginning of "The Godfather": "Behind the great wealth, there are hidden evils." Behind their power and money, the blood and violence are hidden. It is immeasurable and invisible to the public. The film tries to reproduce the extravagance of the Capone Mansion, its magnificence and magnificence, comparable to the palace of Louis XIV, every corner is neat and tidy, and under the gold bricks and silver tiles are those who have been squeezed, broken under the gaming table The family and the corpse fallen in the smuggling battle. Capone is the prince of the empire. He has the power to seize life and death. He has always used one person’s values and sense of justice to judge issues related to moral right and wrong, life and death. This is full of controversy and inevitable failures and fairness, so it is inevitable to become one. An injustice, a dictatorship. At the beginning of the film, people felt Capone’s suffocating oppression and unshakable authority: he was lying on a chair with foamy shaving cream on his fleshy face, and the attendants and a group of reporters stood quietly. Waiting for the shaving cream to cool down, the camera looked down at the domineering man, approached him slowly, and watched carefully the shaking on his face.
"Too much violence." This is the sigh made by Treasury Agent Eliot Nice after he overthrew Capone in court. When he decided to challenge Capone, he relied on his passion and a sense of responsibility as a law enforcement officer. When his friend and mentor Jim Malone taught him how to deal with Capone, he said that once the battle begins, there is no room to stop. Capone uses a knife and you have to use a gun. He killed your person, you Also go back in return. At that time, Niss was still a hairy boy, a little clumsy, staid, and impulsive. He had never thought about what a bloody storm he would face, and he naively vowed to use all legal means to deal with Capone. During Prohibition, the smuggling of bootleg alcohol was extremely rampant, and people who wanted to drink could easily quench their thirst in an underground bar. Even the then president of the United States maintained the stock of bootleg alcohol in the White House while voting for Prohibition. From judges to police officers and law enforcement officers. Accepting bribes and taking two sips in private are commonplace. Few people are as clean and self-conscious as Nice. He believes that drinking two sips is indeed harmless, but as a law enforcement officer, he must lead by example. Similarly, Nice is not willing to use violence to control violence, but when he pushes Capone's killer down the roof, is this an abuse of violence or an end to violence?
When it comes to violence, Sartre believes that violence should not be "generally and abstractly condemned. Nothing will happen if you leave violence today, because everything becomes violence." This sentence is very appropriate when used in Chicago, where gangs were rampant. A simple pacifist who wants to go to the street and confront the violent is tantamount to death. You must first have the ability to protect yourself before you can talk about resisting violence. In this way, "the problem is not to condemn all violence, but only to condemn those abuses." According to Capone's rules of life, it is more useful to say polite words and guns than just polite words. This joke reflects the status of violence in his heart. The reason why he values violence so much is the power and money that come with it. Nice won the gun battle against the smuggling of bootleg alcohol at the border, but shouted in grief: "Is this a game?!" The "peace" controlled by Capone is the "peace" maintained by violence, which is chilling. It is not how much he sells and squandered money, but that people are willing to surrender to the "peace" created by violence and are unwilling to resist. The prohibition of alcohol in various countries has always been full of controversy. Many people think that this is just a superficial effort between parties to achieve a certain political goal. They have never thought that they will be severely ill, which will add to the chaotic social order and directly or indirectly lead to rampant government corruption. , Economic losses are serious, and accidents caused by drunkenness are increasing unabated. To some extent, this is undoubtedly a draconian law. It is commendable to question it, denounce it, and even oppose it, but Capone's challenge to it by selling bootleg alcohol can never achieve the purpose of changing the status quo. Problematic laws and regulations can be corrected through legitimate means, and they can be questioned in violation of the law, but they can cause irreparable harm to the authority of the law. Once the law as the basis for maintaining social security is shaken, violence will usurp it in the name of justice. Socrates was sentenced to death for not believing in God and corrupting the minds of young Athenians. Although he knew the unfairness of the sentence, he still went to death generously, in order to maintain the authority of the law, not to recognize the rationality of the sentence.
Nice's resistance to Capone is not simply to smash a few bottles of bootleg wine, but to re-establish the authority of the law and defeat the philosophy of violence headed by Capone. Sartre believes that writers must avoid turning responsibility into a crime, "that is, so that descendants cannot say in 50 years: they watched a world disaster come, but they were silent." When most officials In the face of the sluggish economy and the violence of the gangs, Elliott Nis stepped forward when he took a silent attitude. Sartre's words and Nice's approach are inevitably regarded as too idealistic and impractical in the eyes of many people, but when these seemingly impossible ideals become reality, they become people remembered by the times.
Second, from horror suspense to street gangs • Brian De Palma •
Al Capone • as a legendary crime, influence continues to this day, as well as the architect Alexander • Goehring said when it comes to bad law and order Chicago: "Chicago is still living in Al Capone's time." Putting his deeds on the screen is definitely a challenging job for film directors. Howard Hawks, in 1932, just after Capone was arrested for tax evasion, he filmed the "Scarface" based on his life. According to rumors, the screenplay was reviewed by Capone before the film was filmed. Capone was very satisfied with the effect and kept a copy. Fifty years later, Brian de Palma once again brought the famous "Scarface" back to the big screen and created another classic. The film brought into play Parma's strong lens style, vividly showing Capone's bumpy life, violence and highly human complex character. Al Pacino has even transformed Capone into a generation of villain heroes and an idol in the hearts of countless people. In "Untouchable", Palma portrays Capone. According to the needs of the plot, he turns from a hero into a real villain, and criticizes him more severely. Because Capone is just a microcosm of the "evil forces" of that dark age, what the director wants to express is the untouchable, unshakable, and unbuyable spirit of the four agents headed by Eliot Nice in the face of huge evil forces.
Palma admitted that he was running out of money for making this breakthrough style mainstream major production film. The box office and reviews of the previous two works were unsatisfactory. He had to make a commercial film to make money for his favorite themes in the future. Parma has always been known for making suspense thrillers. In the 1970s, he created a series of wonderful works, including classics: "Sisters" (Sisters 1973) tells the painful world of conjoined twins. , And the tragedy brought about by this pain; The "Phantom of the Paradise" (Phantom of the Paradise 1974), which puts the classic story of "The Ghost of the Opera" in a noisy and gorgeous rock coat (Phantom of the Paradise 1974); turns the growth troubles of middle school students into a horror classic The "Witch Carrie" (Carrie 1976); and the "Razor Edge" (Dressed to Kill 1980) that perfectly combines desire, suspense, and terror. He likes to learn Hitchcock's technique very much, and uses "Palma's way" to interpret it in his films. Parma never denies that he likes to get inspiration from the master's films, and he will add his own understanding to make this approach stand out. In "Razor's Edge", he "borrowed" the bathroom murder scene in "The Cry", and even more severely frightened the audience again. "Witch Carrie" also borrowed Hitchcock's bathroom scene and the film's soundtrack inspiration, with a little change, it's quite different. What he learned is not only the setting, technique, and soundtrack of the suspense master, but the most important thing is his attitude towards film excellence. The climax of a gunfight in the stairwell of a train station in the "Untouchable" scene is based on the famous Odessa stairs in the "Battleship Potemkin" directed by Eisenstein-a stroller goes up the stairs Slipping down, Nice wanted to hunt down witnesses protected by gang killers and protect the child lying in the stroller in the rain of bullets. Palma used more cameras to shoot the scene from different angles. The level of the picture was richer and more complex. The slow motion increased the audience's tension. The background sound filtered out the noise, leaving only the gunshots and the music box. The peaceful and warm music creates a great contrast with the tension of reality and increases the tension of the whole picture.
The "untouchable" story comes from a series that has been broadcast on TV for thirty years. In the movie, the main characters in the agents are reduced to four people, all of whom have distinct personalities and charisma: clumsy finances with a sense of justice. Ministry Detective Nice, calm and experienced patrolman Malone, cheerful short accountant Oscar Wallace, and impatient sharpshooter George Stone. It was such a group of "passers-by" and "outsiders" who were caught in the street, and the "rabbit crowd" whom Capone didn't consider him finally sent him to prison with perseverance and fearless spirit of sacrifice. Of course, they are not perfect, they have also suffered setbacks, thought about giving up, and faced a desperate life and death. After making the sacrifices of his friends, Nis experienced a huge spiritual gap and growth. He withstood the pressure in the trial of Capone and reversed his disadvantages. Malone is a friend and mentor of Nice, always reminding him and spurring him, and he seems to know all kinds of political struggles and human weaknesses. And he was just a humble patrolman. In Die Hard, there is also such a role as a patrolman. He has been a patrolman for decades and is more accurate than many senior officials in judging criminals. Yu Li, the patrolmen have a wider range of people, and they have seen all the struggles in the officialdom, because low positions can avoid being involved in it; Yu Qing, they are closer to the audience, more ordinary, more real, and easier to resonate. Such a role has become a model of blockbuster routines, and Parma used it in the film to make it easy to worry about being clichéd. However, the appearance of Sean Connery has dispelled most of people’s doubts. The ability to play a role as cliche and popular as "007" is well-loved and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It all depends on the gentle, graceful, British demeanor and grasp of the overall situation. Personal charm. He made Malone an idol in the hearts of teenagers. Everyone wanted to meet a mentor like Malone. He asked over and over again: "What are you going to do next?" Zhou Xingchi told Malone's death scene in "Kung Fu". The tribute reveals the aspirations of the boyhood. The elaborate design of the scene and the humorous and refined lines also make the character of Malone more attractive. The conversation between Malone and Nice in the church was the key to the whole film. That conversation strengthened Nice's confidence in fighting Capone, and there was a series of subsequent battles. The camera looks up at the two persons who are talking, the foreground is the two hands enlarged, the middle shot is the two persons in the conversation, and the far view is the religious colored pattern on the roof of the church. The director meticulously created this atmosphere in order to make the screen show the sparks of the collision between the fingertips of God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel ceiling mural "The Creation of Adam". In order to enhance the sense of space in the film, there is also a scene of a shootout in the countryside.
A major feature of Parma's previous movies is that he never hesitated to use blood. Whether it’s the blood splattered by Daniel when he killed a black man in The Strange Kid, the "Carrie Witch" who was mischievously soaked in pig blood at the ball, or the Kate who died in the elevator in "Razor's Edge", those splashes The blood on the four walls is shocking. In these scenes, the director pursues the horror effect of visual impact. In this film, Oscar Wallace was shot and killed by Capone’s men in the elevator. Instead, Parma curtailed the use of blood plasma, because here was the sadness of Oscar’s sacrifice. He was hung in the corner of the elevator. , "Touchabale" is written in blood on the wall, and the despicable mockery and intimidation of the agents can also be shaken and touched. This situation aroused not only Nice's anger and grief, but also deeply angered the audience. Even the actor who played the Oscar said that when Malone, played by Sean Connery, lifted him from the hook, he was so moved that he almost cried. From the actors to the audience, everyone was deeply moved by this scene.
When it comes to the two shooting techniques that Palma is good at, they must be "concealed" and "blocked." "Concealed" is to let the camera follow someone and shoot from the visual angle of a certain film character, which can create a tense atmosphere and make the audience feel horrified in the matter. There are a large number of "concealed" lenses in "Razor Edge". This technique was also used in a scene where Malone was ambushed by a killer at home. "Blocking" is when the director uses the camera to tell the audience what the character is about to do. When the audience waits for this to happen, they find that things are blocked. Make the audience feel anxious. There was such a shot in the shootout that imitated the Odessa ladder, and the climax of "Carrie the Witch" can also be seen in one go.
*Music in Morricone
When it comes to the classics of the film, it is absolutely necessary to mention the contribution of the Italian composer Erio Morricone to the film. His music can always add the finishing touch to the movie, and sometimes even the music is more popular than the movie itself. You can definitely watch a movie just to listen to his music. Morricone’s soundtrack contains a variety of instruments with different personalities, which can interpret the wild and unruly western cowboy (Red Dead Redemption); it can also portray the figure of the lonely woman on the island of Sicily (Marlena) in detail; it can also transfer time Recall the childhood in the cinema (Paradise Cinema). His soundtrack for "Untouchable" definitely made this movie stand out among many gangster movies. It can be said that the sound of the theme music created the first climax for the film, which made a few agents rush into the bootleg factory to become magnificent and excited for this first victory. The melody formed by the combination of short motives gradually develops into the climax of the music, which makes people boil with the melody. In the words of one of the leading actors, it is "wonderful". The music designed by Morricone for Capone is lazy and extravagant, with a taste of jazz, but the rhythmic drum set shows Capone's unquestionable power. When Capone was hit by a group of Nice and others, although he still had a strong smile on his face and said mocking words, it was still the kind of lazy and extravagant jazz, but there was no drum set in the music, and it suddenly leaked that he was caught off guard. The panic. It is also Morricone's insistence on using the baby's music box as the only soundtrack in the "Odessa Ladder" shootout, adding more glamour to the film.
Furthermore, in the touching scene of Malone’s death, the background music used a weeping aria from Leon Cavaro’s opera "I Pagliacci" (Put on your costume). The song expresses the pain and loneliness of Canio, the head of the touring troupe, being abandoned by his wife, as well as the complex mood of concealing his heartbreak in order to force a smile on stage to perform. "Take your tears and pain as a joke, make a face to cover your distress, laugh, ah, clown, laugh at your broken love, laugh at your tears, even if your heart is broken." Capone just watched in the theater This play, for him, is the so-called "in-story" voice (a voice that people in the play can hear). While crying for the characters in the play, he couldn't hide the news that Malone was dead. The twitchy grin and the complicated mood coincided with the people in the play, but formed a kind of ironic effect on Capone. When the screen is switched to Ma Long, who is still struggling with serious injuries, the same aria becomes an "outside the story" sound (a sound that cannot be heard in the play), but it is used here to vent the horse through music. An unspeakable sadness that Long will die. The same piece of music shows the different mentalities of the characters and the different attitudes of the director towards the characters in different scenes. It can be described as a perfect combination of story and soundtrack.
Not only is there a soundtrack master like Morricone, the film also invited Armani to design costumes, ensuring the perfection and exquisiteness of the film from every detail. Don’t sneer at the idea that this is another gang movie. In Parma’s words, "Evil is overwhelming" is the eternal theme. Gangs, gun battles, suspense, as long as the filming is good and innovative, the audience will always be enthusiastic. . Let this declaration of justice pass through the sea and land and reach everyone's heart.
Please indicate the author: Nine-Tailed Black Cat
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