When I first saw the introduction to "Wonderful Night in the Museum", I felt that it was really a movie with a plot that couldn't be more sophisticated-one night, all the exhibits in the museum were alive! I don't know if this makes people unconsciously think of "Horror Wax Museum", but "Wonderful Night at the Museum" is ultimately positioned as a comedy. The old-fashioned plot seems familiar at the first glance, but the consistent visual stunts of American movies and the idea of one day to relieve a bad mood prompted me to go to the cinema and spend a wonderful night with the museum.
"Wonderful Night at the Museum" is an out-and-out American blockbuster, as always, interspersed with dazzling visual stunts. Under these amazing scenes, the core content of American cultural values and ideology is just like "moisturizing things silently" unknowingly "into the night with the wind". I have always been very disgusted with the saying that "American blockbuster movies are very superficial", which is very superficial in itself.
The father "Larry" played by Ben Stiller in the movie has once again become a traditional "civilian hero" image. Moreover, this civilian hero is ordinary to the point of destitution, a slacker with dreamy and cynical thoughts, car buckled, no work, moving all day, unlucky, secretly teaching children how to "play behind the back" in ice hockey matches and was also flown over. The hockey puck hits the forehead. In China, this image is not an exaggeration. But the film is just looking for such an unfortunate guy to complete. If it is replaced by Schwarzenegger, it will undoubtedly become a museum version of the Terminator War of Good and Evil. Later, Larry’s success directly reflected the Americans’ pride in their own country, the "America"-an ordinary person like this can do miracles in the United States!
In fact, the essence of Larry’s image is a child. He pushed the essence of this image to a climax on the first day he worked in the museum, that is when he was sitting in the hall of the museum yelling and singing rap songs. The plot, the whole child king who did not grow up. And this innocent man is destined to become the king who will lead the entire museum's exhibits. No matter how naive and young he is, he is like a metaphor that the United States is destined to become the king of the world, regardless of the United States and other countries and civilizations in the world. How young in comparison.
When Larry followed Sissel, one of the old guards of the museum played by Dick Day, to patrol the museum, I wonder if Larry said "I love monkeys" intentionally or unintentionally, and this is the monkey he likes. Later, he became Larry's enemy from start to finish. Whether it was a Tyrannosaurus rex or a lion, whether it was a Maya or the Huns, Larry found a way to control it, but the monkey kept Larry at a loss. Not only did it cause great trouble to Larry by stealing the keys, it also staged a farce of slapping Larry with Larry, which is really uncontrollable. Larry’s phrase "I like monkeys" is for all of this. "Tossing" has laid a good foreshadowing. When Larry was bitten by the nose, he and the monkey were on the iron gate. You will find that there is actually no essential difference between a person and a monkey.
Virtual and Reality, Fantasy and History in the Movie
The prototype of the museum in "Museum Wonderful Night" is the famous American Museum of Natural History, which was built in 1869 and covers an area of 8 hectares. The entire museum is divided into four floors, with a total of 38 large and small exhibition halls, receiving more than 4 million visitors every year.
Of course, the most important thing is the exhibits that appeared in the movie. I probably paid attention to it. The obvious ones are Tyrannosaurus, Mammoth, African animals, American elk, Neanderthals, Egyptian pharaohs, African natives, Maya People, Easter Island Colossus, Indian Taj Mahal, Huns, Ancient Romans, Columbus, Indian women and explorers, American West cowboys, American Civil War, American President Theodore Roosevelt, etc. It is these natural and historical elements that constitute the biggest attraction of the film. When these lifelike images are shown in the film, you will find that the United States, a country with no history, has been successfully created in the film in this way. Has its own history!
The primitive people in the film are referred to as "caveman" and "beijing caveman" in some translations. In fact, in the manual torn by monkeys in the film, "Neanderthal" is written. Neanderthals lived in an era between 200,000 and 37,000 years ago. They were named after they were first discovered near the Neanderthal Valley in Germany. Flowers and other funerary objects have appeared in their graves. The Neanderthals eventually perished with the spread of the ice age and were replaced by the Cloman farmers.
The "Akamenra" who claimed to be the fourth pharaoh of Egypt's fourth dynasty (approximately 2575 BC to 2465 BC) was probably a semi-fictional character, because the fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt The Pharaoh is Khafre, and the Pyramid of Khafre is also the second largest pyramid. The famous Sphinx is a simulated image of Pharaoh Khafre. It seems that there was no pharaoh named "Akamenra" in ancient Egypt. Guarding the Pharaoh’s tomb is a warrior modeled on the god Anubis in ancient Egyptian mythology. Anubis is the guardian of the tomb in ancient Egyptian mythology. The corpse was guarded by them to complete the resurrection. It was also the early period of ancient Egypt. The god of death in the myth, this image with a jackal or a dog as the head also appears in the movie "The Return of the Mummy".
What the Maya built in the movie is the famous American Pyramid of the Sun.
The Colossus of Easter Island is a miracle discovered on a small island of only 117 square kilometers in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The over 500 huge stone statues were built when and for what purpose without modern technology. Today there is no uniform statement in the academic circles.
Attila the Hun may be a little strange to most Chinese people, but for Westerners, Attila’s influence as a so-called "Oriental" may exceed Confucius, Sakyamuni, Genghis Khan or Mao Zedong. . The famous Attila was Shan Yu of the European Hun Empire in the 5th century AD. At that time, he ruled the vast territory from the Aral Sea in Central Asia to the Atlantic Ocean, from the Baltic Sea to the Alps, and defeated the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire many times. , So that a large number of Germanic people surrendered. Once commanded the Huns and Germanic forces to fight until today near Paris, France and Rome, Italy.
The Roman leader Gaius Octavian in the film was once Caesar’s adopted son, and finally became the first emperor of Rome, titled "Augustus". It was also the beginning of Rome’s transition from republic to imperial system. In addition to using force to quell internal dissidents, it also conducts military conquests outside. The catapult used by the Roman army in the film is very particular, but the fault lies in the fact that the Roman soldiers used a lot of bows and arrows. It is a little distorted, because in the Roman Empire, heavy infantry using javelins, long shields and short swords are in the Roman phalanx. Archers, the main force with the largest number, are auxiliary forces, and the Roman army has never paid enough attention to archers. Bows and arrows have long existed in Rome as a sport rather than a military weapon.
Owen Wilson, an actor who has worked with Jackie Chan in "Tornado" and "Around the Earth in Eighty Days", played the so-called American Western Cowboy Jedidia. The prototype is Jedidia Smith (1798-1831) Is an American fur merchant and famous explorer. In 1825, he led 17 of his men from the Great Salt Lake to northwestern California in search of a new trade route. After crossing the Mojave Desert, we arrived at San Gabriel Church near Los Angeles, California today. He is believed to be the first white man to come to California from the east. After being repatriated by the Spanish government, he continued north to become the first person to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains, then turned to the northeast and became the first to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert. White people.
Sacagavia, a female Indian played by Miso Baker, joined the expedition of American explorers William Clark and Meli Wade Lewis in 1805 when they passed through North Dakota and led the expedition with her young son. Upon reaching the Pacific Ocean, his head was printed on a one-yuan dollar coin. The appearance of the person in the movie seems to be a bit mature, because she was only 17 years old who led the expedition to complete the feat.
The US President Roosevelt in the movie is not the famous US President Franklin Roosevelt in World War II, but the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, he is the cousin of Franklin Roosevelt. Once a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army, participated in the Spanish-American War, expanded the navy during his tenure, actively engaged in foreign intervention and aggression, implemented the "Monroe Doctrine" in the Americas, nationalized vast land internally, and strengthened the power of the federal government. He is also the only twentieth-century president in the avatar of the "President Hill" of the United States. President Roosevelt in the movie is called "Teddy Roosevelt", Teddy is his nickname, and the teddy bear toy is named after him. One of the reasons for his naming is because he refused to shoot a small black bear prepared when the hunt was unsuccessful, and the other is because he was very fascinated by the furry teddy bear at a White House banquet.
When the exhibits in the museum returned from the outside, Larry told a Viking warrior that he should clean up a cremation pile they made. The source of this line was the only Viking discovered by humans before September 2005 The corpses in the cemetery are cremated, so it is believed that the Vikings have a tradition of cremation.
The special effects in the movie are specifically reflected in a shot of Theodore Roosevelt, that is, when he is about to turn back into a wax figure, the horse's eyes move in one shot, and when the camera turns from one side of him to another When sideways, both the character and the horse froze immediately. I suspect that the horse's eyes moved a bit and it was shot deliberately. This is simply a show of high-tech means! The monkey was not the result of digital technology. It was taken by a real Central and South American capuchin monkey.
All kinds of things in the movie...
"Wonderful Night in the Museum" is a comedy, and it is also positioned as a "warm family comedy", suitable for all ages. It was also scheduled for Valentine's Day during its release in China, but it was actually designated as a PG. Grade film (involving a lot of action scenes, vulgar and vulgar funny). There are indeed a lot of humorous and funny plots in the film, and the whole movie theater is laughing non-stop, and people discussing it outside the movie theater are endless. And I laughed foolishly all the way, and kept reminiscing about the miracles in the film. Under the stars, I suddenly felt a long-lost sense of happiness inexplicably. It turned out that "A Wonderful Night in the Museum" was compiled for everyone present. A fairy tale, a fairy tale that a child can watch, but also a fairy tale that allows people who have bid farewell to their childhood to find their own childhood fairy tale, an American fairy tale! You don’t even need to fault whether it is a sci-fi movie or a fantasy movie. Both sci-fi and fantasy have elements. It is just a movie adapted from comics. You can call it a “fantasy movie”. Even logic is not important in the movie. For example, the Neanderthal turned into ashes. No one seems to be surprised that one exhibit is missing, and how did the exhibits in the museum suddenly understand Larry Spoken english? No, it doesn't need a reason. The more realistic reason is that this is all arranged by the director, but this is a fantasy film, and it does not need logic!
Later, I checked a lot of movie reviews about this film, and I really found a lot of people who were inexplicably aftertaste, moved, and smirked after watching the film like me. If you have the same feeling after watching this movie, then you are really in love with the movie! "Wonderful Night at the Museum" is here to unknowingly compile such a fairy tale for you, a grand event for the world carnival under American rule.
First of all, the film itself continues to construct part of the content based on the traditional dualism of the West. For example, in the miniature landscape, why are the Mayans locked up before the battle between Roman soldiers and western cowboys begins? In the end, the Maya could only shout cheer by the side. To put it bluntly, if it is a three-way match, it may not be in line with the subconsciousness of Westerners.
And why must the Maya be locked up? In fact, the Maya here is a representative of the native Americans. They can be Mayans, but they are also the Incas and Aztecs. They are the targets of European colonists' conquests on the American continent. Americans are naturally the descendants of Western European colonizers. For Native Americans who dare to resist, the consequence is that they will only be forcibly suppressed (locked up) by force!
The two villains who talked to Larry, one was the commander of the Roman Empire and the other was an American explorer. Larry said that they were both excellent leaders, but their deep connection lies in their common pioneering nature. One is the aggression carried out by military force, and the other is an exploratory discovery in the distance, but both are the spiritual essence of an outwardly expanding civilization that has been accumulated by Western civilization for thousands of years. Moreover, in Western history, aggression and exploration have often complemented each other. In this way, the Western identity that the aggressor is a hero is established without you noticing it! In the movie, American cowboys must also be arranged to capture the Roman emperor. This humorous scene of the Guan Gong battle Qin Qiong style expresses the concept that the United States is better than Europe and the future is better than the past. Rome, as one of the sources of European civilization and spirit, is still worshipped by Westerners. However, as the extension and expansion of European civilization in time and space, the United States has become the goal of the United States to surpass Europe. For Chinese people, the past is more worthy of attention. This is an ethical requirement. For Americans, the future is the most meaningful, perhaps because they have no past, or even because they have surpassed the past! Americans want to say: Rome is great, America is even greater than Rome!
Also interesting is the bronze statue, saying something that no one can understand (Latin?). The first time Larry asked him if he was Galileo, the second time he asked him if he was Cortes (Spanish expedition). Home, the conqueror of the Americas, was also an invader who slaughtered a large number of Aztecs), and finally learned that the man was Columbus! Who is Columbus? The discoverer of America! So Galileo, as a person who discovers the universe, is not as important as a person who discovers America! The subtext here is that the significance of establishing the United States is greater than the significance of people's understanding of the universe! Can you see this little detail? In this way, Americans have once again proudly become the most important place in the world. America is the universe!
In fact, isn't this so-called museum just an earth? The museum contains civilizations, creatures, histories, and people from all parts of the world, but it is mainly based on American elements. A country with no history becomes the protagonist, and no matter how long other civilizations are, they have become supporting actors. Rebecca, the beautiful female narrator in the film, said that this museum was built to commemorate Theodore Roosevelt, who loves history. Does the underlying implication mean that the whole world exists for the United States? For Larry's first night at work, Theodore Roosevelt helped restore the chaos. What did the old president do at the time? Put the gun on your shoulder and go! The restoration of "order" requires weapons. Is this so-called "management" or "restoration" a portrayal of the US using guns to manage the world? Today’s order is managed by the old president, and in the future it will be managed by Larry. In this way, the old president is the United States in the past, and Larry is the United States now. Not only did the United States manage the world in the past, it also manages the world now. I believe it will still want to manage the world in the future. Continue to manage the world! This arrogant ambition of the United States is inadvertently manifested incisively and vividly, but it does not say so!
As for the entire museum's exhibits, the reason is that the ancient Egyptian gold plate is the European civilization's resurrection of ancient Egypt. It is not uncommon to discuss the beginning of European civilization that the ancient Greek and Aegean civilization may come from ancient Egypt, just as the vitality of the museum is arranged to come from ancient Egypt’s magic. The most important thing is that the history of European civilization is far from that of Egypt. A similar place is the movie "The Fifth Element." The so-called combination of the five elements of wind, fire, water, earth, and human is basically the content of the Christian mysticism view of heaven and human in Europe in the Middle Ages, but it must be arranged for ancient Egypt. After all, the history of Christianity is too limited.
In order to retrieve the gold plate, Larry tried his best to restore the order of the museum. Under the watchful eyes of the old president and his son (the past and future of the United States?), Larry (the present of the United States?) lived up to the expectations and controlled the chaotic situation. Live, the soldiers of the Civil War were at peace, and even the furious Hun king Attila surrendered under his influence. It really embodies the foreign policy of the United States. For the weak, they will be surrendered by force, and the strong will be used other means to soften and disintegrate (think the Soviet Union) and then use it for me! In an instant, all civilizations and countries in the museum became a white American soldier, fighting for their lives under his dispatch - and the United States in reality is indeed made up of people from all nations and countries all over the world. The museum is the epitome of the entire world. The movie is trying to prove that the museum is the world and the United States is the museum, thus once again deriving the "great formula" of "America is the world". As a representative of the United States, Larry has successfully inherited the past. The spirit of the United States has set an example for the United States in the future. You say it is American arrogance or American obscenity, but this is how the United States feels good about it, and the people who watch it are still there. Giggled without knowing it. The United States is the world, and only by staying in the United States can it be safe. A Neanderthal slipped out of the museum and became ashes and was swept away by garbage trucks. So the United States became the "protective umbrella" for people all over the world. It is dangerous to leave the United States. "Come to America" is here to penetrate into the brains of the audience without the audience knowing it.
In the end, the museum finally realized a true "harmonious society" with Larry’s efforts. There was no war and chaos in the museum. Everything was in order under Larry’s management. It's a carnival. This is tantamount to once again making an advertisement for the United States all over the world. People from all over the world are celebrating the festival every day after they come to the United States, but all of this is under the management of Larry, a white American. At the end of the film Larry is alone. The guard's costume stood on the second floor proudly watching the celebration of the people downstairs, free under the order of a guard. This scene obviously promotes the idea that the whole world can live freely under the management of the world police (Larry is the guard) of the United States. You have to admire that the arrogance of the Americans has a sense of art. It is clearly a political drama, but it is seen as a fairy tale comedy. It seems that the real myth is not the American army. The American army is magical at best. And American movies are myths!
At the end of the museum, there are actually two managers, one is Larry and the other is the fat curator, but the curator insists on letting others call him "Doctor". The world is the guard of Larry (US Army). Live freely under the protection, but Larry’s superior is a civilian intellectual! This is in line with the tradition of civil servants since the founding of the United States. Then the curator of the museum is not only the highest manager of the museum, but also the highest manager of the entire United States, that is, the highest manager of the world. The President of the United States rules the world. Look, how great!
The only Chinese elements in the movie can also show that the United States has not forgotten that there is such a 5,000-year-old country on the opposite side. One sign is that there are three exhibits that represent the image of China in the museum, including terracotta warriors, golden Buddha statues, and jade lions. Although they are not the protagonist, and they have not had any language exchanges, the number of appearances is really good, and the image is also very "Chinese." ", there is no yelling or running around like some elements of other civilizations, basically a quiet and peaceful character. Another representative of China is the Chinese labor in the western cowboy Jedi Dia, but the problem here is very big. First of all, why Jedi Dia was portrayed as a bohemian cowboy is very confusing. The scenes of trains and tunnels in the miniature landscape of the western United States are very similar to scenes in the Westward Movement of the United States, but the earliest group of Chinese laborers who arrived in the United States was only a dozen people from 1820 to 1840. In Didaya’s era, even if there were Chinese laborers, it was impossible. It was around 1865 that a large number of Chinese laborers landed in the United States. At this time, Jedidia had passed away for more than 30 years.
The Americans have completed another American fairy tale in the laughable passages, magical stunt shots, and music that creates a mysterious atmosphere and atmosphere in "A Wonderful Night in a Museum". It is also an American myth. The above is a long advertisement centered on the United States. After the movie gave the museum the first shot, the first shot inside the museum was an American flag! But you have to applaud it! When Rebecca saw the dinosaurs, mammoths and cheetahs walking on the road in the taxi, I didn’t know why I was moved with Rebecca. Perhaps everyone had such a dream in their childhood. That is all the things and people that can only be seen on TV, even those long-lasting dreamlike things suddenly resurrected one day and came to oneself, and the wish realized at this moment makes the childlike innocence of all the audience return in an instant, and it is impossible. Do not arouse a moving emotion. If the United States is an "empire" like the Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire, then it is clear that the United States is more like a "cultural empire" rather than a military conquest empire. The United States easily grasped a person's most delicate point, and then slightly fluctuated your heartstrings, causing people to unconsciously fall to the United States! As the American international relations scholar Joseph Joffie wrote in "Challenges to History and Theory: America as the Last "Superpower", the postmodernity of power divides power into hard power and soft power. Visible weapons and military are the embodiment of hard power, while soft power can exert the influence of "ideology" and "system", and can give the author huge rewards, for example, a huge and mature market. In terms of soft power, the United States is unique in the world. In this respect, no country can compare with the United States-from McDonald's to Microsoft, from Hollywood to Harvard. This power (an attractive market for radiating culture) relies on attraction rather than push, and relies on voluntary acceptance rather than forced acceptance.
And there is no doubt that "Wonderful Night at the Museum" is another huge and successful weight for the United States to implement soft power. The United States quietly enters into you the American ideology and similar information that the United States is the world and the United States is paradise. Brain. How can you be sure that in addition to being ferocious, the real Tyrannosaurus will be as cute as a puppy in the movie and hope that people will throw bones to let it play? How can you be sure that the secret of the Colossus of Easter Island is not that it likes to eat bubble gum very much? Especially the scene of Larry's son riding a Tyrannosaurus in the film is absolutely attractive to any child-do you dare to say that you never had such a dream when you were a kid?
Finally, I have to sigh that "A Wonderful Night at the Museum" also has such an educational significance, which is to call people to return to the museum to learn. A country that transcends history but still pays attention to history, compared with the September 18th Incident and the July 7th Incident. I can't tell which Chinese is which, and I really feel a lot of emotion.
Okay, now that the United States has woven such a fairy tale for the whole world, do you want to come to the United States for a carnival? Want to come to such a museum? According to the logic of the United States, then you come to the United States!
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