It is also a war movie, and compared to other masterpieces, this one seems "small".
A few thousandths of a small company, a dilapidated and dirty trench, a few tired and anxious soldiers, a small raid.
But its "anti-war" expression is extremely strong.
It is not narrative, it reveals a very anxious background as a whole. The color tone is cold, the characters are in a state of different emotional anxiety, there is no moment of war that can be called "great", there are only sudden gunshots and endless death.
The high spirits and passion for the battle are borne by the recruits played by Asa. But this state was later easily breached. If he could stay on the front line a little longer, maybe he could not escape and become those veterans. It's like Stanhope's transformation.
The claustrophobic trench is like a monster factory, copying and branding deep fear and mania on everyone who comes here. French, British, people come here and are buried here. Unlike "Blood Battle on Hacksaw Ridge," they couldn't even recover the bodies of their companions.
But the fear cannot be changed. You must step out of the trenches and face the gunfire. This is a death order. The anxious officer wants to encourage the soldiers, and at the same time, his own emotions have not been internalized, and he has turned into a flammable and explosive volcano.
When the military order directly pointed out that "there is no back-up", the soldiers on the front line fear war, which is a living powerlessness and cruelty.
The gentler in this is the officer played by Paul. And he called war "a kind of work", not patriotism, very realistic. The director used him to explain that the war fell on the soldiers on the front line, and the nature was closer to "work", a job that would accept instant death. He accepted and was ready, so he could get along better.
It's not that other people can't accept death, but can't accept the unknown Lingchi fear of being killed. One person said that I would rather die in the trenches.
There are also a few details that are impressive.
Different from the mess of their daily meals, when Stanhope and the general ate, they would spread a white tablecloth and arrange the tableware neatly. A sense of hierarchy, power, decent standing at the top.
The raid made people think of "Billy Lynn's Midfield War", the shaking camera made people completely confused what happened, breathing and soundtrack aggravated the sense of oppression. On the front line of life and death, you will know who is alive at the end, and you will know whether you have survived.
At the end of the movie, there are corpses all over and sacrificed data silently complained. Regardless of the path, only death is the end of this journey.
Next comes the "but" part.
I have been looking forward to the collision between Stanhope veterans and Raleigh recruits, but unfortunately there are no surprises. There were almost only a few eyes between them. And the scene in which Sam and Asa quarreled because of the death of their companions, the performance was not satisfactory.
Of course, there will be people who are boring to tell the narrative of this film, and the key points are not prominent. The director only expresses anxiety by portraying different behaviors. Some lose their temper, some cry, and some eat and wait to die. Emotional films have always been dangerous to be understood. The boy in my back seat at the North Film Festival walked for a while. When God woke up and asked his girlfriend what happened, I had an ominous premonition...
As a fan of Asa, I can't help but feel heartache!
Many of his movies are always so bad. This movie didn’t make him shine. As a war movie, he didn’t have a particularly big competitive advantage. It is very likely to hit the street (come hit me in the face!)
But that look was good before he died. Some people should remember this boy with blue eyes. I wrote with tears.
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