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Before the release of "Gravity" in 2013, American movies had already shown a trend of hollowing out entertainment. The "Star Wars" series, the "Transformers" series and the superhero (Marvel/DC) series "occupies" the main share of the entertainment film market, and the expansion trend continues to be strong.
Such so-called IP movies pursue high investment and use dazzling special effects techniques to outline magnificent and varied spectacle scenes, but they quickly slide to infancy or even low-intellect in terms of plot and ideographic logic. In the eyes of many Hollywood filmmakers, it seems that complicated dramas and director scheduling skills are not needed, and movies can also sell well.
However, even within Hollywood, there is a considerable degree of dissatisfaction with IP movies represented by Marvel (represented by the recent views of Martin Scorsese). Although its huge commercial success has blocked critics, there are still people trying to explore another way of commercial entertainment movies that is different from the route of superhero movies. We can combine many of the works of Alessandro Gonzalez Inarrido, Gilmo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, who are now shining in Hollywood in the 2010s ( Especially the three films they won the Oscars) regarded as attempts to do this.
Caron is the only one of these three who has not been completely "naturalized" into the Hollywood system. Even in the 2006 "Son of Humanity" produced by Universal, he still shows a different approach: the film The serious theme is different from the popular American mainstream sci-fi popcorn blockbusters, and his obsession with long shots shows that his film technology is different from the pursuit of ordinary Hollywood directors.
It was these two points that formed the basis for the filming of "Gravity". What it hopes to answer is actually the question buried in the hearts of many Hollywood film practitioners: Does the technical level of film performance skills have to be matched with the brainless and mentally handicapped popcorn plot to complement each other? Can a new generation of high-quality Hollywood movies be achieved by combining the traditional American-style personal heroism psychodrama framework with the exquisite technical methods that contemporary American movies are proud of?
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The thirteen-minute long space walk at the beginning of "Gravity" once attracted audiences to talk about it. Although it is actually synthesized through technical means, it still reflects the highest technological level of the American film industry. Caron and the technicians focused on the combination of "movement": large figures and spaceships, small satellite fragments and screws all move on the screen according to their own different weightless trajectories, and they cooperate seamlessly with each other; plus The upper camera rotates around all moving objects in a regular circular orbit to capture the key pictures, forming a visually stunning scheduling effect. In terms of technology, it should be said that it is impeccable-this is the strength of American film leading the world, and no one can challenge it. What it creates is always a visual spectacle on the screen supported by superb technology and skills.
On the other hand, in the play, Caron seems to be deliberately challenging the genre of many IP characters in the Marvel/Star Wars series of movies, designing a one-man show mode for the film-there are only two characters in the film. : Scientific researcher Ryan Stone played by Sandra Bullock and astronaut Matt Kowski played by George Clooney. The latter lost control and wandered into space half an hour after the beginning of the film, leaving Stone alone to make the arduous effort to return to Earth.
Since the silent film era, one of the most popular themes in Hollywood movies has been how humans deal with environmental challenges. Opening up territories, conquering the west, and fighting against harsh natural conditions are all part of the history of the founding of the United States and one of the core values that make up the "American Dream." The prosperous Westerns in Hollywood movies are essentially a detailed description of the pioneers who used their own courage to face the unpredictable factors in the surrounding environment (Gobi, desert, Indians, gangsters, etc.). Other types of films such as war films, historical films and even police and detective films are also deeply penetrated by this dualistic thinking. It forms the most basic narrative routine in the play: the crisis in the external environment threatens the survival of the protagonist on multiple levels, and the character recognizes himself in the process of constantly coping with external challenges and ultimately "defeats the enemy". This is an extension of a typical stress response psychology and action model in the field of movie dramas.
Looking at "Gravity" in this way, even if it pulls the background of the story into space, its core concept is almost the same as the above model. This idea has become the standard in the silent film era, especially Buster. Keaton's action comedies are the most famous. Here we can cite another example similar to "Gravity": the Swedish director Victor Sjostrom shot a famous film in Hollywood in 1928, "Wind", which tells a young man The experience of a woman who came to the unfamiliar western grasslands of the United States to fight against the raging wind. Not only the relationship between the heroine and the wind in the film is very similar to the relationship between Dr. Ryan and gravity in "Gravity", but even the way of turning danger into a crisis is the same: in "The Wind", the heroine has left home. Jiu's husband returned to teach her the way to protect the wind; in "Gravity", it is the heroine's dream that the astronaut Kowski gets into the rescue capsule of the Shenzhou and tells her the trick to launch the spacecraft.
More than ninety years have passed, and we still see that "Gravity" is still revisiting Hollywood's unchanging crisis narrative old tunes, and today with the ever-changing times, thoughts, emotions, and problems facing mankind, this beautiful new The old wine in bulk in the bottle has evaporated into tasteless boiled water. This is actually the most disappointing and frustrating part of "Gravity".
3
Hollywood is a never-ending melting pot. On the one hand, with an unattainable tolerance, it constantly attracts excellent filmmakers from all over the world, just like a flame that needs to constantly add fuel to burn; on the other hand, it sets in all the systems that enter the Hollywood system. The filmmakers inside have a set of "heavy" shackles, which are composed of a whole set of systems such as genre, formula, rules, American dream principles, popular entertainment aesthetics, political correctness principles, and methodological performances. No matter what cultural background the filmmakers come from and how avant-garde creative ideas they hold, this set is the "staple" they must first digest if they want to gain a foothold in the American film industry. Like beasts shackled, Hollywood gave them the opportunity to roar, but only if they were in a cage.
Looking at "Gravity" from this perspective: Under the pressure of a high investment of 100 million US dollars, and the "lessons" of the previous commercial failure of "Son of Man", director Caron actually gave up on the plot structure and dominant ideas For any "non-discriminatory thoughts", he completely regressed to the most traditional and safest Hollywood principles. And his entire team shifted its focus to the presentation of spectacle visual effects, hoping to rely on sufficiently powerful technical means to produce a high-quality movie, hoping that it will be more stylish in the "cage". "Roar" sound.
But it is a pity that all these efforts have not really brought "Gravity" to a revolutionary height. The habitual thought of indulging in the display of spectacles involuntarily pulls it on the same path as the Marvel movies-leaving aside the accumulated IP value for many years, the latter is a hodgepodge of packaged visual spectacles in the film itself. : Whether it’s the unbelievable ingenuity of superheroes, or the dazzling battle scenes, or even the cloaks, tights, high boots, and briefs that evolved from circus costumes, they are all in pure external form. The goal is to attract people’s eyes and eyes. Its inherent emptiness is almost the same as the clichés of the core of "Gravity", and the difference may only lie in the level of visual aesthetics.
Facts have proved that although the Oscar awarded "Gravity" a golden award to praise its perfect film technology practice (the Oscar itself is a technology and ideological award, basically has nothing to do with the artistic quality of the film), but it has almost become In an isolated case, apart from Caron’s two Mexican partners, Inarido and Del Toro, no one else has followed this path and continued to make traditional Hollywood movies that constantly challenge the limits of technology. On the contrary, Marvel movies have raged and expanded during the past decade, and they have been reaping the box office on the screen with their typical extensive hollowness.
Even Caron himself is no longer interested in such a combination of pale content and superb technology: when Netflix gave him enough freedom to make personal creations, his focus returned to his hometown of Mexico, once again with the casual style of prose culture. And produced "Rome". We can still see the technical visual spectacles he indulged in, but this time the content with a diffuse personal reminiscence atmosphere and social and historical reality finally provided him with some solid support, allowing us to obtain some and American movies. Different sensory experiences.
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As Martin Scorsese publicly expressed doubts about "Marvel" movies, people finally realized that the hollowing out of big screen movies had become a serious crisis, and it was actually devouring other possibilities expressed by movies. It becomes a tool for extracting commercial value. And within the framework of Hollywood, the meticulous crafting of pure film technology like "Gravity" is obviously not the way to fight against the "Marvel" forces. On the contrary, it is more like a helpless roar after being suppressed for a long time while reminiscing about the old days in the beast cage.
What filmmakers need to examine is actually the cage constructed by the Hollywood value expression system: a hundred years ago it supported the development of the entire world film industry; and a hundred years later, it turned into a commercial The assembly line of the money-making machine confines the creativity of movie people to a narrow scope.
What's interesting is that even in Hollywood, from time to time there will be another completely different voice: when we see "True Detective", "Twin Peaks Season 3" and "Old Fearless", the style is weird and melancholy, which completely breaks the tradition. It’s only when you are in routine TV series that you realize the aliens who have been squeezed out of the Hollywood industrial circle by "Marvel-style movies". They have converted a battlefield to "champion" with mainstream Hollywood, and this may be the American mass film industry. Innovation direction.
(First published on the WeChat public account of "Iris")
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