As a loyal Nolan fan, when I first heard that he was going to shoot "Dunkirk," I thought he was destroying his future. How can a director who is accustomed to making science fiction suspense films manage historical themes well, and is still a World War II film that has been shot indiscriminately? What he was looking for was not a little-known story like "Blood Battle on Hacksaw Ridge", but the Dunkirk retreat that even people who don't care about history might have heard of. In my imagination, there is only one filming method for this kind of film: a group of soldiers walked through the rain of bullets, covered with mud and blood, crawled through the corpses and ruins, and finally headed for victory. They will encounter complicated interpersonal relationships in the military camp, but they will become brothers in front of a common enemy. They resent the cruelty of war, but the belief in defending their homes and returning to their loved ones defeats everything.
This was considered a blockbuster movie in the 90s, but today, when even superheroes have to face their inner demons, what else is there about this kind of magnificent theme? This is the first time that I didn't expect Nolan's work. Before it was released, I asked a movie enthusiast next to me whether it was worth watching. After getting an affirmative answer, I walked into the theater dubiously.
Of course, I was not disappointed at all. The realistic yet majestic visual effects used in Nolan's films, as well as the exciting music that complements the plot, make this film impeccable technically (at least in the eyes of laymen). The three stories focus on small characters and are carried out simultaneously in three timelines of one week, one day, and one hour, which not only make it easier for the audience to understand the situation and choices of the parties, but also cleverly breaks the linear narrative of history, forcing the audience to use their brains. Make this story where everyone knows the ending less boring.
There are tense passages in the film. When the few young soldiers who tried their best to survive successfully escaped but encountered disasters and returned to the origin, when the soldiers who finally left Dunkirk heard that they were going back with the ship to save people, when the pilot watched When the fuel is about to run out but they have to continue to chase the enemy plane, their fear and despair are enough to infect audiences who have never experienced war. There are also sensational scenes in the film. When the soldiers stranded on the beach had no way to go back, countless small boats appeared on the sea level, their names were ordinary and random, but there were elderly civilian captains standing upright on the deck, because the war was caused by their generation. , They feel that they have a responsibility to sail through the perilous strait and save the young people who have been pushed to the slaughterhouse in batches.
There is no lack of patriotism in Dunkirk. This incident itself is an important moment in British national memory. When the British army was trapped and dying, a large number of British civilians' boats went to rescue and created a miracle that more than 300,000 people were successfully evacuated. This kind of tenacity and unity is still impressive. The ideology of the Allied Justice to resist the evil Nazis gave it a moral color.
But just as Churchill said that "war is not won by retreat", Dunkirk is not a victory in the final analysis. If it sounds good, it is called retreat, or if it sounds bad, it is called escape. Nolan is quite constrained in Dunkirk. Except for the turn of the crisis at the end, most of the time in the film is full of death and failure. People are trapped on the beach, in the sea, and in the cabin, exhausted but have nowhere to escape. The two young soldiers are not so resourceful as they are trying to steal their lives, steal the clothes of the dead, pretend to be medical soldiers, pretend to be Scots, and tell all lies just to escape. If the officers were not in a position to take care of themselves, they would probably be sent to a military court. . Nolan's portrayal of patriotism is also unconventional. For example, Churchill's evaluation of the Dunkirk retreat was not a generous statement in the parliament, but a calm reading by an ordinary soldier. Another example is the old gentleman who was determined to save people from beginning to end. His eldest son died in the war, so his behavior is not only a noble dedication, but also includes a personal side, but also implicitly expresses the accusation of the war.
How to express failure under a patriotic theme was the problem that Churchill faced when he explained the Dunkirk retreat to the parliament. It was also the challenge Nolan had to pass when trying to give new meaning to this old subject. After all, it is too easy to use victory to inspire national pride, but any person and any country will inevitably suffer defeat. How to face failure may be the real test of humanity and nationality.
I naturally think of the domestic movie "Wolf Warriors 2" that I watched not long ago. Its patriotism is obviously much more straightforward than "Dunkirk", but when you think about it, they all seem to tell stories about ordinary people saving people from dangerous areas. The conflicts in the stories are all political events, and ordinary people There is the power of the country behind it.
Our impression of "Wolf Warrior 2" is mostly a victory. Leng Feng, a former soldier played by Wu Jing, "opens up" to save people in a certain African country. People who like them cheer for the Chinese to stand up and stop being bullied by foreigners. Those who don't like it criticize the film for being obscene, and it seems a little bit muscular to distinguish strength and weakness. Straight male cancer". The male protagonist holds a five-star red flag and crosses the war zone to find a large group of evacuated overseas Chinese. No matter how unrealistic this scene is, it will arouse the blood of the Chinese audience.
But "Wolf Warriors 2" is not without failure. For me, the most shocking scene in the movie was that during the final battle, a group of Chinese workers escaped from the bunker and were shot and killed by the villain. However, the male protagonist was unable to get out because he was crushed by a heavy object, so he had to take a video as the villain who did evil. irrefutable evidence. Such a tragic slaughter formed a great contrast with the hero's courage to save people throughout the film, and it also showed the limitations of the hero's ability: no matter how good his skill is, he is just a flesh and blood body, and he can't be three heads and six arms at ten times.
Out of the instinct of an international journalist, I have been thinking when watching movies, if this happens in the real world, how would I report it? Of course I would praise the heroic deeds of the Chinese soldiers and list the successful data on the evacuation of overseas Chinese, but how do I write about the doctors and workers who were slaughtered? Is their death a mistake in their own judgment, is their fate unpredictable, or is the rescue team's poor work? If you blindly praise victory, it is disrespect for the dead and their families, but if you focus too much on failure, it is irresponsible to soldiers and other related workers who bet on their lives.
There are actually many similar situations in "Wolf Warrior 2". The villains are extremely vicious, and the Chinese civilians killed by them should be no less than those rescued by the male protagonist. The property losses caused by the conflict are even more numerous. The hero just happens to be in this country, if he is not there, who else can save them? In the end, the male protagonist has been forced to the end, and the Chinese warship fired guns in time to relieve him, but if the order to fire the guns is issued a little later, will his action end in failure? In this way, the victory in "Wolf Warriors 2" has a lot of fluke elements, and a little mistake, this may be reduced to a tragedy.
In my opinion, these signs of failure are precisely the most interesting aspects of "Wolf Warriors 2" and are worthy of further digging. I wonder if the hero will think of the workers he failed to rescue after celebrating the success of the action, and will he think over and over again if he changes his approach, he might save a few more people, regretting that he can do it no matter how strong he is. It's impossible. I want to know whether those Chinese have calculated the cost of opening factories and services in this dangerous country, what motivates them to travel across oceans regardless of danger, and what do they think of those trapped in their own country when they are rescued by the motherland? Local people who can't even go. I want to know if the army will discuss why it has to rely on a civilian who has been discharged to carry out rescue missions, and whether they have any legal and public preparedness for this...
"Wolf Warriors 2" provided these thoughtful possibilities, but failed to continue digging. This is a story about "winning": in the decisive battle, the opposition said to the male protagonist that you people are going to be bullied. The male protagonist went back angrily and said that it is not anymore. He seems to have forgotten Dr. Chen and his colleagues who had just been "bullyed" to death not long ago.
No one likes failure. At the end of "Dunkirk", a rescued soldier said worriedly that he would definitely be spit on when he returned to the UK. He dared not raise his head to face the crowd outside the car window. After all, he lost to the enemy and fled home like a coward.
But the heart-warming scene soon appeared. A pedestrian knocked on the train window, not to spit, but to pass beer to the soldiers who had suffered. People greeted them with applause, as if they were returning triumphantly. hero. Here, failure means to forgive each other and move forward in unity while recognizing one's own problems. As Churchill said in his speech, he admitted that the British army suffered heavy losses and that Britain might face a more violent attack in the next step, but he also insisted that he would continue to fight, even in the fields, streets and mountains, even if Britain fell. , Never surrender. Of course, we can say that Churchill was amazingly eloquent and he just wrapped up the failure with positive energy, but it should be noted that this failure has not been forgotten.
More importantly, failure urges people to go deep into their hearts and dig into the common things between people, rather than being complacent, implying hostility towards others while boasting themselves. "Dunkirk" can impress Chinese audiences precisely because it is not a purely British story, but is full of values that can be understood by any culture, such as anti-war, survival, responsibility, sympathy, and so on.
The most typical example is that soldiers who were stimulated by shells were reluctant to return to Dunkirk to save people, and accidentally injured the boy on the ship while pushing. Later, the soldiers came to ask about the boy’s situation. The shipowner’s son told him that the boy was okay, but in fact the shipowner’s son had just found out that the boy was dead. He might be angry or even hateful towards the soldiers, but he was worried that the soldiers would be stimulated to blame themselves or perform extreme behaviors, and calm down. Lied. In just one conversation, the shipowner’s son matured and learned compassion. The failure left the soldier almost forever trauma, but the owner’s son’s attempt to understand the failure process was sublimated into a moral trial.
There are not only abstract virtues but also human flaws that cross national borders. In a small boat waiting for high tide, a group of Scottish soldiers had an infight with two soldiers who joined them later and wanted to escape together. The comrades who had lived and died in the previous moment shot each other and identified one of the soldiers as a German spy and wanted to throw it out to lighten the boat. Even though the French soldiers called spies had saved their lives before. No one jumped out to stand for justice in the chaos, the ship was destroyed, the French soldier was drowned, and no one went to rescue him. At the moment when death is approaching, self-interest is infinitely amplified by the survival instinct. This idea of stepping on someone else’s body and wanting to survive is dark but extremely real. It also makes the film less political propaganda in a single country and more shared globally. Humanistic care: War has never been as glorious and passionate as the outside world imagined. It will turn the best people into cowardice, depression, and selfishness. Groups of lively and cheerful young people step onto the battlefield, but the disabled and corpses come back. .
A common criticism of "Wolf Warriors 2" is that only Chinese audiences enjoy watching it. Although foreign audiences are attracted by the Hollywood-style filming and fierce fighting scenes, it is difficult to accept the nationalistic complex. In the future, I am not necessarily admired by China's strength, but a little scared. This is a Chinese movie, but it is still far from a world-class movie.
Perhaps this is precisely because it ignores deeper and more general elements while exaggerating China's "win". For example, in order to show that China's evacuation of overseas Chinese is better than the United States, it is arranged that a female doctor of American nationality cannot send a tweet for help, but in fact, the US embassy abroad also has a call on duty. The foreign audience was convinced. It’s not just the Chinese who have evacuated. Maybe we are doing better than others, but this does not mean ridiculing other people who are also working hard to protect their own nationals. In fact, the evacuation of overseas Chinese often requires coordination and cooperation of multiple countries, which does reflect the difference in national power, but in the final analysis, saving people is not a game.
What is more worth exploring is those Africans who depend on the Chinese for money and security. They learn to drink Moutai, call the Chinese "god father" or marry the Chinese, and they can be saved by being with the Chinese in distress. , This seems to make the Chinese audience quite proud. But do these locals really like China or their survival strategy? Will they be ostracized or jealous of other Africans? Do they have their own nationalism and dream that one day they no longer need to rely on the power of great powers? From the perspective of the Chinese, seeing that the motherland of their loved ones is falling apart, do they just want to escape or do more, will they realize that there are too many locals who are unable to save by themselves? Will you blame yourself, despair, or do your best to change the status quo?
A film that can truly resonate universally requires not only cool pictures and twists and turns, but also lines that can enrich the character in a few words. It needs to go beyond the moral orientation of the plot itself, and it needs to find the answer. Internal torture. And these are often not by praising victory, but by digging the difficulties and hesitation behind the victory, by facing the inevitable failure.
I don’t want to use "Dunkirk" to disparage "Wolf Warriors 2". The latter undoubtedly stands out from the domestic movies in many aspects, and, like the examples listed in the previous article, touches some of the more complicated factors behind nationalism. , But did not dig deeper. In the future, there will be more and more films like this, and we will see Chinese "superheroes" winning on the screen more frequently. But if you win, you must lose. Those who are shrouded in the protagonist's aura are also likely to be injured, die, or fail to act. Are we downplaying and turning a blind eye to these plots, or do we take this opportunity to reflect on what power really means?
It is the same in real life. More and more Chinese people are "going out", and the chances of encountering vicious incidents are also increasing. Bankruptcy, kidnapping, and death. These things that would happen at home will also happen abroad. But the difference is that these overseas events will determine the public’s view of their country and the world: whether people embrace the world’s multiculturalism with an open mind, whether they proudly feel that their country should dominate the world when they are superior, or are they afraid and angry To build a high wall in order to isolate the dangers from the outside world? Consular protection and overseas security are naturally keeping up, but it is almost impossible to ensure that all Chinese people can live safely abroad. Failures, large and small, will inevitably occur. This cannot be an excuse for the dereliction of duty by the relevant personnel. However, how to deal with and understand failure under the premise that all the efforts have been made are the qualities that each of us needs to continue to learn.
At the end of "Dunkirk", the pilot played by Tom Hardy shot down the last enemy plane. The plane with the propeller stopped and landed beautifully on the beach, calmly destroying the car, and then raised his hands without resistance. Captured by the German army, the pride of the Royal Air Force still borne in the eyebrows. He failed, but who can say that he did not succeed?
(Originally issued in the public account weimustudy)
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