Like its predecessors, "Send the Countryman" continues to tell the story of the journey and return. After the arduous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border in "The Three Funerals of the Escada Pair", "Send the Countryman" leaves Nebraska in a carriage loaded with three insane women to a destination 700 kilometers away of Iowa. This journey, which can be completed in just six hours today, usually took more than a month in the 19th century. If you unfortunately encounter harsh weather or uncivilized Indians, you are lucky to save your life. . But, in the story of "Send the Countryman", a woman named Mary Bee Coty took over the task. Hilary Swan plays Mary, an elderly unmarried daughter who lives alone in a small western town. She has the taste of the middle class and the tenacity of the bottom laborers. This female man with the same rough personality and physique, like a rose in the desert, takes root in the barbarity, and carefully manages her daily life and field work. Out of sympathy, she volunteered to escort the mentally ill woman out of the West by Ying, and the assistant she found for herself was the down-to-earth, rambunctious and rogue George Biggs (played by Tommy Lee Jones).
If it were the Coen brothers, the improvised pair of "bounty hunters" would overcome all obstacles on their way home, promoting good and punishing evil in a dark and humorous tone, and finally achieved a heroic epic. No matter how bad it is, they may also be portrayed as a pair of happy friends who disliked each other from the beginning, and then gradually got to know each other and burst into love during the journey... But in "Send the Countryman", Mary and George's personalities The conflict has been greatly weakened, Mary is still a woman who coexists with hardness and tenderness, and George also holds the banner of egoism as he just appeared, and marches all the way for the final reward. Along the way, except when necessary, they joined forces to fight against external invasions, and the two characters never reached a reconciliation until the end. Also weakened are the difficulties encountered along the way eastbound. The movie does not design a variety of difficulties, except for the occasional Indians and raging winds, the biggest challenge Mary and George face always comes from the three women in the carriage. They were once also courageous pioneers. As their families drifted from the eastern towns to this place, they were bit by bit by the cruel torture of the environment and lost their minds.
The mad woman's image "Send the Countryman" is covered with a strong tragic color, and the occasional humor in the play is just right to prevent the film from falling into the overall despair. Unlike Westerns in the usual sense, women are the protagonists of this eastbound epic. They are a neglected group in American history, and Tommy Lee Jones hopes to use "Hometown Man" to make more people understand the situation of women in the 19th century Western.
In order to credibly reconstruct the western scenery and farm life of a century ago, the production team of "Send the Countryman" has carried out a lot of research work, from costumes to props, from folk entertainment to the behavior of characters. The sprawling Las Vegas, Mexico, ranch sets the stage for the film’s minimalist aesthetic, while the vast western landscape sets the stage for the characters’ emotional turns. The director once said that the scenery is also the protagonist of "Send the Villagers", which is true. If it wasn't for Mary's insistence on erecting a tombstone for the unnamed tomb in the desert, which led to the separation of George and George on a snowy day, she would not have been furious after another dignified marriage proposal, and finally, to everyone's surprise, did not Can continue to complete her escort mission. This old unmarried female man's journey to the east still needs an unreliable assistant, George, to end it.
So in the second half of the film, the bounty partner's double reeds become George's one-man show, and the female historical narrative gives way to Tommy Lee Jones' show-stopping performance. Paradoxically, in George's almost frenzied behavior, the Western element that the director denied is back at the heart of the story. George, who successfully arrived in Iowa, entered the city as a victor, and received the heartfelt approval of the magistrate's wife. However, staying in the barbarity for too long and being exposed to civilization at once will cause dizziness, so, like all lone heroes, George, after completing the task, warned the girl he met in the hotel, "Don't worry about it. Don't marry a westerner, or you'll be ruined for life." He quickly boarded the ferry back to the west, dancing drunkenly to the cheerful sound of the banjo under the dim light. At a time where everyone wants to escape the West, George rebellious behavior is hard to understand: perhaps Mary harbor Kui Yi, perhaps desertification passionate, perhaps just accustomed to the life of crude unwilling to change ......
original In the 2014.6 monthly issue of "Film World"
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