I watched this 4-hour video twice in a row,
At this moment, the OST "ChildhoodMemories" and Elvis Presley’s "yesterday" are being played in a loop.
I think I should write something.
1. Shallow themes: friendship and love
1. Friendship:
-Main line with noodles and Max:
Noodle treats Max as a brother who was born and died, sharing joys and sorrows;
^Although Max also has a soft place for noodles in his cold and cruel heart, noodles are more of a use object for him, a stepping stone to support him to climb, or he is promoted to the upper class in order to get rid of the street spirit A stone that must be kicked off on this road for dignitaries.
From the first time the two met, Max sitting on the carriage (up shot) was destined to have a very different future from the standing noodles and street gangsters—he had power, ambition, and desire to dominate.
·When he was a teenager, he became the king of children among a group of street gangsters. He put forward the term "joint fund" and proposed to keep the key in Fatmana. It seems to be a mild proposal, but behind it is a kind of proposal. The desire to dominate others. Hidden dangers of conflict between Max and noodles were also buried here. For Max’s proposal, the noodles were agreed to at the latest every time, and there were doubts, but in the end a bright smile "agreed!" Freelancers who are instigated by others and do not want to sacrifice their lives for others, but are convinced by friendship and choose to trust Max.
·In youth, when everyone panicked because they forgot the number of the sheriff’s only son in the "Nursery Operation", Max leisurely said that it didn’t matter, and gave the number casually-he would be the master of fate and determine the fate of others-different The appearance and intelligence of a baby will affect the different destinies of a family.
·In addition, after Noodles came back from the Chinese theater where drunk life and dreams were dead, he found that Max had spent a lot of money to buy a king chair of the Pope that resembled a Game of Thrones, which was puzzled. And Max just triumphantly used "I'm sitting on it" to explain the reason for the purchase. Everyone knows the heart of Sima Zhao.
There are other details that also reflect Max's desire for power. For example, in the movie, whenever the youth noodle is crazy with Max, Max reacts violently, and he can't wait to beat the noodle-"Never say that!"-Max, who has a desire to dominate, will never allow others to question his authority.
In addition, I would like to explain the director’s "careful machine": every time max and noodles clash, they all seem to get back together , and the lyrical music of the film's theme song plays along with it, making us all deeply feel the beauty of brotherhood ——Whether it was the good thing that Max interrupted the noodles in his youth, the two quarreled and was beaten to find teeth by the tyrant; or the two quarreled after robbing the diamond dealer in his youth and the noodles drove the car into the water like crazy, Everyone thumped happily in the water; or at the suggestion of the politician Shakey, the two quarreled because Max accused the noodles of "street style". After Max chased after the noodle and expressed his willingness to accompany him to swim in the Florida beach...
These passages all highlight the positive side of the friendship coin-brotherhood, hiding the negative side-betrayal, and this paved the way for Max 's motives for betraying noodles and waiting for his brothers , that is, Max didn't want to betray noodles all of a sudden. Just save up and endure it for a long time-noodles have been tripping him, and he unconditionally accommodates the noodles every time. As Shaji said, "Leave the burden behind", Max finally decided to abandon the noodles, kill his friends, whitewash his identity as the underworld, and swallow their "public funds". From then on, he became rich and became rich in the upper class society, and turned upside down in politics.
As the name suggests, Max is a complete egoist, at the expense of others in order to achieve his own goals. Even if he let the noodles make him personally in the end, it was just to satisfy his wish-for him, if he was the only one he trusted noodles, he would not feel guilty, and he did not need to be investigated and executed by politicians. It can be said that he died without regret. "Gloriously" ended his legendary life. But what about noodles? If Noodles did this, it would mean that he once again killed his good brother with his own hands, and once again fell into the guilt and pain of self-torture. So Noodles would rather defend the lie in front of Max, the lie maker-Minister Bailey in front of him is not his lifelong best friend Max, the latter will always live in his memories, and their friendship with each other will last forever.
The fable of "whatever you want, you have to lose something" also applies to noodles.
Thirty-five years later, the old noodles seemed to have received innocent salvation and 1 million returned to Zhao, but he lost the best thing-the fond memories of brotherhood with Max. For noodles, the latter is more important than the former.
Therefore, this dark night revealed by the truth must also belong to the heartbreak night of noodles.
After witnessing Bailey/Max committing suicide in a shredded garbage truck, Noodles eyes flashed with tears. Even this "homecoming trip" 35 years later turned everything upside down. But this pardon seems too late. In fact, it is a more complete destruction and deprivation. Declaring the noodles not guilty at the same time is declaring the collapse of the foundation of his life's meaning. Therefore, Noodles must struggle to preserve his painful memories, and must cling to this lie and illusion. After this more absurd and cruel night, the heart-broken night 35 years ago will become a memory of noodles forever and melancholy. The beautiful and painful feelings are intertwined, forming the brotherhood of life and death.
That is the happiness that noodles can hardly possess again. As a result, at the end of the film, in the freeze frame of the close-up of the noodles, the young noodles suddenly showed a miserable smile, indicating the irony, inversion and dismantling of the American dream, and at the same time, it is a bitter lingering about this dream.
-In addition to the large-length description of the friendship between Noodles and Max, the film also intersperses the brotherhood between their gang of buddies who grew up-Fat Mo, Squint, and Paisi, as well as the pro that makes noodles unforgettable. The little boy who said "I slipped" to him before he died.
What a lovely child, so sad.
2. Love:
-The main thread is the pure and innocent emotion of noodles (subordinate) towards Deborah (dominant):
In the heart of noodles with rude appearance and soft heart, Deborah is his saint—the juvenile noodles were conquered by the "Bible-Song of Songs" read by Dai to him); it is his spiritual pillar to live-12 years of prison The spiritual sustenance in China.
For Deborah, noodles are more to satisfy her desire to be loved and cared. Doesn't she like noodles at all? No, she has a good impression of noodles. No matter if she was a teenager, she was alone at home, suggesting that noodles could come in and be alone with her. When she was a teenager, she came to the Fat Mo Bar on the day of the noodles release to see him and then went to dinner with him. It was the cruelty of covering up the truth with noodles in old age-this was Deborah's only active protection of noodles. Then there was the concern that his panicked eyes showed when the noodles walked into Bailey/max's room.
However, just like those "delicate egoists" today, Deborah is the kind of sensible woman who is particularly clear about her goals and will not be interfered with by other things that are useless to her. She and Max are the same kind of people, and they are also fellows who have successfully realized the myth of the "American Dream"-based on a kind of pragmatism/utilitarianism/Machiavellianism-to achieve the goal by any means. What matters is the result, not the process. One of them is an immigrant street gangster, and the other was born in a city restaurant. They were unwilling to do so, so they climbed up desperately, at the expense of something that might be important to them (maybe they didn’t realize it until they were old). In the end, one of them became a high-ranking official in the political arena, and one became the queen of the opera who smashed the screen.
We have no right to evaluate them. Everyone cares about different things in this world, so they will make different choices. Max and Deborah made the most profitable (sensible/rational decision-making) move. They got what they wanted since childhood, and what they lost was noodles besides moral torture.
Poor noodles! In vain, he has a deep affection for these two people. As a result, his so-called beautiful memories, so-called friendship and love are only mirrors in the water, flowers in the mirror-he is just immersed in the world of his ideals.
Let's talk about Deborah. She has a deep insight into noodles like Max (noodles know nothing about the two of them). Except for the rape of the love-desperate and weak heart when Noodles launched on her, her control of the noodles seems to be easy-whether it is the peeping teenager Noodles from time to time when she is practicing dance, she casts provocative eyes and even turns her back to him. The skirt showed a white and smooth carcass, or when Noodles learned that she was going to Hollywood tomorrow, she proactively kissed him several times—all reflecting the strong position she occupies in this relationship.
Deborah is sensible and contradictory. She wants to love noodles but she knows she can’t love them-she knows that noodles are different from her life trajectory and that noodles cannot give her what Max can give her. something , so she refused infatuation noodles, noodles completely after being raped him from the world of his own - the noodles came to see the train station to see her, resolutely unsympathetic to pull down the window, nor did There is a trace of nostalgia for the hometown where she was born and raised her
As a straight man, can I say that Deborah is a bitch that hurts innocent boys? As a feminist, can we say that Deborah did nothing wrong? After all, goodwill is not equal to love, and ambiguous flirting does not mean that you can be fucked.
Mentioning the symbol, when the old noodles reunited with Deborah, Deborah always looked in the mirror instead of facing him, and the makeup on his face had not been removed. I think that mirrors and makeup symbolize truth and lies. The makeup on Deborah's face is like a "mask", which means that she has deceived Noodles for so many years and even lied about Minister Bailey's life until Noodles saw her and Max's son David. In this way, she was actually reduced to Max's "accomplice", hurting pure noodles with Max.
In addition, the film is also interspersed with several other not-so-pure loves:
-Eve (subordinate) Opposite Noodles: Based on the noodles who want to use Eve as a kind of comfort for Deborah when they are immersed in the pain of broken love.
I quite like the role of Eve. Although she is also a product of the drunken culture, a compensated dating girl waiting for the "big fish", but from her beautiful face, I can't see Carol's lewd and indulgent look. Even though she is engaged in such a career, she still has a pure heart and beautiful expectations for love. Eve is kind and beautiful. She has feelings for noodles. This feeling starts with sensuality but doesn't stop there. It is conceivable that if the tragedy of the day after Prohibition hadn't happened, she and the noodles would have been able to live a happy and beautiful life. Perhaps she, who is not so ambitious, can bring ordinary people's happiness to noodles better than Deborah. At the beginning of the film, Eve waited in the hotel room for the return of his sweetheart noodles, but was violently killed. But even when she heard that the Mafia was going to look for noodles before she died, she still bravely asked "what about the Mafia to noodles" out of a love-based reflex, and was subsequently shot and killed mercilessly.
What a pity! And the noodles' move to save Eve after finally saving Fat Mo is also enough to show that noodles are a kind and righteous traditional American "thief", just like those Chinese martial arts and rangers who rob the rich and help the poor and know their kindness. , Just like the samurai in Japan.
-Carol (subordinate)-Max (dominant): Based on a sexual desire relationship that is almost SM.
In this male-perspective movie, Carol is just a sad, self-inflicted character who can't live-when he was robbed by the noodle gang, she took the initiative to let Noodles fuck her in order to "act more realistically", and then " When I was acknowledging people, I wanted to triple P with noodles and Max, but I was rejected by the disgusting noodles. Who knows how many men she wears green caps? Later, she also became Max's chess piece-it was she who asked Noodles to inform the police in order to save Max, which led to the tragedy that followed and Noodles' 35 years of guilt, regret, and painful life like walking dead. In the end, she also got retribution-poverty, aging, and solitude to spend all her life in the charity house.
-Max-Deborah: An understanding and tacit understanding based on the same life path as each other.
I've covered it earlier. What I want to say here is that, like Noodles and Kahlo, Max and Deborah have never liked each other.
As a teenager, Max's unreasonable call interrupted the sweet kiss between Noodles and Deborah, and Deborah's unhappy reaction was "Noodles, your mother called you." If Max didn't interrupt them, who knows Will the ending of the story be rewritten?
In his youth, Noodles and Deborah met again after being released from prison. With the help of a good friend Fatmo, the cheerful music instantly switched to soft and romantic. In this environment, the two people's depressed emotions almost spewed out, staring at each other affectionately. However, Max once again called for noodles to destroy their atmosphere. This time Deborah still said faintly to the noodles: "Your mother called you." Then she left, leaving behind the noodles that were not delicious.
From the ridiculous tone of these two "Moms", we can all know that Deborah is very disgusted with Max, a nuisance that spoils good things. But why would she later be willing to be Max's lover and give birth to a child for her?
It's probably about money, power, reputation and the like.
Just like when Noodles say that Deborah and Max have a similar tone at dinner, even if Deborah and Max don't like each other, their three views (relative to noodles) are close, so of course they can be together.
This makes me think, should love find something similar to each other or complement each other more appropriately?
Hey, love is really a very complicated thing. Different people will combine with each other for different reasons.
-Paige-Noodles & Max and others: based on carnal desire and sexual curiosity
There is one action detail that can reflect the character of the noodles: when the noodles dry Peggy, it is very rough and swift, and there is no sexual tenderness at all. It is purely to vent one's physical desires and the depression of being mocked and rejected by Deborah, and naturally soon The gun was handed over; on the contrary, although Max didn't try at first, but because he would be gentle and flirting, Peggy kept laughing, and then the two of them continued to do it in a very good state. Looking at the front with disappointment, listening to the noodles of their merrimental voices happily, his heart is depressed, his heart is always thinking of Deborah, Deborah is the goddess in his heart, his sacred and undefiled Maria, how could the vulgar Peggy be worthy of his tender love. So naturally the next shot was given to Deborah, and we also knew what happened after that. Suddenly, it occurred to him that the young noodles raped Deborah in the car later, could it mean his blasphemy-defiled the saint Mary. The reason for this behavior is largely because of the Maria in his heart-Deborah-his beliefs, his pillars collapsed and collapsed-it turned out that Deborah was just playing with him casually. Then left him and went to Hollywood.
But, is Deborah worthy of being Maria?
Although the noodles wanted to force Peggy when he was in the toilet before, the noodles' movements in this scene let us know that he only loves Deborah. This is a noble, sacred, pure love; feelings for Peggy If you can talk about love, it is at best an impulse based on sexual desire.
By the way, the novel that Noodles read in the toilet here is "Martin Eden" by Jack London. Does the story about Martin and Rose in the book herald the unfortunate ending of Noodles and Deborah's love? I have to take a look when I have time.
In addition, the little boy who bought the cake to find Peggy was actually a kind of desire for aliens and sex based on curiosity of sexual sprouting. This is not love, it is just desire.
However, sometimes love is always associated with sex (desire), and it can even confuse people.
Once upon a time, I was so determined that love is a purely emotional sensation in the spirit, and it is by no means dominated by sexual desire. If you really love someone, you should be able to control your sexual desire. But then I realized that my thoughts were just my wishful thinking.
I don't understand "love".
2. In-depth theme: the myth of the "American Dream"
What is the American Dream? I personally believe that the traditional American dream is like noodles, such as tender knights who rob the rich and help the poor, just like the cowboys who often appear in American Western movies. They despise the law, are unregulated, embody a kind of personal heroism, and they often They have unshakable personal principles , which can also be described as personal beliefs, which support their actions, just like the old noodles said to Max "It's just the way I see things".
People like them seem to be outside of society, watching society from a neutral perspective like clowns. They tend to be cold on the outside and hot on the inside, and their rough appearance hides the tenderness of the tough guys.
This reminds me of Ma Liang's "Confession":
All my conceit comes from my low self-esteem,
All heroism comes from the weakness of my heart,
All the plausible words are because my heart is full of doubts.
I pretend to be ruthless, but I hate my affection.
I think the meaning of life is to wander around in exile,
In fact, it's just to cover up that I haven't found a place willing to stop so far.
The noodles played by De Niro always make me feel that way, whether it's noodles or Tevez.
Representatives of this type of traditional American dream embody more perceptual and intuitive dominance rather than rationality.
The American dream represented by Max and Deborah today is dominated by reason-fighting for the cause without being disturbed by the love of the children. Same as "economic man".
What is an "economic man"? That is to say, assuming that people’s thinking and behavior are both objectively rational, the only economic benefit they try to obtain is the maximization of material compensation.
Matter-the opposite of nothingness (consciousness/spirit...), it is materialistic. However, the only measure of success by social materialists today is money, and the accompanying rights, reputation and other accessories. I naively think that the two words "money" and "woman" are often associated with each other for a reason. Perhaps it is about human nature, and it can even be traced back to the behavioral mental model of human ancestors and human relationships. Regardless of human nature, evil or good, I think the thirst for power is affirmative. To be precise, it is the desire for the domination behind the power. Dominant relationships are everywhere, no matter in human friendships, love, family relationships and workplace relationships, or the phenomenon that male leaders always enjoy the most female partners among animals.
For a modern civilized society, the era when force gained dominance is long gone.
What will replace it?
"Wealth can make ghosts push things."
Perhaps the most effective means is money.
When he was a young man, Max once pointed out that noodles were “street style too strong to make a lot of money”. Yes, it was exactly what it said later. Max made a lot of money, became an official, and had a lover who also had a career. His counterattack from a small street figure to the present situation is undoubtedly the best example of the "American Dream". According to the current measure of success, he is successful. Noodles, on the other hand, is a total loser-over sixty years, no money, no rights, no friends (except Fat Mo), no women or even a family.
This is the biggest inversion and irony of the American dream. From Max’s ending and the whole film, a narrative perspective based on noodles. The director's attitude is obvious.
3. "When I was young, I don't know the taste in the mirror, but when I know that the taste is the temple cream"-about the transition between the mirror and the train station
What moved me the most in the whole film should be the youth noodles looking at the decorative painting at the door before buying a ticket to enter the station, and then the camera switched to the mirror in front of the station entrance in the next second, accompanied by the sound of Elvis Presley’s "yesterday" music, the picture After being still for a few seconds, the old-aged noodles with white spots on the temples appeared in front of the mirror, staring at himself in the mirror for a long time.
This ingenious transition makes people cry-35 years have passed since the noodles were in the station. 35 years! This is about the youthful years of noodles, this is the good time in the life of noodles. In 35 years, how many memories and "flashbacks" are needed to account for those extraordinary days and nights, ups and downs. However, here, the director used the action of noodles to "look in the mirror" to achieve this huge time-space transition, which took 35 years away. The noodles returned to their homeland after 35 years incognito. The youth is not there, the Iraqi people are not, the family is not, the brothers are not (except Fat Mo)... What is the point of coming back? What else is the meaning of "existence"?
For people, a railway station is a place where people come and go, and people are busy; for a railway station, people are just passing passengers. Men and women, old and young, will change with the passage of time, growing or aging or death, sad or happy or separated or reunited. However, the railway station is relatively frozen and unchanging. It has been there quietly, watching the passing passengers who are not their own.
In fact, everyone is also a hurried visitor in the universe, and a hurried visitor between each other's lives. Few people can stop. Think about it from another angle, maybe not because people don't want to stop in a hurry, but because they can't do it or it's hard to do it.
We were all pushed forward.
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