"Murder on the Orient Express" is the most famous novel by British reasoning writer Agatha. The famous detective Poirot reveals a horrific murder in the story. The novel's seamless criminal methods and hidden motives for murder, even if To this day, it still makes people silent and reflect for a long time.
As a handed down classic work, "Murder on the Orient Train" was put on the big screen early. The 1974 movie version should be said to be the most classic one on the screen so far, and won the original author Agatha 's approval.
Although Agatha Christie's "Oriental Express" has been "starting" on the screen in the past few decades, it still has fresh vitality until today because of its huge tension. So, this year, this train from the Industrial Revolution pulled a full carriage of "players" and sounded the whistle again.
The outline of the story is that the Belgian detective Poirot was on the Orient Express to go to London. A passenger on the car, Ratchette, had turned to Poirot for help because he received a threatening letter, but Poirot had a bad impression of him because he auctioned fake goods. His request was refused, and coincidentally the next day Mr Ratchett was found killed the night before. The train is trapped in the mountains because of an avalanche, so Poirot is commissioned to solve the case. During the investigation, Poirot found that the deceased and the 12 suspects in the car were inextricably linked to one case, the Armstrong case five years ago.
Five years ago, a kidnapping case that shocked the United Kingdom happened in the originally peaceful manor. Colonel Armstrong's three-year-old daughter Daisy was kidnapped. After paying the 200,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers, the three-year-old Daisy was brutally killed. . After the tragedy, the pregnant Daisy's mother miscarried in grief, and both the unborn baby passed away. Colonel Armstrong was unable to withstand this series of blows. He swallowed a gun and committed suicide. Shan also committed suicide, a despicable kidnapping case that led to the tragic death of five people, and the culprit was the murdered wealthy American businessman Mr. Rachel, whose real name was Cassetti. He caused a happy family to be torn apart, and caused everyone related to this family to suffer misfortune. On the contrary, he escaped legal punishment by relying on his strong team of lawyers. The ransom became a prominent businessman, a successful entrepreneur.
The good people did not get good rewards, while the bad people went unpunished, which made Armstrong's family and friends feel very sad and painful, so Armstrong's family, their cooks, tutors, babysitters, drivers, and the godmother of the kidnapped child, a total of 12 Individuals, because the same target gathered on the speeding Orient Express, planned and carried out this murder together, each stabbed Cassetti in the chest 12 times, so that the source of this crime would disappear forever. On that night, they were defenders of justice, executing a five-year late sentence.
After seeing the new version of the film, I was deeply impressed by the way the art was portrayed in the new version.
The first thing that impressed me most about the film was the feeling of extreme luxury. In this film, the director wanted to maximize the immersive experience of the operation of the Orient Express and the delicacy and solemnity of the French upper class. He shoots with 65mm film, and there are currently no more than ten 65mm giant film films in the global film history. The large screen gives people a sense of "immersion". In order to highlight this sense of immersion, he really built a train. , laid the rails!
Among them, there are three scenes that impress me the most. The first one is the scene where the rich American businessman Rachel was murdered shortly after the film started, and everyone gathered in the dining car compartment. The colors are full and the light and shadow are interlaced. A lot of color.
A group of long shots followed Inspector Poirot traverse, and each character appeared in turn, so that the 12 characters left an impression on the audience's mind one by one, creating a tacit suspense, setting off this Mercedes-Benz Orient Everyone on the express train is different. The use of God's perspective several times in the film also implies a certain kind of scrutiny above the characters, looking down at what everyone in the world is doing, but can't hide the eyes that seem to hang high but penetrate everyone's heart.
After giving a long shot, the director advanced a set of close-ups of each person, and in this set of close-ups, each person's face is interwoven with layers of shadows on the light-mapped glass, and each person's figure seems to be sandwiched between In the two mirrors, there are countless shadows, as if they are the hearts of everyone in this case. They are not just the simple side that appears on the outside, but there are many complex intertwined hidden behind. The face and the human nature of imperceptible sensual impulses.
The second thing that struck me was a snowy field where the Orient train was running.
Between the mountains and mountains, the snowflakes outside the car lingered around the train, and a whistle sounded, and the train shuttled through the mountains. If it wasn't for an avalanche in the snow-capped mountains, the train would have been taken away without a sound. The sin on this car, until the end, after everyone experienced a long snowy mountain and cold, got off the car and disappeared into the sea of people, and never mentioned this sin again. But the sudden avalanche trapped everyone in the narrow carriage and the vast snow-capped mountains, and at the same time the sins were released.
The scene of this snow scene and avalanche is really spectacular, the momentum is very powerful, and even a little "Snowpiercer" feeling.
The third scene is the end of the story. The new version of the film has adapted the ending. The characters are no longer sitting in the carriage, but in the train tracks, just like the characters in "The Last Supper", lined up in a row , sitting there waiting for the final judgment.
Before Mr. Poirot walks up to 12 people to uncover the truth, the film gives Poirot another close-up, sitting in his seat with the snow-capped mountains outside the train, his face reflected in the window. He once said that "there are only right and wrong, right and evil, good and evil in the world, and there is never a gray area", but now, facing such a case and facing these 12 people, he seems to have changed from a one-sided character, Extending the shadows that overlapped with these 12 people, Poirot, who was either black or white, hesitated at the moment, the rationality and sensibility in his heart were violently colliding, because what he saw was not twelve murderous murderers, But twelve broken and whining souls.
At this time, the film also makes full use of the depth of the long and narrow aisles in the carriage. In the alternation of light and dark, it indicates the inescapable fate of the characters. As Poirot said in the film, "the soul of the one who has killed is no longer complete". Therefore, the film also uses the imbalance of composition, the alternation of close-up and close-up, and the contrast of different angles to portray the incompleteness of the characters.
In the end, after a fierce psychological struggle, Poirot walked towards 12 people. Under the framework of the famous painting "The Last Supper", every sitting soul was suffering from self-moral torture and was waiting anxiously. Judgment of fate. There is even an illusion that it is not only the 12 people on the screen who are being judged by the truth, as if everyone outside the screen is also being judged.
In fact, everyone's thoughts are either sin or karma. Don't think that we have nothing to do with the crimes that happen around us, don't do it because the good is small, and don't do it because the evil is small. Good and evil, because With fruit, good and evil have consequences, and cause and effect are not happy at all. Remember "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you".
When the nanny set fire to a happy family, a beautiful family was destroyed in an instant. Why should a kind and good person suffer so much pain? When a kind person faces harm and injustice, When the criminals are rich and nourishing the scenery, what do they rely on to maintain the balance of the world?
When the young Jiang Ge was murdered, the law probably could not severely punish the murderer, and the selfish human nature made people feel disappointed and indifferent again and again, what should we do to believe that "this world is beautiful and worth fighting for a lifetime" ”, maybe only the second half of this sentence is true.
Poirot asked missionary women
Female Christian: You say your duty is to seek justice.
Poirot: What is justice here?
Women Christians: Sometimes the law alone is not enough.
Poirot: Where should conscience be placed?
Female Christian: Buried with Daisy.
In the end, Poirot decided to exonerate the 12 people. In the scale of justice, he chose morality. He overthrew the absolute justice he thought he had previously under rational cognition, and began to accept the imbalance of the world.
There is a saying that says:
"False and untrue words can save people's lives."
But when he finally got off the bus, Poirot turned his head and said to the 12 people: "May your hearts be at peace. May our hearts be at peace."
Yes, even if it is a righteous executioner, how long will it take to pacify the hand that is clenching the sharp blade?
Just like when Poirot let 12 people kill him at the end of the film, Daisy's grandmother raised a gun, but it was not Poirot, but herself.
When the contradiction between justice and morality is in front of everyone, this is not a good choice. If there is no law, everyone may be the embodiment of morality and justice in their own hearts, and judge others subjectively. They may also become slaves to morality; but when the balance of law does not balance good and evil every time, can morality and good give us justice?
At the end of the film, the train leads a carriage towards the light and redemption, while Detective Poirot has tears in his eyes, and his heart is heavy and contradictory.
“In dark November,
When the dark November comes,
Before the winter comes,
When winter comes,
Tell me all the things you wish for,
tell me all your wishes,
Tell me you're that you would want to live for,
All the things you want to live for.
......
Home my love,
Come home, my love,
All the days of sorrow,
all the suffering of yesterday,
We will vanish in tomorrow,
will disappear in tomorrow,
You can count on me my love,
Trust me with confidence, my love,
To be here,
here and now,
We will all be ready,
We are all set.
Love and kindness steady,
Love and benevolence will turn into deadly daggers,
We will never forget you,
we will never forget you again,
You are home my love,
Welcome home, my love. "
- "Never Forget"
View more about Murder on the Orient Express reviews
