Wildlife Aftermath
A family that has moved several times and settled in Montana with beautiful scenery. For this typical Midwestern family in the 1960s, the wild life in Montana was like a (post)adolescent exile for the three of them, as if there was nowhere for everyone's heart to move all the way.
“You know what they call trees in a forest fire? Fuel. Do you know what they call trees up when a fire goes by? They call them the standing dead.”
At this time, the forest fire on the outskirts of the town came at just the right time, smoldering at the beginning of the conversation with the townspeople, and in step with the conflict lurking in the home because of her husband's unemployment. Jerry, who could not find a job and his own value, chose to go to the front line to start a fire. Since then, the role of husband/father has been missing for most of the film, and the family's downfall has also come to the fore.
The wife Jeanette, who married too early and had children but still longed for passion and self, gave up the smirk of the family role after Jerry's departure, revealing the real loss and anxiety. As the camera kept getting closer to the burning mountain, Jeanette's heart was constantly rushing to get out of this veiled home. She chose to cheat, she chose to return to her youthful appearance, and she chose to take her 14-year-old son Joe to the forest fire. At the forefront, confronted the fire and questioned her husband's choice. Unexpectedly, it was too close to the fire, and it became the standing dead in his mouth.
Looking at 14-year-old Joe always reminds me of Yangyang in "Yiyi", maybe because his job is to take portraits for others in a photo studio, and maybe like Yangyang, he is facing the departure of family members and the loss of each other. He is still the director's avatar to see it all happen, without too many accusations of his own, almost bluntly revealing his emotions in only a few important scenes.
Montana is finally looking forward to a heavy snow to put out the fire, Jerry's return home ushered in the biggest conflict, the family completely collapsed and no one knows what to do, but this is also the time when each member is reborn, just like the fire The forests behind will still grow new trees. Finally, in the photo studio where Joe was working, the three of them sat in front of the camera, the shutter sounded softly and it was pitch black. The long road to home was unknown and slow.
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