For those students who like westerns, "Go Through Water and Fire" produced this year can be described as a work not to be missed. It not only brings the characteristics of western movies that we are familiar with, but also makes people have a new feeling.
The film tells the story of two young men from West Texas who robbed a bank. After several successes, the scheming Texas patrolman Marcus intervened in the investigation, so a contest between police and robbers began.
Two gangsters who robbed the bank
There is no doubt that this is a crime film, but with the appearance of various characters, a strong western flavor will come unexpectedly. Whether it is a criminal or a policeman, or a variety of passersby with lines, they all reveal the unique personality of western cowboys. They carry guns with them, they don’t care, their tone is lazy, their language is rough, their speech is unconcealed, and even they can Expressing racist remarks and expressing their true feelings freely are the truth in their opinion. The so-called civility and political correctness are just shit, and in the face of provocations, they show their fists and guns relentlessly. Brave, combative and passionate.
Cowboy passerby's ridicule of Mexicans
Yes, this is a western film, but it is not content to show the traditional charm of western films. As the bandits fled all the way, the reasons behind the robbery gradually emerged.
The two robbers were brothers. Their family was located on a farm in West Texas. They were unable to repay the bank loan and faced the dilemma of being confiscated. In order to make up the loan, the brothers had to take risks. When they handed over the money to the lawyer, this man with a sense of justice fiercely condemned the bank's despicableness in acquiring the land of the poor. However, this despicableness is legal.
Lawyer scolds the black bank
If the older brother Tanner is already a tainted person because of his criminal record, then his younger brother Toby is a completely innocent and good person. Even if he becomes a robber, he still adheres to various principles and does not have promiscuity or murder. , He only robbed and confiscated the bank on his own farm, etc. Therefore, whenever the robbing was successful, Tanner showed irresistible excitement, while Toby was always sad and frowned. Inwardly, he did not approve of the robbery. the behavior of.
Every society will have some bad people commit crimes. This is their personal fault. But when good people in a society also start to commit crimes, it must be a problem in the society. Obviously, in the formal legal system of the society, they Unable to survive or get justice, breaking the law becomes the only way.
Toby insisted on robbing only designated banks
Toby is such a good person who was forced by the environment to embark on a criminal path, and behind his story is a true portrayal of American society in the post-economic crisis era. The government’s quantitative easing policy has actually created a larger gap between the rich and the poor under the appearance of saving economic data. The poor are desperate and hovering on the edge of crime and innocence, while financial institutions with ample funds see this as This is a good time to buy the poor's assets cheaply, and this vicious circle has further aggravated the polarization of society.
This movie with the appearance of a western film actually explores the current social issues in the United States, and the pioneering spirit of the cowboys in the wild in the traditional western film has become a resistance to the modern capital system.
A typical western movie scene
However, like traditional Western films, the construction of its ethics is a kind of unrealistic deification. This Western film that breaks away from traditional films provides only a fantasy solution to conflicts in the real world. Personal crime is not a change. The effective way of social crux, in fact, the film itself failed to indulge in this fantasy, so the character of detective Kumas was created.
Coomas and assistant
Out of the basic bottom line of legal protection, Kumas was portrayed as a completely positive image. He was shrewd and active in handling the case. In view of the inherent value logic of the story, he shot and killed the stained Tanner, but let go of the good guys. Toby, this selective decision depends entirely on his personal judgment, not the law. On the surface, the film portrays a cowboy policeman who is in the system but chivalrous at heart, but inside is the entanglement of the story itself between sin and innocence.
Kumas ready to shoot criminals
Although the whole work expresses a critique of capitalism, it also shows the irresistible penetration of capitalism into western society. Cowboys driving the herd complained that their children were unwilling to take over. Toby’s The son was at a loss when facing the farm left by his father. At the end of the film, on the beautiful grassland, a group of oil mining machines were constantly working on Toby’s farm. He rebelled against the capital system and finally embraced capitalism. ...The traditional western civilization will eventually become history.
Toby's son has no idea about the farm
What's interesting is that it is the Indians who witnessed the end of traditional civilization in the west. When the Indian Comanche and the cowboy Tanner looked at each other, they had a sense of both time and space dialogue. The former was driven out of their homeland by colonialism, and the latter would be taken away by capitalism. The two parties that should have hated Because of the fate of reaching the same destination by different routes, Tanner described himself as an Indian, and Kumas’s Indian assistant, Parker, expressed sympathy for the cowboy’s status quo.
When Tanner looked at each other with the Indians, he described himself as an Indian
However, time has passed and the Indians are no longer angry. Parker described the bank's annexation of private lands in the west in an extremely calm tone. Perhaps in his opinion, the vast and beautiful land in the west has always been ebb and flow. , And never lack of cruelty and strife, perhaps this is the most primitive and authentic western civilization.
Oil mining machine working on the beautiful western grassland
When cowboys began to rob banks for a living, it not only represented social turmoil, but also represented the passing of an era.
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