Written on 2017-01-18
The target audience for Gangster No.1 seems clear: gangster fans and Paul Bettany fans.
So, as a fan girl who likes gangster movies... the process of serving Amway was quite smooth. The film narrative starts from the first point of view of a gang leader, played by Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell in his youth and old age respectively. It stands to reason that with these two interpretations, the male protagonist should be a charming existence.
But Bettany must have been clear - that was by no means a likable character. He once commented disapprovingly of his role in "Knight of the Holy War": "As long as you are willing to go bare-ass, be beaten into a pig's head, and know how to swear in an authentic British accent, the audience will forgive you for being stupid the rest of the time. Getting home..." This sentence is also suitable for "Gangster No.1", the blood, gunshots and all kinds of feasting and brilliance flashed, people's eyes dazzled.
The story line is very simple: the ordinary street gangster is fortunate enough to become the sidekick of the gang boss Freddie, and the life of a drunken fan has been at your fingertips. He started to worship Freddie for everything—money, fame, even taste, and the desire swelled out of control, and he couldn’t help but try to replace it.
He succeeded, framing the boss and imprisoning him for thirty years. Starting with Freddie's sharp suits, graceful demeanor and delicate lapel pin, he felt he could do more than that, as his motto shows: "Love makes you fat." What does the underworld want love to do? In his eyes, it means that one person is nothing but everyone else. He only needs to maintain a tall and slender figure, so that he will look good in a suit, and he will always be able to stand above all people calmly. As a result, he couldn't get rid of his obsession with outfits, so he had to take off his suits and fold them up respectfully before killing people.
It's a pity that he put all his power and prestige in his skin, so he carefully plucked out his heart, and willingly made the walking dead.
And it is dangerous to base all the foundations of life on things. He thought he would be invulnerable without his feelings, but he took another astray and put himself in a terrible situation. The world in which he lives is like a giant studio, and he is playing an almost materialized character, yet he still feels invincible. The fantasy was so tightly sealed, and the changes he saw were no longer real.
How long the pursuit is, it is sad that when you think you have finally reached the top and look down on all beings, you find that the further road is only temporarily obscured by floating clouds, that person will always be at the top, and he will never be able to reach it in his life. He feels that he has calm self-control, powerful tactics, and even the eldest sister-in-law who hates him admits that he is good-looking (calling Paul Bettany to play is really insidious and deceptive!), he is simply a legend, a myth.
But 30 years later, he is still just a mechanical killer, and his ambition is still written in his eyes. The boss who got out of prison has self-studied a bachelor's degree in art. Love has not died, and he is too lazy to take revenge. Of course, the protagonist collapsed: the achievements that he has worked so hard to manage for so many years are fleeting in the eyes of the other party, and even the blood feud has become an understatement.
The theme of irony finally surfaced, and the absurd sadness settled to the bottom. Camus said that the absurd is essentially a division, born of comparison. The intentions that exist in his ideal are out of proportion to the reality that awaits him, and that is what creates tragedy. The bigger the gap between the two, the more obvious the rift, and the absurd never exists in either of the two.
So in the thirty years of being alone, he can sit back and watch the sky, and he can deceive himself. But when Freddie appeared in front of him again, everything became a joke.
Speaking of which, it is not difficult to find that the protagonist has no name. This is the fate of the hollow man. He has no lover, and even his enemies don't even want to remember him in the end.
He doesn't exist at all.
When he shouted "I'm superman" in despair, some people thought that this was showing the class gap between him and Freddie: he only knew how to watch superheroes, but Freddie had good culture and appreciation, and even would Self-taught in prison. However, if the concept of the will to power is introduced, the meaning of superman is even more interesting: "The special characteristics of life in his heart - being unreasonable, lying and exploiting others - are the most obvious characteristics." He firmly believes that a higher purpose should be determined by Give yourself to yourself, then throw everything away.
He is despicable, vicious, and pretentious enough, and this "power" is broken like a soap bubble. Losing empathy and desperately trying to improve yourself, why do you end up on a dead end?
The absurd showed him for the first time the meaninglessness of life. He also regained a little rationality in him. This seems to begin to constitute a logic leading to death. Whether or not life is worth living is very different from person to person, and this is self-evident. In fact, it is easy to think of "Birdman" at the end. When a person is no longer compatible with the outside world, he would rather agree with himself.
The yearning for the absolute, the yearning for unity, the tragedy lurks here. The ending song plays "The Good Life" coldly - taking a person who is always higher than himself as a mirror, reflecting his life, the beginning and the end are already finalized.
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