Only what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and that defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, and slander.
—The Bible, Matthew 15:19
Start today's work recommendation by borrowing a meaningful passage from the New Testament of the Bible.
British drama "Tin Star" (double-sided sheriff)
Type of work: crime
Main cast: Tim Roth (as Jim), Genevieve O'Reilly (as Jim's wife), Abigail Lawrie (as Jim's daughter), Oliver Coopersmith (as Whitey, the criminal who killed Jim's son)
Story overview: In order to find the murderer of his son, Jim, a small town police officer, began to carry out "just trial" in his own way, and embarked on the road of "violating violence with violence"
Release date: First broadcast on September 7, 2017, a total of 10 episodes, completed
After a basic understanding of the content of the work, it begins to enter the evaluation stage. (slowly parsing)
I. Diversity of narrative techniques
The sequence, the interlude, and the flashback are all indispensable. Diversified narrative techniques show the ups and downs of the plot vividly in front of the audience. Just a few examples.
①The first episode uses flashbacks - at the beginning, Jim's son was killed, and then the plot began to move backwards, step by step, and the story unfolded in an orderly manner.
②The third episode uses flashbacks + interludes - telling the story of Jim's daughter's disappearance. The original seemingly uninspired story setting has effectively strengthened the suspense and increased visibility under the arrangement of disrupting the timeline and re-splicing narrative clues.
③ Flashback memory fragment - Jim recalls the scene of his son (there are many scenes in the plot). These trivial pictures, some vague and some clear, are scattered in every corner of the story. When we tried to piece together these plots, we inadvertently painted a picture of "father's love like a mountain".
Throughout the whole series, it is undeniable that various narrative methods have strengthened the suspense of the plot, but excessive use has also exposed the weakness of this work from the side - the content is bland, single, and insufficiently attractive.
II, CHARACTER POLARIZATION
There are two particularly impressive characters in the show - detective Jim and criminal Whitey.
The former is the police, the embodiment of justice. In order to avenge his son, to protect the safety of his wife Angela and daughter Anna (who turned out to be against her daughter), he did not hesitate to degenerate and blacken, and took illegal means to eradicate the murderer and his accomplices.
Jim's fortitude, tenacity, and patience (to himself); caring, compassion, responsibility (to his family); violence, ruthlessness, and ruthlessness (to the wicked) are fleshed out by actor Tim Roth.
The latter is a murderer, a villain with too much history, too many encounters, and not much to hate. The reason why the author is deeply impressed by him is not because of how attractive this character is. On the contrary, the setting of this character (old-fashioned) and his motives for committing crimes (naive) make the audience feel inexplicable. Inadvertently, the overall level of the work has been lowered.
The two are inextricably linked, and viewers and friends can find out from the ninth episode. The memory mode opened by the plot (coming to the UK 10 years ago) made everyone understand the reason for this murder case - it turned out that the murderer wanted to kill Jim not his son, and this was not a simple random crime, but Targeted, purposeful (love to hate)!
III, the old-fashioned bridge
The victim's sister fell in love with the murderer? ! Daughter confronts father to protect murderer? !
If you go back 20 years, similar bold and unexpected story designs will definitely attract the attention of many audiences. It is a pity that times have changed, and after entering the 21st century, such an outdated and old-fashioned plot arrangement is no longer popular. This time, the director repeats his old tricks, which is disappointing.
IV, the focus in the plot
In the 600-minute plot, apart from the main line of Jim chasing the murderer, there are several points worth paying attention to.
1. North Stream Oil Company
As a profit-oriented company, the emergence of "North Stream" has made the originally simple and peaceful town lose its former tranquility. With the input of a large amount of capital and the influx of unfamiliar migrant workers, the unrest in the town began to increase.
What aspects do you focus on? ①Economic interests VS human rights ②Economic interests VS health ③Economic interests VS ecological environment
2. Aboriginal people
The director introduced the concept of "Aboriginal", which is self-evident! Because in the play, many aborigines were killed because they refused the request of the North Stream Oil Company. This plot point can not help but remind people of "the actions of the British and American empires against the indigenous peoples of America and Australia hundreds of years ago".
3. Elizabeth
What kind of character is this? The author can't answer! From the very beginning, "the word of profit was in the first place, and in order for the company to take root in the small town, he made rhetoric," to the middle "to discover the conscience, protect witnesses, and expose the company's scandals", and finally to "prove to speak up and recommend himself to be the new CEO of the company".
What is Elizabeth's nature like? is kindness? Is it cunning? Is it fussing with interests? Is it mercy? From the first season alone, I don't dare to jump to conclusions.
V, the doubt of the ending
At the end of the work, Anna holds a pistol and pulls the trigger. With a gunshot across the sky, the first season ends.
The director deliberately played a trick and asked the audience in front of the screen to speculate, "Did Anna shoot Dad Jim?"
IMHO, this design is not very clever, because the ending is obvious! what for?
1. Thinking from a rational and emotional point of view (in terms of emotion and reason), Anna's gun will never kill Jim (Jack), and the bullet must pass him and fly to the jungle.
2. Anna loves the murderer Whitey, but hates him for killing innocent people; Anna loves her father Jim, but can't stand what he did to Whitey. This shot is Anna venting her inner tangled emotions! This shot made Anna's heartless cry!
3. Suppose the gun was shot at Jim, what would happen? A word "brain-dead ending"! Anna avenged the murderer for shooting his father? ! If this is the outcome, it can only prove that the director of this work has great morbid symptoms in thought and spirit! Need to take medicine!
After tasting it for a while, we talked a little bit, and finally ended this film review with a passage from the Old Testament of the Bible.
The wicked should forsake their own way. The unrighteous should put away their thoughts.
—The Bible Isaiah 55:7
Director ★★★☆☆ (The bizarre setting of the last two episodes subverts all efforts)
Actors ★★★★☆ (Tim Roth and Christopher Heyerdahl's acting skills can't be said, others are average, overall average)
Plot ☆☆☆☆ (I felt a lot at the beginning, but the more I read it, the more I felt confused, especially the last episode, it was a genius)
Visual effects ★★★★☆ (the natural scenery is beautiful, others are acceptable)
Sound effects ★☆☆☆☆ (It's completely incompatible with the development of the plot, what do those random interludes mean?)
Recommended degree ★★★☆☆ ("First up and then down" type works, can only be recommended to fans who love actor Tim Roth)
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