Incompetent ambition

It is also a war movie, which talks about the Gulf War. The war movies in my impressions are often based on Vietnam War and World War II. The Gulf War is rarely mentioned. First of all, war movies mainly involve moral judgments. War is a matter of interest and politics. Continuing, it is directly related to justice and axioms. It seems difficult to handle in the Gulf War. Presumably most American directors would not want to do this laborious and thankless task. Secondly, most war films focus on their selling points. In addition to the action scenes of the battlefield itself, a variety of visual spectacles are created to satisfy the audience’s curiosity and obtain more commercial profits. This is also the inevitable way for commercial movies. In the Gulf War, the strengths and weaknesses are distinct. In the war, it is obviously more difficult to create such a visual spectacle than the previous two, or it may be too much, and it will be regarded as a bad film by the increasingly picky audience. Under this premise, director Sam Mendes used the gimmick of "a war movie without war scenes" to shoot such an ambitious but incompetent anti-war movie.
The pot cover in the title refers to the members of the U.S. Marine Corps. Some people say that their military caps and heads are like pot covers, so they are called pot covers. On the other hand, the director uses pot covers to metaphor these in the film. With empty minds and ignorant "killing machines", this war is destroying their humanity. They are slowly becoming barbaric and cruel in the harsh desert and in the harsh army. The whole film uses a simple linear narrative, using the subjective first-point view of the Marine Corps sniper Swift, and interspersed with the time and location marked in the film, plus some scenes using portable shooting methods detached Calmness enhances the film’s "diary style" feeling.
Like most anti-war films, "Pot Head" puts more attention on the distorted human nature in the war, and Swift is the representative of them, from entering the military camp to training to the battlefield. After the long wait, and finally returning home, from enthusiasm to fear, from indulgent desire to kill to suicidal thoughts, they all changed their minds. After experiencing this war, they could no longer return to normal life. Being outside of reality eventually leads to tragedy. This is also reflected in the last episode of "Brothers". In the author's memoirs, it is also mentioned that the war prevented him from trusting others, and he was unable to establish a good relationship with others through work and relationships. , Can’t live like normal people for a long time. There are many scenes in the film that are similar to Kubrick's "Full Metal Shell", such as the scenes of clamoring officers and recruits training. Although they lack the Kubrick sense of irony, they are undoubtedly against Kubrick. pay tribute.
The performance of the actors in the film somewhat concealed the film’s lack of expressiveness and the shortcomings in the characterization of the film. Shinco actor Jamie Fox, idol actor Jack Glyon Hall, and Chris who appeared in "American Beauty". Cooper, all have more exciting and hard-working performances. Speaking of Jamie Fox, I always feel that he is walking the old road of black actor and actress Denzel Washington and Harry Berry. Since then, he has not performed well, but has repeatedly made bad commercial films, such as last year's "Top Secret". "Flying", and in "Bowl Head", he finally saved some face, but it was only quite satisfactory. And Jack Glyon Hall is regarded as Hollywood’s biggest discovery in recent years. His protagonist svoft is complicated, three-dimensional, and believable. He jumped from the big boy in "Death Illusion" and "The Day After Tomorrow" to a man, just like The whole film has experienced the same maturation process. He also appeared in Ang Lee's "Broken Arms Mountain", where the performance was even more exciting. With this film, he also won the Oscar nomination for this year's best supporting actor, which can be described as promising.
Regarding the soundtrack, Sam Mendes continued his collaboration with Thomas Newman. The music is good, and Newman’s music quality is still very high, but it is still a bit worse than his predecessor "American Beauty" and "Road to Destruction", as if Some feelings outside the image. What's more worth mentioning are those familiar band songs that appeared in the film, including Nirvana, Public Enemy, The Door, etc., but they grasped the main theme very well.
Why is "Boiled Pot" an ambitious work? First of all, we must look at the director’s name, Sam Mendes, who easily took away the five statuettes with his debut work "American Beauty", and the work "Road of Destruction" was also well received, plus the so-called "Nothing The gimmick of "war movie of war scenes" should be familiar to Sam Mendes, who is good at grasping the psychological activities of the characters. The film seems to have succeeded more than half of the time, but "The Pot Cover" can be said to be a bit disappointing, I don’t know. Is Mendes like the old man who has been eating "American Beauty" since then? He was a little bit shy in "The Pot Cover", completely without the sharp sense of "American Beauty", and some scenes were also done. The feeling of not being in place, I can’t say what I want to say, the whole film does not add any personal opinions, there is not enough excavation of the dirtier things in the depths of the war, and the characterization is too strong in some places and some places are too strong. Superficiality has become a flaw in this film, and Oscar has also responded in this regard. Looking at this year’s Oscar nominations, there is no trace of "Bowl Head"...

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