One of my favorite movies of 2018
Hollywood enters awards season. On January 5, U.S. time, one of the Oscar outpost awards, the National Film Critics Association Awards announced the list of winners. "The Knight" directed by Song Dandan's stepdaughter and Chinese director Zhao Ting won the best picture, and Zhao Ting also won the best director. Second place. Before that, "Knight" has won the Gotham Independent Film Award for the best film, was selected as the "2018 Sight & Sound" magazine's top 20 films and the BBC's top ten films, and won the "Director's Fortnight" at the 70th Cannes Film Festival. Art Film Award, Pingyao International Film Festival Roberto Rossellini Honorary Best Director Award and other awards. Marvel has announced that Zhao Ting will direct the new series "The Eternals" (The Eternals), and she has become the first female director of color in Marvel movie history.
The success of "Knight" has made more people discover and amazed at Zhao Ting's talent. It can be said that a Chinese woman filmed an American story in the United States at a cost of 80,000 US dollars, and it was recognized by the mainstream American film industry. This can be said to be unprecedented. Although I had high expectations for "Knight" before, but during the viewing process, "Knight" still gave people a strong impact. It was delicate, sentimental and tender, so that it was still unforgettable even after several days.
"Cavalier" focuses on the Indians of the American West, and it tells the story of a young cowboy. According to the American genre division, it can be classified in the category of Western movies. When it comes to cowboys in the American West, many people have this image in their minds: wide-brimmed cowboy hats, jeans and leather jackets, Colt revolvers, high leather boots with spikes, and of course the most important, There is also a horse. Just as a soldier must have a gun in his hand, a fisherman must have a boat to go out to sea, a cowboy must also have a horse, and the horse is the soul of the cowboy. Can you imagine a cowboy losing his horse, or even never riding again?
That's where The Knights comes in. Brady is a well-known South Dakota cowboy who has had many brilliant performances in the arena and is just like a rising star. But during one performance, he fell off his horse and suffered a severe brain injury. Although for cowboys, "riding is accompanied by pain", injuries are commonplace, and they will return to the horse farm after a period of rest, but the brain injury left Brady with severe sequelae, his hands will spasm from time to time, and accompanied by violent vomiting , and sometimes fainted. The doctor asked him not to ride any more horses, otherwise the situation would get worse.
For Brady, it's not just his livelihood, but all his passions and dreams, his self-identity as a cowboy. When singing at the bonfire, he expressed with a few friends that he would be a cowboy for the rest of his life, with a devotion like faith. Brady didn't want to give up, he told everyone he was just recovering and going back. He first went to work as a horse trainer, but the spasms got worse and the doctor gave an ultimatum. Brady is still not reconciled, he went to be an equestrian coach. The training consisted of posing and learning movements on the back of a manually rocking wooden horse. Brady could only enjoy himself on it. His grief, anger and unwillingness were written on his face.
Nothing made him more miserable than not being able to ride and compete. A disabled person named Ryan appeared many times in the movie. He used to be a young and energetic knight, Brady's best brother and most admired idol, but now he has become a disabled person who has completely lost the ability to move. . Brady visits Ryan a lot and goes to great lengths to help Ryan rehab, trying to get him back on horseback — even if it's an impossible thing to do. Brady was sad for his friends, and he was also afraid of such an end, but if he couldn't ride a horse, what was the point of a knight?
To die for the dream, or to give up the dream and live in pain? This is the dilemma that lies ahead of Brady. "I believe that God has given all of us a different mission. For horses, it's to run on the prairie. For cowboys, it's to ride." After he euthanized the horse that could no longer stand up, Brady Prepared to die.
If "The Knight" is this way and Brady finally died, then it is in line with the portrayal of the cowboy spirit in the past Western movies. The hero who is doomed to fail fights for his dreams and dignity, showing a fearless, death-defying attitude. Born personal heroism. Whether it is the silent film "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903, John Ford's famous "Flying Over the Mountains" in 1939, Howard Hawks' "Red River" in 1948, or the Coen Brothers ("Red River") famous for their western films in recent years. "Thunderbolt" and "No Country for Old Men"), most of the cowboys under their cameras are like this.
But in Zhao Ting's "Knight", Brady finally gave up dying on horseback. He became a "deserter" and chose to return to his father and sister. This is not necessarily cowardice, on the contrary it requires more courage. It is not easy to die, but it is even more difficult to live for a loved one and a dream that will never give up. The reason why Zhao Ting handled it like this: "I think when I make a movie, I completely restore them to the most ordinary people to show, not the kind of cardboard-like characters, so I want to show their human nature. On the one hand, they can cry and laugh on the screen, and don't be too face-to-face. As a man, they also have times when they are weak. I want to present something more real and close to human nature to everyone, and I don't want to show some clichés. thing."
Inadvertently, Zhao Ting completed the deconstruction of American cowboy spirit and American heroism, or more precisely, she enriched the theme and style of Western movies and enriched the screen image of cowboys.
The director Zhao Ting gave this uncomplicated story the highest aesthetic form. The desolate expanse of South Dakota is matched with beautiful light and shadow, and the melodious soundtrack makes the whole story immersed in a sad, delicate and sentimental atmosphere. . Brady's several horse dreams, and his use of camera cuts and light and shadows when he trains and rides a horse, is so brilliant, it's heartbreakingly beautiful, and it easily makes the audience feel Brady's own, and be fascinated by the kind of almost. Fascinated by the love of faith and strong spiritual power.
The entire film of "Knight" uses non-professional actors, with real people playing themselves, and the documentary style is integrated with the fictional narrative. According to Zhao Ting's statement, the inspiration for her to shoot this story was Brady in real life. "This boy's face has an inexplicable uniqueness." One evening, Zhao Ting went to see Brady's horse training, "I asked him why there was a raised bone on the horse's back, and he said it was God put onto the horse and let it stand against the saddle." The Indian boy's "divine description" of the horse moved and conquered her. Zhao Ting's judgment is correct. Brady's kindness, patience, gentleness and melancholy are the soul of the whole film and bring the audience to him.
After "Knight", if we mention the Western Cowboy, we may not only think of the sheriff who punishes evil and promotes good, the famous bounty hunter, the tough guy who is rebellious and unruly, we will also think of Brady—— The knight turned out to be so gentle.
——First issue of Beijing News——
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