Film is often mistakenly regarded as a static, solid art, especially when we look back and evaluate it "after the fact". Regarding a film, whether we are admiring or criticizing, we always find a conceived "whole" and its partial pros and cons, as the object of discourse for evaluation.
However, the film is not a painting that can be accommodated with only one eye socket, nor is it a sculpture that can be touched by a palm. If a movie has a "body" that can be viewed, aesthetically and commented on, then it must not be spatial, physical, or physical, but must be stretched out in the river of time. Movies are time, a flowing time, a long time of one and a half hours, two hours, four hours, seven hours, and thirteen hours.
(Yes, a movie is a long one! Add up all the waking hours of a person's life, and the average is only about 400,000 hours. That is to say, people who have watched 10,000 movies have spent one twentieth of their entire life. Time to watch a movie.)
Movies are long, but this "long" is based on the minute units of seconds or even frames (twenty-fourth of a second). The image scrolls frame by frame to form a moving vision; the sensory experience accumulates every second before it accumulates. To make us feel about the movie every moment. Every time until the last shot falls, the dark screen rises, and the whole named "movie" really shows its appearance; but this is an illusion that only exists in the audience's mind, because every second that constitutes the whole has now disappeared. In the passing time, or at least solidified into memory.
We "watch" movies, that's right; but movies have a length of time, in fact, you shouldn't use a verb that has an instant meaning. A more accurate word is "experience", which means "enter". Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that when evaluating a movie, "getting better" will never become an outdated vocabulary.
And for "The End of the Road", for such a road movie that invites the audience to follow the characters and travel in the real geographical span, "getting better" is even the most appropriate adjective.
From some good feelings at the beginning, to being completely involved in it, to crying at the end... When did you decide to give "The End of the Road" five stars?
On the opening guitar and saxophone, and the smoke and dust of the Grand Canyon, the subtitles introducing the cast and crew were constantly switching, and my mind and body quickly sank into it. This empty and lonely scenery must be suggesting something, but subconsciously I feel that it is not a negative sign, even though the chords of the soundtrack keep sinking.
When the white font that read Hans Zimmer appeared on the screen, I was shocked. My impression of him was basically the orchestral ensemble in Nolan's movies. I never imagined that he would create such a blues-rich soundtrack.
After the official plot began, the close distance between the movie and the characters allowed me to enter a state of pleasure and relaxation. "End of the Road" does not have too much "self-introduction" nonsense in general commercial films, but goes straight to the theme, using only one phone call to bring out two parallel situations in time, and the two heroines connected in the situation—— Thelma and Louise.
Looking back at the title of "The End of the Wild Flower", the names of the two heroines are engraved on both sides of the "&" (Thelma & Louise), which are separated in form but express a solemn union and marriage in meaning. Like the titles of Arthur Payne's "Bonnie and Clyde" and Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), they are simple, straightforward and full of timeless tragedy. The most classic tragedy is always about two people.
However, "The End of the Wild Flower" is not like the symptomatic approach used in "The Male and Female Thief" or Malick's "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters". It analyzes the absurdity and unreasonableness of the thugs' bloody road trip through the external perspective of alienation. The nihilistic atmosphere of the times; on the contrary, it presents an exodus that is not deliberate but motivated. Therefore, the psychology and behavior of the two protagonists are extremely detailed and emotional, and it can even be called romanticism. . Although the plot has many things that cannot be considered under careful consideration (such as the necessity of the phone at the end of the exposed location), in the smooth plot advancement, situation organization and emotional expression, it has empathy for Thelma and Louise, and then Substituting their perspectives should be easy for any audience with basic feeling ability.
"The End of the Wild Flower" is not only an emotional movie, but also a humorous movie. In the crowded Tianshan Cinema Thousand People Theater Hall, laughter and applause continued to sound during the viewing process, dedicated to Thelma and Louise's bickering, or Brad Pitt's ass.
This may be due to the expressiveness of the characters' dialogue—or more precisely, the expressiveness of the accent of the English dialect of Oklahoma. Oklahoma, the dry and vast plain area where the story takes place, happens to be west of Texas where people talk like talk shows (which happens to be where Bonnie and Clyde first met). The accent of the dialects of the two places is to English, just as the Northeastern dialect is to Chinese, as a friend said, it has a natural "upright lens".
Thanks to the charm of the language itself, it is not just squabbling and ridicule, every moment of emotional expression in "The End of the Wild Flower" is vividly and interestingly interpreted by the actors. The most vivid is the section where Thelma confided to Louise after having sex with JD. In this paragraph, the actress Geena Davis, who plays Thelma, uses her perverse and cute facial expressions and voice to convey to us her excitement after enjoying a good sex for the first time in her life, even if this excitement was soon lost by money. Interrupted by loss.
In fact, at the beginning, I didn't have much expectations for "The End of the Wild Flower", a large part of the reason was because I didn't like Ridley Scott's previous works. Early masterpieces such as "Alien" or "Blade Runner" are actually not a favorite. The later "Gladiator", "Black Hawk Down" and the latest TV series "Alien Cataclysm" are in my opinion. It's even more ugly and messy. In my impression, he is more obsessed with the scenes and spectacles created by money. After entering the 21st century, he has directed many Hollywood special effects blockbusters. It is conceivable that most of them have a bad reputation.
Under this premise, "The End of the Wild Flower" is a surprise to me. Scott is not a "scenario scheduler" like the directors of the new Hollywood Movie Brats and their successors at the same time. It can even be said that he does not have obvious authorship characteristics at the video level. But like other British directors (Nolan, Mendes) who also came to Hollywood across the ocean, he is very good at arranging drama scenes and shaping drama characters, which is a particularly traditional director work.
At the same time, Scott is also very good at using lens language to cooperate. It is worth noting that most of the lenses in "The End of the Wild Flower" have a much longer focal length than the conventional ones, which belong to the category of telephoto lenses.
In general, the flatness brought by the natural visual characteristics of the telephoto lens gives "The End of the Wild Flower" an image style that is close to the comic plane visual logic, which is relaxed and comfortable.
Specifically, the telephoto close-up lens can not only capture the beautiful face, but also magnify the energy of the performance exponentially, but will not cause visual perspective pressure due to the closeness of the camera itself (refer to all use wide-angle Close-up of works by Malik, Yuki Yamato, or Sonoko On).
The most important thing is that the agile editing of "The End of the Wild Flower" completes the transition from the charm of one beautiful character to another, regulating the visual rhythm of the image. This makes the whole movie, although it revolves around a cruel escape from the fear of crime, its perception is not heavy at all. On the contrary, it flies lightly like a golden skewer with background sound.
After Thelma and Louise’s convertibles drove into the deserts and canyons of the Mexican plains, the plot of "The End of the Wild Flower" was quickened, and its narrative was more closely centered on the characters’ psychological arcs and mental states.
In the face of the spectacular scenery of the Mexican plains, Scott did not abuse the vision and the big vision lens to create a visual wonder like many directors who lacked the concept of the big picture, but still insisted on the telephoto close-up of the characters in the front and side of the car; Even in that car chase scene. In this way, the tragic emotions that have been accumulated from the beginning of "The End of the Wild Flower" are continued and strengthened in the constant gaze of the characters' faces.
Before the final leap, it was the two close-up shots that conveyed this sadness to me in advance.
The first is a dialogue between Thelma and Louise after they temporarily dumped the police car team they were looking for. The camera was pulled closer to the characters than before, and the two heroines' faces filled one side of the wide screen. Thelma lit a cigarette, took a sip, and handed it to Louise. They engaged in a casual chattering with each other, confirming each other's friendship.
In such a desperate situation, the Oklahoma people still maintained their optimism and humor: "Do you like this holiday so far?" Thelma asked, and the two looked at each other and laughed.
Although they are laughing, the image is heavy and sad: this seems to be the first time that the shadows climb on the faces of the characters in "The End of the Flower" in which the tone is always bright and bright (even if it is an attempted rape in a parking lot, or a shooting scene) )-Louise's face looked dim due to the backlight of the camera. Although Thelma faced the direct sun, her peaked cap buried her eyes in the shadows. There is no doubt that this is a sign of death; it is a dying despair that cannot be reversed even with a strong face.
At this time, let us return to the close-up shot of Thelma confiding Louise after the second phone call between Louise and the police, and we will find that the seeds of despair have been planted since then. This is also the second set of close-up shots that moved me.
Thelma said in confusion: "I can't go back...I just can't live anymore." And Louise replied, "I understand."
This line of dialogue seems to be forbearing, but the despair of being unable to turn the front of the car and unable to return to the society controlled by men is already strongly present in their tone and eyes. Coincidentally (perhaps not by coincidence), the previous footage just explained to the audience: it was this phone call that exposed the location of the two, which indirectly caused them to be pushed into desperation by the police. Therefore, judging from the actual plot, this is also the turning point where the two "cannot look back".
Someone may have guessed the ending jump in advance; but what must surprise everyone is that this jump is a leap towards a clear sunny day, without shadows, even tears and sorrow. After a fierce kiss between the two, Louise almost smiled and stepped on the accelerator.
At this time, recalling the prophetic scene of the desert at the beginning, who can say that it must be a negative sign of death, and who can say that the end must be tragic? Another piece of evidence that can be used to oppose the setting of "tragedy" is the most memorable line in "The End of the Road". Thelma said to Louise at the cliff: "Let's keep going!"
keep going. "forward". Not a leap to death. It's a leap forward.
At the same time, this leap forward, which is the climax of the whole film, is exactly a step backward in the structure of the film, because the next shot flashes back to the beginning of the film, and the two of them are in the car carrying a good holiday. Looking forward to the moment of departure. Whether it's a leap or a step back, it's all about returning to the starting point and starting again.
Yes, the reality is naturally cruel. No matter how mad the "crazy flowers" are, they can only be "the end" after being pushed forward by each step. But the movie is different. No matter how difficult the road ahead is, the movie will always Have the potential to keep going. If I revisit "The End of the Wild Flower" in the future, and relive this movie that has moved me so much at this moment, I am also experiencing a "departure again".
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