In the process of watching the movie "First Cow", it is easy to think of the game "Red Dead Redemption", the 2018 movie "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" and those wild places that take place in the old American West. story.
But this movie is different, it's just too peaceful, there's no violent conflict, and it doesn't have any intense drama and action fights. If you want to express, the director can intersperse these elements and create tension in the plot. So I believe director Carrie Reichardt avoided it on purpose, she just wanted to make a story set in the frontiers that happened to be calm and slightly sad.
At the beginning of the film, a modern steamship sails across the lake, and the little boy and his dog discover human skeletons in a suburban open space. The significance of the appearance of the ship is to be used as a reference for time, because the next camera will take us into Oregon in the 1920s, and we will also know the owners of these skeletons and their stories.
A young man named Figowoz is employed by a pioneering team whose goal is to go to the wilderness to find leather. The cook, probably more because of his character). This young man is in charge of the team's meals. He is always bullied by other members. While searching for food in the forest, he encounters a naked Chinese.
The Chinese name is Jing Lu, and he is being hunted down by a group of Russians. Figowoz takes pity on him and takes him to the camp to provide him with food and a place to hide, where the two hapless young men meet. After that, in order to avoid the pursuit, Jinglu left without saying goodbye. After completing the task, Figovoz settled in a wild town, and the two met again in the tavern. At this time, Jing Lu was out of the pursuit and had a stable residence in the town.
The two live together, talk about life and ideals, Jinglu wants to own a farm, Figowoz wants to open a hotel and a bakery, but without material foundation, everything is in vain, so they decide to partner in business, Figowoz wants to open a hotel and bakery. I have the craftsmanship of making bread, and Jinglu has the eloquence and brain to do business.
But to make bread, milk is needed, and there is only one cow in the town, and the cow belongs to the landlord.
In line with the spirit of "If there are difficulties, they will also enter if there are difficulties." They work together to make money. They steal milk at night and sell bread during the day. The bread tastes great, and business is booming. Even the landlords have heard the news. Come and taste the bread, complimenting its cosmopolitan feel.
With the development of the business, the milk stealing was gradually revealed, and it was completely exposed in a night operation. The two were hunted down again and embarked on the road of escape.
The film is adapted from the novel "Half-Life" by Jonathan Raymond. The whole film also maintains a good literary atmosphere, like a short story. The tone has a taste of old vicissitudes. Poetic.
To put it bluntly, this is just a story of two young people who take risks in order to live their ideals. It was not uncommon in the western part of the 1920s. In the wild age, taking risks was the first step in accumulating wealth.
Watching a movie creates a feeling that the story is secondary. It doesn't matter how they plan, how to make money, and how they get out of the chase. What matters is how they meet, how they communicate, and how they meet again. As the movie opens with a quote from William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell": "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship." Birds have nests, spiders have webs, and people have friendship.
In the era of desolation, everything is close to nothingness, there is no food to eat, and there is no fixed place to live. This situation often happens, and even life seems to come to an abrupt end at any time. When people are in a fragile reality, the relationship between people Only the emotion will show its power more, it supports people, gives people, and at the same time can become the destination of people.
At the end of the movie, Figovoz and Jing Lu were lying on the grass because of illness and exhaustion. Not far away was the gun chaser. At this time, the story came to an abrupt end, leaving a huge suspense. What will happen to them? Escape the pursuit, or be killed, but these are not important anymore, the answer has been given at the beginning of the movie, people will eventually die.
There is a detail in the movie here. After Figovoz lay down on the grass, Jing Lu looked at it with the money bag in his arms. His expression showed his heart. He could have escaped with the money alone, but he chose to stay. , chose friendship. -END-
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