Author: Red Wine and Murder
Now all parts of the world are ravaged by the new coronavirus. In March this year, the International Olympic Organizing Committee also officially issued a statement stating that the Tokyo Olympics will be postponed to the following year .
Today, June 23 coincides with International Olympic Day . I would like to take this opportunity to review a sports-related movie masterpiece born in the United States in the past decade- "Fox Hunter" .
2014 67th Cannes Film Festival, Bennett Miller with borrowed "fox hunter" got a best director award , we can say is well deserved.
Real people and real things have never become a bondage for Bennett Miller , but instead enable him to show his uniqueness at the creative level of directors.
Let's talk about the power of "Fox Hunter" in the film itself .
This is a review and analysis article with a pull film nature, it is recommended to watch the film first, and then read it . Friends who have never watched the video can also bookmark it first. Below I will use the "field" as a unit, and select a few highlight scenes and extremely brilliant passages for explanation and analysis.
The idea of this film is derived from real events that have caused a sensation in the United States. The three characters in the film, John du Pont (hereinafter referred to as John), Mark Schultz, (hereinafter referred to as Mark), and Dave Schultz (hereinafter referred to as Dave), all have character prototypes.
The overture part of the film is a real black and white documentary image, fragments of the life of the DuPont family, John's mother, and a running fox. The music is a little cold, first set the tone for the whole film.
Mark appears in the situation.
After training alone with the human column, Mark Schultz went to a primary school for his brother Dave Schultz to give a speech, and the school would pay him 20 dollars. He brought the Olympic gold medal, came up and said: "I want to talk about the United States", and then instilled sportsmanship to the children in the audience, but the children were confused. This scene focuses on the topic.
Mark lives in the shadow of his brother.
In the daily training of Mark and Dave, Mark broke Dave's nose and executed a cruel hand, but in the end Mark still lost to his brother. The director used two non-continuous facial close-ups to reinforce Mark's struggle and unwillingness. From this we can see that Mark treats daily training as a rivalry between brothers, even though he is not his brother's opponent. This scene quickly established the relationship between the two brothers, especially Mark's mental activity with his brother Dave in the profession of wrestling.
Mark's "animality" embodiment.
In the evening, Mark returned to his residence and stood in front of the mirror and slammed his face against the face that his brother had knocked down on the floor during the day. Through this scene of Mark and Dave's daily training, we can see that the primitive animal side of Mark is like an ape that has not evolved completely. He is like an animal, without brain thinking and competition. Shi just relied on brute force to fight his brother .
The older brother Dave completely suppressed his younger brother Mark in this sport (physically). The physical confrontation between the two brothers made the viewer realize that Mark had been living in the shadow of his brother. Then we also saw Mark personally say that he believes all his achievements should be attributed to his brother Dave, but at this time the film has already used proficient audiovisual to convey this message to the viewer in advance. Dave is Mark's elder brother, father, and coach.
John lives in the shadow of his mother.
At this time John has not officially appeared, but we can put it here and talk about it together, and not only talk about it later, because to a certain extent the two groups of relations can form an approximate contrast, and they are both people who live in the shadow of their family. John's mother likes thoroughbred horses very much and keeps many rare breeds of horses in her farm. John thought that his mother liked these horses because she felt that she would look noble and dignified when riding on horseback, as if enjoying the unique treatment of nobles, but John didn't care about his mother's preference.
John is a wrestling coach and formed a team of fox hunters not because he loves wrestling, nor is it because he understands the sport of wrestling. He just uses such a sport to prove to his mother that even if he doesn’t ride a horse. On the back, even if it is to carry out a rough and bloody violent sport, he can bring victory to the Americans, and he can also be a role model for the Americans. He does not need to ride on horseback. In fact, John’s mother doesn’t care about John’s claim to lead the United States to win the Olympics. She doesn’t like wrestling even more. In her opinion, wrestling is a crude and vulgar sport. She fundamentally denies it. To complete the work that John is engaged in. So John wants to prove to his mother that he can be successful in wrestling as soon as possible. So Mark has always lived in the shadow of his brother Dave, and John has always lived in the shadow of his mother.
Mark meets John for the first time.
Mark stood in an indoor room while waiting for John, but the director used an extraordinary wide-angle lens with a distant view. The left and right ends of the house were greatly extended. Mark stood there, visually forming a sense of strangeness and unknown. , And this similar technique will be seen later in the film. Then John took Mark to the showroom to talk. This area was full of trophies and honors.
As a successful person, as a member of the DuPont family, John easily said to Mark, "If you think you can win that game, then you can win that game." In this way, he and Mark were talking about the American dream. , Said that he wanted to see the United States take off again.
John is a person who believes in success learning, or that he uses a set of success learning to package himself, to some extent, to fill in his little knowledge of the sport of professional wrestling. Later in the film, we will see, for example, John playing a friendly wrestling match with the senior group. His men secretly gave money to the opponent. The opponent's player was bought long ago. John is just indulging in the false orgasm of his victory. There is no real skill at all in the sport of wrestling.
This is a place of right and wrong, and it is not suitable to stay for a long time.
When Mark arrived at John’s mansion and was about to move into John’s manor, he stood at the door of the mansion, and the director gave a big vision. In space, the mansion extends horizontally to both sides of the screen, and the lawn, mansion and woods are squeezed from top to bottom. Pressing on Mark, Mark looks very small, and Mark would be stepped on by John in such a place.
It’s not about money.
John always wanted to get Dave in. He asked Mark how much he should pay before Dave was willing to join. Mark said it was not a question of money. Because for Dave, family is the first priority . John didn't react for a long time. He thought there was nothing in this world that could not be bought with money, and the same was true for people.
And when John actually met Dave for the first time and came to Dave’s hotel room, John saw Dave in the room playing with his two children, his wife was watching, it was peaceful, the family was happy, John stood He didn't know what to do there, but he suddenly understood that Dave really did value his family more than anything else. John is a lonely old man, besides, he is not recognized by his old mother. Even if he can buy everything with money, there are always things that cannot be measured with money.
John's authority.
On the night that he won the medal, John celebrated with his teammates. He and his teammates got together, like an amiable old leader. In the early morning of the next day, John was practicing his gun. The morning jogger members were still calling John's name like last night. John suddenly looked solemn. His next action was to come to the stadium with a pistol and fire a shot at the ceiling.
From the most superficial meaning of this scene, it seemed that John didn't want to see the players slack off, thereby relaxing the demands on himself. The actual sign is that he is warning the team members, celebrating the celebration. After the laughter, his authority should not be violated. This time the gun was shot on the room, and the next time it was shot on someone. This is his way of deterring others.
In this scene where John shoots in the training hall, the director visually compresses the physical space. When John walks into the training field, the top of his head and the roof ceiling appear to be quite close, which creates a practical distance. The short illusion, a manifestation of a sense of oppression, conveys the morbid state of the manor owner John by shaping the distorted spatial shape, and reflects that Mark and the other team members have been in a state of being coerced and squeezed. They are just dressed like this. Entered this flat cuboid box, because these people are just a tool for John to realize his self-worth in the sports world and a tool recognized by his mother.
When the audience understands Bennett Miller 's directing methods, they will be even more afraid of this suffocating place and this chilling billionaire.
Eagle on the wall.
The painting of an eagle hunting on the wall of John's office has repeatedly appeared to remind viewers that John himself is a symbol of the eagle, and he also calls himself the "American Golden Eagle". In addition, the background board of the main poster of the film is exactly this painting.
John's training and training of "Ape".
Mark couldn't read the speech that John prepared for him. Mark had no culture and always pronounced the wrong words. At this time, John was smoking cocaine while repeating several words in the speech for Mark to listen to. "Ornithologists, philatelists, and philanthropists" trained the "animal" in front of him over and over again. As a successful rich man, John does not allow Mark to make mistakes on stage. This is just the most superficial way of blindfolding. The director's expression does not stop here.
On the one hand, John's control of the "orangutan" in front of him requires Mark to obey him absolutely. On the other hand, his identities as described by John have become a kind of class suppression for Mark, the occupation/identity in these speeches. They all belong to the upper class, that is, people with material foundations like John. Here is the formation of John's double oppression of Mark, one is spiritual suppression, and the other is class suppression. It's just that Mark doesn't know at all at this time. Whether it's Mark or Dave, the brothers are from the bottom, they and John are completely two classes of people.
When the helicopter was flying, the propeller was very noisy. John naturally raised his voice, and he was very excited after inhaling cocaine. He smiled and took the trouble to correct Mark's wording until Mark's pronunciation was correct. How horrible it is, but this is precisely the most colorful scene in the whole film.
A night scene that makes viewers stunned.
In the middle of the night, John asked Mark to go to the gallery for training. John is an old man. He rode very hard on Mark, squirming slowly behind him. Mark was lying motionless on the ground, while the wrestling movements of John and Mark looked like anal sex at this moment.
The whole scene is dim, and there are many portraits of celebrities hanging on the walls of the studio. The people in these paintings seem to be looking at the two on the floor. At this time, only John's gasps and the sound of rubbing between the two bodies can be heard. .
There is not a single line in this scene. The director only created a peeping perspective of no one on the scene through only a set of shots. The atmosphere created by the whole scene is extremely weird and ambiguous, and contains a hidden homosexual complex. The director to show the pathological relationship between these two people is not a dialogue between you and me, but a superb audio-visual method. When we see this level of shooting and scheduling, as the audience, we can only admire such a genius. .
"Ape" is different from its owner (high and low).
Mark shaved John's head and served him. John sat on the chair, Mark squatted on the ground and tentatively patted John's knee and asked him what's wrong. In fact, it was the "gorilla" testing the master's mood.
The awakening of the "ape".
John was very upset after being counted by his mother, and more anxiously wanted to lead the team to win the championship to show off to his mother. John came to the arena but found that there was no one, no one was training. He came to Mark's residence and found that all the team members were resting there. Mark gave all the team members a vacation without authorization.
John immediately asked Dave to join him. This emotion was more urgent than ever. John found that he was gradually losing control of Mark, the orangutan. Mark's mouth made John even more irritated, and John slapped Mark on the face. As a result, the slap woke up Mark, and from then on, Mark and John also really tore their faces. John hired Dave as an assistant coach for the Fox Hunter team.
John specially invited his mother to the venue to observe his teaching.
First, John spoke a series of fake motivating speech skills as usual, and then found a team member to conduct actual combat teaching exercises. As a viewer, you and I know that John is just arrogant, how can he really fall in front of his mother? Excessive desire for expression, just to satisfy his vanity.
Dave had seen through this a long time ago. Dave knew that joining John's team was all business. He could only bite the bullet and express his affirmation when he watched John behave in front of him. What was embarrassing was that John couldn't turn over during the demonstration in person. The unexpected failure made the mother on the sidelines unable to stand it and left silently.
The "Ape" is out of control.
Mark failed in the first round of the trials, and he was eager for an outlet to vent. Mark beats himself frantically in the hotel room, overeating and giving up on himself.
Brother Dave put Mark in his arms, cheered Mark up, and helped him lose weight quickly to qualify for the competition. In the meantime, John came to ask Mark about his situation, but Dave gently persuaded him to leave.
Dave already knew that there was an upset between Mark and John. He didn't know what happened as soon as possible. He wanted to protect his brother and let him meet the game in the best condition.
John's mother died.
There is a scene here that I have to mention. John went to the stable after his mother died. In the early morning mist, he released all the horses that his mother had kept in captivity. It can be said that this is the only passage in the whole film that deliberately simulates a illusory space of illusion. The whole film is a realistic route. Only this scene is freehand. In this scene of John driving the horses as a silhouette. , The director tried to broaden the depth of the screen, and this sense of depth seemed to break through the boundaries of the screen, making the scene so real but so unreal.
The key to this scene is that John’s mother’s death occurred before the Seoul Olympics. John’s ultimate goal was to prove to his mother that he was an excellent coach, but now the witness has passed away, which is a big blow for John. .
Dave faced the camera and said something against his will.
The staff responsible for shooting the documentary about John interviewed Dave. Dave was uncomfortable in front of the camera and didn't know what to say. The interviewer wanted Dave to say "John is my mentor", but Dave reluctantly said it. This sentence.
This scene also made the audience's backs chill. The real coach in wrestling skills and professionalism is obviously Dave, but now Dave is forced to speak to the camera that he does not agree with.
Dave only hopes to maintain the relationship in peace, for the sake of his family and to continue a stable life here, he still chooses to take care of the overall situation. This is precisely the scariest thing. At the same time, this scene is the highlight of Dave's actor Mark Ruffalo's performance, and he deserves a performance award for the second scene.
Mark's departure.
The older brother Dave took his younger brother Mark to discuss with John. If John wants to keep himself in the Fox Hunter team, he must always pay his younger brother Mark the same salary as before, even if Mark is about to leave this place. When Mark left, John watched the car drift away through the glass window. The texture of the glass window deformed the shape of the driving vehicle. This shot was another excellent psychological externalization. At this time, John's The heart has also become more distorted and unstable.
The two large close-up shots John looked out of the window amplified the feeling of loss and anxiety in this character. The sharp hooked nose once again strengthened John's horrible image in the hearts of the audience.
John's lost.
John drove to Dave's residence by himself early in the morning, but what he saw was another scene of Dave and his wife and children being warm and harmonious. Dave told John that today was the weekend and it was a time for family reunion. John didn't say a word, and drove away again.
The same scene continues to pave the way for the climax of the whole film, accumulating power for John's negative emotions. At this time, there was no one around John, and his mother who did not agree with him and the "orangutan" who had no brains were gone .
John shot Dave.
After a dark transition, it turned into winter. John was watching a documentary about himself in his room. In the video, John still talked about the champion of the game, the winner of life, the outstanding citizen, and the representative of the United States.
John watched Mark's nice words to him in the video, and the hug that Mark gave him after the game was frozen at the end of the video. John turned off the TV and sat on the sofa in thought for a while.
Then came the climax of the whole film of "Fox Hunter" , the scene where John shot Dave. The climax of the scene was actually very short. John knocked down Dave with the first shot, and then made two more shots. Dave died on the spot.
We can see a close-up of Dave's hand, with "children" tattooed on the back of his hand. John's phrase "What do you think of me" tells the truth about his character. This person's pathology reached its climax in the shooting action, which is also the culmination of the whole film's horror.
As an audience, you must think that the three shots John fired were so shocking that they caught the audience by surprise, as if the undercurrents of the whole film were condensed into this shooting scene.
Indeed, all the dramatic tension of the entire film is actually in the language of the shot and the subtext action. The director is very calm. Before John shot Dave, the director did not reveal this dramatic force at all, but hid the "predictive" effect. Behind the audiovisual style. Under this circumstance, the explosive power of a bomb can only be shown at the moment when the gun is fired, and it can instantly break through the audience's inner defenses .
Another very important point is that as audiences, we all know the established fact that John killed, but Bennett Miller as a director cannot simply and rudely just include John’s motive for killing into a specific and single reason. This is not only It hurts the image of the character you spent the time in the whole movie, and it killed the ambiguity of the incident and the complexity of the person itself.
Mark's ultimate fate.
The audience might think that John killed Dave, and where did Mark go after leaving the Fox Hunter Farm? This scene tells the audience what Mark is doing after leaving.
We saw an underground fighting arena with thunderous applause from the audience. With the introduction to him, the man prepared to enter the stage with a fierce and somewhat lonely look. Mark passed through the fog of dry ice and he returned. After the ring, it was such a black boxing method that made the audience sigh.
What is even more ironic is that when Mark took the stage, the audience in the audience shouted for USA for a long time, and the movie "Fox Hunter" also ended in Mark's face, who was submerged in the loud support and shouts of the scene. Close-up.
After pulling the key scenes and replays of this film, let me summarize and comment below.
Although "Fox Hunter" is a very common triangle relationship at the level of drama, it has received an extraordinary interpretation in the hands of Bennett Miller , who is the director of the film . As a director, you need to visualize the literary story of the screenwriter into a visual writer who visualizes the action.
The two parties involved in the shooting in the film are actually John and Dave. Mark is not either of the two parties. The director regards this seemingly out-of-the-art third-party role as the most important link, as a fuse and a lead.
After the stupid Mark was shoveled by John, Mark became sober. He didn’t want to play the gorilla kept by John in the “zoo” of the Fox Hunter. He no longer obeyed John. He wanted to leave, he didn’t want to. As the parasite of this rich man, it can be said that Mark has completed his class awakening from this moment.
The arrival of the Dave family and the departure of Mark stimulated John, who already had a personality disorder. Dave is a man of sound personality and a happy family. Although he is poor, he is happy. This is the thing John can't buy no matter how much money he has.
Mother’s denial and disapproval of John time and time again, John’s long-standing paranoia and extreme self, including the sad news of his mother’s death before the Olympics, Mark’s departure, John’s jealousy of Dave... all of these are straightforward. Or indirectly led to the ending of John shooting and killing Dave. Dave was a poor victim, John's three shots killed Dave and also ruined Mark and himself . On the basis of fully respecting the audience, director Miller believes that viewers will understand the meaning of the film.
Bennett Miller was extremely calm, and carried through this solemnity, grimness, and piercing to the end. Miller has carried on the anti-inspirational and anti-blooded attributes of his previous work "Penalty Kick " into this film, and the image tone full of icy temperament is even better in this film.
The film does not have any fancy or dazzling elements, but it is unique in audio-visual scheduling and eclectic in lens grammar. At the level of director's technique, Miller used sceneries cleverly. The proper use of scenes is one of the important yardsticks for measuring a director , and the composition of scenes is also one of the audio-visual elements. Miller's use of bipolar scenes in this film can be said to be model-level.
When using a large scene, the angle of selecting the camera position is very unique, especially in the use of an atmosphere scene such as a distant scene, where “scene” is the subject, and “human” is the object. “Scenery” is far greater than human. "People" are often marginalized or squeezed .
When Miller uses small scenes, it is even better to deliberately make the effect of sound and picture counterpoint, moderate defocus, or the addition of perspective lenses, which can muffle or weaken the objective environmental sound, and use subjective music The fade-in and fade-out highlight the emotional changes of the character and at the same time achieve the rendering of the atmosphere.
In addition, director Miller's occasional alternative empty shot scheduling, sudden reel-jumping and other methods are all adding luster to the film. Secondly, it is Miller's good use of space modeling. This part has been mentioned in the pull-tab link above, so I won't repeat it.
Another amazing thing about "Fox Hunter" is that the three starring actors , Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum , contributed the most of their personal lives in this film. Good performance. Director Bennett Miller contributed a lot.
Whether "Capote" in the Philip Seymour Hoffman , "Moneyball," where Brad Pitt , or that three of the film, have proved Bennett Miller also A director who made an actor .
With "Capote" , he even put Philip Seymour Hoffman on the throne of the Oscar winner. Among the three actors, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum have a lot of wrestling scenes, and the two actors have also experienced special training for half a year. This is what we have seen in the film. Realistic wrestling scenes, both of them personally participated in the entire battle.
It is a pity that Steve Carell has such an amazing performance in this film but regrets that he missed the Oscar actor of the year. You must know that this film is also the transitional work of Steve Carell ’s transition from comedy to drama. A heavyweight performance award blessing really shouldn't be.
In general, "Fox Hunter" is an art film with high aesthetic value. The artistic expression and aesthetic significance it carries are extremely scarce in the context of contemporary American cinema. At the same time, the theme of the disillusionment of the American dream is also the best presentation of this era. Director Bennett Miller is one of the most prestigious masters with this film.
"Fox Hunter" is undoubtedly one of the best American movies in this decade, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is even the "Citizen Kane" of the United States in this decade .
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