This film is adapted from the novel of the same name by the American author, Donald Ray Pollock. It tells the story of a small town in the American South after World War II, revolving around religious beliefs, the love-hate relationship and the causal cycle between two generations. People's dependence on religion and the misfortune brought to people by over-reliance on religion are vividly portrayed in this film, and at the same time, they are satirized for being overly addicted to religious beliefs and mindless worship. The helplessness and despair that I fell into after the fanatical belief is thought-provoking. The movie follows the original name of the novel "The Devil All the Time", which means that the novel can be seen everywhere, can be encountered anywhere, and the protagonist is always with the protagonist like a devil. The Chinese translation of the film is "Land Abandoned by God", which is close to the theme of the film, and points out the source of people's misfortune in the film, that is, the kind-hearted people believe in God extremely devoutly, but in the last they encounter the torture of life one after another, and the believers do not get anything. Redemption, only those who believe in themselves can save themselves, this land has long been abandoned by God.
The film received a lot of attention at the beginning of the filming. Because of its many casts, the film starred in Marvel's Spider-Man "Dutch Brother", the male lead of Twilight, the new Batman Pattinson, and "Winter". Soldier" Sebastian. Elvis Presley's granddaughter plays a female villain in this film, but it is not so conspicuous. In addition, in the "Harry Potter" series of films, the actor who plays Harry's cousin, Harry Millin plays a crazy priest in this film, and coincidentally, plays the role of Harry Millin who died in the film's plot. After more than ten years of successor pastor, Robert Pattinson is also one of the British actors who have participated in the "Harry Potter" series of movies (after all, there are not many British actors who have not appeared in the "Harry Potter" series of movies). It is another "Harry Potter" actor class reunion in recent years after Malfoy and Hermione starred in the same movie.
The film failed to fully restore the charm of the original work, and the evaluation was average. But overall it's a great story, hopeless, sad, but also able to find the light of love in it.
origin
The film begins with the hero's father's return after the war. The male protagonist's father, Willard, is a young man in a small town in the southern United States. He and his family firmly believe in God and are almost obsessed. On the battlefields of the South Pacific, Willard experienced life and death. He witnessed with his own eyes that his comrade-in-arms was brutally nailed to the cross by the Japanese army, half-dead tormented by snakes, worms, rats and ants, and his whole body was bloody. At that moment, Willard thought of the suffering Jesus, but at this moment, he wanted to To end his comrade's life with his own hands to give him mercy. Remembering the sound of gunfire also heralded the collapse of Willard's faith.
Returning to China after the war, in a small town bar near his hometown, Willard met Charlotte, a kind and simple waitress, and the two fell in love with each other. And precisely in this small bar, a man named Carl who was sitting next to Willard also met an enthusiastic waiter, Charlotte's colleague Sandy, but the two formed a male and a female. Thieves have been rampant in the South for decades, killing countless people.
I thought that Westerners did not believe in the so-called fate and karma, but in fact, before the Vietnam War, Americans were generally more old-fashioned, conservative, pious, responsible for their families, loyal to marriage, and very concerned about good and evil. It was only the liberation movement during the Vietnam War that completely changed the trend of thinking in the West and became what it is today. The same is true for this film. In this small bar, two pairs of lovers pass by each other and go home. All kinds of tragedies and countless dead souls have arisen, and in the end, all this was ended by Willard and Charlotte's son, the protagonist of the film Alvin (played by Holland).
How charming is fate? At the end of this story, we will know the answer. The above four people will never meet again in the future, but they are firmly bound together by fate, from birth to death, they are inextricably linked.
Willard returns home and rejects Helen, a woman introduced by his devout mother. The mother was worried that Willard would die on the battlefield, so she made a wish to God that if Willard returned safely, she would introduce the pious orphan Helen, whom she knew at the church, to her son Willard. But Willard already had a heart, and eventually married Charlotte and moved to another town to live. Helen remained in her hometown, and eventually married Roy, a little crazy town missionary.
The wheel of fate has run over here, but the end point has been drawn for people early.
Devil descends
After the marriage, Willard and his wife Charlotte moved to a small town ten hours away from their hometown, Nokenstee. Willard hopes to be far away from his religious hometown, so that his wife and children can live a healthier and more sunny life. But Noken here is very repulsive to outsiders. The Willard family always seems out of place, always being ostracized and targeted, so Willard once again bowed to his faith, and then erected a cross in the woods behind the house, often carrying Son to pray. Fate is uncertain, his wife Charlotte suffers from cancer, and the helpless Willard begins to seek the strength of faith, slaughtering livestock to sacrifice to God, and finally even killing the family dog, but still failed to save his wife's life. In the end, in desperation, on the day of his wife Charlotte's funeral, he committed suicide before the cross, leaving his youngest son Alvin alone. The young child is flustered and helpless, the kind neighbor, the gas station owner helps him call the police, and the gas station owner will appear later, which is also one of the few good things in the film. After receiving the alarm, the nearby sheriff came to deal with the scene. This was a black policeman who did a lot of evil, but seeing such a tragedy, he even comforted young Alvin. After everything was properly prepared, the civil affairs personnel took Alvin back to his home town, Coal Creek, to be raised by his grandmother and uncle. This is the first time the sheriff and Alvin met, and the last time they met was under this cross, but at that time, it was a bloody battle of life and death.
Meanwhile, Helen, an orphan who was not married to Willard at the time, marries the mad preacher Roy (Harry Potter's cousin) and gives birth to baby girl Lenora. One day, Roy and his disabled brother were going to take Helen for an outing. I don't know if Helen had a hunch or God's arrangement. Before leaving, Helen gave her daughter Lenora to Alvin's grandmother to take care of. Helen never came back, because his missionary husband fell into madness because of his faith. In order to prove the existence of God, he killed Helen in the wild, expecting God to resurrect his wife to prove the existence of God. The final result can be imagined , ignorant and absurd, pious but terrifying. Roy and his brother came to their senses and left Helen's body and drove away. In the original book, the two brothers fled for more than ten years. In the end, after the death of the lame brother, Roy missed his daughter so much that he wanted to go back to see his daughter Lenora and surrendered, but unfortunately he was not able to see his daughter and was referred to above. Said, the male and female robbers Carl and Sandy who met at the bar were killed.
The non-linear narrative of the film is very fluid, leading to the next set of victims through the misfortune of one family. Unlike the novel, missionary Roy was killed by male and female thieves soon after killing his wife. And when the camera turned, it came to the protagonist Alvin. Alvin was cared for by his grandmother and grew up with Helen's daughter Lenora as brother and sister. After witnessing his mother suffering from illness and his father indulging in faith, Alvin has since dismissed religious beliefs and only believed in his own fists. Just when people thought everything was calm, a handsome young pastor (Robert Pattinson) came to town and started taking over the church and spreading the gospel. Alvin's grandmother is a devout believer. At the welcoming ceremony of the new priest, although poor, the Alvin family carefully prepared the most expensive meat that their family could buy, chicken liver, for the priest. The offal is regarded as the most inferior ingredient, but it is already all for the Alvin family, and the grandmother cooks the dishes carefully for the priest. However, during the ceremony, the priest publicly humiliated the Alvin family who brought the plate of chicken livers.
With the arrival of the devil, the tragedy continued to happen to the Alvin family. The handsome priest seduced Lenora in the car, causing her to become pregnant. What is even more disgusting is that after the priest learned that Lenora was pregnant, he denied it and would The fault is attributed to Lenora, a young girl who has never lived in the world. She thinks that Lenora is unclean, seduced herself, and defiled God. Oh, it's really hypocritical. Eventually, Lenora committed suicide, but it was precisely here that fate played tricks on people. Before hanging herself, Lenora suddenly thought of her mother who died early and loved her grandmother and brother. She felt that having family by her side was no big deal. Give up suicide and accept life, but fate is impermanent. Lenora, who had planned to give up suicide, slipped and kicked the bucket. When she planned to live again, she died tragically.
Afterwards, a police officer with a sense of justice told Alvin that his sister was pregnant, and pointed out that the pastor was suspicious. After several days of follow-up investigation, it was found that the priest was not only a sea king or a scum, but also maintained a relationship with other girls in the town. So, one day, Alvin came to the church and confronted the pastor. The pastor was still talking about it, but Alvin only believed in force and disdained his theory. He used the gun brought home by his father Willard to kill the beast priest. , to avenge his sister Lenora, and he also embarked on the road of escape.
Destiny is a giant wheel that will always return to the starting point
Remember when the movie just started, when Willard, the hero's father, met the hero's mother in a bar, another couple? That is Sandy, the bar colleague of the male protagonist's mother, and Carl, who is sitting next to the male protagonist's father Willard. These two people have similar smells and form a desperate mandarin duck. They are constantly on the Southern Highway, by giving a ride to a lonely traveler, and then being seduced by Sandy and killed by Carl. Lenora's father, the mad priest Roy, was killed by both of them. Soon, Alvin encountered the pair of murderers on the way to escape. After a chaotic battle, Alvin shot the two to death. The reason why Alvin was able to fight one against two was also because Carl had been wary of Sandy for more than ten years, and every time he would secretly replace Sandy's bullets with blank bullets. How could Carl and Sandy think that the one who killed them was Willard and Charlotte's son, who was sitting next to them when they met in that bar more than ten years ago.
Passed by more than ten years ago, and lost their lives more than ten years later, this has done countless evils to the desperate mandarin ducks, and they deserve it. Once again, Alvin, who does not believe in any gods, was born and raised in a rebellious family of the most pious family, overcame his fate and survived. This section is actually very interesting and intense. Everyone has a rich inner drama. Helpless, the director only expresses it through the side. Sandy may be tired of Carl. After seeing the young and handsome Alvin, even when the two faced off with guns, the idea of killing Carl and eloping with Alvin even appeared in his mind. Oh, fate.
I still firmly believe that Alvin is a kind child. Although he is violent, rebellious, and never believes in God, he is very loyal to his family and has deep feelings for his family. It can be seen from the fact that he takes care of his sister and grandmother that he has inherited from his father. A sense of responsibility and kindness from a mother.
After killing three demons, Alvin returned to the town where he was born, and wanted to see the house again, and the cross erected by his father. That is, under the cross, Alvin and the sheriff who had pursued him started a gun battle. I don't know if it was his father's blessing or a coincidence, Alvin once again survived by luck.
The impermanence of fate lies in the fact that the sheriff who died under Alvin's gun was the policeman who came to his house to check the situation on the night when his father committed suicide a few years ago. The policeman was also the last demon that Alvin killed.
end
In this barren world, a little bit of goodwill that remains is precious. It was mentioned at the beginning that on the night Willard committed suicide, the owner of the gas station stayed with Alvin and called the police. A few years later, while fleeing, Alvin returned to the old town and wanted to see his old house. After all, there were only a few happy memories left there. He met the old boss again at the gas station. , Alvin said, "Thank you for everything you did for me that night, I want you to know that I have never forgotten" Yes, Alvin is such a child, and there is indelible kindness in his bones. The old man is also one of the few good shadows in the film.
In the end, Alvin got into a hippie's car. Exhausted, he gradually fell asleep, thinking about joining the army in the future or doing something else. It seems that the past ten years of suffering for him, the decades of suffering for his family, his poor mother, his desperate father, his tenacious grandmother, and the little sister who didn't have time to see the world, all seemed like a scene. dream. The dream is over, he wants to go far away, escape from this absurdity, leave this place abandoned by God, and experience a normal life. Not like his hometown, this wild southern town, full of death, despair and desolation.
The reputation of this film is average, because it has no ups and downs, it is relatively bland, and the narration is abrupt. But in general, it is a great story, with a touch of despair, countless tragedies are staged, but people are still alive and strong.
There are many people of faith around us, this is a personal choice. However, as adults, we should still face reality, give up our fantasies, and try to be nice to ourselves.
After all, this whole article is written with the word cannibalism.
By Chen Xi
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