The 2014 film is based on true events, and director Bennett Miller's previous films include 2011's "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt and 2005's "Capote" starring Philip Hoffman.
All three films are excellent, but for me Foxcatcher is the absolute best.
From the perspective of sports, biopics, crime films and even thrillers, this movie has a lot of weight, the kind of loss, anxiety and a hint of ominous omen from the beginning of the film like the cloud before the rainstorm. As the film progresses, the layers accumulate until the final explosion.
Before watching the movie, I knew nothing about this real event, so until the last moment, my heart was hanging, and the shock when the gun sounded was really incomparable, the unease accumulated before and some kind of lingering My anxiety is also released at this moment, so it turns out, it turns out that this is what I have been worried about.
This kind of impact brought by watching movies has not been experienced for a long time. First, after the amount of movie viewing reaches a certain level, it will naturally become immune to too many routines. First, the number of excellent works has plummeted after the epidemic.
After all, it’s not a new movie, and most people who should watch it have probably seen it, so I’ll talk about this movie next. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s better to watch the movie first. It is indeed a rare masterpiece. Pity.
Let’s briefly talk about the plot first, only for the movie, not about real events.
Plot summary
Mark, played by Channing Tatum, and David, played by Mark Ruflo, are two brothers, both of whom are world champions in wrestling. Mark has a withdrawn personality and is a bit of a stubborn guy. He has nothing but wrestling, and David has a richer society. life and a more successful family, career.
The film begins one day in 1987, when Mark was given $20 to give a speech at an elementary school that had originally invited his older brother David.
When Mark was two years old, his parents divorced. After that, the brothers lived in no fixed place. It was his brother David who took care of Mark's training and life. Although Mark himself won the Olympic gold medal in 1984, he still felt that he lived in his brother's life. In the shadows, they don't get the recognition they deserve.
That's when a strange phone call changes everything. John DuPont (played by Steve Carell), heir to one of America's wealthiest families, the DuPont family, wants to see Mark.
John invites Mark to join his foxcatcher wrestling team with full financial support, whatever you want.
That's all for a pie from the sky, but this pie is obviously not that delicious.
In the beginning, John Dupont only showed some vanity and great joy. It is not so much that he loves wrestling, it is better to say that wrestling is just a new toy for him, but he has enough money to build a new stadium and call the top athletes in the country to come. Accompany him at home.
Athletes who come here seem to be aware of this. Anyway, if you give more money, we should do sports and competitions. When you come, we will play with you and let you enjoy the coaching addiction.
In the meantime, John asked Mark to bring David too, but David refused.
But John Dupont's moodiness gradually began to make people uneasy. He would randomly call Mark who had fallen asleep to wrestle with him in the middle of the night, and would shoot indoors to urge training when everyone was resting. Beside John, Mark gradually lost and began to Drinking, taking drugs, forgetting to train.
To John, it all seemed to be about proving himself to his mother, like a child rebelling, but at the same time wanting parental approval.
He even sponsored an amateur wrestling match, then won the championship himself, and then took the trophy to his mother for credit, hoping to put the trophy in the trophy showroom.
John is a giant baby in the standard sense. His wealth makes no one refuse his request. Everything is at his fingertips. The only object he desires to please is his mother, who has never treated him positively. Acknowledging, there is always a look of disappointment and helplessness in his eyes.
John in the film is a small man, but he always stalks his neck and looks down, as if he is trying to pretend to be arrogant, but when he is alone, his face is completely lifeless, and a sense of emptiness envelopes him. , Although he is rich enough to rival the country, he has no love for life on his face.
John couldn't accept any rejection, Mark had said you can't buy David with money, he won't come. Before the 1988 Seoul Olympics, David was still unable to resist the money offensive, and his family moved to John's fox hunter station and joined the team.
Mark left the team after breaking with John.
David became John's new favorite.
And David is not another Mark, he will not be obedient to John's request, he will deny John's access to the players during the game to affect the players' performance, he will explain that it is a rest time when John is uninvited on the weekend. Be alone with your family.
The death of John's mother sounded the alarm for the final scene.
John no longer had anyone to please, and no longer had the slightest scruples to do whatever he wanted. David's repeated refusals gradually grew into contempt for his own dignity in his heart.
He asked the driver to drive to David's residence. When he saw David, he rolled down the window and asked, "Do you have any opinion on me?" and then shot. After David fell to the ground, he continued to shoot two more shots before leaving.
David was killed on the spot, and John Dupont did not die in prison until 2010.
The film is based on real events. Of course, the first thing we see is the specific characters in it, but during the viewing process, we feel another key word that runs through it all the time, money.
dance around money
John Dupont is a small man, everyone around him is taller than him, but as soon as he appears, everyone's waist starts to bend, and his strength comes from wealth.
When he encounters any problem in the film, the first sentence he utters is to quote your number. Everything has a price, and once there is a price, it is not a problem.
When money failed in front of David, John's second choice was to resort to violence, and the arms business was the starting point for the DuPont family to make a fortune.
two elites
When we say elite, there is not always a clear definition, sometimes it is positive, sometimes ironic, but in a general sense, David and Mark as world champions, and John Dupont as heir to a multinational group, both Can be called social elite.
David and Mark are among the elites by virtue of their professional ability. They are the best people in this field, and John DuPont relies on family wealth, but obviously John's energy is countless times greater than that of professional elites. In front of wealth, professional elites also bowed their heads, bent over, and flattered.
two families
Although they were born from different classes, Mark and John's "friendship" was inevitable.
Mark has always lived in the shadow of his brother David. Although the two brothers have a good relationship, they have always wanted to get rid of David and make their own achievements.
On John's side, it is a similar mother-son relationship, a love-hate relationship between Oedipus, hoping to attract the mother's attention and gain her approval, but in the mother's eyes, there is always a feeling that mud can't support the wall.
This anxiety brings John and Mark together, but this combination of sympathy is morbid after all. In the end, both David and John's mother died, but the shadows on their heads did not disappear.
two sports
John's mother has always been keen on horse racing, and the trophy hall is full of horse racing-related awards, while wrestling, which John is obsessed with, is regarded by his mother as low sports, a low-level sport.
It can be said that choosing such a sport is John's rebellion against his mother, but he is eager to gain her mother's approval.
The class nature of sports is also reflected here. If we pay attention, it should be easy to notice the class nature of sports. The distribution of medals in some Olympic events is also related to wealth.
Weightlifting, wrestling, boxing and other sports that are more physically harmful or directly confrontation are usually mainly participated by the middle and lower classes in less developed countries or rich countries.
And golf, tennis, equestrian and other non-confrontation or non-direct confrontation projects are the main choices of wealthy countries or wealthy groups.
Of course, as the popularity of the masses changes, the situation will also change. For example, football has gradually evolved from a working-class sport to a national sport regardless of class.
But on the whole, the class metaphor associated with sports has not disappeared. You can also get a glimpse of the brands endorsed by top players in different sports, or whether there are opportunities to endorse brands.
what is foxcatcher
Foxcatcher, or fox hunter, is the name of the farm owned by DuPont.
But judging from the video data at the beginning, my guess is that foxcatcher refers to the dog that assists in hunting foxes during hunting.
In the film, John's Fox Hunters team proved this again when they won their medals for the first time. John took down all the trophies from the horse races on the trophy rack, and put the gold medals won by the team on it. It seems natural to think that these medals belong to Own.
He held up the medal and said, these are the fox. The implication is that the wrestlers present are his foxcatchers.
In this scene, he also sarcastically said that his mother likes horse racing, but horses can only eat and pull.
These top players in the field of wrestling, to him, just like horse racing is to his mother, they are pets, a small hobby, he can be good to you, but it is still the owner's good for the pet, not the peers.
This is reflected in a lot of interactive details in the bridge between John and Mark in the film, and when he tries to treat David in the same way, he fails to get the expected response.
David sees John as an equal, so his approach makes sense.
And John treated David as a pet. Under this premise, David's response became intolerable. A giant baby with huge energy in his hand, once the parental restraint was gone, tragedy was doomed.
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