It must be said that some movies, if they are viewed separately from the background of the times, must be boring. This is the case with "Tender Killing", and this "Out of the Furnace" is also the same. The common background of the two films is also obvious - the impact of the economic depression in the United States and the world on ordinary individuals.
Some people may say that I am making a fool of myself, but in fact, such clips abound. In "Tender Killing", the first shot is a mix of two different scenes. One is Obama's inaugural speech that flashes back constantly. He is eloquent and eloquent, and he depicts the bright future of the United States; the other is a In a dilapidated town, an unemployed man wanders aimlessly with his dog on a leash. He looks around, but he is actually planning how to sell his stolen dog.
In "Out of the Furnace", there are not many such scenes, but they are enough: Before Bell paid back the money for his brother, there was someone on TV canvassing for Obama. What does it have to do with himself, the old bartender joked: "Maybe he (Obama) will end up like Kennedy." The reason why he said that is actually very simple, the old man is mocking Obama's ambition-four The reality a year later also confirmed his sarcasm, but it was the old bartender who got a headshot. It wasn't long before the first climax of the play. Bell was imprisoned for drunk driving. Four years later, when he was released from prison, pay attention to the close-up of the camera - the houses outside the car window were lack of maintenance, dilapidated, and sold on a cheap basis. At that time, Bell was sitting in the car, looking at this strange and familiar town with some confusion. Not to mention the constant scenes of abandoned factories, all hinting at depression.
In "Tender Killing", the full-time killer played by Brad Pitt was hired. At that time, his employer bargained with him. Faced with Pitt's bid, the employer was a lot verbose. You help me kill someone, can you think it's cheaper for the sake of old friendship?" Pete thought about it and nodded, and his business was not good in those days.
In "Escape the Furnace", the residents of the town are facing a greater crisis of survival. From too many details, we can know that the mill in the town is owned by most people in the whole town. Source of income. The little boss, played by Willem Dafoe, admonishes Bell's younger brother to seek a living in the mill, because "your brother is like this, so is your father." Bell also persuades his younger brother to go to the factory, even if the brothers - even people in the small town - Everyone knows that occupational disease is one of the reasons for his father's death, and he still hopes that his younger brother can go to the factory to "seek a living". Obviously, Bell's younger brother is also a sympathetic person. He has no skills. He played for the country in Iraq, and he has nothing after coming back. Honor? Comes without social security really, is not it? Even so, Bell's younger brother decided to come back to work with Bell after the last punch -- a way of "making a living" anyway. But all this was quickly shattered: Bell told his ex-girlfriend that the factory was going to close down—"Chinese products are cheaper." At this time, her ex-girlfriend told him blankly, "I'm pregnant." .
At this point, the "melting furnace" in the movie seems to have reached the highest temperature, and Bell and his younger brother are about to be roasted to pieces. Obviously, apart from his younger brother and old friends, there is only work left in Bell's world. Obviously, in the story, the temperature of the furnace is not yet hot. After the boxing match, Bell's younger brother was shot in the head by a villager played by Harrison and buried in the wilderness.
In "Tender Killing", Pitt's killer has a habit of not wanting the person he wants to kill to look at him and beg him before he dies, because it will make him "unable to kill". So he likes to shoot people suddenly from a distance and kill people, so that the other party can also be happy. The title of the film "Gentle Killing" comes from this. In "Escape the Furnace", it was precisely because of the death of his younger brother that the police did nothing like sticking to the rules, so that Bell embarked on the road of revenge alone. It was from this moment that Bell no longer wanted to be like everyone else. Living numbly in this small town, he wants revenge—I think the title of "Out of the Furnace" comes from the beginning of the scene where he calls Harrison and leads the snake out of the hole.
The final revenge was nothing new, the only thing that surprised me was why Bell waited for the police to arrive before shooting Harrison in the head. From what I have learned, this is murder, because there was no need for self-defense at that time. Even if the other party has killed someone, it does not mean that it is reasonable to kill someone who has lost the ability to kill in front of the police, at least in the United States. , which constitutes the lowest degree of murder, which is a typical overkill, not to mention the fact that there are recorders in front of every police car. At that time, I was suddenly a little excited. Maybe this is another climax of this movie. Bell, who was desperate at that time, knew that he was about to lose his job, had no life, and had no relatives. He killed his enemy in front of the police, not only You can be ashamed before the snow, and you can go to prison naturally but survive. The scene of Bell carrying a gun and waiting for the police car to arrive did not become such an amazing foreshadowing in the end. pity.
Going back to the end, whether it is "Gentle Killing" or "Escape from the Furnace", after all, it tells about the current situation of the lives of the people at the bottom of the United States under the pervasive global crisis, the industrial recession, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the unemployment rate. The living conditions of veterans of the war on terror are worrying. For these American residents living in small towns, there is no hope for the future, but they are always ready to give everything - not to let despair swallow them. This is another American spirit - "escape the melting pot", which is the only reason why this film cannot be separated from the background of the times.
Forgot to mention, another name for this movie is "The Low Dweller", which means: Low Dweller.
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