The overall tone of the film is dreary, gloomy, and drowsy. This is not a pejorative, this is the tone of that dilapidated American industrial town.
The male protagonist is a blue-collar worker in a steel factory who loves his father, his girlfriend, and his younger brother. It is these family relationships or the traditional American family concept that supports him to live a mediocre but contented life. The male protagonist thinks that these are all of life, until life takes it all away.
Due to the impact of cheap Chinese steel (as introduced in the film), the steel factory where the male protagonist is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the steel factory supports the livelihood of most people in the town, so the town inevitably declines. In this context, what can support us to continue to live optimistically? I'm afraid it's just love.
When his father died, the male protagonist cried, but he did not despair, because he still had a girlfriend and a younger brother; when his girlfriend left, the male protagonist cried, but he still did not despair, because he still had a younger brother; his younger brother was beaten to death by the New Jersey gang, the male protagonist cried. The Lord did not cry, but he was already desperate. So he no longer trusts the system (the fat black police), no longer trusts any good promises from anyone (his uncle and the bar owner), chooses to pick up the gun and decides his own destiny.
The small town in the film is a microcosm, and the background is the despair of the lower class in post-industrial America. This town reminds me of my days in Cleveland. This once American industrial city is now desolate. A large number of vacant and dilapidated factories, old people with oxygen bags everywhere, young black people doing nothing, and so on.
This is the desperation of the people at the bottom of the United States. The aging of the industrial age has led to a large number of industrial workers being abandoned by the times. They still believe in the American dream that hard work can succeed, but reality has beaten them again and again.
The American dream, the Chinese dream, are just dreams after all. After waking up, where should we go?
In the end, the scene where Bell reunited with his girlfriend after he was released from prison is a classic. This scene alone is enough to get the golden man. Really aggrieved Bell.
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