Unlike "911", the perpetrator of this attack came from within the walls. They are Tsarnaev brothers, who have lived in the United States for ten years. The younger brother has a nationality and is studying marine biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The older brother holds a green card and is married to an American wife from Rhode Island.
After the attack, his brother's portrait was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. In that photo, he looks like a young Bob Dylan, or some young rock icon, not a 19-year-old terrorist who wants to destroy America.
Three years later, Boston native and director Peter Berg brought it to the screen in a film called Patriots Day. Patriots Day, a festival in Massachusetts where Boston is located, commemorates the firing of the first shot of the American Revolutionary War and the day that the marathon was held.
The protagonist of "The Boston Marathon", a technical model of the terrorist attack movie
, is the rebellious sheriff Tommy Saunders played by Mark Wahlberg.
Before the attack, Tommy was being suspended for violating discipline. He was full of justice but mixed with ill-will, a typical character of a lone hero in Hollywood movies. However, although he witnessed the explosion with his own eyes, directed the on-site ambulance, and participated in almost the whole process of the investigation and arrest, there was no striking "heroic moment" from beginning to end - in fact, he was a rare fictional character in the film, representing The group portrait of the Boston police, while connecting the clues one by one.
The plot of the film also follows the classic settings of countless documentary films. After introducing the identity of the protagonist, it begins on a sunny morning.
With the praise of the peaceful life, a number of supporting roles appeared one after another:
the young couple was flirting, not knowing that they would each lose a leg;
in the eyes of the serious father, the son in the stroller was the whole of the world, but they were in the next. There will be a long parting before the first hug;
The romance between the simple and honest school police and MIT girls seems to be about to open, but his life will come to an end first
. It is the key force that makes the terrorists subdue the law; the
town sheriff and his colleagues laughed and cursed as usual, and in a few days, this old man will use the classic outflanking tactics he learned in the army to become a hero to defeat the terrorists .
At the same time, a complex hatred is pervading the families of the terrorist brothers, and their premeditation has begun.
Every supporting cast and their experiences are real. When several branches go hand in hand, everything flows slowly on the real time axis, and finally the stream returns to the sect, pointing to the moment when the bomb explodes.
Audiences who don't know the real story of the Boston Marathon attack may be instantly nervous at this point. They saw the bomb, but they didn't know when, where, and in what form the bomb would explode. They had to follow the rhythm set by the director, and in every crowded scene, they took the initiative to hold their breaths and wait for "the moment" to come.
When the "moment" finally came, the film instantly turned into a technical template for terrorist-themed films. The filming techniques and plot structure are as accurate, efficient and practical as textbooks. The incomparably tense rhythm kept the audience firmly in their seats, making everyone's mood rush to different crime scenes as the Tommy Saunders walkie-talkie rang again and again.
The most important reason for the film's wide acclaim after its release in the United States is this "reduction". It is not difficult to imagine how Americans who have experienced the tragedy of the terrorist attack will react.
"America's Most Wanted Movie Today"?
This is a "simple" terrorist documentary, and the inevitable difficulty of similar films is to tear open the scars of the victims.
Creators can choose to face the cause and effect of events, use cruel reality to cause huge controversy, and reflect on major themes such as religion, human rights, revenge, and international relations. Perhaps this is the real flesh and blood of a serious film.
Of course, focusing on condemning violence and preaching justice, like director Peter Berger, is another option. Films based on real terrorist attacks have generally chosen this path: "Flight 93" focuses on heroic passengers who are brave to resist, as fierce as Oliver Stone, and only shows warmth in "World Trade Center".
As Peter Berg himself said, he made this film not to promote hatred and open wounds, but to show the spirit of unity and crisis response of the Boston police after the incident. In other words, it's an anthem dedicated to the city of Boston. On many film review websites and social media, Bostonians and people who have lived in Boston also cheered for the city and praised the unity and strength of the people at that time.
On a Hong Kong poster for the film, a film critic was quoted as saying that it was "the movie that America needs most today", and I'm afraid a hymn cannot be so famous:
there is almost no satire in the film . Existence, the sheriff, the chief, the mayor, and the governor are all figures with a halo of justice. Only the FBI leader who leads the investigation shows a little bit of indecision and lack of awareness of current affairs. Even the investigators of the government's mysterious agency, who usually represent the underground black forces, did not take too radical actions (ignoring Miranda's warnings and not declaring rights to the suspect), but also offered up her identity as an East African Muslim female immigrant and released her. A politically correct big move that leaves critics speechless.
The main creator of the film did not dig deep into the social roots of terrorism, did not discuss ethnic divisions, did not reflect on religious extremism, did not exaggerate lone heroes, and did not deliberately spread human love and guide sympathy for the perpetrators. Even at the end of the film, the interviews with the real parties and the mourning of the victims are not based on a more macro-level patriotic feeling, as the title of the film (Patriots Day, Patriots Day) refers to, but from various angles. A slogan on the streets - "Boston Strong" - the city is tough and its people are invincible.
This may be the director's compromise to reality, deliberately not touching sensitive issues; it may also be the opposite - he hopes that the public will forget about complex social issues and regain the simple and beautiful tenacity, courage and unity, which may also be another solution. thinking on social issues.
However, if this film has greater expressive ambitions, such as truly becoming "the most needed film in America today", using itself as the glue of society and reflecting on the causes and solutions of the current situation, then this sticky The mixture may not be reliable enough. Of course, this is not something a director or a movie can afford.
(First published on Orange News)
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