Sanitation worker Troy was a baseball star when he was young. Because of robbery and murder, he could only deal with garbage all day after he was released from prison. He supports his family on a meager income. His wife Rose has been with him for 18 years. The younger brother Gabe came back from the battlefield but was mentally ill. The eldest son, Lyon, is in his 30s and has no serious job. He hangs out with a group of friends who like music. The youngest son, Corey, wanted to play baseball but was strongly opposed by his father. The stress of life also distressed Troy, so he and Alberta had an affair and had a daughter. On the night of childbirth, Alberta tragically dies, leaving her daughter to Troy. Although Troy was promoted in the sanitation company and became a more relaxed garbage truck driver, he was in constant conflict with his wife and sons at home. In these conflicts, we see the beauty of human nature and the difficulty of life.
Fences is based on a Broadway play. Because the adaptation was not thorough enough, or the lines of the original work were too wonderful, Denzel Washington, the director, was reluctant to give up, and the film still had strong stage characteristics. There is only one scene in the whole film, which is the inside and outside of Troy's house. The dialogue in the film is also very dense, almost verbose, especially the first half. But it is precisely this feature that provides a full opportunity for the performance of the characters in the film. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis play each other in the film, showing us vividly the image of a black couple who are close to each other and have experienced vicissitudes of life. The former's conceit, stubbornness, and long-windedness and the latter's tolerance, tolerance, and compassion are all moving. A quote from Lyon sums up his father Troy's character very precisely: "When he was struck out before, he used to talk about going forward. Once, I watched him get three strikeouts in a row. When he got on the court again, He hit a home run. He wasn't satisfied with hitting the ball in the audience, he wanted it to fly out of the sky. After the game, 200 people were standing there waiting for him, trying to shake his hand." The performance is what makes Fences so appealing.
The contradiction between the previous generation and the next generation shown in "Fences" is also the highlight of the film. The son Corey looks forward to stepping out of his father's shadow, just as Troy left his father back then, so fate continues from generation to generation. Growing up, my father was like a shadow, following Corey everywhere. He surrounds you and presses you until you lose yourself. No matter where he was, Corey could feel his father staring at him from behind. Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile: Are fathers and sons in this world like a pair of enemies?
The United States is the place with the most thorough industrialization and entertainment of films, but there is still no shortage of "independent films" with strong artistic qualities. Even a superstar like Denzel Washington who has won the Oscar for Best Actor and Supporting Actor still devotes himself to a unique art film like "Fences". On the other hand, China is a little sad. Taking Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, the iconic figures of the fifth-generation directors, as examples, from "Three Guns and Shooting the Case Surprise" to "The Great Wall", from "The Taoist Down the Mountain" to "The Legend of the Demon Cat", you can see where their hobbies are from the title of the film. No more artistic analysis needed. This trend of staying away from life and pursuing boring entertainment is becoming more and more popular, which is really not a good thing for Chinese movies. Why can't our filmmakers be as dedicated as Denzel Washington to making a good movie that reflects life and art?
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