This is a film directed by Scott in 2013.
So far, I have seen quite a few films directed by Scott. After watching these films, the general feeling is that Scott has been exploring and changing. What he is exploring is not general local changes, but new ideas of different styles of films. Hollywood has developed to the present, and the styles of many films have gradually become stylized. Emotional films must be about a lover who ends up getting married, fighting films must be good people invincible and good people will not die, police and bandit films must have many tricks on the evil side, and more tricks on the right side. At first glance, it looks like a new look, but after careful consideration, it is still an old collection of hills and valleys. In the long run, everyone will inevitably suffer from serious aesthetic fatigue. Change is inevitable and the responsibility of big-name directors like Scott.
In the final analysis, film art is still a kind of popular art. In two hours, it tells the audience a complete story, conveys a director's idea, and says a simple and meaningful truth. No matter how you change or innovate, you should do it around this feature of the movie. Like novels and plays, the most important thing is of course the plot. Use the plot to grab the audience's heart, so that you don't get distracted, doze off, or go to the toilet for two hours. Boring reasoning, complicated speculation, and profound philosophies are hard to find their place in film art. It can be seen that Scott has always had his own thoughts. This movie is the result of Scott's thinking.
It's a shame that Scott didn't send us a perfect story in this film.
According to the type, "Black Gold Murder" should be regarded as a gangster film. The gangsters must be mainly engaged in drug trafficking, prostitution and fighting. The film tells the story of gangsters selling drugs. However, the film's narrative of the plot is careless, jumpy, sloppy, and pretentious. Makes most of the audience into a fog. The film may just try to show the character's inner feelings, which are reflected through one long dialogue after another. These conversations are about the nobility of diamonds, there are descriptions of sex, there are confessions in the church, there are feelings of killing, there are desperate struggles. These disparate conversations are like rosary beads, and the plot is like a thin thread, connecting them, allowing people to rub and play. Here, the dialogue is the main one, and the plot serves these dialogues.
Let's touch these beads first.
"You're not looking for merit in a diamond, it's a vicious business, we're only looking for flaws."
"There is no turning back in life. But death takes on a different meaning to those who know how many days are left."
"Although it is not available, the desire to be as lasting as a diamond is no small wish. To make a loved one more beautiful is to acknowledge her vulnerability and the nobility of that vulnerability."
"When it comes to grief, the general rule of the trade doesn't apply, because grief is worth more. A man is willing to give up the whole world to relieve his inner grief, but grief buys nothing, because grief is worthless."
"Anyone who thinks himself smart is looking for his own death."
"If a friend is someone willing to die for you, then you don't have a friend."
"If you go down the path you're on now, you'll end up with moral choices. The results will be absolutely unexpected and you'll be unprepared."
...
Where is this dialogue between gangsters, it is clearly revisiting the maxims of Freud and Nietzsche in philosophical reading books! It makes people look more and more dull, sleepy and extremely heavy.
I don't know since when, a "Soyin faction" has formed among the crowd watching the movie. I remember when the movie "Let the Bullets Fly" was shown, this faction was very popular. What I appreciate is the contest between justice and evil in the film, the foreshadowing of the plot, Jiang Wen, Zhou Runfa, Ge You, and Carina Lau's wonderful acting skills, and I am indulged in the beautiful pictures and moving music. On the contrary, the "Suoyin School" pays attention to the metaphors in the film. Question after question: why horse-drawn trains? Why are there hats in the sedan chair? Why go to Pudong? Why can Ge You speak in a different place? Try to figure out the metaphors in each scene and each dialogue. These questions are either deliberately arranged or unintentionally ridiculed by the director, or far-fetched by these moviegoers.
I have no objection to this pursuit of the "Soyinists", and I understand the director's difficulty in inserting some inconvenient metaphors in the film. After all, it is good to have a deeper understanding of the film. However, the purpose of the audience watching the movie is to enjoy the beauty, not to get a graduate degree in psychology. Friends can use this as a topic after tea and drinking, and it is meaningless to meditate day and night. "I want to say that I'm going to rest, but I say it's cool and it's autumn." Only found out in the end, but that's it.
I think Scott's narrative style in the film, the theme is not the process of gang drug trafficking, but to examine the inner feelings experienced by all these people involved, the greed, adventure and despair, and the experience of moral dilemma. Helpless.
My rating: 5.5.
View more about The Counselor reviews
