In early 1848, a carpenter from New Jersey named James Wilson Marshall found several strips of gold at the forks of the river at the foot of the southern Sierra Nevada .
Boss John Sutter's sawmill was known overnight to the United States, no, the world;
The discovery of "Sutter's Mill" started the California Gold Rush in the 1840s-
In a few years, some 300,000 people have flocked to California, eager to find the fortune of their dreams.
They settled here , started buying and selling, and started production while mining gold on the seabed and on land .
The western frontier of the United States, which had been desolate for thousands of years , suddenly became popular. Countless people with lofty ideals want to come here to live and come here to make a fortune.
Their arrival, permanently transformed the land.
Mexico, South America, Africa, Australia, China...and people living on the east coast of the North American continent;
Some are even willing to give up all their property, take all their wealth and head west , throwing a bigger bet.
The "American Dream" in the true sense began at that time. California became the world's center of population diversity , and that's how it started.
The rapid increase in the supply and trade of gold on a global scale strongly stimulated the development of the world economy and trade ; the patterns of immigration and colonization also began to change, and history was rewritten since then, and the culture and environment of the American borders changed instantly.
Everyone is free, everyone is free to try, everyone can get rich overnight , anyone.
It wasn't just California, of course. The pioneers soon discovered that the entire uninhabited West was a huge treasure , and opportunities could exist everywhere.
Fantasy or not - with this idea in mind, like Columbus , they dived into this unknown soil from modern civilization .
Then, naturally, something went wrong : disease, sewage, riots, crime, property disputes, racial hatred, and California's inexorable years of wildfires.
But the momentum of reclamation , once started, is impossible to stop. By the 1950s, Oregon had also become a major gold rush mecca;
The cowboys came on their horses, drinking and singing, ready to hold their guns at their waists a bullet .
In 1851, the brothers, surnamed Hissters , came here too; they were working for others, helping their bosses to get rid of old buddies who didn't pay their debts and got away with stealing money.
They also want to get rich, but they don't say it; in this day and age, in this place, if you talk casually, you will be shot .
However, how can the madly beating heart be suppressed all the time? But who would have guessed that this life- threatening attempt would actually yield a fairy fruit——
Oh my god, I've got gold!
01
Jagged Gang
tender like water
At first glance [The Histers Brothers] , from subject matter, story to casting, is a typical Western :
A small gang of males with their own unruly and tragic aura , for the sake of huge invisible benefits , betrayed the whole world and rushed to the river where gold would flow out of legend.
The opening of the film also created the atmosphere , dark night, insects, huts, raids, the gunshots and gunpowder on the field created an instant light, and the low roars of the brothers tore the tranquility.
But in the next second, this extra-legal heroic picture collapsed - "I can't see anything; I killed the wrong person, Mahle Gobi!"
The horse was also burned to death. After miserably reporting to the boss, brother, are they going to kick me?
Forget it, let's finish the last vote.
This movie is a wonderful surprise :
Unlike traditional westerns as imagined, this film, with its well-done anti-genre characteristics , received the warmest and most lasting applause in Venice , and nominated the Golden Lion to win the Silver Lion .
Under the hard gas shell, the inner core is as soft as a baby's breath.
The elder brother who worries about everything and worries about the sky and the earth, the younger brother who makes troubles everywhere and is arrogant and arrogant ;
In fact, "family" is mentioned very early in the film, and the brothers discuss their hapless bad dad while they are on their way ;
Then this topic was quietly buried in the story, but it didn't disappear at all-the journey of the two was like a family farce .
Yes, they are really going to do big things, they have nothing else to talk about every day, and they also talk about the way forward ;
But what the camera is focusing on is all the troubles they made along the way , the strange little troubles they encountered .
Sleeping in the woods in the middle of the night, the spider crawled into the mouth that was dripping with laziness (the director shot my deep fear like this ...):
The next morning, "Damn, you're swollen like a Tibetan mastiff. "
The bitten brother was dizzy and had nightmares. The younger brother, who looked like a bastard, covered him with a quilt and sat beside him all night .
"Go to sleep, I'm here."
The two people who were supposed to be outlaws were not what we imagined.
For this line of work, my brother seems to be a little weak, thinking about going home to live a life and having someone he loves;
The younger brother is a drunken lunatic who is half sober and half confused throughout the whole process, and is not afraid of the consequences of ranting and firing guns casually.
And judging from the terribly stupid raid at the beginning , the business ability of the two is really not good.
No, I lost the pursuit target again, and the contact person also defected .
It 's time to be hunted down - this pair of male and female counterparts is also quite interesting.
Jake Gyllenhaal reunites with Riz Ahmed , the mad duo of [Nightcrawler] , and Old Kat is playing a private detective who tracks down Riz's scientist .
At the beginning, I saw this detective, cautious and careful, without showing any expression, I felt that I was very good at my job, and it was a bit strange to be skilled;
As for why he turned his back...
After the accident was discovered and communicated with him, he disregarded the great theory of the scientist .
As for this scientist, he is ambitious and far-sighted , intending to change the social order, capital structure, and human needs;
Holding the equation of turning gold in his hand , he was moved by the detective's affection, so he had no choice but to join forces with these outlaws and start from the livelihood of the lower classes .
Heard you have some wonderful chemical equations on hand ? Okay, I'm about to lose my job anyway, what kind of life do I have to sell?
Fuck the big boss, let's go, let's get rich and get rich .
Each has its own reason to travel across the mountains and rivers to the west . After we see the true hearts of these characters, the interpretation becomes even more emotional——
It seems that the older brother, who is not as capable as his younger brother, just wants to protect his younger brother. He is braver and more responsible than anyone else :
"Charlie's been violent since he was a kid ; bad things keep coming, and I have to help him . He's my brother ."
And Chao's younger brother, who is bluffing and has a serious sense of insecurity , is actually living in a deep fear of "fearing that he will eventually become like his father " .
The two male supporting roles who were unfortunate enough to receive a lunch box also found something unexpected in the end: a scientist facing the future, who finally became an adventurer in the traditional sense , and died due to a somewhat stupid action;
The detective who has been fleeing and can only rely on taking notes to express his feelings, after making real friends , he aimed his gun at the temple and was relieved .
A few of them, like everyone in the gold rush, are covered by a big net of selfishness, interests, and great dreams , but they are still lonely individuals;
They have delicate emotions and warm heartbeats , they each have their own difficulties and tragic situations , and they all want to be redeemed .
Either dead or alive; if alive, even if not a fire, at least it must be like a stream shining with metallic luster—
Either go to the distance without looking back, and bet your fate for that happiness ; if you want to choose another way, then meander without haste and go home.
02
Mom, I'm rich
I'm back to see you
As a mainstream western, [The Sisters Brothers] stripped away the roughness of the usual westerns to a large extent , and stuffed it with a lot of humanistic care—
Everywhere can be foreseen against the backdrop of crisis , but there is always a special sense of sophistication .
French director Jacques Audiard , who directed [Rust and Bone] (and also served as the producer of [120 BPM] ) , is still in the big picture, choosing to start small.
Focus on portraying characters and showing delicate emotions;
The climax of the film is always inadvertently presented from the most mundane fragments .
The easiest thing to empathize with the audience is always fun and love .
For example, my brother quietly buys something new like "tooth powder" from the store and learns to brush his teeth - because he has a girl he likes;
On the night when several people were infinitely close to success, he ran out to brush his teeth again, only to meet a friend who brushed his teeth embarrassedly .
A small detail is very interesting ; there is an echo at the moment when the plot is getting higher and higher , which is even more warm and humorous .
There is a similar clip here, where they temporarily lived in relatively prosperous San Francisco , and there was a flush toilet in the hotel bathroom—
This is an operation that has never been seen before. For the two resident in the mountains , the surprise is a bit big.
The tone of the whole film is so gentle and interesting ;
We who are bathing in modern civilization can really feel the fast fall of a harvest old farmer from the performance of John C. Reilly ~
And especially these small details, it also clearly indicates the change of the times——
For the Western civilization, and even for the civilization of the entire United States and all mankind, these all mean that they have stepped on the turning point of the world's destiny , and a new era is coming.
The "gold rush" is closely linked with the westward movement , and population migration and capital demands interact ;
Through the development of the western region, the rapid development of energy and industry will directly promote the germination of the industrial revolution in the United States in the future.
The world has come to a time when chaos and order are at war , and such a picture of the times has been subtly integrated into the film.
The contradictions of the characters themselves come from their hearts ; the conflicts between the characters come from the larger environment .
The civilization and development of modern society are beckoning to this group of cowboys who live by their lives;
Gradually, it became clear to everyone that either embrace the trend, or you go and disappear.
Starting with the discussion of "family", the theme of brothers runs through the whole film, and finally ends with the return of "family"——
The boys of the Histers family, escaping from their father's brutal palms , spent half their lives looking at all kinds of ecology in the west , and finally set foot on the road they came from;
They bid farewell to the mutilated corpse of their friend , completed the last unfinished business , and then, empty-handed and relaxed, crossed the field and stopped on the low slope in front of the wooden house.
In front of the reddish horizon, they were greeted by their mother's shotgun and the expulsion password. This vicious , yet warm , sound was no more frightening than the chirping of insects in the valley before.
The closer they got to home, they no longer cared about what happened to the people they were chasing , and just asked, "Do you think my mother will change a lot ?" "It's definitely not as big as us."
Missing an arm? Let's take a moment to explain slowly. Mom, if you don't let me in, I'm going to cry and show you.
Regarding the human element in the film, Jake Gyllenhaal said that he, Ritz and director Audia are indeed the same kind of people-
They are all "family" people.
So in such a movie, they can embed the characters so naturally, whether it is memories or the current drama, they are full of tacit understanding .
Joaquin Phoenix, who plays the younger brother, defines the friendship between the brothers as "unique and amazing vitality ", and the role of the younger brother Charlie has a sense of humor;
He seems untamable, but in fact struggles within himself every day; he can't find the words to express his emotions, and his brother's sensitivity and empathy are a threat to his brother.
The dynamic between brothers is complex, traumatic, filled with resentment and guilt, but above all love .
The younger brother Charlie has no self-control, and under the flamboyant appearance, is a broken soul ;
Guilt was at play, and he had to deal with it in his own way, to gain a little bit of control—
He kept fighting against his brother, trying to disappoint him, and he would insist on taking care of him .
[The Sisters Brothers] is just that, navigating a path that focuses on depth of thought , at a slow pace, in a genre that's usually "kill them all" .
The level of subtle sadness in the film is unexpected for the audience. The loss and warmth of the changing times, in the disappointment of the brothers and the people around them , turned into the gurgling water of Josephine Creek;
As for gold, it doesn't seem to be that important.
References:
Oregon Gold Rush | Highway 199
Joaquin Phoenix on 'The Sisters Brothers' and Why He Hates Behind-the-Scenes Videos | Thrillist
Text: Yorkshire Viking
The article comes from WeChat public account: Movie Detoxification
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