The film is very peculiar. Unlike the general American "thief" blockbuster, the protagonists did not succeed in cheating, and they made a fortune. Instead, four energetic American middle-2 youth imitated the plot of the movie and planned to steal the out-of-print collection of books in the university library.
The shooting method is also quite novel. The tour guide Barton Layton interspersed a large number of real character interviews throughout the film. From the beginning of the film, there are real protagonists, their parents and teachers, and even the victimized librarian. From their mouths In the readme, the "library theft case" of the year is gradually restored, and the whole process of the actors performing intuitive restoration of the incident is added. The director did not deliberately add exciting dramatic conflicts in the film, nor did he show off his skills in pursuit of a fascinating plot. Instead, he pushed forward layer by layer, narrated directly, and explained it bit by bit. Quite the style of the legal scene.
The main plot is advanced by Spencer and Warren.
Spencer, his father is an engineer, his mother is a housewife, the family is harmonious, he is an art student, a good boy in the eyes of others.
He felt that his life in Kentucky was mired in a quagmire, unable to find the meaning of being a painter, but when the interviewer asked him, "What do you hope to express with your work, who are you as an artist?", he was silent.
He desperately needs some change, which can be a painful, one-of-a-kind experience. Just like the artists he knew well, Van Gogh, Monet, and Audubon, all of them were shaped into giant painters by the disaster of life. He wanted to replicate that experience.
Warren, a sports student, has the same desire to change himself. Unlike Spencer, he can't find the meaning of existence. He is disappointed and depressed about life. He has a clear understanding of his future, "Go to his fraternity, the only reason to join them is so that one day you can walk into an office you don't want to go into and meet someone you don't want to see at all, hope He can give you a job you don't even want to do."
When he found his father crying secretly because of the divorce, he went from disappointment to anger to roaring and questioning his father why he was crying; he started training for the team at the age of five, but he couldn't find the reason why he was training at all. When he knew that Spencer wanted to steal The Birds of America, he held it without hesitation, like a drowning man holding a life-saving straw. This is more or less the lure of money, but I think the ingredients are more the excitement of the stealing process, which is much more exciting than when he goes to the warehouse to steal food, which is euphemistically called "saving food".
Although Spencer is the initiator of this event, he is the most passive one in the gang. He cannot escape the temptation of this "change", but he does not want to bear the "price". Unlike Warren, he has family, school, future, moral concerns. Therefore, he had only scratched the surface of the whole operation. When he failed to implement the plan for the first time, he was the first to retreat with a scream. When he walked out of the library door, he felt that the world had never been better. While having dinner with my family in the evening, although I had the idea of quitting, when I found Warren in a hurry, I silently followed in the footsteps of the team. The inability to get out of the runaway train, and the inability to put it back on track, left him bewildered and miserable.
While Warren never admitted that he was the leader on the team, he was a bona fide actor who dominated the event itself, and without his wishful thinking and paranoia, it wouldn't have happened. One person went to the Netherlands to find sellers, formed a team, made plans, simulated cases, solved troubles, and when the first failed, he did not hesitate to formulate a second action. It seemed that everything was going in the direction he expected, but he was the lame and stupid one.
The first time he forgot to bring a stun gun and complained that he couldn't cover everything; the second time he promised to "solve" the librarian alone, but tricked Eric to help him together; he couldn't find the counter key; he couldn't find the basement exit ; can't lift the book; vomited on Chas's car. During the whole process, he started to be calm and self-possessed to the frequent hysteria, full of swear words and complaining. Until the incident happened, he comforted Spencer, saying that it was fine, and told Spencer not to think wildly.
Warren is essentially a poor man who is trying to save himself, trying to change the real world where he is disappointed, and who is powerless to start. Every swear word he says is just self-inflicted scolding, a scolding for his inability to change anything. At that moment, he was the epitome of countless confused teenagers.
I think Chas is the only one who is sane, he knows how to deal with trouble, and he resisted when he was arrested. It is a pity that the choice without thinking is doomed to be rough and reckless. The price of life for four people who crossed the line was to be in prison at the best age. They tried to rape and failed, and they were kicked instead.
At the end of the film, the victim librarian said: "I think they just want to make life easier, they don't want to work hard to change their lives, they don't want to change their lives by helping others, I find they are very selfish, they are all I can't understand how they selfishly cross the red line of the law and hurt others to get what they want, and I think once you cross that red line, it's very dangerous."
These words are right, when Spencer and Warren wanted to do something to change the trajectory of their lives in the first place, they could have had better, better choices, more diligent painting, more training. But they are cowardly and impatient with "hard work" and "diligence". They are in a period of self-confusion, seeking excitement, eager to be unique, eager to declare their extraordinaryness to others. And stealing famous books is exactly what he can do in the cognitive world that best reflects their extraordinary deeds. They undoubtedly clearly understand the devastating consequences, but when they experience the excitement and adventure brought by the dance with the tip of a knife, other It doesn't matter...
How many college students, like Spencer Warren, lived in unsatisfactory life everywhere, wanted to change themselves, but had no idea how to start, and longed for immediate rescue, but it was nothing to talk about. I chose to work hard, but I was afraid of being the kind of person I hated. I had to walk into an office I didn’t want to enter, meet someone I didn’t want to see, hope to get a job I didn’t want to do, and then be squeezed out of life. The last drop of the original pride and fearlessness, with unwillingness to wait for death.
A lot of people laugh at Spencer, Warren, Chas, and Eric for being "dumbs," "idiots," and "high energy," but I think they've just turned what we've been fucking into action.
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