However, after the film came out in the last two hours, Fat Brother's biggest feeling was still regret, a deep regret.
Gang genre films have now become wanderers in the film world, lost in the image space of losing themselves. It's been too long since there has been a shocking gangster type movie.
The luck of gangster movies is obviously worse. Although as a genre film, the trajectory of its rise and decline is not much different from that of other genres, too little time is given to gangster films. It needs a little more time and luck to complete the needs of film history. A practice that can only be completed in the dark.
Many people think that this time, "Life in the Dark" will be an opportunity for the gangster film to show the complicated things in the dark. As a result, we only saw the darkness, and really didn't see the things worthy of fun in the darkness.
The film "Life in the Night" is adapted from the novel "Life in the Night" of the same name by the novelist Dennis Lehan.
The novel is actually the sequel to Dennis Lehan’s 2008 novel "Day of Destiny".
This hundreds of pages of work is divided into three parts. The
first "Boston" tells the story of the protagonist Joe, who is the son of the sheriff , first enters the society. The mistress of the gang boss Abel White, she was betrayed and went to jail, but she accidentally became the confidant of the Italian black boss Marceau in prison; the
second "Ipo" tells about Joe and Marceau after he was released from prison. Pour Abel, set up his own business in Tampa in the south of the United States, relying on the bootleg business to gradually rise; the
third "All Violent Children" tells about Marceau and Joe turning their faces, the two sides have a showdown in Tampa.
The novel lays a solid foundation for the characters and story of the film, but at the same time it also makes the adaptation difficult.
The time capacity of the movie is too limited. It is necessary to select the essence of the novel, refine the characters and stories, and create drama conflicts.
As a result, Daben was really "completely loyal to the novel" as he claimed to be. After the film came out, he was too restrained, and coupled with a ten-year timeline, the film fell into a flat, even a bit boring.
Many scenes and feelings of characters can only be clicked to the end. There is a beginning, but it is difficult to end, or it cannot be deepened and left on the surface.
Like the chapters of the novel, the film is almost divided into three large paragraphs.
The script of the story is actually very neat, but there are no highlights, but it is too partial to say that it is a running account.
The crux of the problem lies in the sudden changes in the emotions of the characters, and there is no scene that gives more expression to the changes in the emotions of the characters.
In the first chapter, Joe falls in love with the mistress of the gang boss. The two fight fiercely and act like a lovebird. As a result, Joe is betrayed by his selfish mistress and almost lost his life. Finally, with the help of the sheriff’s father , Exempted from the death penalty and sentenced to three years.
During the period, the key emotional scene where Joe's brother and father came to visit the prison was originally deleted by Daben.
As a result, the relationship between Joe and his father was not full enough. After Joe was released from prison, his father had died, and his father had almost completely sacrificed his career in order for Joe to survive, and he had reminded Joe to pay attention to this snake-hearted woman before.
"Even if he is a thief, doing unspeakable deeds, but he is still my son." Before this kind of paternal love, the regret point ends.
Also, the relationship between Joe and his brother. In the film, we heard Joe mention his brother many times. My brother worked hard in Hollywood. At the beginning, he was just a stuntman and a small screenwriter.
But at the end of the film, Joe saw in the latest Western movie that his brother had become the first screenwriter. The movie tells the story of the righteous sheriff leading the people in the small town to fight the thugs.
Contacting the father’s profession, this intertextual nature coincides with the main idea of the film. It should have been a tearful and sighing scene, but because of the lack of emotional clues provided in the early stage, the appeal was reduced.
The handling of the mistress's relationship is even more pity, the relationship between Joe and his mistress symbolizes Joe's yearning for love, and at the same time symbolizes the mental state of his youth.
Thinking that his mistress had died tragically, she finally found her ultimate and went to find her with his wife on his back. As a result, the mistress did not dare to face Joe and could only use teasing to cover up his true feelings and guilt. Joe turned and left, completely bidding farewell to his youthful past.
This scene is also worthy of digging, but it still stops abruptly without reaching an emotional high...
According to the character arrangement of the novel, Joe's best friend Dean and his brother who was born and died are also completely superficial. .
Lost the introduction of the past experience, and the two people who depended on each other in Tampa City, the true feelings were revealed, and finally the same enemy, Joe gave up the position of boss.
All the characters' transitions and identifications appear to be ineffective and insufficient in persuasiveness under the weak emotions.
Around Joe’s three women, the film gave a lot of space to show, the mistress in the first chapter, the Cuban wife in the second chapter, and the sheriff’s daughter Emma. In fact, every woman has an extraordinary place. They can enrich Joe's character image and spiritual change.
Especially the relationship between Emma and his wife Siella.
The film has a very heavy theme, redemption!
The whole story is the story of Joe gradually sinking into the gangster world, struggling in the quagmire of assassination, desire, and survival, losing himself, and then rediscovering himself.
All characters are waiting unconsciously or consciously, looking for a moment of self-salvation.
It is naturally Joe who is consciously looking for, and another key person is Emma, the sheriff's daughter.
Emma appeared innocent and pleasant, a good-tutored good girl, with a Hollywood dream, she ended up living in Los Angeles, and under the narcotic drugs, she turned into a prostitute.
This broke the sheriff's heart.
Joe also threatened the sheriff, in order to achieve his goal, let the sheriff betray his wife and brother.
After the incident, Emma underwent a huge change. She became a local religious leader, inciting the people and the government to resist Joe's business in the local casino.
The boss Marceau attaches great importance to the construction of the casino and has been forcing Joe to kill Emma, but Joe's feelings for Emma are very complicated and he can't bear to do it.
The failure of the casino business led to a complete break between Joe and Marceau.
Emma has a strong religious belief, but fell into the drug, completely deviating from the religious intentions. Although she became a religious leader for a time, under the torment of her conscience and the changing taste of family love, she ended her life by suicide.
You know, in Catholicism, suicide will go to hell, and suicide will never be forgiven by the Father. Deviant behavior.
Emma actually symbolizes Joe's conscience. Joe sympathizes with Emma and knows that she is a kind person. His feelings for Emma are very subtle.
Emma's death, coupled with Marceau's pressing every step, made him another cold-blooded Marceau.
At the end of the fire and climax, he mercilessly killed Marceau, a headshot was not enough, and a few more shots were made.
His wife Siella sighed many times in the second half, feeling that Joe had changed. At first she thought that Joe would not succeed and that he was not cruel enough, but now, Joe has become a strange cold-blooded animal.
And Emma's death caused the sheriff's father to lose his way in the redemption.
As the righteous sheriff, the sheriff who claimed that he would never be bought by money, actually took a gun and shot Joe's home with his wife and children.
Salvation became a vengeance.
His wife Siella died tragically.
Joe finally ended up alone.
It can be found that the relationship between the characters in "Life in the Night" is actually quite full, and each character alone is quite exciting, enough to create plot tension and set off emotions.
Even before his death, Marceau didn't care about himself, and kept asking how his son was.
After hearing Joe's cold answer, he shed tears for the first time, not because he was afraid of the end of his life, but because the pain of losing his son made the boss who is good at accidents unable to help crying.
Based on the adaptation of Dennis Lehan's novel, "Life in the Night" is magnificent, gorgeously produced, full of retro accents, impressive character performances, and ups and downs in the plot.
But the average force is too much to express, so that the film lacks tension and is not enough to cause an explosion.
As a gangster film, the plot is too cautiously handled. After Joe has suffered multiple life blows, the changes presented are not enough to move people's hearts.
In short, "Life in the Night" is full of unexpected fun on the one hand, but on the other hand it lacks a sense of reality due to deliberate design.
We can only see the darkness of human nature presented in the film, but we cannot see the deeper things in the darkness.
In addition to being hosted by Daben, "Night Life" is also blessed by the company of his good friends Matt Damon and the company of Xiao Lizi, but the three young talents in Hollywood failed to change the film and ended in regret.
Recall the classic gangster film "The Godfather" series, or "Once Upon a Time in America", each chapter of its plot has obvious conflicts, family, friendship, love...
Anyone who settles down a bit and constantly squeezes the characters can make it. impressive climax of the story
is actually the so-called classic, is but the familiar things to cinematic way to show it, let us see clearly that there is usually dark and, more importantly, by the director Artistic purification allows us to see the complicated things in the dark.
This is the performance of the film above life, and the height of its charm.
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