(Some spoilers will not affect viewing)
On the second day of the Qingming holiday, I was a little dull and watched a new Netflix work-"The Robber".
What do you think of the combination of Kevin Costner and Woody Harris? As the sun sets, the ancient road westerly winds thin horses. In a word, these are two old men. Youth is no longer, and it will always take away some of the glory of the past, accompanied by a certain imagination of that era.
This movie is not a remake, but an interpretation of historical events from another angle. The title "Robbers" does not refer to these two old men, but the famous male and female robbers in American history-Bonnie and Clyde. Kevin and Woody play the police officers who hunted the two men. In the 1930s, the two legendary law enforcement officers, Frank Hammer and Manny Galt, were both old-school Texas Mounted Police. The former experienced 100 shootouts and killed them. 53 criminals have died. When the case of Bonnie and Clyde happened, the two had actually retired, but were re-enlisted as special investigators to hunt down the notorious male and female robbers who had killed 13 people.
At first glance, this is another passionate detective story. However, the cold and gray tones of the film promptly stopped the audience's imagination of western pleasure and enmity. This film is different from "The Male and Female" released in 1967, and does not give too much time to the film (although it is done very well on the retro level). This prevents the audience from being out of touch with the movie because of the emphasis on time. At the same time, it is also a consideration for different creative purposes. The police do not need a reason to hunt down criminals because it is a duty. Therefore, when the authorities failed, they could only entrust the retired Frank Hammer to carry on the heavy tasks.
If it is said that hunting down male and female robbers is one line, then the struggle between the police and their lives is another line. Frank has retired at this time, has nothing to do at home, and has a bad temper. He has been looking forward to making a difference and continuing to shine, at least not in this way. But when the old friend really came to the door with the order, he hesitated. He understood that he was not young anymore. The honor accumulated in the past has not come easily, so why bother to go to this muddy water. What the audience sees is not an old man, but an old policeman who is sentimental, hesitant, and worried, just like us.
But he still packed up and hit the road. It was my wife's new car. The tacit understanding of many years of life has made his wife understand that some birds cannot be shut down. They long for freedom and fly in a thunderstorm. From this perspective, police and gangsters are sometimes very similar. If you want to catch the culprits, you must learn to think in their own way. Because the bandit husband and wife used powerful firepower every time, Frank's first stop was the gun shop and purchased exaggerated weapons. Only in the level of violence with the other side, it is possible to take the lead.
Just like every dead Tsundere has a natural dull partner, Frank met Manny, an older partner who was even more frustrated than him. The two teamed up again to track down the male and female robbers. The arrival of Manny completes the image of law enforcement officers in this film. Frank advocates force and believes that law enforcement means violence against violence, and civilization can temporarily disappear in the face of crime. Manny believes that what makes us different from criminals is that "we will not give no warning before shooting."
When the police become humane, the audience will be willing to look forward to the development of the plot, because no one wants to watch the cold-blooded revenge machine, and it is still the "Rogue" Bonnie and Clyde who are hunting down. This undoubtedly greatly deepened the viewing degree of the movie.
Older policemen cannot keep up with their physical strength. Not only do they have to hunt down male and female robbers, but also the FBI, which is guarding against and robbing themselves of merit. But they insist on using old-school investigative methods instead of relying on emerging high-tech to track, explore, and talk. This is to catch bad guys, not show off.
The protagonist of the film is the police. As their opposite, the male and female robbers, there are not many frontal shots. The director chose another way to describe their image-dialogue. During the investigation by the detective duo, they visited their friends, father and others. During the conversation, we gradually learned about the two of them, and we also learned that the so-called bad guys were not always full of evil in the beginning, but "At the critical time of life", just because of hunger, he began to commit crimes. This is undoubtedly more profound than the preaching, and at this time of 2019, slowly erased the thief color of the two of them back then. They are just gangsters. The so-called robbers are nothing but an era of economic crisis. The toiling public's hatred of the bank and the government, wishfully put this title on them.
Bonnie and Clyde in history finally died in the powerful encirclement and suppression firepower of the police. At the end of the film, this process is more faithfully restored. Ironically, this was also the first and last encounter between the two detectives and the gangster couple. Bonnie and Clyde died under random guns, which is in line with their usual modus operandi. The sense of fate haunts the pioneers of Texas.
I don't recommend this film, at least I don't recommend you to watch it on vacation. After all, vacation is rare, so you should relax. The pace of the whole film is relatively slow, the atmosphere is also a bit dull, and the editing is slightly longer, more than two hours.
However, if one day you feel that you can't fall asleep and think about life over and over again, I would suggest to take a look.
What if you see your shadow?
Happy holiday.
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