You are outdated, cowboy

Carley 2021-12-17 08:01:18

I watched "The Highwaymen" today

Chinese general translation as "Robbers"

Clyde and Bonnie were the most well-known criminals in the United States in the 1930s. As of today, what the two have done during their 21-month criminal career can be contracted for daily hot searches.

Their stories are in the hands of news, writers and screenwriters, and "The Highwaymen" is a new work launched by Netflix in 2019. It reinterprets the story of hunting down the couple from the perspective of frontline detectives.

The protagonists are two former Texas Rangers. The English is Texas Ranger. Ranger originally means ranger. The Gondor King Aragon in the Lord of the Rings was once a Ranger. In the days when Clyde and Bonnie were active, the Mounted Police had been cancelled, and most of the old cowboys had retired. The legendary character, the protagonist of the movie, was invited to re-emerge and hunt down the current detectives and the FBI. Helpless couple gangsters.

Two old cowboys who have retired, do things the way they did when they were on errands. The logic of handling cases in their hearts should not be complicated:

Investigate-arrest people-take credit

It's like Old Manny recalled his youthful experience on the eve of the ambush. They find the robber, kill the robber, and then receive the reward.

But times have changed.

When the "rangers" looked for clues in the dust, footprints, and bushes through the scene, young FBI agents, dressed in decent and fashionable suits, told them that law enforcement agencies could already monitor phone calls, and do fingerprints and ballistics in the laboratory. Analysis, there are even reconnaissance planes monitoring in the sky.

The "rangers" chased the criminals across the state for Ford cars, but they were stopped by law enforcement barricades because they were not authorized. Fortunately, when the cowboy holds the reins, the petrol-drinking iron guy can also become a strong horse.

The "rangers" finally brought the criminals to justice, but it was not the medals that greeted them, but the fans of the criminals were crying in pain and mourning collectively. And before that, they almost lost their prey because of their enthusiastic fans.

The use of two mounted policemen as the protagonists of the story is the core metaphor of this movie. The cowboys who were staggered by the fast-changing world in the 1930s are like traditional Westerns in this era.

Western films, once the strongest and most romantic film type, the originator of road films, could not be more pure:

Landscape-Mount-Gunfight

Even if you haven't seen those classic old movies, the genes of western movies are so obvious.

But the times have changed beyond recognition.

In this movie, there is almost no portrayal of the Great Western landscape. For the first 40 minutes, no dust can be seen even on the classic car, because the way of telling stories along the road is outdated.

Mounted police do not have horses, so they need horses if they have a car. At the beginning of the whole movie, a set of contrast shots of a horseback riding plus a rifle and a car with a Chicago typewriter is simply an epitaph written to a Western movie.

The shootout, the shootout in the 1930s, it seems that there is no Yazi the audience wants to watch. It is better to arrange a virtual classic car chase in the country and the old man's toilet to fight back, which can make the audience's heartbeat a little faster.

After watching the movie, I was very impressed. No matter how restrained in the story and expression, the feelings expressed in these sections and details are like a nostalgia, a nostalgia for the tradition and the past. Probably when Manny turned on the radio on the Ford car and listened to jazz, the old cowboy also felt from the bottom of his heart: "WDNMD, this is much cooler than riding a horse."

I recommend everyone to have a drink and revisit this old story and new movie when you have time.

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I’m not qualified for film reviews, and occasionally send out my feelings about watching movies

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Extended Reading

The Highwaymen quotes

  • Sheriff Smoot Schmid: He's got the mental range of a windshield wiper but he's reliable.

  • Maney Gault: [Maney and Gault are considering Bonnie's poem about her life and anticipated death which was published in a local newspaper] Used to be, you had to have talent to get published. Now you just have to shoot people.