Watching this old movie is entirely because of De Niro. This is the earliest De Niro movie I can find. Released in 1973. In fact, he appeared in the 1965 film "Three Rooms in Manhattan".
After the war, a large number of immigrants poured into this so-called free country. How do they live? Has their American dream come true? In this movie, the life of the second generation of immigrants, a few young people in New York’s Little Italy, is described.
The protagonist is Charlie, who has no fixed occupation and hopes that his uncle will entrust him to a restaurant. Be friendly and loyal to others. For the debt of his friend Johnny, he repeatedly mediates and does a lot of thankless things, which puts himself in danger instead. He likes that black stripper, but because of race, he is afraid of others' ridicule and dare not go out with each other. Charlie belongs to the rare thinker of their generation. Charlie inherited the tradition of the older generation of Italian immigrants and believed in Catholicism. While adhering to this belief, the influence of American culture and the unsatisfactory real life made him doubt his beliefs. His response to the priest's preaching was: "Those things have no meaning to me at all, just some words." Charlie is struggling between these two different cultures. Unlike Johnny, what he suffered was both real life and spiritual pain. His feeling is: "There are two kinds of pain in hell, one can be felt with hands, and the other is felt with heart. The worst of the two is spiritual."
Followed by Johnny. Do nothing, cynical. Charlie struggled to find him a job as a porter, and he didn't want to go. Hanging around all day, borrowing money. His life can no longer go on. When he was desperate, he simply broke the pot and refused to pay the debt. And Marco, who drew a gun and threatened to pay for it. After touching nails countless times, he climbed to the top of the building and shot at the Empire State Building, claiming "I want to wake up those sleeping." He thought he had seen through the world, and shouted angrily: "My kingdom is not in this world."
There is another category of people in Little Italy, Marco. Although the legality of his business is questionable, it is better than the people around him. But his life is not as good as it should be. Businesses are often deceived. The target of loan sharks is poor boys like Johnny, and debt collection is also a bad thing. The prospect of thinking about the future is still elusive.
After watching the movie, I couldn't help but think of the lines of a TV series: "If you love him, please take him to New York, because that is heaven; if you hate him, please take him to New York, because it is hell." We generalized that, in fact, it is not only referring to New York, but it is also very suitable to be placed in the United States. "Heaven" is just a dream. "Hell" is real. At first glance, the United States seems to be full of opportunities. As long as you work hard, you can become a rich man and a president. But all we see are those who win the lottery. Most people are struggling in the dark. To realize the American Dream, the first condition is to kick the conscience, cruelty is the only sign of success. Speaking of freedom, this is indeed the true side of the American dream. You can speak freely, play freely, freely spend time and drink. Of course, the prerequisite for these freedoms is to have money. If you don't have money, you can only starve freely and die freely.
What the film describes is the 1970s in the United States. At that time, the shadow of the Vietnam War, the surging of the civil rights movement, and the intensification of the Cold War, these events strongly impacted people's traditional ideas. After the old ideas were washed away, no new ideas were injected into people's minds, and a ideological vacuum was formed for a time. So naturally the lost generation and the beat generation were born. For example, Charlie’s questioning of traditional religion in the film is an example. Just as Charlie's girlfriend said to Charlie: "Now everyone is not serious."
After losing faith, people have to turn their attention to the material. However, with the economic recession and the widening of the gap between rich and poor, material life, coupled with discrimination against non-Americans, has become even more messy. In the film, Charlie, Johnny, and Marco each have different living conditions, but what they have in common is that they have no confidence in the future. In varying degrees of depression. Although they all seem to be free, they are actually the least free. All they can choose are those roads with no way out. This kind of distress and helplessness is manifested in emotions, which is the kind of unrestrained behavior. They can pick up girls, gamble, drink, and play billiards, and these are all their fun in the pain of confusion.
No matter how hard they work, no matter how decadent, no matter they think, no matter how numb, no matter they struggle, and no matter how depressed, even though they are different, they finally agreed with the idiom: Different routes lead to the same goal. In the face of society and the times, they are just a few ants, no matter how great their personal ability, no matter how happy they are, no matter how rebellious they are, after all, they can't beat the frenzy of the times. Can only be swept away by this frenzy. Maybe this is their fate?
A friend said that this is a gangster movie. I still don't agree with this. In current terms, Charlie, Johnny, and Marco are just a bunch of social idlers, and the most extreme thing is to dare to shoot. Charlie's uncle is not a gang leader, but like the patriarch of the village, defending the interests of his family, and giving a small threat to the clansmen who do not listen to the greetings. Those who can't pay can use restaurants to repay debts and so on. Moreover, they can only call the wind and rain in the Italian community, and it is far from forming a systematic organization. In other words, it only has the embryonic form of a gang organization.
De Niro plays Johnny in the film. Not an absolute protagonist, just a second-hand old man. De Niro at that time was young and handsome, full of spirits, but a little green. Because of the youthfulness, it fits Johnny's character well and has a good performance. In the later "Taxi Driver", his performance has been greatly developed. It is just such a performance that created this great and powerful character actor.
The music of the film is very distinctive, almost everywhere. The opening song "Be My Baby" is already familiar to us. This sentiment quickly brings the audience into the plot. There are also several songs with the taste of the Italian countryside in the film, which embodies the Italy in the United States and the countryside in the modern city. Appropriately exotic.
My score: 7.5.
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