This is a biographical film, covering a large time span, dating back to the US "Manhattan Project" (research on the atomic bomb) in the 1940s, and more recently to the present day. Yes, the impact of this event is still in on going.
What kind of movie is "Black Water"?
After watching it, Poke was so shocked that it was indescribable. Leaving aside any film art, simply feeling what it recorded was long enough to be uncomfortable.
Let me briefly introduce the film and its director. The film was directed by Todd Hines and was released at the end of 2019. Most of the director's works are based on real events and social issues.
Heroin
Homosexual
AIDS…
Through his film, everyone began to pay attention to these things. The irony of drugs in the film, the reaction to the status quo of discrimination against homosexual groups, and the sympathy of AIDS for the isolation of AIDS patients, the impact on society is that What can't be ignored is also of extraordinary significance.
Let’s start with the birth of PFOA (aka C-8)
PFOA was born during the Manhattan Project in the United States. It is a material with a very strong molecular structure and strong thermal and chemical stability. It is used as a waterproof coating for military equipment such as tanks and airplanes.
During the Manhattan Project, DuPont, which cooperated with the government, had the right to share all the technologies during the project. After the war, many of the technologies invented during the war could be commercialized for civilian use, and DuPont, like other companies, seized it. Taking advantage of this business opportunity, PFOA was used as a raw material to develop the now-familiar "Teflon", which is the non-stick coating on the pan.
However, the advent of new inventions always requires safety issues. "Teflon" itself has no problem, it is very stable and very safe, and the raw material PFOA of "Teflon" is indeed a carcinogen that is harmful to the human body. This is an early point for DuPont. It was known when this product was launched in the 1950s, but driven by high profits and expensive disposal costs, DuPont chose to conceal this matter from everyone, and filled countless PFOA wastes without treatment. Buried.
From less to more
Accumulate
Such a stable chemical waste has accumulated thousands of millions of tons in the land. Finally, the unlucky farmer near the landfill suffers. At first, the character of the cow became manic and died one after another. Then the body's functions began to decline gradually due to the impact of water pollution, until he died of cancer.
These pollutants affect far more than just this small farm. The drinking water sources in surrounding towns and cities are full of PFOA levels that are several times higher than the safety standard. The government has not issued such safety standards. Even more than ninety-nine percent of humans living on the earth have this substance. It is not only stable, but also extremely carcinogenic...
"Is it DuPont's negligence?"
"It's not!"
As early as the last century when the products were developed and put on the market, DuPont had done various experiments and various tests. Among them, the inhumane parts were countless. The experimental mice died, the employees on the PFOA production line became ill, and women. We are infertile, and the rate of neonatal deformities has risen sharply. These DuPont companies know about it and have known it for decades, but their approach is to remove those women who work in positions related to PFOA and replace them with Men, show care to those employees who have been victimized, but did not tell them that the culprit is the PFOA who gets along with them day and night.
What is even more outrageous is that DuPont provided the subjects with PFOA-containing cigarettes for smoking every day without their knowledge. As a result, almost everyone became seriously ill. DuPont pretended to give care. .
Under the temptation of high profits and a vast market, the intervention of capital penetrated every land in the United States at that time. When DuPont was mentioned, the masses would only think that they were a conscientious enterprise, providing convenience to everyone, hiding in a beautiful appearance. What are the ugly facts? Use capital to intervene in the government, intervene in standards, all over the world, even the whole world. As far as the mainland is concerned, "DuPont China Group Co., Ltd." was registered and established in Shenzhen in 1988, which seemed to extend the hand of capital to the land of other countries, bringing PFOA to the east for direct emissions.
Do you think:
"Is it just distant history?"
"Just staying in the last century?"
If there were no lawyers who stood up for justice, we might have many times the PFOA content in our bodies today, and the number of cancer patients will rise sharply in more than ten years, and various inexplicable illnesses will also interfere with our health.
But even so, the pollution of PFOA has continued from the 1950s to the present, and it was really taken seriously when the inspection team’s seven-year survey results were announced in 2012. Do you think it will be possible in 2013 or 2014? Will relevant regulations be issued to restrict PFOA production and DuPont? The reality is that PFOA was not classified as a category 2B carcinogen until 2017, and the government issued official standards and restrictions. Prior to this, DuPont drafted the standards.
What does 17 years mean? This means that the production and emissions of PFOA before 17 years were not under official control, and the PFOA remaining in history for many years after 17 years is difficult to effectively deal with.
Poke-Poke is post-90s, there is a high probability of PFOA in the natural body, but it can be conceivable for the post-00s, 10s, and even the 20s born this year.
Talking about the artistic part of the film, this kind of film adapted from real events, the entanglement between the real event and the addition of artificial art is bound to exist, which directly affects the quality of the film and the degree of authenticity of the event.
Too much, things can’t be explained clearly
Less, more like a pseudo documentary
The tomb of the farmer’s 109 cows appeared in the screen. After the red-eyed and angry cow was shot with a shotgun, the film’s tempo changed for the first time, and the audience began to recall the first few mistakes. Entering private territory to play in the water, associated with the film's title "Black Water", can not help but feel chills on the back of his neck.
The rhythm of a movie is very important. It can be expressed through diversified methods. The light and shade of the picture changes, and the background music style changes. Of course, these are not so eye-catching tricks, and they are also common things in most movies. What is more important is to cut into the right conflict at the right time, and to establish a flesh-and-blood character in the viewer's mind after a certain portrayal of the character, style, etc.
The impression a person gives depends on the things you experience with him, from which you build a perception of him in your mind. In film and television works, the reason why we are connected with the characters in the lens, Psychological changes will occur because of his good or bad direction in the camera, because what he did is approved or disapproved by you, such as someone who abused his pet in the street, such that if a person is suddenly hit by a car accident, Naturally, there is almost no sympathy for him in the viewers' hearts, and even most people will feel the "pleasure" that he deserves.
Why do we think that the lawyer in the film is a good man, that he will stick to the PFOA incident, and admire him from the bottom of our hearts? It is precisely related to the events that affected him in the film, which subtly deepen the psychological connection between the viewer and the lawyer in the film. Such a connection is not so easy to establish, especially in biopics adapted from real events. There is no choice to add too many artificial lens methods, but an objective, calm, or even restrained lens to tell the story. The whole film even has a trace of depression, giving people a kind of perilous but non-existent. A sense of control of fleeing.
There are no violent conflicts and action scenes, and even the angry dialogue scenes are so restrained. The whole film is only a vent of anger by the lawyer; without the rich and varied sports scenes and the difficult editing of those dazzling skills, the director just puts it together. The camera position uses more fixed camera positions, slow rocking, and slow-paced methods such as mirroring. This is also the way to make the audience feel less of being led by the nose by the director, and establish their own The cognition and standpoint of the film's story, the feeling of thinking by oneself, and finally, under the guidance of the subtle lens language, they are gathered in a big frame, which resonates, has an impact, and also attracts social attention.
In the seven years of waiting for the test team to report the results in the film, the lawyer has put too much energy into the case, which has led to the outbreak of conflicts within the family, and the cases that have not been completed for a long time have also caused him to be frequently reduced in salary. Until one-third of the original, under the multiple blows of stress and anxiety and the economic crisis, the lawyer's intermittent cerebral insufficiency symptoms appeared, and he fainted and was forced to be hospitalized.
Such a painful seven years did not take up too much film time in the movie, but it was heartbreaking every second, and a tragic and helpless sense of introspection was quietly in the viewers’ hearts through just a few minutes. Enlarging, the same as the lawyer in the film was released at the moment when the report results came out, and DuPont’s repentance and refusal to pay compensation made things worse again. The "big ups and downs" in just a few minutes made things worse. The justice lawyers that we established in our early movie watching rose to "climax", as if they were caught by the trend and reversal of the plot. This is the role of the large character portray in the front. When we feel the real events, the full image of the characters built in our hearts becomes vivid and flesh-and-blood. It is precisely because of this that the details of the lawyer's character arc appear smooth, without any lagging or disharmony.
The value of the film's revelation event is much higher than its own artistic value as a film, and this article only briefly introduces it.
So here, Poke hopes that interested friends can learn about the details of the incident after watching the movie.
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ID: Hu Poke Movie
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