Movie · One sentence
The Southern Gothic Juvenile version of "Old Nowhere", there is no faith here, here is the place where God gave up, only the most primitive human nature, when you grow up, you will understand that sometimes solving problems only requires a fist and a pistol.
Movie · Highlights
This film is adapted from the work of the same name by the American novelist Donald Ray Pollock . The film’s actors gathered Tom Holland , the actor of Spider-Man , Robert Pattinson , the new Batman , Sebastian Stein , the Winter Soldier , and Bill Si , the clown actor in The Return of the Clown. Casgard , as well as Jason Clark , Hayley Bennett , Lily Gio , Mia Wachtwoska and a group of powerful actors, can be described as a luxurious lineup and stun the appetite of the audience.
The story of the film takes place in Lockenstiver, a poor and closed valley town in the remote southern Ohio of the United States. Time spanned from the end of World War II to the Vietnam War. The film’s narrative structure adopts a non-linear narrative, which can be seen as the " Southern Gothic " version of "Old Nowhere", intertwining the tragic stories of several families that have occurred in decades, while seemingly unrelated characters are actually interconnected. Influence, perhaps one look, one passing by one shoulder, one encounter on the road changes the fate of everyone, fully embodies the fatalism that the film wants to express, and the fragility and unpredictability of life.
Just like the name of the movie "The Land Abandoned by God" , this is an anti-religious, satirical and excessive worship, full of absurdity, inconsistency, and violence against violence.
The film is roughly divided into four stories:
The first story: Willard , who returned from the battlefield , fell in love with the waitress Charlotte at first sight in the restaurant . The two soon got married and had children. Willard also erected a wooden cross in the backyard and prayed every day. As he witnessed his comrades being skinned and hung on the cross on the battlefield, Willard has since become afraid of the cross, which symbolizes faith and God. Perhaps it was because of love and family. With his son Alvin , he slowly recovered his dependence on God and began to pray with his son before the cross every day. But the good times didn't last long. His wife Charlotte had cancer and time was running out. Willard dragged his son Alvin to pray before the cross, expecting a miracle to happen. He was crazy and even borrowed from the "sacrifice" in the Bible. The way, he killed his son’s pet dog and dedicated it to God, but it was counterproductive. His wife Charlotte died of illness. Willard, who could not accept the reality, died at the cross that night, leaving only his son Alvin alone.
It is not difficult to see that from the first story, the author began to question the existence of God, the deceptive nature of religion, satirize excessive beliefs, and blind worship to the destruction of people, leading to loss of reason and the obliteration of human nature.
The second story: When Willard just returned from the battlefield, he was arranged by his mother to meet with a woman named Helen in the church . His mother wanted to bring the two together, but Helen fell in love with the new sermon of the church by accident. Teacher Roy , Roy is a crazy believer, and his preaching method is extremely absurd. After Helen and Roy got married, they gave birth to a baby girl, Lenora .
Soon, Roy encountered a crisis of faith, became more and more mad, locked himself up and talked to God all day long, Helen could not do anything about him. One day, Roy, who claimed to have heard God again, offered to take Helen for a walk in the forest, and Helen readily agreed. When passing by Willard’s mother’s house, perhaps Helen noticed the weirdness of her husband Roy, perhaps it was God’s will. She gave her daughter Lenora to Willard’s mother to take care of her. She and her husband Roy, Roy’s The younger brother drove into the remote forest. Sure enough, this is not an ordinary walking date. Helen was cut by Roy's throat instantly, and Roy's original intention was not to really kill his wife. He wanted to prove the existence of God. He knelt on the ground, raised his hands to the sky and howled. Looking forward to the coming of God and the occurrence of miracles, his wife Helen will be brought back to life. But where there is a God, there is no miracle. In this place where God has given up, there is only cruel reality. Helen has died long ago, and his blood is full of blood.
After recovering, Roy and his younger brother fled in a hurry, and Roy left his younger brother in the middle of the journey and took a ride away alone. Although there is no god’s favor, they can’t escape the envelope of evil. The couple Roy got in the car is actually a perverted murderer. His wife Sandy is responsible for seducing the rider, and her husband Carl is responsible for manually killing the rider. Take pictures of the victim before his death. As expected, Roy died under the gun of the male and female serial killers.
You can still see the author's doubts about religion, irony, and understanding of the impermanence of life, the unpredictable things in the world, and the rewards of good and evil.
The third story: Willard's mother has been raising the orphan Lenora , and grandson Alvin also returns to live with everyone. Alvin and Lenora grew up gradually. The two who had the same tragic experience cherished each other and became brothers and sisters of different surnames. Alvin regarded Lenora as the person who cared most about her relatives and loved her the most, and did not want her to suffer. Any harm. When he was a child, he failed to protect his pet dog. When he grew up, he had to take extra care of his sister. Not only did he accompany his sister Lenora to the cemetery every day to pay homage to his mother Helen, but also in the way his father Willard had taught him, he severely taught the little hooligans who bullied Lenora. In Alvin’s heart, God is the root. It does not exist. If you want to survive in this barbarous land, you can only use violence to control violence. Your kindness and innocence are the weapons that others use to hurt you.
The young pastor Preston Tijadin , who was newly appointed in the town , was handsome, but he was actually a hypocrite. He used his identity as a pastor to come in contact with beautiful women for the purpose of deceiving sex . It is a pity that Lenora fell into his trap and not only lost his body, but also became pregnant with a child. When Lenora asked for help from the priest, Tigadine denied it, and let Lenora abort her baby, otherwise the whole town would humiliate her, curse her for losing her chastity, and her grandmother would be ashamed. Unbearable Lenora chose to hang himself, but at the last moment she figured it out. Her family would definitely accept her and understand her behavior. Only then could Pastor Tigading be scolded, just when she was about to loosen her tie. When the rope around the neck suddenly slipped, the iron bucket that was placed on the ground to play a fixed role overturned, and Lenora was hanged alive on the beam of the house.
Everyone, including Alvin, thought that Lenora had committed suicide by hanging himself. On the day of Lenora’s burial, the priest Tigadin did not show up because, in the eyes of the church, those who committed suicide were not worthy of prayer. A local police officer told Alvin that the forensic doctor discovered that Lenora was pregnant. Before Lenora was alive, in addition to going to school every day, he went to the backyard of the church to visit his mother Helen, who was buried there. Alvin guessed that the pastor Tijadin was inseparable from his sister’s death. The young and beautiful woman had an affair. Presumably Lenora was deceived by him. Alvin walked into the church, exposed Tigadine's ugly behavior face to face, and ended his life with the pistol left by his father Willard.
In this passage, the author is no longer just satirizing religion, but gradually "blackening" it. It should be a priest who enlightens people to be good, but a wolf in sheep's clothing. The priest is the shepherd of God and guards. With a pure and meek lamb, Tijadin regards the lamb as the stunner in the palm of his hand. And Alvin who killed him was the hunter with the pistol.
The fourth story: Alvin, who killed the priest, chooses to escape. On the way, he ran into Carl and Sandy, the perverted couple who killed Lenora's father Roy. The perverted couple regarded Alvin as their next target, but Alvin, who was already alert, pulled the trigger before Carl started and killed Carl. Sandy quickly responded, but the bullet in the pistol was empty. The real bullet was taken. Not believing that her husband Carl secretly tuned in, Alvin did not show mercy and shot Sandy.
Local police officer Li rushed to the scene of the crime. Li is Sandy’s brother. Although he and his sister’s family are not in harmony, even his sister and brother-in-law have done a lot of shameful behavior behind him, but after all they are relatives. Li is determined to avenge his sister. , Catch the murderer. On the other hand, in order to run for police chief, Constable Li sneaked into his sister Sandy’s house and burned all evidence of Sandy and Carl's crimes (photographs of the murder scene taken by Carl) to avoid letting outsiders know the candidate for police chief. , There was a serial murderer in the family, which led to the defeat of the election.
After all the hardships, Alvin returned to his hometown, but the old house that used to live with his parents has been demolished, leaving only the mottled wooden cross that Alvin did not dare to look directly at. Alvin dug out the bones of his pet dog under the cross and buried it again. Constable Li, who got the information, came to Alvin’s house and wanted to lure Alvin to his life. The two sides started a gun battle in the dense green forest. Alvin, who should have died under Li’s gun, survived miraculously. , Li's bullet missed, but he was hit by Alvin and fell to the ground dying.
Perhaps this place that was abandoned by God, at this moment, finally protected Alvin's life, and Alvin, who had been questioning his faith, also got the favor of God and survived.
At the end of the film, Alvin buried the pistol with the bones of his pet dog. He no longer needs the protection of his father. No matter whether he is a father or a god, he cannot rely on him. He has only himself and only his own fists.
Alvin took a ride again, and the driver resembled Jesus, the Son of God. There was news on the car radio that the United States would continue to increase its troops to Vietnam. Alvin was hesitant. Whether he was good at fighting or not was his only way out, but he did not want to repeat his father’s old path. At this moment, he was illuminated by the sunset. He just wants to sleep peacefully... Escape this place abandoned by God in his dream...
"The Abandoned Land" is a film full of coincidences, absurdity, fatalism, symbolism, anti-religion, and causal cycles. Some things are unclear and can only be experienced slowly, just like life.
At the beginning of the story, a coincidence was designed. Willard, who returned from the battlefield, walked into a restaurant. At this time, there was only one seat left in front of the bar. Carl, who was also a customer, gave the seat to Willard, and Willard was doomed. De meets Charlotte, the waiter, and Karl accidentally meets another waiter, Sandy.
Just a decision to give up their seats resulted in the different destinies of several families, including good, evil, love, sin, affection, righteousness, prayer, cursing, old men who surrendered to God, and unwillingness. For the surviving young man, everything is God’s will, and everything is the best arrangement.
Movie · Slot
The director may be too eager to reproduce the original novel. Although it shows a lot of interesting details, the structure is somewhat rigid, falling into an inherent routine, too modular, and the overall rhythm is slightly slow and stable. Perhaps the last story: Alvin, who killed the pastor, is caught in the car of the perverted couple Carl and Sandy, to make the main story. When Constable Lee traces Alvin’s whereabouts, the first, second, and third paragraphs are shown to form "Russia". The story structure of the matryoshka, of course, is only a possibility. After all, where the gods have given up, how can there be a single conclusion.
The second point is that this kind of anti-religious theme film is not very pleasing in nature. In atheist countries, it is difficult for the audience to appreciate the spiritual impact of that kind of atheism.
Easter eggs
The original author Donald Ray Pollock , born in 1954, grew up in a small town called Knocken Steiff in Southern Ohio, dropped out of high school at the age of 17, went to work in a meat factory, and then went to a paper mill He has worked for 32 years. He has worked as a hard worker and a truck driver. At the age of 50, he was admitted to the English Literature Class of Ohio State University and began his writing career. Immediately published his first novel-a collection of short stories "Knocken Steiver", and published his first novel "The Land of God Abandoned" in 2011.
View more about The Devil All the Time reviews
