This is an article on the msn of a netizen named luna, and it feels very exciting. But now it seems that it can only be found on baidu's snapshots, but the original source can't be found, so it is especially precious. I hereby recommend it to everyone as an exception, and I hope it will be beneficial to everyone!
About Forrest Gump
Li Gang, one of the four geniuses of the legendary school. I just found this article on someone else's computer (I read it with the consent of the person concerned). It is also a blessing that no one has seen his lectures. While movie reviews are something I've always enjoyed reading, I've read quite a few. But I can't help but feel ashamed to read this seriously, because I never knew how superficial my understanding of the film that I watched three times was. Perhaps as the teacher said in the article, it just gave me a fairy tale that lulls me to sleep.
About Forrest Gump
This class mainly analyzes the American movie Forrest Gump. The main purpose is to trigger everyone's thinking about film art through the analysis of Forrest Gump, and to provide you with some techniques and methods for interpreting film art.
It is no exaggeration to say that movies have become an art that is loved by everyone, especially young people, who not only get pleasure from movies, but also learn from movies. There used to be a saying that 50 excellent movies can change a young man's life. I agree with this statement very much. Therefore, everyone watching movies is worthy of encouragement and promotion.
We should go to the movies, but how should we watch movies. As a popular art, film is for the public, and everyone should be able to understand it. However, some excellent films generally have profound connotations. To interpret a quality film in depth, at least two conditions are required:
One is the keen perception of details and strong ability to read the text carefully (usually when watching a movie, we pay attention to what story the movie tells, and after knowing the story, we can make associations and analysis according to the plot. If the movie only tells the story If you have a story, then just tell a story, why spend two hours to read it. The plot is based on the details, and many connotations are not hidden in the plot, but in the details. But many details It’s all in a flash, whether you can perceive it, and whether you can see things that others can’t see based on these details, is an important criterion for judging a person’s viewing ability): (Segment 1: After the Vietnam War) Don’t just think it’s funny , Forrest showed his ass to the president, who is that president. Johnson, who was notorious for instigating the Vietnam War and actively supporting it. This is not a tribute to the president by Vietnam War heroes, but a mockery of the treaty and a critique of the Vietnam War. Typical films of this type are "Born on July 4th" and "The Last Drop of Blood".
The last scene: Jenny: a long white dress, a wreath on her head, and bare feet. This is a typical image of female hippies at that time, Children of flower. On one side is a hippie, an anti-war force and a critic of mainstream culture. On one side is a military uniform, full of military medals, which is a representative of war and a symbol of the mainstream consciousness of the country. At the end they hugged each other in the pool, (baptism, washing away their sins) The Independence Monument (Washington Monument) was reflected in the water, as the rally ended, and everyone cheered. The meaning of this scene is very clear: all the mainstream consciousness, non-mainstream consciousness, war, peace, all should go through self-reflection and baptism, and be reconciled under the illumination of the American spirit. Come to a bright future.
The second is the corresponding knowledge reserve (not only a large amount of film reading experience and film theory reserve, but also the reserve of knowledge of other related disciplines, literature, history, philosophy, communication, music, painting and other aspects of knowledge reserve, sometimes need to use Certain political laws, etc., are very broad and each has its own strengths). In fact, our analysis of this detail just now can already illustrate this point. Our analysis of the entire film is based on these two premises.
The analysis of a film can be deep or shallow, too shallow and boring. Our analysis today will be positioned at such a level that everyone can accept through positive thinking, that is, a peach that can be picked by jumping up, in order to mobilize everyone’s enthusiasm. Thinking, I will not talk to the end in one class, I will set up some questions to think with everyone.
1. "Forrest Gump": a successful business myth
American director Zemisis' Forrest Gump can be said to be a successful business and social myth in the 1990s. When it was released in the United States in 1994, it won a box office of 100 million a week, and finally won a miracle of 300 million domestic box office and 675 million global box office. Received 13 Oscar nominations and 6 awards. And later Titanic, The Lord of the Rings may be more pediatric than it was, but it was a miracle back then. It was the fastest post-movie video release in American history, and some non-staple food merchants in the United States also seized the opportunity to sell a special commemorative chocolate with the words "Life was like a box" printed on the package. of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get. The result was a huge fortune. Even when the movie was still being released, a book called "Forrest Gump's Quiet Quotes" appeared in the bookstore, which recorded some of Forrest Gump's classic words in the movie. Even the film's producer, director, and actors were surprised. They didn't think that such a young man with an IQ of 75, keeping an inch, wearing a checkered shirt all year round, and running with a straight spine would be so fast. Became an American idol, even an idol among idols. Let's take a look at it from an angle today, why Forrest Gump has caused such a strong reaction in the United States. My personal opinion is that Forrest Gump performed a collective hypnotism on all the American audiences who came in to watch the film.
2. Prominent theme of Forrest Gump: Reconciliation The
French thinker Foucault once said such a wonderful sentence: "What matters is not the era told by myths, but the times when myths are told". This sentence may be confusing, and I can use a more familiar phrase to repeat "all history is contemporary history". Forrest Gump tells the history of the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s, but we must not try to understand the film through the history told by Forrest Gump, but should interpret Forrest Gump according to the current state of American society at the time of the film. So what was American society like at the time?
I think watching Forrest Gump is a once-in-a-lifetime experience in a country full of pain, in an America that has not woken up from the chaos of political assassinations, government corruption, lost wars, sexual abuse of the past 30 years Behaviors that are close to religious experience... People shout "I'm very sad, I'm very sad, give me a fairy tale that lulls me to sleep!"
Forrest Gump's value lies in making people look at this society from a different perspective, so as to have a better understanding of the society. Some sensitive issues in contemporary society provide new interpretation methods and resolve the pain in people's hearts. And one of the general ideas he provided was to "reconcile"
that we can't all talk about the fact that Forrest Gump's name itself contains racial connotations. Forrest was a famous general in the South during the Civil War. When I was studying the American writer Faulkner, I often encountered such a person in his novels. After reading some materials, I learned that he was a notorious guy. There is a film "The Birth of a Nation" interspersed in the middle. I watched a film about the history of world film on CCTV when I was in elementary school. Knowing it, aside from its technological breakthrough, this is the reputation in film history. One of the stiniest movies ever. Forrest Gump is not a racist, and through its inherent idiot advantage, he said that they put sheets on their bodies, and later said that animals also put sheets on people. Chinese people who are accustomed to pointing and scolding Huai can see at a glance that this is What means. So, the irony of racism here is pretty obvious.
Of course, the most obvious sign of racial reconciliation is the friendship between Gan and Bubba. Bubba is a black man who has a deep impression on us. In the film, there is such a very interesting dialogue. Blacks (why did Lieutenant Dan joke about his lips, thick lips are the main physiological characteristic of blacks in East Africa, East Africa is an important source of slaves) on one side is white (white man named Forest), are they twins? No, the twins are blood relatives, they have no blood relatives, no racial blood relatives, so why can they think in one place and work hard in one place. For example, in that scene where the two are huddled together in a rainstorm, Babu says we're brothers.
However, the deepest meaning of the relationship between Gan and Bubba is still reflected in the fact that after Bubba's death, Gan inherited his will to do the shrimp fishing business, and therefore made a fortune according to the shrimping business that Bubba told him. The name of this shrimp fishing company is Bubba-Gan Company, and after making a fortune, gave the Bubba family half of the wealth. (Bubba's mother fainted after she got the money again) Fragment comparison (After getting rich, Bubba's mother sat and served shrimp to her by a white maid, while their family had served shrimp to white people for generations). Therefore, Gan's success can be seen as the fulfillment of Babu's last wish. In other words, the subtext is that if Babu hadn't died, he would have succeeded. Thus, the contrast is particularly clear, the generational conflict between whites and blacks has been replaced, from the issue of race to the issue of wealth. Here, the author advocates the theme that a person, whether white or black, can break through the shackles of race and class and become a successful person as long as he has his own ideals and is willing to struggle unremittingly. So blacks and whites, and all of them, were commanded under one banner: the American Dream. Coincidentally, we think about how Gan changed from a handicapped child to a running prodigy. In that clip, Jenny shouted several times: RUN, FOREST, under this call, he broke free from the shackles , began to run fast, and it was under this cry that he entered the university, no matter how well he studied in the university, if he did not enter the university, he could not be a soldier, and he could not go to Vietnam, and there would be no Forrest Gump later. run. Run Rabbit Run. Updike's famous novel, you can say that he approves of the American dream, you can also say that he is satirizing the American dream, but you can never deny that he is a writer who is very good at writing the American dream. Is all this just a coincidence.
There are many more such reconciliations. When we talked about paying attention to details, we took the example of Gan and Zhen in the pool, which is also a kind of reconciliation.
3. The narrative strategy of Forrest Gump: Lies
The film tries to use various methods to describe various reconciliations. Its original intention is to dilute social conflicts and give Americans a way to resolve the trauma caused by various fierce social conflicts in their hearts. I talked about so many solutions just now, is the social situation really like this? Absolutely not, because just two years before the film, in 1992, a big riot broke out in Los Angeles. A black youth was beaten to death by four white police officers for speeding. Someone filmed the scene with a camera. However, in the face of this irrefutable evidence, the four white police officers were acquitted. Of course, we also have to admire the sophistry of the shameless but clever lawyer, which even becomes a classic example that deconstructionists often talk about. The entire United States was in an uproar. At first, only blacks and some white intellectuals took to the streets to march. Later, the situation got out of control and led to a riot. Marines were dispatched to quell it. A lot of people were arrested, of course, mostly black people, and it was impossible to get on a bus in Los Angeles because they were all incarcerated. Therefore, what Forrest Gump told was definitely not the truth but a lie. Then, how did Forrest Gump tell a lie that made everyone even willing to forget the truth.
(1) Features of the narrative subject What is the
biggest feature of Forrest Gump? idiot. Why let idiots tell us this story. Idiots are a common subject, and smart writers like to use them. The representative in literature is "The Sound and the Fury", and the representative in the film is "Forrest Gump"
1. Avoid being honest with yourself. I'm an idiot who I'm afraid of.
2. Reality: He is pure in his heart, has no value judgment position, and adopts an absolutely real attitude. So here, Forrest Gump reveals its true colors, it tells us that it is true, in fact he is telling lies, summed up with the title of an American film starring Arlo, that is "True Lies" ".
Let's see what real lies this idiot told us.
(2) Structural blank
"structural blank": not only to discover what the work says, but also to dig out what the work does not say, but is the premise of what has been said. Because these unspoken things are more indicative of the author's attitude than what is said. For example there is this sentence:
I went into the house and said to the man: you go out, you and him go out. How many people are there please. The Chinese writer Ma Yuan calls this "experience omission". That is to say, everyone's experience as a convention is self-explanatory, and it is omitted when there is no need to say it.
However, the omission itself is problematic. Because what you omit and what you do not omit indicates an attitude in itself. For history, when you deal with historical events, you are dealing with history with a subjective attitude. This is especially evident in the movie. A prominent feature of the film is that it writes a series of assassinations, and most of them are assassinations related to the president, some successful and some unsuccessful. But there are only two assassinations missing, that is, the assassination of Martin Luther King (I HAVE A DREAM) and Malcolm (not only the leader of blacks, but also the spiritual icon of all disadvantaged groups). (On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a flying bullet on the hotel balcony. On February 21, 1965, three gunmen rushed to Malcolm X's podium , shot him 15 times at close range.) The United States has made a biographical film about Malcolm, who is the star? Denzel Washington. That is the role of the black football coach named Boone in REMEMBER THE TITAN.
The only time they appear in the film is at the Black Panther Party headquarters. Forrest Gump fights with the people for Jenny there. Their photos are like a glimpse, they are mentioned, but they are not mentioned, and people who don't know can't see it at all. Moreover, their photos were placed at the headquarters of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party was a radical black civil rights organization at the time. I do not deny that they had some violent tendencies, but their purpose was very simple. As the black man said. However, in the film, the Black Panther Party we saw was indeed rude in behavior, rude in language, and the most disgusting thing happened. A man beat a woman, and Forrest Gump staged a traditional story of a hero saving beauty, which catered to It caters to the psychology of the mainstream white society, and also caters to the psychology of some audiences who do not know the truth, and logically links violence with the Black Panther Party. As a result, the black civil rights movement, a history that had to be written in American history, was ignored and forgotten, or simply erased. Even if it was mentioned, it was associated with violence. . For the white upper class who are familiar with American history, they don't want to see it, and they didn't see it this time, which makes them very happy. For those unfamiliar with American history who mistook the film for American history, the film's conspiracy succeeded. Here, the most uncomfortable thing for me is that he deliberately makes a photo appear three times. Che Guevara. The famous Latin American revolutionary, the icon of suffering peoples all over the world, on many occasions his photo of him wearing a combat uniform with a beard, became a spiritual icon for many who fought to get rid of their misery. The great leader of the Cuban Revolution was later captured and shot for asthma. The West dubbed him "Red Robin Hood", "Don Quixote of Communism" and other titles, showing a feeling of dislike, but admiration. Maradona's idol, with his image pierced on his body. However, here, Guevara has also become synonymous with violence.
But here, I also have to admire the cleverness of the screenwriter and director. It's not that he didn't mention it, but he mentioned it. You can't criticize him for ignoring history, but he made fun of history. And, as I said above, I'm an idiot who I'm afraid of, you are more serious with an idiot, and you've become an idiot. Smart people do things that make it hard for you to spot mistakes.
(3) Subtly introduce the context of the times at that time
The sentence of Fu mentioned earlier will be repeated now, because this sentence is particularly helpful for our analysis below. Jen and Forrest Gump's relationship. In 1992, in the U.S. presidential election, Clinton and Mr. Bush competed. Republicans Booth and Quayle have made rebuilding American ethics their campaign trump card. They pointed out that a series of social problems in American society, such as drug addiction, prostitution, violence, etc., are largely due to the feminist movement popular in American society before and a series of problems such as sexual liberation and single-parent families raised accordingly. Center for the family and social system. Although the election failed, the moral system they advocated was established, and Clinton followed this path to reshape American morality. It's hard to understand Gan and Jenny's relationship without looking at it from this perspective.
If we carefully sort out the life course of Forrest Gump, we will find that he has actually walked a path that represents the ideal life of mainstream American society: a sports star in his college days—a brave soldier (a Congressional Medal recipient)—a self-made entrepreneur ( Entrepreneurial determination and courage) - a wealthy businessman (wealth). But Jane embodies a completely different path. She has been a rebel since childhood and a practitioner of women's emancipatory liberation. The scene of Xianglin is very typical. Jane is naked to face Gan, but she is rejected. This is a direct conflict between traditional concepts and sexual liberation concepts. However, she is indeed powerless to create her own destiny. She is a very admirable image, but her determination and courage have pushed herself to ruin time and time again.
However, Gan appeared many times and saved Jane many times, but Jane left him again. Only in the end Forrest Gump accepted her regardless of his past suspicions. Then, the wedding scene actually revealed some information, pay attention to Jenny's decoration. (Olive branches and typical imitation Athenian costumes point directly to Athens, and the patron saint of Athens is Athena. Athena is characterized by the fact that she was drilled out of her father's brain and was born by her father. The way the girl was born reflects the Greek The transition from a feminist to a male-dominated society). Thus, Jenny and Gan's marriage ended up being a redemptive ritual, symbolizing the return of the traditional patriarchal family and society.
It can be said that all this is in line with the people's will and the psychological expectations of the public. This also reflects the nature of Forrest Gump as a commercial film. Commercial films are not to guide people to pursue a more correct thing, but to show Give the people what they like to see. For example, in the popularity of Korean dramas, the male protagonist is the key. Handsome, rich, and dedicated to his lover. What a good object, with him, you will not have to worry about it for a lifetime, and you will be happy for a lifetime. In fact, it is not good for women, especially young women.
4. Other details (thinking questions):
What is the meaning of the flying feathers in the prologue of the film?
Why did Forrest Gump face the anti-war masses without making any noise in the film?
There is a clip of Forrest Gump running, what is the meaning.
How did Jenny end up dying? Why let Jenny die and form a single-parent family with only a father? Is this single-parent family related to the single-parent family of Forrest Gump's mother when the film appeared? Is this related to a series of American father-son single-parent family films represented by "The Kramers" and "Sleepless in Seattle"? What's the connection?
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