It's been more than ten years since I watched a movie like this. I thought that Westerns, police and bandit movies, and gunfight movies were like this. It's nothing more than the decline of morality and righteousness in the rivers and lakes. It's nothing more than the emergence of heroes to turn the tide. Wang Jing Wu Yusen's set, the best is "Across the World" and "Blood", it is nothing more than Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Schwarzenegger, and can't surpass Chow Yun-fat, Clint Eastwood, tired of fighting and killing The audience, there is nothing new to speak of, and it is difficult to raise any interest - at this time, "No Country for Old Men" turned out, bringing an incredible plot, bringing a startling trembling step by step, bringing The new-look shock brought endless thoughts.
Why does this seemingly grim film exude a bewilderingly intoxicating aura? After watching it over and over again, I still can't tell, I can only intuitively feel that it is different from all the action movies I have seen before.
The first and most intuitive feeling is the difference in performance. Ordinary action movies always exaggerate the sound effects of bullets, but "No Country For Old Men" is a cold and objective documentary style.
At the beginning, when Cowboy Moss discovered the corpses after a fight in the desert, the camera swept across the many corpses in a hurry. These corpses were lifelike, quiet and real, like a still life. Moss's expression is neither pitiful nor surprised. The camera sweeps one by one, calmly presenting the reality of death, neither angry nor sensational, only the lingering buzzing of flies on the clean screen, as if telling people to ignore it. What to die for, this is the truth of death.
It also shows that when the killer Qi Gu strangled the police officer to escape with handcuffs, that group of shots followed the two of them fighting motionlessly. Showing a process of death quietly and showing a kind of violence, the audience has to face it hard: this is violence, and calmness and cruelty are its essence.
Action movies are always intense, and No Country For Old Men is no exception, and it's a hundred times better. From the first minute of the film, it's so gripping that it's an inaccurate word to describe it, it's not just gripping, it's even gripping, making it breathless. Especially in the description of the chasing contest between Moss and Zigu, the film does not use unpredictable light and shadow transitions and exaggerated sound effects to create tension like ordinary action films. The camera simply follows the chased Moss. , showing what he saw and heard, showing his agile coping, showing his action reactions, just like this, the audience will feel like they are there, feel the tension and pressure of Moss, feel the unpredictable potential danger, feel the next The uncertainty that the minute is about to explode, so the tension is transferred from the movie to the audience itself, making people watch with bated breath and heart beating like a drum.
Films are always presented quietly, narrating by presentations, and presentations always have many uncertainties, and behind the presentations are many hidden stories, which are as rich and uncertain as reality, so the film shows objectivity and infinite possibilities everywhere. Explorable, speculative, this is the way a master movie is expressed.
The second difference in the film is the fine detail. General action movies are always rough and bold, but "No Country for Old Men" is full of details, and every detail has content.
For example that one detail about coins. When the killer Qigu couldn't judge whether to kill or not, he decided by guessing coins. A dialogue scene between him and the owner of the gas station was so tense that people almost suffocated. When the old police officer went to his hotel alone after Moss was killed, the killer was obviously lurking inside, and the police officer seemed to smell danger. When he returned to the living room after searching one by one with a gun, there was a coin on the carpet . This explains why the killer didn't kill the police officer, he has tossed a coin to fate to decide the life and death of the police officer.
The killer had a detail when he killed the private detective: He avoided the blood that flowed and spread. This is a clean-obsessed killer. When he broke into the bathroom at the motel to kill, he pulled the shower curtain to block it before pulling the trigger. He was afraid that blood would splatter on himself. So, in the end, when people questioned whether he killed Moss' wife, there was no doubt that he did, although the film didn't explain it, but when he walked out of Moss's house, the telephoto explained a detail, he bent over to check the soles of his shoes --He was checking the soles for blood, so he must have killed the woman.
And the details about the screw, where did Moss end up hiding the money? The killer has apparently unscrewed the screw again, but where is the money and who gets it in the end? It's still a mystery to me, and I still don't know it, but looking at these delicate details, experiencing the fun of guessing, and chewing on the deep meaning of each shot has made me overwhelmed with joy.
The third difference in the film is reflected in the narrative. Action movies always tell the story in their entirety, but No Country For Old Men doesn't.
The film originally told the story of the cowboy, the killer and the police officer fighting wits and courage with relish. How the hell did he die? who killed him? Whose hands does the money go to? These are all mysteries, which were not explained until the end of the film.
I think this kind of narrative is precisely to reflect the theme of the film - old and nowhere to go.
The story is not over yet, but the director changed the topic with a sudden stop, making the audience jump out of the plot and pay attention to the connotation of the film. What is the film going to show? After getting a windfall from a cowboy and being chased by a killer, the film has been narrating their chasing struggle, and the camera lens reflects the impermanence of violence, the unpredictability of violence, and the omnipresence of violence. In such a violent environment, whether it is an unusually resourceful cowboy or a small ordinary person, the inevitable result is an inexplicable violent death.
The narrative of the next movie is very strange. The killer suffered a flying car accident. This is completely unexpected and unexpected. Such a powerful and indomitable killer suddenly suffered a disaster and became a vulnerable group. This shows the impermanence of violence. Even a powerful killer can't protect himself, let alone others?
And a previous police officer's sigh, in the face of more and more violent incidents, he is helpless and helpless. This is an increasingly incomprehensible world. People no longer trust each other. Violence is the easiest and most effective solution to everything. means, it's a world of "nowhere for the old."
So far, the three lines, the death of the cowboy, the wound of the killer, and the sigh of the police officer, all boil down to the impermanence and complexity of violence, and to the old and nowhere to go, making this theme directly appealing to the hearts of the people. Such narration is concise and clear, neither self-righteous and omniscient nor incessantly pointing fingers, showing a shrewd and refined style.
The fourth difference lies in the prominence of human nature in the film. General shootout films always show exaggerated confrontation between good and evil, but "No Country for Old Men" portrays human nature three-dimensionally with meticulous brushstrokes.
When the police officer sat on the sofa where the killer used to sit, looking at the deformed figure reflected on the TV screen, holding the water glass that the killer once held, he was thinking, the killer is sitting here, looking at this, holding this, he What will you think? -- This is a kind of scrutiny and pondering of human nature. However, the police officer can't think of what the killer thinks anyway, because the killer has his own principles. He poisons all creatures with the principle of solving the problem in the simplest way. He has no sympathy or compassion. Medicine kills, and even kills the boss for the sake of the boss, but he has exceptions. When he encounters a fierce old lady who insists on his principles, he easily lets it go. Obviously, he appreciates this type of people who stick to their principles.
As for the cowboy, in order to save people, he returned to the scene of the murder and caused himself to be killed, which is also a manifestation of human kindness. However, he was greedy for ill-gotten wealth, and he took risks, hoping to fly far away, which also showed that he was not bound by morality.
There are two scenes in the film about the cowboy and the killer being helped by the child. After the cowboy bought the child's clothes with large sums of money, the child pursued the money for the beer. Facing the child's greed, the cowboy stared at him; The children's clothes were bought with large bills, and the two children immediately quarreled over how to divide the money, which seems to imply that the windfall induces the latent greed of human nature, and this greed has been reflected in the children, how can the world not What about violence?
Facing this completely different world of violence, the old police officer announced his retirement and escaped passively; the killer, in his own way, slaughtered all those who distrusted him, which can be said to be a kind of conquest; the cowboy, in vain, trying to get money and fly away, maybe Actively escaping, however, ends up being powerless for both of them.
What is the difference between the world in the movie and the real world in which we live?
After watching "No Country For Old Men", I felt stunned for a while while it looked good. This astonishment, in my mind, was at first as small as a seed, but it could not be ignored. Curiosity made it grow, inquiry made it more inflated, and then it spread into a vast pale and chaotic daze, which covered the sky and the sun. , so that people can't see the five fingers, let alone see the road ahead. Suddenly one day, a loud noise exploded in my heart. The loud noise seemed to be silent again. The huge silent bomb exploded in my heart, torn apart, and debris was everywhere, and the world suddenly showed its true hideous face. I looked at the world with sadness and helplessness, then looked down at the broken void in my heart, and felt a deep, deep sadness.
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