What is your impression of killer movies?
Is it like Rinio in "The Matrix", playing with sticks and hiding bullets?
Or like Tom, who is omnipotent in "Mission Impossible"?
Although the killer I want to talk about today is not as omnipotent as in fantasy films, it is still a legendary existence .
He's William Mooney , from the 1992 American Western --
"Unforgivable"
But in fact, if you look at this movie as a completely cool killer movie, you really underestimate it.
Putting two moving pictures with one head and one tail is actually too lazy to type the specific words. (￣▽￣)~*
This is the first shot from the beginning .
This is the last shot at the end of the whole film .
It's either a prelude or a sequel to the story .
There are actually quite a few movies with subtitled interpretations like this, the most famous being the cool scrolling subtitles at the beginning of "Star Wars" .
But is this content and background very similar to the Scottish folk song "Scarborough Fair"?
“are you going to scarborough fair
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Cilantro, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
remember me to one who lives there
please give him my regards
he was once a true love of mine
He was my love."
One after another dyes the whole film with a romantic and beautiful color.
But this color is only a legend . Director Clint Eastwood tactfully separates the legend from the text , creating an indescribable sense of psychedelicity .
At the same time, it is like putting a photo in a frame, inlaying the "real killer" that the whole movie wants to tell the most in an illusory legend .
The film tells the so-called truth in different dimensions from the perspectives of different people , a bit like Emperor Kurosawa's "Rashomon" .
First look at the first dimension:
William Mooney (positive dimension)
Old William was a ruthless killer, just like the film's synopsis said, once a wicked, alcoholic villain .
But it was only once, after he met his wife , he began to stop drinking and wash his hands with his wife and a pair of children as a farmer in a remote part of the south .
However, the good times did not last long. William's wife died of smallpox , and William raised a pair of children alone.
This is William's state at the beginning of the film.
Let's break down his character settings at this time:
Ordinary farmers, not young (gray hair), drive sick pigs aside every day on the farm.
Compare what his friend Ned Logan and fellow rookie Kuffy told him:
Killing people is like numbness, everyone is afraid, cold-blooded killers, kill when they see alive.
This is also the reason why William struggled for a few days and insisted on joining the Kufei kid's murder plan (although we can see at a glance that William is definitely going to come back from the perspective of God ╥﹏╥ ).
But at the same time, the director portrayed the details of how William could not hit the gun for a long time and could not get on the horse for a long time .
Not only did it give us a sense of frustration from the tempering of the years , but it also gave William the impetus to prove his ability .
However, looking back, it was not just his physical weakness that hindered William's comeback, but the murder itself was even more terrifying .
Many killer films make killing people extremely easy . Just like the "Matrix" we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Neo didn't even hesitate when he first killed someone.
Of course, we are not saying that this is not good. It is just that different films have different material directions .
But in this film, the director returned to the killer himself, restoring a killer's most genuine fear of "killing".
When the killer was seriously ill, he dreamed back in the middle of the night, dreaming of countless people who had been killed by himself, with their brains bursting and maggots all over;
When before killing people, the fear is the moment when the trigger is pulled, because a moment is equal to the loss of a life;
After killing people, they are faced with insults and reproaches from countless people, no matter how bad the person who was killed is, but when he is killed, everyone will feel pity for him.
Many things that were isolated behind the "cool" profession of killer were turned over by the director at one time.
So, after reading it, I suddenly realized, "Oh, so killers are people too. "
In fact, the most attractive part of William is also the most different from other killers, that is, William can kill for "justice" .
Whether it is a cowboy with a revolver in the West, or the knight-errant culture that has been circulating in China for so many years, the most important thing in it is actually justice .
Justice is:
Rob the rich to help the poor, fight injustice, and speak up for the weak.
This setting was originally very pleasing. So whether it is Superman or Monkey King, as long as it is a character with a "justice" color, there are many fans who are sought after.
But in this film, William's original setting is somewhat unusual.
Because in the original setting, there was no mention of how "just" he was, but it was directly said that he murdered like a hemp .
The word "kill like a sack" is not a good word in our normal setting. However, it was this character who was set as a negative character who actually did what only positive characters did in the film :
To avenge his best friend; and to warn everyone after killing someone not to hurt those prostitutes at the bottom of society.
So this kind of conflict between positive and negative has once again raised the status of this old and legendary killer in people's minds.
Second dimension:
Kid Kufei (side dimension)
The second dimension, I don't want to talk about William's old friend Logan. Logan actually belongs to the side dimension , and focuses more on how to set off William . Because the two characters are actually very similar .
In the second dimension, I want to talk about the fledgling little boy Kufei.
This is actually a very cute and funny character .
He is obviously a little rookie, so he has to say how awesome he is. He once killed five people and looked down on old William. As if he was really powerful.
In fact, he was just a rookie who was just starting out, even with super poor eyesight, and dreamed of being a killer .
However, this little rookie 's stimulation of William and Logan from time to time in the film also happened to cause the three people to go north to kill .
In addition, the most important thing is the misunderstanding of the killer profession represented by this little rookie , but also the misunderstanding of the profession of killer by most of "us" , namely
I thought that the killers were all very good thirteen. Seeing people kill people, seeing Buddhas and killing Buddhas, is simply the existence of a god.
But this understanding is also the very superficial "cool" feeling in our hearts after the use of violence .
However, this kind of "cool" is often the most rude means of solving problems in real life : just like the scumbag's beating and assassination of prostitutes at the beginning of the film.
But this most direct "cool" feeling from the senses makes us full of "worship" and "longing" for "cool" people who can use this method to solve problems .
But what lies beneath this feeling is not the real world , but the world in our lust . As many people have said, martial arts is a fairy tale for adults .
With the background of Kid Kufei, we can really see the true face of murder or the world——
Killing is not easy, and violence does not solve all problems.
It is also with such a foil that the unusual tempering of old William and the killer philosophy behind it are revealed .
The third dimension:
Little Bill and Bouchard (negative dimension)
(Interjection, I just saw (oﾟ▽ﾟ)o This guy is actually Dumbledore... Yes, you are right, it's Dumbledore from "Harry Potter"...OMG... All I can say is, OMG...)
(Britain's Bob is the snake spirit who insists on being poor on National Day...)
Whoops, back to the topic.
For Little Bill and Bouchard, I have divided them into one category.
In fact, the British Bob can also be divided into this category (that is, Dumbledore above...), but it is because he received the lunch too early ヽ(￣▽￣)ﾉ, not to mention...
If you like to read Western novels, you should know that there is a well-known type of novel in the West, called the knight novel .
To put it bluntly, it is a so-and-so rotten scholar ((╥╯^╰╥) why do we have to show our characters so weak, I'm not happy...) Follow a famous knight (or a cowboy or whatever ) ), and then write down the glorious deeds of other people in the kind of text that is compiled into a novel.
To name a few chestnuts, the most famous is "The Legend of King Arthur", but the most legendary is "The Song of the Nibelungs".
Emmm, in fact, in our country, legends are almost like this, but the writing style is different. The famous writers are not inscribed in the Ming Dynasty (but I don’t like him <(￣ ﹌ ￣)>, let’s not say reason).
The so-called climbing grid by Bouchard is actually the American cowboy literature similar to European knight literature . Little Bill is the prototype of Bouchard's writing (originally Bob...).
This kind of killer who became famous by publishing books was actually the most common group of killers in that era .
But just like in "Heroes", such killers are actually immature killers , shallow killers .
This type of killer thinks he's awesome , but he's not like a rookie like Kuffy, who hasn't experienced anything, so it's actually a bit basic ; however, they think they're righteous , but this kind of justice is theirs. The limit has not been reached .
To put it bluntly, it is to be in a position of high and low .
However, it is often this group of people who think they are just , and they are indeed in a position where "the society thinks they are just" , but they belong to the injustice of this world .
This type of people is the exact opposite of the image of old william . William is injustice in the eyes of others, but actually justice ; and this group of people is justice in the eyes of "everyone", but in fact "injustice" .
The loneliness of the story highlighted between positive and negative conflicts pushes the male protagonist to the altar again.
To sum up ヾ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ, "Unforgiven" is really an excellent movie that interprets the role of "Western Killer" from different latitudes.
I also like the topic "Unforgivable", the original English name is " Unforgiven" , the literal translation is unforgivable.
(Ignore the subtitle group translation...)
The "unforgivable" in this film are not only the two cowboys who insulted the prostitutes , but also the self-righteous little Bill , the Kuffy boy who finally killed someone , and the old William who finally killed someone .
All sins are unforgivable. The difference is that old William has always confessed his guilt and was ready to face his unforgivable sins.
Like at the end of the article~ Good luck, eat chicken tonight φ(>ω<*) ~
This article was originally created by Mr. Xiao Zhen. For forwarding, please ask the author and indicate the source. Thank you.
View more about Unforgiven reviews
