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First of all, let me explain that this mechanic is not that mechanic. What we are going to talk about today is not the action movie "The Mechanic" by Mr. Jason Statham. The conversation was about the suspenseful thriller "The Mechanic" by Christian Bale. The Chinese translations of the two films are the same, but the English names are actually different. Mr. Jason Statham's version is called Mechanic, and Mr. Christian Bale's version is called Machinist. The former tells the story of the killer, the latter is also the movie we are talking about today, but the real story is the story of the mechanic.
The main reason for watching this movie is for Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell is one of my favorite actors. The works we are more familiar with are Nolan's "Batman" trilogy, "Deadly Magic" directed by Nolan, and "The Fighter", which won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. , and of course the Chinese movie "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling". Among the actors of the Mesozoic era, there should be no doubt that Bell's acting skills are in the top five. As early as 1986, Bell, who was only 12 years old, had already shined in Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun". The Xia trilogy is already a household name. Teacher Bell's acting skills should be obvious to all.
However, when I was watching "The Mechanic", I couldn't find any trace of Batman after searching for a long time. All I saw was a scrawny, special actor who seemed to have gone wrong on the set of "World War Z" next door. That's when I started to discover what it means to put the front chest on the back. The man stretched his hands back, and his ribs protruded from the only remaining thin skin. He arched his back, his spine bulging out like a monster. And this person is the true deity of Mr. Bell, who has been replaced by a fake. There is no substitute and no CG special effects. We can go to Baidu to search for the stills of "The Mechanic", we can see that it is Mr. Bell, and the word "I" is written upside down.
Recently, the inspirational scenes of actors who have changed their bodies seem to have become a major selling point of the movie. For example, Deng Chao, who plays two roles in "Shadow", for example, Aamir Khan who plays a young and old father in "Wrestling, Dad". Before the movie was released, it was carefully promoted as a marketing point.
However, when it comes to the figure of the rubber man, there is really no one who can compete with Mr. Bell. In this regard, Mr. Bell is a legend.
In 2003, Bell took over "The Mechanic", in which the character asked to "look as if he hadn't slept in a year", which was his most dramatic reshaping experience. Relying on hunger and a lot of physical exertion, Bell lost 57 pounds in 2 weeks. He originally planned to lose 100 pounds, which is 90 pounds. However, the doctor warned him that if he loses weight, he may die young. Bell That's where the dreaded body-sculpting workouts stop. Just after finishing his own extreme challenge, Bell received the role of Batman, which started in March 2004. As a superhero without superpowers, Batman needs to keep his physical fitness at its peak. This also means that in the shortest possible time, Bell has to transform from a weak sick man into a muscular superhero. Through hard training, Bell quickly increased his weight by more than 60 pounds. After "Batman: Mystery of the Shadow", the film was adapted from real events, telling the story of the German Dieter who joined the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, and was later captured by a failed mission. In historical facts, the rescued Dieter weighed less than 80 kilograms, so Bell had to work hard to lose weight and achieve a skinny state to fit the character image. This time he lost another 50 pounds. After that, with the filming of "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "Terminator 2018", Bell faced the test of rapid weight gain. After all, heroes are always associated with tall, muscular, and powerful words. . He had to put back the weight he lost and build muscle. In 2010, he starred in "The Fighter". In order to interpret a boxer who was quite talented but slumped because of drugs, Bell once again lost 40 pounds and was skinny. And then starred in the Batman trilogy "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" finale, the cycle repeats again. . .
If you have the urge to watch "Shadow" and "Wrestling Dad" because of Deng Chao and Aamir Khan's Metamorphoses, then you might as well go and see how their originator, Mr. Bell, acted.
Well, after expressing my personal adoration for Mr. Bell, I will briefly introduce the storyline. Because it is a suspense movie, I will try my best to protect the key information.
Trevor, a machine operator played by Mr. Bell, is a severe insomniac to the point of not falling asleep for a year. Over time, insomnia has had a negative impact on his physiology and psychology, and his life and work are always spent in a trance. At the same time, a series of inexplicable strange things happened one after another. At work, Trevor deserted the mysterious temporary worker Aiwen to say hello, and as a result, one of the worker's arms was stirred into the machine. But the strange thing is that his colleagues said that they had never seen Ai Wen. Trevor felt that something was wrong. Slowly, he found that everyone around him had more or less connections with this Ai Wen, and he seemed to fall into a conspiracy. In the whirlpool, he finally found that Ai Wen was walking with his new girlfriend's child. In order to find out the truth, Trevor secretly followed Ai Wen into the room...
Well, I can't say more, let's see the rest for ourselves. We mainly talk about non-plot information.
The film adopts the main color with low saturation, and it feels like a filter with a rainy day effect is added. To be honest, I really like the rendering effect, although some of the pictures may look a little unreal, but the gothic frigidity style is also unique. More importantly, it matches the mental state of the male protagonist. Mr. Bell has been chattering and sluggish all the time.
Coupled with the strange background music, the strange and depressing atmosphere is self-evident. The soundtrack teacher also took great pains, and listening to the original soundtrack of the movie alone felt terrifying enough. When I was recording, I used some clips from the movie, so everyone can feel it.
The greatest joy of watching "The Mechanic" is that you can treat yourself as a detective, and work with the protagonist to find out the truth. Every seemingly careless set or prop in every scene has the potential to become a court testimony.
The first act of the movie is already very informative. From the first note of the background music, you'll want to ask Yuanfang what she thinks, because as soon as you see Mr. Bell sneaking up, you'll know "there must be something wrong with this."
You want to find out the truth like Mr. Bell in the movie, so you can't be in a sleepy state like the protagonist. The director cuts the complete story into thousands of small puzzles, all the story lines are explained in the movie, all you need to do is find the puzzles and put them in the correct position. The condition of victory is to figure out the whole story before the bright scene in the last two minutes or so of the movie.
In fact, the way of filming is not uncommon today. From 2000 to the present, it is the golden age of suspense and thriller movies. Good films are emerging one after another, and bad films are common. It's hard to find any movie that can take the audience for a stroll all the way, but in the end it can give a foolproof ending of "I rely on it, so it's like this". It is a very rare thing to find the feeling of boredom.
I have to say that if you already have a lot of experience in suspenseful movies, watching "The Mechanic" may not give you the thrill of realizing it. After all, similar shooting methods are not the only one.
However, the design sense of "The Mechanic", including tone, set, composition, soundtrack, etc., I think it is more than one grade better than the general suspense and thriller movies. Many of the following movies have mostly learned the storytelling routine, but ignored the movie. In terms of its own artistry, "The Mechanic" can really be regarded as one of the more sought after movies of its kind. What's more, there is Mr. Bell's dedicated performance and amazing performance. The portrayal of insomniacs is also one of the most touching highlights of the film. It makes people feel really distressed for Mr. Bell. He obviously has the capital to rely on his face to eat, and he is unbelievably handsome, but he always likes to take on some characters with self-destructive images and collapsed personalities.
In short, friends who like suspense movies must not miss this old movie. Remember, this is Mr. Bell's work. Don't search for Mr. Guo Da's "The Mechanic".
Finally, I still can't help but want to spoil it all at once. If you haven't seen the movie, you can pause here and listen to it later. Listening to it again is what you deserve.
There are many brain-burning movies, and "The Mechanic" is not ranked in this field at all. Seeing the end of the movie, even before the end, we can guess the truth of the matter.
But I've also seen some people who say that they know what's going on in the movie as soon as they see the scrawny male protagonist, which would be a bit of an exaggeration. In fact, to see that the protagonist has multiple personalities, it really can only be regarded as the level that elementary school students should know and know. Who hasn't seen one or two movies about schizophrenia these days, it is not difficult to find the routines and inertia in it. This is also what the director made clear to tell everyone. Explained very clearly.
The challenge is actually when the audience can recover from the clues of the movie what the protagonist is escaping from.
Seeing this, some people may have turned themselves in at Mr. Bell, some may be discovering that the red car is theirs, some may be taking children to play in the haunted house in Mr. Bell, and some may be in the first place The second time I ran a red light, some people might be seeing the bald Aiwen's red sports car.
This is like a rush-to-answer question. When the teacher asks a question, the students can rush to answer without waiting for the question to be read. Because "The Mechanic" is really not a movie that doesn't know the truth until the last minute. There are many such movies now. The whole movie seems to be showing off suspense, but in fact it doesn't know what to say. In the end, a so-called truth is forced out, and after a flashback, the movie is finished. There are some good shots, but most of them are still playing tricks. "The Mechanic" gave a lot of foreshadowing and clues at the beginning of the film, and people who are destined must be able to see it.
Another joy is finding out which is reality and which is illusion. Since the male protagonist has multiple personalities, there are naturally many pictures that are imagined by himself. Some places are very clear, some are more vague.
There is a paranormal phenomenon in the film that is so obvious that upon seeing it, it is clear that it is a hallucination. Compared with "Mulholland Drive" made by David Lynch, which is a fantastic film that depicts dreams, "The Mechanic" is much more friendly to audiences who are not professional in suspense movies. The director was afraid that everyone would not understand it, so he painstakingly placed a buckle for the audience. Those who have seen the movie must understand what I mean by deduction. If you haven't watched it yet, you can find it in the movie.
Of course not all reality and hallucination are distinguished by this, and this may also be regarded as a place where the film is not well designed. The action is too big, but it is not done completely, it is a hard injury. This is not as clever as the totem design in Nolan's "Inception". In "Inception", it clearly tells everyone that there is such a thing as a totem, which can be used to distinguish between dreams and reality. But the Mechanic doesn't actually specify such a setting explicitly. However, we all see the supernatural phenomenon really and truly. Then, when we use this yardstick to measure other plots, we find that it is not the same thing. This is actually to set the suspense of the movie. Persuasiveness is reduced. Ah I think so.
One of the suspense points I personally like in the movie is the post-it notes on the refrigerator. I know that many people complain about this scene. Because it does seem far-fetched, what is the protagonist's motive for writing this note? We saw that the master character played by Mr. Bell has been trying to escape from reality. This note cannot be done by the master character. The attached personality of the bald-headed fat man, who is condescending and unruly, is a hit-and-run personality, and the note could not be the work of this personality. I am inclined to think that there is a third personality who has not revealed his true body, trying to break free from the gap between the other two personalities and tell the protagonist what the truth is. This personality exists with a sticky note as a symbol, which is very obscure, but it should be the result of this personality finally taking the lead.
I'll admit, The Mechanic is by no means the best suspense-thriller movie. I mainly succumbed to Mr. Bell's superb acting skills and my personal preference for dark and cold tones, and I liked it so much. I will talk to you about some other excellent suspense thriller movies in the future.
That's all for today's sharing, see you next time.
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