(To be continued)
Personal rating: 84 points.
In order to be afraid that Western audiences who did not read literature in high school would not understand it, the opening subtitles directly pointed out that the film was adapted from "The Odyssey". For them, the various "Bible" allusions in the movie do not need to be mentioned deliberately. In the West, from rich to poor, from old to young, even atheists or agnostics are mostly familiar with gospel stories.
However, in mainland China, due to the influence of Confucian culture for a long time in history, the socialist culture with Chinese characteristics upheld by the superstructure has a scientific reaction to the society, and except for students, scholars and enthusiasts of related majors, the average citizen is affected by basic literature. Education is negligible, and most Chinese viewers are probably at a loss for the film's allusions to the Odyssey and the Bible, the American Southern background at the end of the Great Depression, and the Coen brothers' artistic style.
Therefore, I will share here some "Easter Eggs" I discovered while watching the movie.
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The main story of the film takes place in Mississippi in 1937. The location is mentioned several times in the lines.
The "Baby Face" Nelson (Baby Face Nelson) in the film is a famous robber during the Great Depression. Lester Gillis, alias "Babyface" Nelson and George Nelson, was born in Chicago in 1908.
The firearm used by "Babyface" in the film, the "Chicago Typewriter" is the Thompson submachine gun, so it was nicknamed because of the sound of the gunshot. Since the prohibition of alcohol in the United States took effect in 1920, the underworld controlled underground liquor industry has emerged. In order to gain an advantage in gang fights or confrontation with the police, thugs often purchase Thompson submachine guns that are longer than fire suppression in bulk. In order to compete with it, the police also followed suit. As a result, the "Chicago Typewriter" became a trendy item on the streets of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, and it is also a retro symbol of the United States at that time.
It is worth noting that the real "Baby Face" was killed by the FBI in the famous "The Battle of Barrington" on December 27, 1934, and his main activities during his lifetime were the Great Lakes region and the West Coast. With Nevada, not Mississippi.
In reality, Mississippi never had a gubernatorial election in 1937. Donkeyist Hugh L. White took office as the 45th Governor of Mississippi on January 21, 1936, his first election. The second time was the inauguration of the 51st Governor on January 22, 1952. Therefore, if the governor in the film is White, his election in the film should have been completed in 1935.
But it has to be said that White's lower half of the face does look a bit like the governor in the film.
In addition to "Babyface", another famous character in the film is the unnamed singer and guitarist of the audience, Robert Johnson. He is considered the founder of Delta blues. Unlike the former, Johnson was a true Mississippian, born in Hazlehurst and died in Greenwood.
There are very few records of Johnson's life, leading to rumors that Qiang An gave him many legendary stories. One of the most famous is that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads, and his career took off.
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