Part 12 of the 2018 120 Viewing Program
by / Director of Bow Valley
The 48th Academy Awards in 1976 was the year with the strongest nominations for Best Picture, Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" and Foreman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Spielberg's "Jaws", and this Sidney Lumet "Hot Afternoon."
If you are not familiar with the name of the director Sidney Lumet, then you must know that the word-of-mouth works "Twelve Angry Men" and the classic "Murder on the Orient Express" are all from his hands. His works are good at using exaggerated emotional expression, innuendo to expose acute social problems and contradictions.
For example, in the movie "Afternoon on a Hot Day", three timid robbers staged a funny bank robbery incident, and even one of them ran away before committing the robbery. Faced with the siege of the police, there were crowds of people cheering for the robber Sonny outside, and in the bank, there was a lot of fun like drinking, dancing, and watching movies.
But as you watch it, you can't help but wonder, what led a feeble Vietnam veteran to plan a heist? He is timid, frustrated in his career, and lives in the humble mood of bisexuality. Not only in the eyes of us, but even in the eyes of his parents and his wife, Sonny does not seem like the one who would do such a thing. There must be some bad guys egging him on.
An absurd robbery, but it reflected the social and environmental problems in the United States at that time, the military placement and panic after the Vietnam War, the homosexual issue, the black race issue, and the Attica incident that Sonny always mentioned in the movie. It is an indelible contradiction brewing between the masses and the government.
The appearance of Sonny is the fuse that sparked this conflict. Sonny, who has always been at the bottom, has instantly become a big hero in the eyes of the melon-eating masses. He is afraid of fear, but he enjoys something he has never had before. The pleasure of being the center of attention.
But director Lumet did not directly discuss the criticisms of these times, and revealed all of this in a ridiculous and ironic way. Obviously, this method brings people more profound thinking.
And the most interesting thing is the classic acting skills of Sonny's actor Al Pacino in the movie. The improvisation between him and the police officer has always been mentioned by later generations. Al Pacino himself He also said: I can no longer make a play that can match the acting skills in "Afternoon on a Hot Day".
In the movie, he was sweating profusely, his clothes were ragged, and even the behavior he showed during the robbery seemed to have done something wrong to others. In fact, this is a special test of the actor's acting skills. He is not as violent and violent as the traditional bank robbers. Sonny in "Afternoon on a Hot Day" needs to show his fear of the situation, and he also needs to act as a small person who has been suppressed for a long time at the bottom of society. Emotions erupted.
It should be said that Al Pacino handled it very well. The corners of his mouth twitched when he was nervous and afraid of speaking, his empty eyes when he was cornered, and his excited expression when he was enjoying the shouting of the crowd. This is not just acting, but more like It's a natural talent.
And all this is due to the director's ability to control the actors' acting skills. Sidney Lumet was once labeled as a "strong actor guidance".
And, he's probably the director with the most collaborations to date with some of the best actors in the world, like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, John Cassavetes, Sean Connery, Dustin Howard Fuman, Ingrid Bergman, etc.
"Hot Afternoon" is not a traditional police and gangster movie that makes people nervous to watch, but the movie-watching experience he brings to the audience is extraordinary.
In the process of watching, I couldn't help but feel that I really wanted to be robbed, I really wanted to be taken as a hostage by Sonny, haha!
This movie reminds me of Kevin Spacey's "Ace vs. Ace" and Denzel Washington's "Imminent", also confrontation with hostages and police, these two films are very entertaining and entertaining It will be closer to the appetite of the public.
Writing here, I suddenly thought of the Chinese translation of the movie "Dog Day Afternoon", "Hot Day Afternoon". This is not only a scorching hot afternoon, but also an unfortunate afternoon, a dog day afternoon.
Note: Attica events. In September 1971, the deadliest prison riot in American history broke out at Attica Prison in Wyoming County, New York. A total of 43 people died, including 32 prisoners and 11 hostages. Attica has 2,254 inmates, 54% are black, 9% are Puerto Ricans, and more than 380 prison guards are all white, many of them racists, prisoners only have a bucket of water to bathe in a week, and only one roll a month Toilet paper and a bar of soap are only 25 cents a day for labor, and if they violate the rules, they are severely beaten and locked up. Unable to bear the abuse, they submitted an application to Oswald, a state corrections officer who was determined to reform - the right to bathe, the right to vocational training, the reduction of surveillance, etc. After no effective measures were found to be implemented, because some of the In various circumstances in the Qing, prisoners occupied the prison, held dozens of guards as hostages, and began negotiations with the government. Of course, the negotiation failed, and the officials lost patience, including the then-governor Rockefeller's refusal to negotiate face-to-face with the prisoners. Amid all the chaos, the police abandoned negotiations and, aided by bombs and gas, hundreds of National Guard troops, armed with guns, stormed the prison and opened fire on the prisoners. Afterwards, newspapers reported that many of the hostages were killed by prisoners before the police rushed in, and some had their genitals cut and stuffed into their mouths! But according to the medical examiner, all the people who died were gunshots. And the only ones with bullets are the National Guard! There are reports that many were shot after surrendering or incapacitated. The family of the deceased received only a crude telegram of the death notice.
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