Rebirth In Hollywood

"Praise me for being a proud Jewish woman."

Leaning close to Ryan's ear, Natalie lowered her voice, "If the film is okay, they will support me this awards season."

"It's a good thing." Ryan nodded slightly. "Honey, if nothing else happens, your biggest opponent will be James Cameron."

"I met Jim last week." Natalie obviously disagreed, "He doesn't think he will win an award, even if "Avatar" is as successful as you expected."

The lights in the theater were suddenly turned off, and the logo of the publisher Miramax appeared on the screen. Ryan did not continue to say anything. In fact, James Cameron didn't care about the statuette anymore. The weight of the Oscar for the best director is second to none in the world In Wang's mind, I am afraid that there is no new film technology that is important.

Cameron himself is also very clear that such a sci-fi film made entirely in CG is unlikely to win the Oscar's favor.

However, Disney will still do public relations for "Avatar", because that can increase the film's commercial benefits to a certain extent, and the focus of public relations is definitely not the best director.

In the past and present, "Avatar", the biggest Oscar rival, has already kicked off on the big screen.

The bomb disposal team of Company B is composed of three people. During a mission, they sacrificed the captain of the bomb disposal team, so James, the protagonist of the film, joined in. James is a man with a heroic complex. He is not afraid of his own death at all. He does not follow the operating procedures at all, and always single-handedly dismantles bombs. He even takes off his bomb disposal suit time and time again for the convenience of movement. .

James is not in a state of jittery fear and "we survived today" prayers like his teammates all day long, he is more like a crazy technical master, when he is with a bunch of bombs, in order to focus on him Dare to give up all security measures.

This man seems to regard a dangerous job like bomb disposal as simple as repairing a car. Just like a hacker is obsessed with network technology, he is obviously "addicted" to the process of bomb disposal. When people had already evacuated the bomb and it could be detonated safely, James refused to evacuate. For the safety of his comrades and the lives and properties of the Iraqi people, he always insisted on dismantling the bomb.

What is certain is that during the bomb defusing process, James gained a strong pleasure. When he finished defusing the bomb and returned to the "Hummer" to light a cigarette, he looked like he just had sex. Tired and content.

Perhaps James is really not afraid of death, but it is this person who is not afraid of his own death, but he is touched by the death of others during the mission, including American comrades-in-arms and Iraqis. The deaths of these people have caused him indelible impressions, over time,

affect his psychology and behaviour.

Facing an enemy he couldn't see, fighting a war he didn't know who to fight, James was a little overwhelmed by all of this. But the heroism complex unique to Americans in his bones made him want to make everything better in front of him through his own efforts, because on this seemingly illusory battlefield, the casualties of his comrades were real.

Let's talk about this kind of heroism again, when a person has a firm belief. He has a clear self-awareness, and at the same time shows courage and courage beyond ordinary people in his actions, and when he achieves achievements that benefit the group, people say that his actions are heroic.

This is one of the positions of the film. Although the image of the US military in it is not tall, and even weak like those Iraqis, it is extremely positive. This may be different from the way "Transformers" shows the strength of the US military, but in essence, there is not much difference.

Because they are all trying to create a positive image of the US military.

Of course, these are the basic positions of the film, and it is all about "reflection".

The film uses a documentary shooting method. The dangling shoulder-mounted camera lens brings the real Iraqi battlefield, surrounded by frightened American soldiers and ant-like Iraqis. In the war, everyone is weak.

American soldiers who are armed to the teeth may get on the "earth plane" at any time; Iraqi militants are also easily killed by the guns of the US military; let alone civilians, any small conflict between the two sides is enough to crush them.

Perhaps it is true that the big scenes of war movies are not enough. Natalie obviously uses more literary and loose narrative techniques of the film. Through James' eyes, it shows the fragments one by one, although there is no compact narrative and repeated climax. .tide, but it's really suffocating.

The bomb disposal man who died at the beginning was Natalie showing the audience the correct bomb disposal procedure. Through the demonstration of the formal procedure, it left a reference for James' crazy "personal heroism" behavior after he appeared on the stage.

The death of the bomb disposal man is actually Natalie's opening remarks. She first broke people's usual movie-watching psychology and solemnly declared that everyone is weak in the face of war. There is no Steve Rogers on the real battlefield, let alone Rambo who has not been killed dozens of times.

In Death of the Bounty Hunter, the headhunter's appearance is extremely cool. Putting aside the sturdy outfit, the Barrett sniper in his hand alone can kill a lot of people. According to conventional movie thinking, this is another A superhero who can sweep all war movies without dying.

But a few minutes later, the cool hunter leader was shot in the heart by the Iraqis and died, which once again showed the audience the cruelty of war.

In the ensuing death of the medical officer, the psychological medical officer in James's unit wanted to go out to give actual help to the bomb disposal team, so he found James' team who was about to be on duty and asked to go on a mission together.

Unfortunately, a soil bomb killed the Colonel.

Still the same sentence, in the face of war, official rank and position are not a sign that death will let you go. After the colonel was killed, a soldier rushed over and shouted in pain, "I was still teaching him how to use the radio just now..."

Human life is gone, even if they were bragging together for the last minute.

Natalie used the camera to tell the audience so coldly and ruthlessly-war, that's it!

In the death of 'Beckham' where James completely misidentifies 'Beckham' who sells dvds, he thinks he knows Iraqis better than other Americans, can make friends with Iraqis, in fact he ends up with other The Americans are no different. They can't even tell who the Iraqis are, even the Iraqis who live with him day and night.

Americans see Iraqis, Iraqis see Americans, Westerners see Easterners, Easterners see Westerners. In fact, in everyone’s eyes, people of the other race are the same, and it is difficult to distinguish clearly. This is the barrier, this kind of leap Racial divisions, like battles of belief and ideology, will never go away.

Here, Natalie obviously changed the script, and what James said - the Americans don't know what the Iraqis want, and the Iraqis don't bother to let the Americans know what they want - is probably very good for this situation portrayal.

Under the war, children are the first to bear the brunt of the weak. Although "Beckham" is still alive, the children lying there as corpse bombs are real.

Although the whole film tends to be realistic and flat, there are also small climaxes such as the death of the "human bomber".

An Iraqi asked the US military patrol for help, saying that he was strapped with a bomb, but he didn't want to be a "human bomb" and begged the US military to save him.

This is a time bomb, and there are only two minutes left for James. James races against time to dismantle the bomb. According to the usual pattern of movies all over the world, James will inevitably cut the red line or blue line at the last second to save Iraqi civilians, and then the military and civilians will appear The situation of the big party.

However, the time did not come to an end, and James did not choose the red line or the blue line, so he gave up dismantling the bomb. The Iraqis were blown to powder, James was overturned by the air wave during the escape, and Natalie once again used cruel The ending shattered the audience's extravagant expectations. This is war, and war is not about making movies.

This situation shattered not only the audience's hopes, but also the film's box office. It's no wonder that such a cold film can sell well.

The world did not welcome American soldiers. When James evacuated, Iraqi children followed Humvees and jeeps and threw stones wildly. However, James could not adapt to life after returning home and returned to the Iraqi battlefield.

These two fragments echo each other, and war has become an unbreakable curse, which is not only irresistible, but also impossible to escape.

In the hearts of the descendants of Iraq, the seeds of hatred have been planted and will germinate and bear fruit at any time in the years to come, while American soldiers have been deeply involved in war and cannot adapt to a normal peaceful life, as if war has become the only meaning of their existence.

Both sides are victims, there is no distinction between strength and weakness, and both are driven by a spell called "war"...

As a director, Natalie did not directly make moral judgments on the war in the movie, did not arouse the audience's humanitarian sympathy through the cruelty of the war scenes, and did not create dramatic scenes to satirize the reason why the United States launched the war.

Of course, she will not "stand" from Iraq's standpoint and look at the war in front of them from their point of view.

Natalie grasped the most important point very well. All the reflections in the film are based on the standpoint of the United States, based on the most basic condition that the United States is the winner of the Iraq War.

Just like "Saving Private Ryan", reflection on war is the privilege of the winner.

When the war can gain huge benefits, they attack fearlessly; when the justice of the war is in doubt, they will still not give up...

In some respects, "The Hurt Locker" completely inherits the fine tradition of Hollywood war reflection movies, fully conforms to the current social and political situation, meets the needs of mainstream values, and also meets the requirements of Oscar, which always has to express its position politically. (To be continued..)

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