2016 Oscars, the world's goal is focused on the "little plum" Leonardo DiCaprio, 26 years of filming career, finally in exchange for a golden man.
At the same time, a movie called "Focus" defeated "Room", "Big Short" and other big hits, sweeping the awards season, won the ultimate award for best film. After
"The King's Speech", "Escape from Tehran", and "Twelve Years as a Slave" , it is another "real adaptation" victory.
"Focus" has a strong "political correctness" color. The story is based on a series of reports of the "Boston Globe" exposing the scandal of Catholic priests sexually assaulting children, restoring the interview and investigation process of the "Focus" reporter team.
is only on the other side of the ocean. The number of people who believe in Catholicism in China is limited, so Chinese audiences are not interested in this subject matter. Among the works nominated for the best film in the same year, as of October 2019, Douban had only 170,000 viewers. Far less than the 430,000 of "The Martian" , and the 280,000 of "Wild Hunter" . The interesting thing about
is that with the popularity of Marvel movies, this Oscar best film has one more feature-Marvel actors.
Michael Keaton, as the editor-in-chief Robby of the "Focus" group. He has not only played Batman, but also the villain vulture in "Spiderman: Homecoming" .
Mark Ruflow, as Mike, a member of the "Focus" group. To tell the truth, his performance in "Focus" is much more eye-catching than the Hulk in "Reunion" . During the filming, he kept asking about his character prototype, showing his straightforward personality in every gesture. Congratulations to him for winning a nomination for best supporting actor.
Rachel McAdams, as the female reporter Sacha of the "Focus" group, is responsible for the appearance of the film. She is the "goddess of transcending drama", and at the end of 2016 she also became the ambiguous object of Doctor Strange.
Levi Schreiber, as the newly appointed editor-in-chief of the "Boston Globe" Baron. Once, he played the saber-toothed tiger of Logan in "Wolverine" .
John Slattery, as the old editor of the "Boston Globe" Ben. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he is the father of Iron Man.
Stanley Tucci, as Mitchell, a lawyer defending the rights of victims. In "Captain America" , he turned the thin American team into a muscular super soldier.
, a group of supporting actors from the Marvel superhero world, jointly interpret a hero story from the real world.
Journalists, like doctors, policemen, and firefighters, are themselves a heroic profession. Doctors
fight the virus;
police fight criminals;
firefighters fight fires;
reporters fight illusions. In order to explore the truth of being overwhelmed, they sometimes face the pressure of power.
However, the advent of the Internet information era has lost its soul to the media industry responsible for information. The public has become fascinated by "fast food information". In order to satisfy readers, reporters have lost a lot of time and resources for in-depth investigation.
Taiwan drama "The Distance Between Us and the Evil" , the TV station where the heroine is located spends a lot of energy on doing "Daily" every day for the audience rating. Her husband does in-depth reporting, which is very disgusting.
"Focus" just started talking about the influence of the Internet age on traditional media. The newly appointed editor-in-chief Baron believes that the Internet has divided up the number of readers of paper media, so they can no longer do things the same way as newspapers.
, the “focus” team and the audience who have been focusing on in-depth reports, panicked, thinking that he was someone who wanted to compromise with reality.
If the time is 2016, he is understandable to do so. However, the time background of the story is in 2001, so the situation is different.
At that time, the Internet was just emerging, and the advantages of paper media have not been lost. Baron, who has been in the business for many years, knows the true advantages of paper media. The existence of 's "focused" trump card team is the advantage, but this advantage has not been fully utilized.
They need to tap more explosive, more socially valuable, and even news that can change the world.
Then, a "Gegan case" involving a priest suspected of molesting a child entered Baron's sight.
A priest named Geoghan has repeatedly reported scandals against children in the past 30 years. There is evidence that Cardinal Law knew about this, but turned a blind eye to it, but the evidence was sealed by the court and cannot be made public.
Baron, in spite of the opposition from colleagues, decided to conduct a full investigation, and called the "focus" team to participate.
only took 15 minutes, and director Tom McCarthy completed the "building" and "catalysis event" in the script, clearly showing the main characters in the newspaper, and letting the plot enter the theme. Father
has a sacred position in the United States. It is a very serious matter to say that they are not. Tom McCarthy chose the "real but not flashy" narrative method, not deliberately sensational, did not create American heroism, but coldly reproduced the work of the reporters. The
movie did not lose its luster because of the "boring reality", but instead pulled the audience into the real investigation process. The whole story of
has the attributes of a suspenseful investigation. Even if it is not made into a suspenseful film, the audience will be reluctant to leave the scene to see the truth that is gradually revealed. , especially when the characters have clear goals and are difficult, the story always has magical charm.
The focus group who sought to find out the truth about the "Gegan case" encountered setbacks when they first attacked.
Robby and Sacha learn about a legal problem. The three-year statute of limitations is often not enough to punish the priest who committed the crime, because it is not enough for the victim to emerge from the haze in two or three years.
Mike was made things difficult by the lawyer Mitchell who knew the truth. Mitchell said in a despicable manner that the church has a history of hundreds of years, and this cannot be handled by your little newspaper.
Even the old editor Ben is not optimistic about the actions of the focus group, almost everyone is not optimistic.
But Robby didn't want to give up. He knew that to resolve this matter, he had to ignore everyone.
Under his leadership, the focus group has always been resolute. From the relevant lawyers to the victims, the pit of the "Gegan case" is getting bigger and bigger. In the middle of the
film, five "Marvel actors" gathered together, and their goals began to change. The focus group found some key clues, but Baron, who had been negotiating with the church, realized that the matter was by no means as simple as a "Gegan case".
They are not dealing with a priest, but the entire church system.
This means that they want to break the faith of the American people.
The United States is a religious power. Some people say that without understanding religion, it is impossible to truly understand the United States. A statistical data in 2001 showed that the number of Christians in the United States accounted for 79.8% of the total number of adults; a Gallup survey in 2004 showed that approximately 41% of Americans participate in religious activities at least once a week. The importance of the
church in the American community is self-evident.
So in the third act of the movie, the members of the focused team who learned the truth received a serious psychological shock. Mark Ruflow and Michael Keaton achieved their respective acting explosions.
Mike vented all the emotions for the audience, hatred came out of his eyes, and no one could wait to punish those bastards.
Robby was scolded by an old friend, with tears in his eyes. He wasn't scolded and crying, but he regretted how he ignored such important news.
His regret is not personal. The opening scene of the movie is set in 1976, which shows that the crime has been happening for a long time. How come it was not revealed until 2001? Who is
who ignores the facts under the nose and chooses to ignore it?
may be anyone around us, or even ourselves. Director Tom McCarthy of
also made a wise choice, not overlying the credit of the focus group.
Even in reality, the "Boston Globe" series of reports has become a national anti-Catholic incident.It also spread to other Catholic countries. At that time, Pope John Paul II had to come forward to respond to this matter, and the church also paid a heavy price.
But the ending of the movie is still quite calm. When the ending subtitles came out and the bishop Law, who had shielded the criminal priest, was not punished severely, but was promoted in disguise, we knew why the director did this. The
struggle is not over yet, there is nothing to celebrate.
Especially in today's gradual decline of paper media, the real victory is getting farther and farther away from us. The courage of
Baron, Mike's anger, Robby's regret, Sacha's dedication, today's media seems to have slowly lost the spirit of "focusing", which comes from the traditional paper media's pursuit of truth.
Maybe one day, the paper media will disappear completely.
But the spirit of paper media is something humans can never lose.
is not only the media industry, all mankind should be grateful to movies like "focus" . After the real incident of
appeared, we were severely shocked. After the
movie was made, we were reminded again.
, as a work of art, excellent movies, will continue to be passed on, and always warn the world.
Sometimes we easily forget, most of the time we stagger in the dark, and suddenly a beam of light comes in, but we keep complaining. ——"Focus"
