is such a gimmick.
has been hyped by netizens since it was released overseas. It has finally been released in China:
American Civil War
civil war
Judging from the theater performance, it is not popular enough.
has a box office of 3.27 million, ranking only 8th.
There are probably two reasons:
first, it has been released on streaming media in advance;
second, the reputation has collapsed, and many people have expressed great disappointment. The title "American Civil War" is just a headline.
This may also be the destined fate of this movie:
Politics overwhelms the story.
So you can see the current polarizing reviews of this film:
scolded it.
Because under the temptation of the title of the film, my desire to see the collapse of the American emperor reached its peak, but as a result, the plot was trivial and unsatisfactory. Liked by
.
because in one shot, they were satisfied.
This is when the protagonist group was interrogated when they crossed the line of fire:
-Where are you from
-Hong Kong
-Oh, China ("bang" shot)
uses a white supremacy and massacres of Asians in disguised form. It recognized that Hong Kong is part of China, which made some viewers happy.
also made this extremely divisive and provocative movie, in the current lack of consensus, actually achieved universal acceptance in both China and the United States.
you can see.
The discussion around this movie, whether it is good or bad, is mostly about politics, stance, and the ambition projected in the movie.
But today, sir wants to start from an unpopular angle:
talk about the movie itself.
(Today’s black joke, talking about movies about movies has become a kind of unpopularity.)
1
To evaluate " American Civil War ", the first keyword is:
a24.
is an alternative and niche film label.
Of course, since " and " won the Oscar, it is no longer completely niche. Movies produced by
a24 always give people the impression of being strange.
's imaginative "Transient Universe".
" Lighthouse " with black and white pictures and obscure metaphors.
"A Midsummer Night's Terror" with picturesque scenery and underworld stories.
Anyway.
Don't use Hollywood's conventional routines to predict the development of the story. The emergence of a24 is to subvert the routines.
It’s no wonder that “American Civil War” is so popular.
This is the first time that a24 has landed on the mainland screen. Although it has a certain degree of popularity among senior movie fans, the wider audience has not prepared psychological expectations at all.
Let’s look forward to it as a regular Hollywood blockbuster:
It should have a big war scene, it should explain the reasons for the outbreak of the American Civil War, and it should have a post-apocalyptic hero with a positive image like Tom Cruise and Will Smith. .
△ "War of the Worlds" " I am a legend "
results:
system. system. without. have.
The movie adopts a story line that is quite edge (low) edge (cheng) and (original) :
profiles this war from the perspective of a war correspondent.
I thought it was a war movie.
Bang, I changed it to a road movie for you.
It may feel like you placed an order for an Apple laptop, but the product shipped was Apple and the laptop.
So sir, you need to get vaccinated first, and you need to understand before buying a ticket:
The biggest scene of the movie has basically been cut into the trailer...
2
The second keyword: civil war.
Many people's expectations for this movie also come from the fact that they are unhappy with the United States in reality and hope to get revenge in the movie.
The audience cannot be entirely blamed for this.
After all, the movie's promotion highlighted this point:
Hong Kong and Taiwan translation, stable performance of his ability to make trouble.
The trailer also said: The empire will eventually come to an end.
As a result, I watched the movie: Is this all ?
It’s neither miserable nor chaotic enough, and the United States is not over yet. I’m so angry!
But whether it should be said or not, this expectation was misplaced from the beginning.
Because civil war may change the course of history, and it is bound to cause casualties.
But civil war does not necessarily represent the decline or demise of a country.
After the Spanish Civil War.
The country Spain is still there.
△ " Pan's Labyrinth " is based on this period of history.
And for the United States, the Civil War is nothing new at all.
The American Civil War in the 19th century literally means "American civil war" in English.
After this civil war, the United States does not seem to be in decline, let alone destroyed.
did destroy slavery in the South.
△ " Gone with the Wind "
Therefore, it is a bit unrealistic to expect that a civil war will destroy the United States in "American Civil War".
Even if the rebels invaded Washington.
is nothing more than overthrowing a regime and setting up another flag:
A new "America" takes its place.
△ There are only two stars left in the Star-Spangled Banner
The "war" in "The American Civil War" is really a small fight.
And this is a24’s very effective, clever and cost-effective method of operation.
It does not explain the cause of the civil war.
does not present the scale of the war between government forces and insurgents/rebels.
also has no side at all.
This is extremely unfriendly to the general audience of genre films, but it is also exactly what a24 has always been about, being alternative and rebellious.
If Hollywood's consistent movies are heroic.
Then "American Civil War" takes a completely opposite stance.
3
The movie completely gives up the mentality of saving the world or self-saving, and does not make moral judgments on the two warring parties, nor distinguish the so-called justice and injustice.
Does the cause of the civil war still matter? The Western Allied Forces in the
film is composed of California and Texas.
You must know that in reality, these two states are the strongholds of the American left and right respectively. You can't think of any reason for them to join hands to fight against Washington.
But this was also done intentionally by the director. If
gives a reason, it is equivalent to giving a prediction on what will trigger the division of the United States.
But any prediction is destined to appear shallow and ridiculous in the face of complex reality.
Precisely because the film does not have a clear reason, it can embrace all possibilities.
△ Director Alex Garland was interviewed by the daily show
From this perspective, the movie is somewhat similar to "The Devil Is Coming".
"The Devils Are Coming" does not take pictures of the frontal battlefield, nor does it explain how this war happened. only observes the living conditions of people under war and the alienated face of human nature from a very small perspective.
"American Civil War" presents several people's mentality. One is
, cynicism .
What the protagonist group saw along the way were ruins and murderous people.
came to a small town, where everything was as usual, and it felt like the civil war had never happened.
The male protagonist lamented that he seemed to have arrived in the twilight zone. ("The Twilight Zone", a famous American film and television IP, tells about some strange things in different dimensions)
asked: Don't you know that the United States is at war?
Answer: Yes, but we stay out of it.
This is like the villagers hanging on the platform in "The Devils Are Coming".
They live in their own little world and don't care about the huge waves outside.
The other is, idealism.
Jesse, a young girl, does not have a body armor, media card, or high-definition digital camera.
But she wanted to document what was happening in the country.
Follow his idol Lee Smith (played by Kirsten Dunst) to the most dangerous Washington, DC.
Of course she has a passionate journalistic ideal.
also mentioned another of his idols:
Lee Miller.
was the most famous female reporter during World War II. She photographed the tragic scenes in the concentration camps with a camera, and then sent them back to the magazine with text explanations one by one.
△ Lee Miller takes a bath in Hitler’s bathtub
However, the ideal Jesse is also naive and naive.
really scared her to the point of peeing at the first scene.
And the third type is also the one that is most consistent with the style of the movie:
Nihilism.
Many viewers complained that the performance of the film's heroine Kirsten Dunst was dull and hollow, which made people unable to empathize.
In fact, Sir thinks that her performance is just right, and this role is also the most complete one in the whole film.
is very simple.
Her insensitive attitude comes from her depression.
Just to interject, Kirsten Dunst is not only the well-known "Spider-Man's Girlfriend", she also won the Best Actress at Cannes for "Melancholia" and her acting skills are excellent. In the first scene where she meets Jesse at the beginning of
, a bomb is detonated at the protest site, and the crowd is instantly blown into bloody and bloody stumps.
Jesse, who encountered this battle for the first time, was already in a state of shock.
As for her, her first reaction after the bomb exploded was to take out her camera without changing her expression:
click.
This is the basic quality of a time-tested war reporter: desensitization to death.
But is her coldness just a matter of professionalism?
Jesse regards her as an idol because she has become famous for taking blockbuster photos at a young age, and has been traveling on various battlefields for more than 20 years.
But did the news reports she sent back to the United States really cause people to reflect, and did they really achieve the anti-war effect?
If it really has a little effect.
So how do you explain the scene in front of you?
Her compatriots are still so fanatical, paranoid, and ignorant, and human nature is like a dead pig that cannot be poured out with boiling water.
This is the source of her depression.
In other words, her depression was a form of political depression.
Of course she is not a person who is greedy for life and death, chasing fame and fortune. If she were, she would have a hundred ways to make money, instead of joining the ranks of war reporters where risks and rewards are extremely disproportionate.
Initially, she must have shared the same journalistic ideals as Jesse.
But ideals must always be based on a vision:
You believe that what you do is meaningful.
You believe that justice is achievable.
But if all this is in vain, the meaning becomes absurd, and people are faced with an unchangeable and inhuman reality.
Then it’s like her boss said to her: What constitutes you now is existential (existentialism).
so.
Why did she decide to go to Washington?
grabs headlines? Press freedom? Historical mission?
is not as direct as this reason:
she just wanted to "commit suicide".
She no longer perceives the meaning of news, but after the collapse of her concept, she cannot live for another meaning.
can only vent incompetently on the original track: keep talking about the news until death. The tone of the
movie is the same as the heroine's mentality.
is urgent, detached, and playful.
There is a scene where the bullet whizzes past the ear and the heroine is snapping photos next to the soldier.
But suddenly, her attention shifted to the tiny wildflowers.
This is really a manifestation of depression. Being so close to death, yet feeling so peaceful and beautiful.
In the movie, the director also used a particularly unconventional approach.
For example, there is massacre on one side and cheerful music on the other.
For example, in the fiercest exchange of fire, he constantly inserts black and white still snapshots, which creates a challenging effect on "what is happening".
An interesting shot.
There was a soldier with dyed hair and colored nail polish.(My blind guess is that he is from California, not Texas)
You know, behind this color, it probably represents a certain sexual orientation, opinion and ideology.
But if you just look at the photo, this information is completely hidden.
Therefore, even in objective records, there is no absolute objectivity.
When you see:
The soldiers are fully armed, and the reporter also wears a helmet with "press" printed on it;
The soldiers change the magazine, and the reporter's camera also needs to change film;
The soldiers fire, and the reporter presses the shutter to take pictures. Called "shoot"...
Directors no longer attach the values of justice, passion, and "the power of recording" to news reporting.
but with a nihilistic attitude.
juxtaposes journalists and soldiers as if they are both ruthless machines in this war.
then. Is director
"hacking" the news media? Neither is
.
Even what the movie is really about is not war at all, but the inexplicable sense of emptiness like the heroine.
"The American Civil War" is not so much a prediction of the future.
Rather, it is the projection of the trauma mentality of the past few years.
The scenes in the movie may seem like a reenactment to American audiences:
The president is no longer convinced.
Just like Trump has brought unprecedented divisions to American society since he came to power, slogans #not my president have been issued everywhere.
The scene where rebels invaded the White House.
is reminiscent of the 2021 Capitol Hill riots.
Populism is growing day by day, and the system is under unprecedented impact.
Magic that was unimaginable in the past is happening in reality...
Faced with such a loss of order, Americans, especially the liberal elites, feel powerless. It seems that no matter what they say, they can't reverse the gradual fragmentation and polarization. changing political atmosphere.
is like a group of reporters walking through a war zone with cameras in the film. They can only fall into the situation of "a scholar meets a soldier and cannot explain his reasoning."
This traumatic experience is the source of the emotion of "American Civil War":
The original passion, sensitivity and concern must be cut off.
Only with a more numb mentality can we deal with the one after another impact.
This is the reason why Chinese audiences find it difficult to empathize with "American Civil War".
But then again.
This is not too difficult to understand.
Just think back to the days when you were isolated at home and faced with the worrying and angry messages constantly coming from your phone. Does
also feel psychological overload? Want to cut off your empathy with reality? Especially when you know that there is nothing you can do or change.
Maybe today’s world is a huge ptsd.
Hysteresis is how we survive after experiencing trauma.
can be realistic, never stop, never wait.
It is accelerating and sliding into more dangerous depths.
The pictures in this article come from the Internet
