Movie Master

In the work "No Country for Old Men", the Coen brothers pushed their style to the extreme. It can be said to be a masterpiece of bold and atmospheric camera movement, sharp and crisp editing, weird and wonderful atmosphere, and unexpected black humor. Production, the whole film does not have any soundtrack, but the background of the empty west is greatly enlarged, and the sound effects of gunshots, wheels, breeze, and footsteps create a psychological projection that is depressing and dreary but also frightening. People are overwhelmed.

Although the Coen Brothers have produced many highly acclaimed masterpieces, why is "No Country for Old Men" called the pinnacle? It is not because this work won the best picture Oscar, which made people realize the excellence of this work, but it should be reversed. The excellence and excellence of this work shine brightly, and the statuette trophy is just one of the footnotes .

"No Country for Old Men" caused an uproar among the academy judges, but for many Chinese/Chinese audiences, it seemed that they could not understand the connotation and height of this film. The main reason lies in the Coen brothers. The style of this pair of brothers has a strong western style, which is a unique culture of the United States. This unique temperament cannot be imitated by others, and it is also beyond the comprehension of many people.

The reason why "No Country for Old Men" is called a classic is not because of the distinctive style of "Fargo", but because the whole movie reveals a kind of despair, a deep despair of human nature.

In modern society, the warmth and kindness of human nature seem to be disappearing. Greedy desires, cold indifference, and vague morality are silently killing all hope. This is similar to Lance's crime trilogy, except that the Coen brothers are more cruel than Lance. Whenever the audience has a moment of beautiful hallucinations, they directly kill this hope. This kind of loss and bewilderment is hidden in the seemingly casual and idle scenes of the film, and even reveals their ambiguous attitudes towards the government, the system, and even justice. It reveals the wanton and uninhibited dance of demons in the era of anarchy/government. All of these fit perfectly with the title of the movie, "No Country for Old Men", the disappointment of giving up resistance, the casualness of boredom, and the cold and biting despair make the whole movie cast a kind of gray temperament.

In this regard, "No Country for Old Men" is a step closer than the crime trilogy, and the Coen brothers have penetrated their rebellion and disappointment with the government/government, and it can even be said to be satirical. This is what Lance has not been able to dig out.

The three main characters in "No Country for Old Men" represent three different groups, conveying their position and situation in society.

Hunter, he is a follower of social laws, but walks on the edge of breaking taboos, knows how to use some loopholes to seek benefits for himself, always has some greedy thoughts deep in his heart, and may occasionally make some small mistakes, But he has never really broken the shackles of the law, and he is still a law-abiding citizen. So, when he found the dead bodies of the gangsters and heroin worth up to two million dollars, greed got the upper hand and he took the drugs away, but then he couldn't stand the torture of his conscience and chose to go back. Save people, but handle it too clumsily, so that you get into trouble. If he insisted on the indifferent choice of ignoring it at the beginning, then maybe there would be no such bad encounters later; but he was unwilling to rely on the burden of the system, and chose to deal with it alone with difficulty.

This is the general status quo of society. They once resisted and finally gave up, but they still hold a trace of goodwill, insist on the brilliance of human nature, and falter forward. It's just that many times, even they themselves don't know what they are doing. What to hold on to, what to hold on to, and how long to hold on to. The last glimmer of humanity is getting weaker and weaker.

Killer, he is a rebel who walks outside the rules, despises all rules and challenges the bottom line of all rules, he doesn't even have a soul, there is a detailed description of his own wounds in the movie, it can be seen that even for He himself has no mercy. He has no legal concepts, no government concepts, or even moral concepts. He just acts on instinct, like a god, and easily decides the life and death of others, regardless of the chain reaction, and does not worry about the follow-up effects. He rampagely destroys all " normal" social relations.

This is another common status quo in society. Social destroyers, either for profit, or for selfishness, or for no reason, do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Even if the world collapses, they don't care. But the irony is that in order to maintain the stability of the surface, the society even needs to respect them, so that they work together and cover the sky with one hand. Under the calm surface, it has already begun to rot. This kind of rebel who destroys order but masters a higher order is causing the entire society to fall apart.

The policeman, he is an abandoner of social laws. He once tried to follow the shackles of the laws and become a guardian of justice, but the cruel reality hit his efforts again and again. The decline made him lament that people's hearts are not ancient. With his own strength, he can't shake the whole society. The feeling of powerlessness out of control made him depressed, and he finally chose to give up. It is hard to tell whether he has abandoned the law, or the law has abandoned him.

This is another common status quo in society. Abandoned people in society, they miss the good old days when they didn’t close their homes on the eve of the eve and didn’t pick up lost things on the road, but the reality hit their enthusiasm hard and extinguished all hope, so they began to gradually Become numb and watch with cold eyes.

If Lance's crime trilogy discusses the "social process" and presents the process of extinguishing hope step by step, then "No Country for Old Men" discusses the "social status quo", the kind of despair that goes deep into the bone marrow A little oozes out, chilling, without even seeing the possibility of any change.

At the end of the movie, the three characters all left in different ways, allowing the crime to disappear unknowingly. This abrupt stop and the unknown ending really smashed people's residual illusions about justice, and the collapse of belief is full of Feeling powerless. Even more frightening is, is this the future of society? Everyone began to give up slowly, admitting their mediocrity, accepting the darkness of society, hiding in a corner alone, and quietly spending the rest of their lives, only to find that they were alone and had nowhere to turn.

It is no exaggeration to say that "No Country for Old Men" brought the powerlessness and confusion of the real society to the extreme. Unlike the crime trilogy, they did not discuss the problem, nor did they try to find a solution, nor did they criticize it. The intention is just to state a fact calmly and indifferently: this society is dead.

From this point of view, "No Country for Old Men" is indeed better than Lance's crime trilogy, because Lance's crime trilogy is relatively limited, telling a certain aspect of society, and seeing the big from the small; "No Country for Old Men" intercepts three different groups representing different levels of society, puts them in a special criminal case, and digs deeper.

For Lance, starring in "No Country for Old Men" will undoubtedly be a special experience, not only because he will cooperate with the Coen Brothers purely as an actor, but also the understanding of the film and the interpretation of the characters on both sides during the filming process. The collision sparks, which will also promote Lance's director's perspective; and because the role of the killer is full of challenges, it is much more difficult than Jeff in "Hard Candy".

At the beginning, Lance chose to play Jeff in person, because this role inspired Lance's many inspirations, and his desire for performance was completely released. What about the killer Anton? If he were to play Anton, how would he perform? Compared with Javier Bardem in the previous life, can he surpass the breakthrough?

This is really a very interesting thing, and Lance can't help but start to picture it in his mind.

This is a contradictory character. He has almost no expression and is completely paralyzed, but at the same time there is a strong tension in him. It can be said that the tension of the whole movie comes from Anton. When people saw him for the first time, a kind of crazy chaos and madness erupted from that expressionless zombie face, and this kind of frightening temperament almost froze everyone's breath. This powerful aura of soul crushing has become the most important footnote of the entire movie.

Lance found that there were too many thoughts in his mind, complicated and chaotic, which meant that his performance would be very rich. Even if his face was expressionless, the aura revealed by his eyes and movements would affect people's impressions. But as Lance discussed with the Coen Brothers last night, Anton should be a God character above humans. There are no superfluous thoughts in his mind, only single-line decisiveness, which is brought about by this paranoia. Coldness can often bring condescending detachment, which looks real, but feels illusory, creating a kind of alienation from reality.

This is a paradox, isn't it?

It is impossible for an actor to have a blank mind. He has to think about lines, positions, shots, and performances. Even if he enters a state of ecstasy, his mind cannot be completely emptied; Killing is still killing. In addition to performing tasks, he seems to be a robot. He performs exactly according to the programming. These actions can lead to death. conduct and violations of standards.

Only when such a powerful aura bursts out from the inside out can the character be fully interpreted.

Lance couldn't help but his blood boiled again, his desire to perform and his dream of being an actor kept shouting: promise, promise.