This article is from the public number: NorthPark (ID: northpark2018) , author: Kai Xiong tough, title figure from: Sean McCabe
Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro have played the same role in “Hollywood” and “Irish”: a male androgen back from the battlefield, facing the test of time Middle-aged white male. This role model has been popular in Hollywood for decades, but it has become relatively rare under the recent wave of political correctness that emphasizes the perspective of minority care. But perhaps because of this, the two famous blockbuster films released at the end of the year will leave such deep visual and plot impact on the audience.
The war experience is both traumatic and motivated for subsequent actions, explaining the character’s rational, cold, but combative temperament, and extraordinary will and ability. Androgen flourishes the fullness of the movie’s plot, placing characters in the Colosseum of the “power struggle”. Although this “power” is in the classical sense, and the feminist deconstruction may only leave fame and fortune ego, the themes of the two films-brotherhood, loyalty and betrayal, ascent and fall-themselves Just like the Roman Colosseum, it is the product of classical aesthetics.
Middle-aged white men are even more interesting settings. If a few years ago, Oscar ’s best film winner “Moonlight Boy”, “The Story of Water Shape” and “Green Book”, many characters are located at the “center of the edge”, that is, black, LGBT, disability, and the bottom of society. In one, the protagonists of “Hollywood” and “The Irish” are on the “edge of the center”. The former portrays the feeling of being squeezed by one-dimensionality to create emotion and thinking. Most of the goals pursued are “love” and “self”; the latter has a strong desire to return to the center, while also having more or less ability and opportunity. The feeling of being squeezed, the feeling of endeavor, and the feeling of drop are mutually contrasting.
In the past of Hollywood, Leonardo ’s over-experienced actor Rick is worried and anxious about his career in the Beverly Hills mansion, and his neighbor is the movie industry.Rising star Polanski. Pete as his stand-in actor Cliff, his delicate situation is concentrated in the scene where he confronted Bruce Lee: Cliff had a good employer who tried his best to protect him, but was not trusted by others in the industry because of “killing his wife” Can survive in this Hollywood full of deception, pretense and chaos, but temperament and skill also cause a lot of trouble for themselves.
De Niro ’s identity in The Irish is more complicated. Frank is at the junction of two sets of powers, one is the Italian Mafia, the other is the American Trucker Union, and the other is Russell. Belongs to the confident Jimmy Hoffa. When the two sets of power fell apart, Frank made his own choice- Of course, it turns out that these two sets of power are actually one set, that is, time . When this group of people can no longer manipulate presidential elections, urban construction, and foreign wars as in the past, “power” inevitably goes to the grave with its followers.
So Rick and Cliff are not just the era puppets created by Quentin in order to reminisce the past and complete the “mystery” complex, but this is considered a “geek” by Hollywood, but his work is in the market and critics. The self-projection of the director who almost never missed.
Frank is more than just a legendary tandem in this gangster epic—as far as the movie is concerned, admittedly, as some film critics have said, viewers will feel that Joe Percy and Al Passy Nuo’s three-dimensional and vivid image of Russell and Jimmy Hoffa surpasses Frank-77-year-old Martin clearly uses this role to conduct a review of his life.
Like Quentin ’s past works, “Hollywood” is still a big narrative with B-level elements, but 56-year-old, newly-wed Quentin still has grown: Beauty and foot fetish Yes, but the muse of art and psychology is gone. When the hippie girl “pussycat” finally got into Cliff’s car, lying on Cliff’s tiptoes against the window, the two talked and laughed in the sunshine of California, and no one thought Quentin would finally Characterize the girl and the group she represents as the most prominent harlequin in the entire movie.
Rick and Cliff are two sides of the same -one is Quentin who appeared in Vanity Fair, and the other is Quentin who is strong and firm in the actual creative process. In other words, one is to face the noisy reality of Quentin, and the other is to be immersed in the movie itself. In interviews, Quentin often pointed out that the media paid too much attention to celebrities and paid insufficient attention to the specific filming procedures and behind-the-scenes work. Cliff’s role can also be regarded as a counterattack in this regard.
In this perspective, other characters can also be compared with reality: in the film industry, there are scammers like Bruce Lee, weird and exaggerated silver-haired directors, but there are also parts that are cute like that talented actor, let alone it Rick and Cliff’s timeless spiritual home. Hippies are the “neo-liberals” after the traditional liberals. At one time, Cliff was attracted by the charm of Cliff, but in the process of getting along, Cliff thought that the hippies were shallow and weak, and the hippies felt that Cliff was too “hard” and too fierce-just as Quentin With a new generation of young people who have grown up in a wave of political correctness.
So the tragic and bright ending of “Hollywood” is a metaphor for Quentin’s self-confidence in overcoming difficulties.
Rick’s career success (And it has nothing to do with abstinence. Attributing the initial failure to alcohol is obviously Rick’s unconfident behavior at the time.) , Brought back an exotic beauty as his wife (just as Quentin married a 20-year-old Israeli female singer in reality) , Cliff Ruthlessly mocks the naivety, ignorance, and weakness of the younger generation of hippies. (As this film touches many of Hollywood’s correct imprisonments, such as for sexual crime A depiction of Roman Polanski, who fled to Europe-last year Quentin also apologized to the women victims of the case for calling Polanski “not a rape” in public. After the violent action of the Quentin-style mansion, everything returned to calm.
Also talk about the use of music in this movie. Quentin’s MatchMusic has always been talked about, and the soundtrack of this film is also excellent, but as a film whose subject matter is pop culture, the intertextuality of the soundtrack and plot is more interesting. In one place, Polanski danced at home with the popular mainstream band Paul Revere & the Raiders. Sharon joked that he wanted to tell his friend Jim Morrison (Pioneer Art Lead singer of The Bands) . Quentin, who loves popular culture and hermitism, has once again expressed his dialectical attitude towards elegance and vulgarity.
When Rick and Cliff returned from Italy to the United States, The Rolling Stones’ Baby You’re Out of Time . As a representative of the hippie band in the 1960s, Quentin’s reference to the Rolling Stones music clearly shows that he has no prejudice against hippie culture itself, but this song is ironic: Who is out of time? Rick, who has just started his second career? Cliffs leaving Rick? Or the Hollywood film industry, the hippies?
Obviously not or both, the real thing is the fierce sixties . This is why, although “Hollywood” is “narcissistic”, it still looks sober: Quentin understands that the success of an individual cannot change the ruthlessness of time, and the good old days are gone, so let the story stay in pleasure and enmity Moment.
The “Irish” is just the opposite. After Frank’s climax of killing Jimmy Hoffa, Old Martin took another 40 minutes. The characters in the play are aging, the power building collapses, the turning point of the plot and the decline of things in reality. It’s the same, suddenly, without warning.
Martin starts staring at death with the eyes of Frank: he laments the passing of time, looking for what he didLooking for a proper excuse, and at the same time, I feel sorry for “getting this way”. He sought religious comfort and longed for family warmth.
So why? Martin is obviously speculative, empathic, and not critical of Frank. In his films for so many years, he has always emphasized individual initiative. Didn’t Frank do it?
As a child born in the early 1940s, the old Martin in reality is actually the hippie generation in “Hollywood”. The first short film made while reading a movie at New York University was the theme of antiwar. However, when facing the younger generation, instead, Martin was worried that the next generation would lack creativity. (This is why he had a beef with Marvel some time ago) Isn’t it “living the look I hate”?
So “Irish” is just a shell of a gangster movie. If there are no forty minutes, the theme of the movie is still loyalty, etc., but after adding it, the theme becomes time itself. Then the motive of all actions is attributed to helplessness. This helplessness is not because of the weakness of human nature, but because of the insignificance of people in front of the world. The wonderful past events have turned into moments, not because the impact is small, but because the impact is no matter how big Will be erased by eternity.
And outside of the show, Martin ’s criticism of Marvel became genuine because of his gentleness: In an article for the New York Times, he explained that he just did n’t want to The intensive production mode limits the artistic imagination of young creators.
The Weibo blogger “Mr. Qianlian Jiaoyang Yang” said before that for the same emotion, women / Gay will be described as “Even if there is a day to sing, whoever sings again, he cannot come to the scene, and still looks like Live alive “ (Twins singing, written by Huang Weiwen) , the straight man is” Crossing the hill, only to find no one waiting. Chattering, and then Do not call back gentleness “ (Li Zongsheng sings) .
From this perspective, “Irish” is still a straight man’s position, a “traditional liberalism” position, fully calling on the initiative and then regretting it from the back; the “new liberal” “political correctness” is biased The so-called “female / Gay” perspective is based on the lack of reality, and is deduced and sentimental. On the other hand, the core of the two is actually the sameCommon, longing to achieve the same goal.
This is why the title is “Martin and Quentin, there is no middle-aged crisis.” Although “Hollywood” and “Irish” are discussing the passage of time, the two directors apparently have not fallen into the external strength or sense of nothingness caused by tiredness and boredom-both of them appear on their Chinese disciple Jiang Wen— — Instead, it makes the movie look better or deeper in an advanced way.
When the awards season is approaching, these two more traditional and novel works have caused a stir in the market and the critics. And just as Trump’s first term was about to end, they were also pointing the way for what would be the next step in Hollywood, which was almost paranoid.
This article is from the public number: NorthPark (ID: northpark2018) , author: Ren Xiong Kai