Picturesque scenery, poetic mirror language

Simeon 2021-12-31 08:02:00

Terrence Malick’s new work has stoked the appetite of all walks of life, from the President of Cannes to ordinary fans, from the niche fans of Terrence to the fans of Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. . However, after the planned premiere of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010 was aborted, its name was not seen in the competition list of the Venice Film Festival in September. The film is still in post-production and its release will be postponed indefinitely, perhaps in 2011 in Cannes. The film festival went on smoothly, so it's not bad.

As a director, Terrence's degree of slowness is almost hateful to movie fans. On average, it took nearly 8 years to produce one. There are very few works, and there is no suspicion of listing information in all of them: "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters" in 73, "Day of Heaven" in 1978, "Thin Red Line" in 1998, "New World" in 2005, and then, the present The "Tree of Life", which has been under construction for a long time, has not been completed. Now it seems that as a debut work, "Poor Mountains and Evil Waters" is not surprising and easier to understand. "Poor Mountains and Evil Waters" reveals some common characteristics of all his works, although this is only an afterthought.

His works are in the same line as his calm personality, and this person doesn't seem to care about genre, business, drama, etc. at all. On different occasions and contexts, some directors have been given the title of image poets, and some of them are not lacking in second-rate titles. No matter how you count the image poets, you must count Terrence.

Just telling the plot of "Poor Mountains and Evil Waters", it sounds like a pair of mandarin ducks desperately bound to the world, or in a common saying: like a cheap romantic novel, similar stories have 67 years of Arthur Payne’s " "Bonnie and Clyde" and later "California Killer" starring Brad Pitt in 1993, and Oliver Stone's "Born Murderer" in 1994. Regarding the confrontation between police and robber, there are too many examples in the police films of the 1930s, such as Fritz Lang's "Furious." All these films have some similarities in content with "Poor Mountains and Evil Water", and they are far from the essence of the core.

The logic followed by the characters in Terrence's film is a simple, unmotivated psychological push. The resulting behavior may be good or evil, but it must have a natural beauty that does not need to be praised. Unlike "Bonnie and Clyde" and other films, "Poor Mountains and Waters" abandons social significance to a certain extent. It also involves society's influence on the protagonist (harm), but this is the same as the protagonist’s motivation, and the original intention is innocent. .

Both "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters" and later "Days in Paradise" contained a lot of empty shots. The director moved his love for the beauty of nature to the screen one by one. Note that these landscapes are not the same as tourist posters such as postcards. I love nature, and agriculture is the closest to nature. The male protagonists in these two films are engaged in agriculture-related work. But the director does not exclude modern civilization (industry), although it is the prejudice (class, occupation) brought by modern civilization that led to the tragedy of "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters". In "Day of Heaven", agriculture and industry (threshers, trains) constitute a beautiful and poetic picture, and the machine is full of vitality just like the human itself. Terrence is the director’s agricultural poet.

The landscapes of the Midwestern United States in the shots of "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters" and "Day of Heaven" are not the same as those in Western films. In order to highlight the heroic image in Western films, the landscapes are mostly sandy, desolate, and uncultivated land; the Midwestern landscapes in Terrence's films are mostly grasslands and woods, full of vitality, Terrence is choosing for nature Western landscape, non-western film directors must be "western" for the west.

The relationship between the characters and society in the film is harmonious on many levels (a scene of the protagonist and the policeman near the end of "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters"). The relationship between men and women in "Poor Mountains and Evil Waters" and the subsequent "Day of Heaven" maintain a high degree of consistency, and the two have a laissez-faire attitude towards the behavior of both parties most of the time. They love each other without interference, a very modern way of love.

Throughout the whole film, the poetry of the film is abstract and intimate, not as classical and obscure as the pictures in Tarkovsky's films. The story of refusal to romanticize is advanced by the rein-style narrative with some indulgent faith, but the restrained emotion keeps the camera at a moderate distance. After all, its poetry is full of vitality, rather than dry, abstract and distant expressions. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as picturesque and poetic in the language of the lens.

View more about Badlands reviews

Extended Reading
  • Scarlett 2022-03-26 09:01:07

    "In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people." It's the most romantic road crime movie ever, with just the right rhythm, and the soundtrack and the scenery of the American South are so beautiful. The male lead is like James Dean.

  • Erling 2021-12-31 08:02:00

    The brewing work of "Day in Heaven", it's also very beautiful

Badlands quotes

  • Holly Sargis: [Last lines of the film]

    [Voiceover]

    Holly Sargis: Kit and I were taken back to South Dakota. They kept him in solitary, so he didn't have a chance to get acquainted with the other inmates, though he was sure they'd like him, especially the murderers. Myself, I got off with probation and a lot of nasty looks. Later I married the son of the lawyer who defended me. Kit went to sleep in the courtroom while his confession was being read, and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair. On a warm spring night, six months later, after donating his body to science, he did.

    Kit Carruthers: Sir... Where'd you get that hat?

    Trooper: State.

    Kit Carruthers: Boy, I'd like to buy me one of those.

    Trooper: [the trooper smiles] You're quite an individual, Kit.

    Kit Carruthers: Think they'll take that into consideration?

  • Kit Carruthers: Hey, I found a toaster.