I downloaded this film a long time ago, and kept it on my hard drive for a while, and I couldn’t watch it. First, the title was a bit inconspicuous. Second, the background of the story was in Arizona, USA. I'm not interested in Westerns; San Lai is not very interested in the subject of firefighting. Even though it received rave reviews, I always thought it was a cliché and moving inspirational film. The ending must be the sacrifice of the whole team to sublimate the theme and make the audience cry. Until recently, I wanted to make a personal inventory of my favorite movies of the year. After watching Carnival, Buddha Plath, Darkest Hour, Genius Gunner, Three Billboards, and Dunkirk, I never chose one that would make me Without hesitation, I gave the title of "2017 Favorites" to both hands, so I finally opened this film on a weekend night, two words: "It's really fragrant!"
As a movie with the main theme of heroism, "Going Forward" is unusually flat. This kind of blandness first comes from the characters in the film; most of the members of the firefighting team in the film live a very simple and ordinary life, even laziness. They have no lofty pursuits, let alone detached ideals and life goals. Doing this job is not for the reasons of protecting nature or maintaining ecology, or it is not the main reason, it is more just to support the family, everyone is happy together, and the daily pastime is to drink and sing. Sing, bring a baby, and occasionally joke with teammates;
This kind of dull feeling runs through the whole movie, including the ending. The ending of "Going Forward" is really bland, even a little "suffering". From encountering danger to the sacrifice of the whole team, there are only ten minutes of footage, no imagination. Zhong fought against the fire demons at all costs, and did not risk their lives to protect national property, and their sacrifices did not exchange for more time for the residents to retreat, so they gave their lives suddenly in vain. Instead, it added fuel to the fire, making the collaboration error within the team the cause of this tragedy. How can there be a movie with the main theme that expresses a personal hero like this?
Thinking back carefully, the experience of the firefighters shown in the whole film is actually quite smooth. They passed the assessment of becoming a regular once and participated in about 4 or 5 fire fighting. Except for the accident at the end, the rest are also very easy. , hardly encountered any major challenges; this is completely different from the emotional points buried in regular inspirational films. To put it bluntly, such a story setting is not inspirational at all; however, I was indeed moved by such a "suffering" story. So, where did I start liking this movie when I saw it? I think maybe when I saw Brandon and Mike with the baby, maybe when I saw Mike scare Brandon with a fake snake, maybe when the team sat on the edge of a cliff and scored the burning trees , maybe when a group of people sang and danced in the bar, all these details made me feel that this group of cute idiots are ordinary people like me, which infinitely narrowed the distance between the characters and the audience, and made the audience feel Intimacy, and even the sudden tragedy at the end, the audience's feelings were quickly mobilized, they were recognized and respected for everything they had paid, and they regretted it and wept. In this film, what moves people is not the selfless dedication, the spirit of seeing death as home, nor the hero who is aloof and omnipotent, but a group of real people.
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