"The Courier" filmed in 2009 is also such a film. It does not directly face the cruelty of war, but uses the special occupation of the protagonist Will to reflect the cruelty of war. In essence, it also thoroughly analyzes the vulnerability of the soldiers returning from the battlefield and the trauma of war.
The most touching scene in the film is the scene where Will and veteran Stone visit the families of every victim. The scenes of the visit are absolutely real and heart-wrenching. The different reactions of different families, given the feelings of the deceased relatives, we cannot help but be moved. When the father played by Stephen Buscemi heard the bad news, he fought the soldiers and finally apologized; the old couple at the convenience store was so angry that he vomited out on the spot; the daughter secretly married and annoyed his father, but heard that the son-in-law was killed. After the news, I cried with my daughter...every scene is like nailing to our hearts. Facing the death of relatives, their fragile feelings are exposed to everyone. And Will, who was also devastated by the war, would like to convey this misfortune to the families of the many victims, and his pain will always be with him.
The screenwriter has portrayed Will's character to be extremely real, and of course this is also due to Ben Foster's introverted performance. Will's ex-girlfriend abandoned him, and his psychological trauma (darkness, depression and distortion) was exposed due to Yizheng's physical trauma (eye disease and leg injury). The wedding scene of his ex-girlfriend was the moment when he was in the lowest mood, and the novice who fell in love with the widow of the fallen soldier was caught in a moral dilemma. His level of delicacy of feelings is quite different from the blunt "procedures and guidelines" followed by veteran Stone. On the surface, Stone appears to be self-conscious, but his heart is as lonely as Will, but what he seeks is alcohol and prostitutes, he Using these as his "family straw", all outward fortitude is an illusion, in fact he and Will are both homeless wanderers. The differences between Will and Stone’s age, personality, and concepts have made the story more vivid and dramatic. Through the mutual influence and interaction between their personalities, it is shown that although they are like steel soldiers on the battlefield, they are in reality. The fragility and helplessness reflected in life.
The script co-written by the screenwriters Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman was very sharp and won the best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival. Aside from Will and Stone’s "death messenger" work, the last forty minutes of the film are mainly about the calm feelings between Will and the widow and the performance of the fragility of the two male protagonists, although the theme is not more than an hour before. Sharp, but still wonderful. The second half conveys that the soldiers return home. The "home" here is not home in a simple sense. It's their return to normal society and the "homecoming" of normal emotions. Will and Stone's driving route and mental journey along the way are more like a road movie, but people who travel outside always have to go home. Will is a hero on the battlefield, but he plays the role of a scum in the family because he brings the emotions on the battlefield to his home. The widow’s deceased husband was also the same during his lifetime—"I love the old man...this (referring to the husband’s shirt) is full of anger and fear, and it has already taken over his smell." At one time, I thought the widow was a slutty. Woman, when I heard this sentence, I realized that I had misunderstood her all the time, and what made me truly realize was that he saw his own sins. The heroes who had dedicated themselves to the country in the past have always sealed their bodies from the battlefield. The fire was raging, so that the anger slowly swallowed the family without knowing it.
Indeed, soldiers returning from the battlefield did not experience their own changes. This psychological trauma made them completely separated from social life. Although Will, as a "death messenger", is driving the basic principles of humanitarianism, the war has violated the basic principles of humanitarianism. They have brought endless pain to soldiers both physically and psychologically.
During the death service in the past three months, Will’s psychology has changed, and the venting at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend and the clarification of misunderstandings about the widow have completely awakened him. I really like the film’s handling of the delicate feelings between him and the widow. After the widow told Will the story of the "shirt", the audience clearly realized that she loved the husband before the war, and Will also understood As far as the roles he played in the family in the past, in fact, both of them are victims of war, and both need spiritual comfort. At the end of the film, we see the widow and Will pacing into the house. This kind of treatment is the beautiful vision of returning the soldiers to civilian life and regaining their faith after the war.
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