There are many interpretations of Kelly Reichardt's "First Cow", but in the final analysis, this is a movie about love or friendship between two male protagonists. The film can be divided into two parts. In the first half part, sometimes through subtle descriptions-for example, when Cookie took in the Chinese King Lu, who was hunted down, he helped him cover the quilt until Cookie woke up in the morning. , The quilt is probably the front and back shots that were covered by King Lu back on him; or when King Lu invited Cookie to his humble home as a guest, the following shots were used to show King Lu chopping firewood outside the house. The life-like scenes that Cookie cleaned in the house gradually "accumulates" the sense of simplicity/simplicity in the friendship between the two.
This sense of simplicity/innocence is also related to the character of Cookie itself. He is the kind of person who sees a lizard with all four feet upside down and will turn it back easily; he is the kind of person who feels embarrassed and pulls the trousers off when he is noticed by others and admires the new boots on his feet. In order to cover his new boots; he is the kind of person who is willing to help him take care of his children when others fight outside the pub... Cookie is kind by nature, and he treats a cow like a friend (cows against He also appears friendly), not entirely because this cow can make a lot of money for himself; Cookie is willing to pay to others, so that his friendship with King Lu is not just about maintaining money.
The work of female director Kelly Reichardt was once labeled as the Neo-Neo Realism genre by the famous film critic AO Scott of The New York Times. Her image language is restrained, but sometimes it appears delicate. We passed some of her old works over the past years-from the "Easy Rider" that can be regarded as a "decay" version, and "Old Joy" which is also about the emotion between two men, to the "Old Joy" which also uses animals as the key role. "Wendy and Lucy", to "Meek's Cutoff", which belongs to the American Westward Movement but is also an atypical Western, can be found that director Kelly Reichardt is particularly interested in wandering and lost themes and characters. "First Cow" is a "concatenation" or inheritance of Kelly Reichardt's previous works. The two male protagonists have left their homeland, and have intersected each other in their life trajectories. Due to a series of encounters, each other has established a spirit. On the link.
Before the movie, the plot development for nearly an hour was relatively slow, which can almost be summarized in one sentence-Cookie found King Lu in the woods who was hunted down by the Russians, and temporarily took him in; the two met again in the tavern soon , And started a plan to earn the first pot of gold together... Another very important character of the film, the cow, only appeared in the later part of the film, and after the two male protagonists formally "have a relationship" with the cow, The plot has accelerated its development, and even has a more thrilling and sweaty plot. The hunt in the latter part of the film seems to form a corresponding relationship with the hunting and killing by the Russians dictated by King Lu earlier, and through this paragraph, the two protagonists' personalities are different in action-one is not afraid of taking risks. The other is relatively weak and conservative (King Lu dared to jump off the river and escape, but Cookie drew back on the bank).
Many traditional western movies have shots that show magnificent or endless scenery. However, the field of view that "First Cow" shows us is always relatively narrow-like in the woods, indoors, or through the "block" of window frames to shoot outside, even the film also uses the nostalgic 1.37:1 format , To make the scene further "compressed". At the end of the film, the two male protagonists want to go down the river and leave by a fast boat (the long shot taken at the beginning of the film against the moving ship very interestingly echoes this end), but in the end they should not be able to escape The woods (the two met in the woods and died in the woods) , cannot escape their own destiny; and the 1.37:1 frame is like a restriction for the two, and they were set at the beginning of the movie The fate of (this can also be reflected in the fact that dogs and children found their wreckage at the beginning of the film).
Colonization is accompanied by looting. In "First Cow", the Chief Factor from England (played by Toby Jones) should have belonged to the "predatory" side, but the irony is that the cows with good blood he bought from Europe have milk " "Resources" were "looted" by the heroes Cookie and King Lu. Cookie and King Lu secretly used Chief Factor’s milk to make cakes or Clafoutis and sold them back to him, but Chief Factor didn’t notice it. Ironically, it was Chief who found Cookie and King Lu stealing milk. Factor’s Indian servants-this scene where the Indians face the two male protagonists is reminiscent of the scene of the invaders they faced when they were colonized, but the object he wanted to protect was such as Chief Factor. Colonizer.
One of the more important passages in this film is the scene where Cookie and King Lu send their homemade Clafoutis to Chief Factor's house. When the two of Yu were about to arrive, there was a long horizontally rotating shot that impressed me, to link the walk of the two outside the house with the dialogue and reaction of the characters inside the house. In this paragraph of the movie, Cookie officially said his real name, and the capture of beavers mentioned in this paragraph should also have puns—beavers and Indians, capture and colonization, fashion and plunder, preciousness Milk and beaver skin...There are too many interpretations here. Afterwards, Chief Factor actually said that his cow can be squeezed out of less milk (we can pay attention to the subtle changes in the expressions of the two male protagonists at this time), and proposed to take everyone to see his cow. When everyone left one by one, the camera did not switch to the outside of the house, but still "stayed" to focus on the two Indian women (the show of friendship between the two can echo the relationship between the two male protagonists).
The passage where Cookie and King Lu sent Clafoutis to Chief Factor’s home and was appreciated is the most "highlight" moment in the film. After the fight, the fate of the two took a turn for the worse, and they were even hunted down like beavers (Cookie once) Employed by a hunting company, but ironically became the subject of capture in the latter part of the movie) . Cookie, who was hiding, seemed to be taken in by the Indians. He saw an old man who looked like both a Chinese and an Indian doing strange actions (again looking out through the window) in a vague manner. Such a somewhat inexplicable scene can be understood as Cookie’s illusion or dream. The old man’s actions are like a "dialogue" with the world and nature (echoing the contact between Cookie and cows, "dialogue"), and it reflects Cookie who is not adventurous. , The desire for a comfortable and peaceful life (he had hoped that one day, he could open a hotel).
At the end of the movie, the two tired male protagonists lie down under a tree to rest. King Lu thinks no one will find them, but the servant who helps Chief Factor raise the cows is following them. This servant can be said to be a low-key character in this film that will attract the attention of the audience. From the moment he couldn’t buy Cookie’s homemade fried pancakes, we may have noticed this character, and should still be there. There is "below". The movie leaves everyone with an open but already set ending (because of the beginning). Although this ending appears cruel, it still gives the wild western environment at that time, sinister or "people cannibalism". The era of capitalist wealth accumulation has brought rare and a little moving warmth.
All the works shot by female director Kelly Reichardt up to now are basically low-cost productions, but most of them will have delicate observations and portrayals that are easier for female directors to show. In "First Cow", she tried to speed up the rhythm in the latter part, and the plot became more dramatic. However, the film has not been "deteriorated" and the original style is still there. The whole work is still under Kelly Reichardt's grasp. ; Her technique is still introverted (like Cookie's character), and still does not impose too much emotion on the audience, but it allows us to continue to feel the characters and their changes at close range.
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