There is a preface to Jin Yong's collection. The preface said: "Novels are written for people. The content of novels is people." Extending Mr. Jin Yong's words, we can say, "Art is for people. The content of art is people." As one As an art form, the core of film art is naturally human. No matter from the angle of shooting or viewing, people are the topics that movies should pay attention to.
However, just as Jin Yong’s martial arts novels are often criticized as "excessively focused on plot, it is purely the grievances of the rivers and lakes and fights and kills." One type of movie-gangster film-is often criticized as "the plot is tense." The "exciting, bloody and violent picture" appears in the eyes of the audience, so it is often impossible to appreciate the true spiritual core under the bloody scene: the portrayal and dilemma of the growth of people and even the whole mankind.
"The Good Guy" is undoubtedly the best of such films. The story takes place in the United States in the second half of the 20th century. It tells the bloody grievances of the New York Mafia. On the surface, the stories told by the work, the successful use of film art techniques, and the superb acting skills of such masters as Robert De Niro and Joe Pessi are already wonderful enough. But the spirit of the film does not stop there.
The protagonist Henry is a boy who lives in an ordinary family. Growing up in such an environment that is neither high nor low, without lethal pressure, and without motivation to survive, little Henry's future must be the same as his father, continue to live in such a humble house and lead a boring life. Unlike his classmates, Henry did not stand with books in the parking lot and looked at the Cadillac inside with envy, but helped the gang boss in the community park the luxury car. He became an enviable object and his growth path. Naturally, it is different from the students outside the railing.
Next, his life is completely different from the community he came from, and also completely different from the vast majority of Americans. Stealing cars, setting fires, killings, and committing the biggest hijacking in history can only be vented by ordinary people in the game." The impulse of primitive desire hidden in the subconscious", they experience in real life every day. They are the bosses on the street. They don’t have to line up to buy fresh bread on Sundays. They have the best seats to watch a talk show. Anyone who provokes them can “solve the problem” on the street. In short, in the words of the boss Poly in the movie, "You can do whatever the fuck you want."
This is indeed a tempting life. Waves of stimulus provoke the turbulent nerves, and the adrenaline is always soaring surrounded by women with tobacco, alcohol and medicine. Modern people are generally struggling with the eight-hour work system, but they are completely different. In modern times, scholars and thinkers are reflecting on how the ubiquitous system and so-called reason in the world we live in since the Enlightenment era have tame human beings into screws that have been alienated by money and power. If the story in the film develops so simply, and the Henrys have spent their wonderful lives contentedly in such a "flying yellow and rising", then we can shout that the way out for human liberation has been discovered-as long as people go to fight Smashing, looting and burning, fornication and looting.
However, this road is obviously unworkable and absurd. The true ending of the Henrys has confirmed this. Metaphorically, the protagonist Henry finally denounced his gangster brother, and took his wife and daughter to an unknown place to live an unknown life-this is the life he had to avoid since he was a child. However, after experiencing half a lifetime of life, he reported his brother, and at the same time said goodbye to his "ideal life", he had to re-enter such a life. There is a line in "Shawshank's Redemption": "There is a kind of bird that can't be shut down, because it shines with the light of freedom from head to toe." Here we can jokingly say "Birds never fly." Go out, because it will eventually fly back to this cage." Thoreau said that most people spend their entire lives away from what they really need. The protagonist Henry confirms this sentence ironically, but what he stays away from is not what he needs, but what he can't get rid of.
Henry is not just an individual, there are countless Henrys in this world in the past and present. It can even be said that Henry can be regarded as the epitome of all mankind. Isn't the myth that Sisyphus pushes the boulder that will roll back to the place the next day up the mountain every day, isn't it exactly the same as Henry's story? "I am pathetic and not pathetic. It is the reincarnation of suffering." Isn't the lyrics sung by Zheng Jun in China in the 1990s so similar to Henry's "Reincarnation of suffering"?
How should we face such pain, absurdity and nothingness? Where can I find the answer? The video has no answers. Thinking about the cycle of suffering will only deepen the pain, and for people struggling in life, such illusory questions have no meaning. This problem has to be left aside. Since thinking is meaningless and can't solve the problem, then indulge in after work, go for fun in time, and enjoy the moment. At any rate, I have experienced several drunken fans. At this time, we found sadly that we were walking the old way of Henrys, but the degree of indulgence was far less than that of them. So human beings have lived like this for generations, pushing the boulder up the mountain like Sisyphus, but never succeeded. This is indeed sad.
Going back to the film itself, "The Good Guy" may not be the best in the history of the wonderful gangster film, but when Martin Scorsese looks back with affection to what he has heard, seen, and experienced. Gang life, showing us such a real and full of inner emotions, as if he is reminiscing about his life that has passed away, which can't help but move people. Like "Once Upon a Time in America", "The Godfather", "Taxi Driver", and Martin Scorsese's recent film "The Irishman", this system built by several generations of directors collectively expresses The growth history and spiritual world of that generation of Americans shows a generation of passionate pursuit of the American dream and the fragmentation of ideals. It not only summarizes and reflects on the understanding of American history, but also the pursuit of American values. When can you see such a powerful reflection on Chinese history in China?
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