The first is the lens. In fact, this "Two Smoking Guns" is director Guy Ritchie’s debut, but he has maturely used ingenious ideas, seamless editing and unique shots interspersed the plots of the slightly more complicated stories in various scenes. I narrate the narrative clearly in a straightforward manner, and at the same time give us a feeling of compactness and tension, which I admire very much. The opening fragment is a close-up of Ed's face, from the bridge of the nose to the eyes to the mouth, then the entire upper body appears, and finally passes through the other two big-name people, and then the characters appear. After that, the whole film uses fast shots, close shots, close-ups, backlights and other shots to appear alternately, giving a strong visual impact, and at the same time expressing the character's heart and the atmosphere of the scene with such an effect. What impressed me the most was the footage when Eddie left the casino after losing money. It lasted more than two minutes. The shot from the back and the slow motion were combined. The camera kept shaking, which made me dizzy. Ed's face was pale, behind him was a vague fighting ring and a big-name person. This shot shows Ed's inner fear and despair of the impoverishment of his future life, giving the audience a very unstable mood. In addition, there are many classic lenses in the movie. The shooting angle of the lens is mostly changed around various parts of the characters. There are few long-term shots, and more are constantly switching fast shots, using many full darks with different colors. Black is predominant, or a deep brownish-yellow tone with multiple layers. When switching between shots, "Two Boomsticks" is precise on the sidewalk. It seems that many plots can converge or trigger the next plot at the same time, but the multi-line development is very smooth.
Then there is music. I think the music of this film has given me a deep impression. The whole film is matched with the screen and broadcasts beating and rhythmic music. Rock, punk, and heavy metal are all included. Each piece of music in the film is closely integrated with each plot. The music plays the role and effect of setting off the environment or expressing the character's psychology just right, and the tension and suffocation of the character in the process of waiting for a long time without a soundtrack, and the intensity and climax of the gun battle with the gradually accelerating music rhythm. For example, when a few people selling drugs appeared on the stage, they played a song called "Police And Theives". I was very impressed by this scene. One of them crossed a cannabis tree with lush foliage, and he was slowly wearing hemp and white clothes. When I walked to the camera, the background music came ghostly sharp, and then drifted away, giving people a weird atmosphere. And when Ed was playing cards, he played "Liar". After he lost his money, he came out to play the rock music "Wanna Be Your Dog", which showed his trance after the fiasco. The slightly ridiculous music is very good. Bringing out the environment and movie scenes, playing a wonderful effect that adds the finishing touch. The music selection of the whole film is matched with the constantly jumping shots to form a sense of explosion of replacement scenes or plot changes, which arouses the emotions of the audience.
"Two Smoking Guns" is really a great post-modernist film, and the commonality of film noir, the life of the characters in it is always unrestrained, the lines are black humor, the content of tragedy and the form of comedy are intertwined and mixed. It shows the absurdity of the world and the alienation of people from society, the panic after the shattering of rational principles, and the futile self-struggle. The whole movie is full of coincidences, which makes people feel incredible. Did the man at the end of the film throw the gun into the river? We don't know, but we can only sigh the good plot, the screenwriter and the clever conception of this movie. I think this is what attracts audiences in postmodern movies.
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