Billy is this The best interpreter of a point of view.
On the surface, Billy's death and revenge for Billy are an important narrative driver in the second half of the film, but in fact, it should revolve around the character's identity setting, interactions with other characters, and the final destiny. If you analyze the series of links, you will find that this person is really "dead to death".
First of all, in terms of the functional division of team members, he was designed as a sniper for tactical cover missions. Sniper? In an "experienced" team with a captain over sixty years old and an average of nearly five cards, the only thing Gao Baishuai who can be called young and powerful is to shoot black guns from a distance? It is a contempt for the younger generation in itself. In addition, after the task of the introduction part was over, this person told the captain at the bar that he planned to retire early and young. Bad impressions are beginning to emerge.
But just contempt and bad impression are vulgar, and it has become the main theme of the binary opposition between black and white in the past. The clever part of the film is that the martial arts drama has not yet begun to intersperse with literary drama, and it also "seeks truth from facts" to show a young advantage. Yu Nan's female agent came in handy.
As soon as the woman arrived, the blond old man immediately became interested. He tried to strike up a conversation, but Yu Nan didn't answer at all. A hormonal drive that quickly puts the handsome young member in the spotlight of his peers and the opposite sex, followed by a huge inner monologue from Billy. During the period, the camera repeatedly swept across his uncle teammates. Was that jealous or helpless? But whatever it is, the captain isn't included here. Uncle Shi's lack of interest in women is one of the hallmarks of his action movies—except, of course, the early stallion, and later the bomb expert. What Billy really excited about Stallone and Statham was the accelerated sprint on the second day up the mountain! Looking at the young teammate's vigorous figure, Statham asked with emotion, "Can you do it?" "No, what about you?"... Obviously neither of the brothers can.
But then, not only did the youth's physical advantage not turn into action help, but instead brought fatal trouble: After finding the secret box, the team encountered Yun Dun and his gang in the dense fog and dense forest. The reason why it is a fatal trouble is that this crisis scene is designed to be very "chic". The number of Yun Dun's group is actually not dominant, let alone forming a siege. Their only advantage was to take Billy as a hostage (the ease with which the young man missed, in stark contrast to the strength, courage and efficiency that young women and old men had shown earlier when they worked together to obtain the secret box), which made the situation worse. A complete reversal occurred. But there is one detail in the reversal process that is worth pondering: the woman actually handed over the box to save Billy! The teammates who were born and died are still silent. You are an outsider, and you are also a special agent, so you can make major compromises regardless of the interests of the country? Why? without him! The fatal attraction of young opposite sex!
And this obviously provokes Shange Winton, who is also an old man. Judging from taking the initiative to throw the gun at the end of the showdown, this anti-No. 1 should still be very particular about chivalry. So why at this moment would rather risk revenge to spare all the opponents but only not spare Billy, and still kill him with a dazzling whirlwind kick? envy! For no other reason than jealousy!
After that, Stallone's old tears when he faced the new grave of his teammates as a character in the film were real. But as a film director, deep down he was excited and comfortable. Let almost the only "sun at eight or nine o'clock" in the film go from being born, to being captured because of his incompetence, endangering the entire team, and then to being killed by the enemy. After that, no matter how dense the fire of bullets, the other members of the team are no longer there. Casualties... Looking down on young people, leaning on old people and selling off old people, isn't that what you were shooting for?
Is Stallone masturbating? At first glance, there is no doubt about it! Originally, you have proved that you are old and strong, and you just show your muscles "frankly" directly. Why bother to think of a young character who is incompatible with the whole team at every level? The mind is somewhat narrow-minded. But from another angle, looking at the status quo of the industry in which he is engaged, it seems that he really has a foundation. If you look around, none of the male stars of the same generation as "Billy" in Hollywood today can be called the successor of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willie, and Mel Gibson. Even if the characters in the film are barely "old", in fact, Jason Statham, who is in his prime, has only achieved small achievements in this field, and his influence is far from being comparable to that of his predecessors. Therefore, Stallone is not obscenity. He just used a so-called nostalgic action movie with a slightly narcissistic and hypocritical story to insinuate a real and embarrassing artistic dilemma, at least in the industry.
Back to video. After the loss of Billy, how the "world is our old man's" theme is suddenly a new subject. Stallone's way of solving this problem is: First, design a mini simplified version of the Seven Samurai scene. It's just that this scene needs some corrections. Those women who cut their hair to hide in Akira Kurosawa's version have turned into gun-wielding patron saints here! Women protect their homes with guns, but men are obediently tied up by gangsters? It doesn't make sense from a purely logical point of view. But what if from the perspective of "youth is incompetence"? Haha, very clear.
The big picture that young men need the protection of old men has formed, but the story can't go on smoothly, it will be too plain. This group of old men must also encounter danger, even the fatal danger of running out of ammunition and food. And the mysterious figure who came forward at the critical moment still had to be an old man, an even older man. And so, Chuck Norris came out to the beat of a spaghetti western!
At this point, the film has completely completed the theme propaganda. The final airport showdown is a simple routine ending after abandoning all distractions. But not many bright spots. The governor's "I'm back" doesn't really feel like much, it's far less than detecting the gun-toting skeleton on the screen. I just revisited the old version of "Total Recall" a few days ago, and I was quite impressed.
View more about The Expendables 2 reviews
