street where the Wheeler and his wife lived was called "Revolutionary Road"!
The revolution defined on Wikipedia is "a kind of drastic change. It is often an interest group that uses violence and other drastic means to attack another interest group, thereby forming a series of changes in different interest patterns." Revolution represents change and breaks the original. Some harmonious relations, seek and establish a new order.
The series of disputes between the Wheeler and his wife can basically be said to be an ongoing revolution, a revolution to the siege of marriage. But is the content of the revolution only in the marriage relationship? In other words, if the Wheeler and his wife finally divorced, will they be able to break through the dull and suffocating life and find a new level of spiritual freedom?
"Road to Revolution" is the first novel by author Richard Yates. This work published in 1961 is full of political intent. It represents a rebellion against the stylized American dream and the demise of the American spirit of rebellion in the 1950s. Strong dissatisfaction. The novel is adapted into a movie, and it can be described as perfection from the director to the choice of actors. Director Sam Mendes became famous for directing "American Beauty", and his portrayal of the middle-aged crisis in the United States can be described as vivid; the couple between the protagonists Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in 1997 "Titanic" has long become a classic on the screen. Years later, it is very exciting to play the role of a couple who will break the shackles of the siege. The performance of the two in the film is almost impeccable, and everyone is pushed to the edge of nowhere to break out. It is terrifyingly real.
Throughout the film, Yates’ political claims that belonged to the 1960s have faded to no trace in the film. Sam Mendes seems to deliberately put the focus on the Wheeler and his wife, discussing the matter and avoiding talking about the era represented by April or Frank. significance. Despite the lack of the political smell of the original, this perhaps "degraded" siege was actually quite terrifying, and it was so dark that it was creepy.
(two)
In the story, the Wheeler couple who lives in Connecticut try to break the stereotype and pursue their ideal life. The exit is to go to Paris, although Paris may not be much different from New York, which is very close at hand. The specific form of the "revolution" is not important, what is important is the courage and determination to embark on the "revolutionary road." Such a decision is truly shocking in the dull and conservative Connecticut community. The neighbors are embarrassed and the colleagues are shocked. Even the mentally ill son of the Wheeler couple's real estate agent, Michael Shannon, also admires and admires them: "Many people Both are aware of the emptiness of life. But to admit despair, it really takes courage!"
Such a decision rejuvenated the relationship between husband and wife who had already gone up and down. Both of them really felt better about themselves and enjoyed people’s feelings. With a strange vision, he was complacent about his escape from a dead end and being good at it.
Here, I think a very key "revolutionary" motive is the source of this transcendent public, and the effort to preserve this transcendence with every effort. In the eyes of the neighbors of the Wheelers, this maverick performance art is incomprehensible and pitiful (if not more radical and contemptuous). But is the idea of "beyond the masses" inherently wrong? Or in other words, how does one define oneself as a member of the general public, or an extraordinary person who surpasses the general public’s code of conduct and thinking to some extent from a certain angle? One more question, is the transcendence in thought and the transcendence in action often out of touch? And is this disconnection itself common, common, and normal?
(three)
Frank, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, can be said to be his most successful screen image in recent years. Many details can be called classics. For example, he wore an old gray suit and a woolen hat. He came out of the train station and mixed with the endless crowd of office workers wearing the same clothes. The picture is almost a reproduction of the famous 1951 Golconde by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte! Here is an arrangement that is very colorful: Frank's suit is open, revealing the shirt and tie inside. It is obvious that compared with other well-behaved office workers, Frank has an inner vitality to burst out. His expression is "Yes." People of stories". And on his birthday, he took the company secretary out to dinner. When he talked about his father’s life as a salesman in Knox, and how disdainful he was to follow suit, his face full of loneliness and loneliness made people feel distressed; but it was almost big with April. When they fought, the two of them murmured at each other, his expressions were distorted and his eyes burst, which made people shudder. At the end of the film, in the twilight, he ran wildly in the neighborhood hidden by the trees, the shadows of the trees and the houses quickly crossed and merged, echoing the vigor and loneliness he began, with emotion, heartache, regret, mixed flavors, but a thousand words. It can only be turned into a long silent sigh, diluted with the music in the endless darkness.
What did Frank in the movie do wrong?
He is not a very competent husband, but he is not bad either. As he said, he was doing uninteresting and boring work day after day, struggling to make money to support his family, and his duties as a father and husband were indeed fulfilled; but at the same time he was a cowardly and hypocritical person, and his words and deeds were not. Oneness Now he does not insist on ideals, is unfaithful to marriage, and is dishonest to himself. Frank is of course not a bad person, at best he is a little awkward. Putting him in real life to analyze what he did wrong, there is really no substantive and meaningful answer.
But often, the dissolution of marriage and the collapse of life are not because one party really did something wrong. What is concealed by right and wrong on the surface has always been a deeper level of disharmony: worldview, values, or the basic idea of life.
To sum up the tragedy of Frank and April, it is because one is willing to reach a compromise with life—regardless of whether the path is self-paralysis or value rediscovery; while the other is stubborn and unwilling to make concessions.
(Four)
April’s experience is almost the same as Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) in the film "The Moment" filmed by British director Stephen Daldry in 2002. Even in a sense, April’s mental journey may reflect Laura’s desperation. reason.
Many people do not sympathize with April, because the attitude of thinking that she is superior to others has violated the ordinary fortress of the public. If on the Internet, April may be called the "two-literature youth" ("literary youth" + "literary youth") to ridicule, and it can even be compared to the experience of Wang Cailing in Gu Changwei's "Li Chun" if she really goes After arriving in Paris, what is the situation different from Wang Cailing, who is tirelessly dreaming of Beijing.
What's interesting is that Laura in "The Moment" found a way out, and Wang Cailing in "Li Chun" also found a way to compromise with life, but April went on the road without hesitation, just like Woolf, desperately fighting fate . And the guy who caused April to fall to the end was the crazy mathematician—how brilliant his insight into the world, how sharp his words, and how deadly the damage he caused! The lunatic’s mother, the real estate agent, Mrs. Givins (Kathy Bates) kept defending her son’s crazy words, saying, "He is sick, he is sick"-but we as audiences can't help but tremble and ask ourselves, in reality, what is Who is the lunatic who reverses black and white?
Is April too much desire? Not willing to be ordinary?
I think there is no correct answer. Everyone has a different understanding of April. But I personally cannot agree with the method of suppressing desires, just like the fundamental nature of compromise and uncompromising irreconcilable. Desire cannot be suppressed. Once it occurs, it cannot be eliminated and can only be satisfied or transferred. The suppressed desire is only temporarily invisible, and in the future will jump out like a shadow in various ways such as regret, regret, or daydreaming.
What's more, what April seeks, summed up in Frank’s words, is the purest and most true perception of the world ("I wanna real feel things, really, feel them."). She doesn't want to spend the rest of her life in a muddle-headed manner, she wants to find life. The true meaning of-all of these are self-realization needs in Maslow's basic needs hierarchy, which is human nature. Marriage should not be an excuse to give up the need for self-fulfillment, not even family. What April is really constrained is the vision, the way of self-realization.
Of course April is stubborn. On the one hand, her time has certain limitations. If the story moves to modern America, abortion is legal, or divorce is as common as buying an apple on the street, and traveling alone is more fashionable, then I am afraid that tragedy will not be the only result. But just as Sam Mendes weakened the original significance of the story, the real dilemma that April faced will not disappear because of the progress of the times. On the other hand, even if the historical limitations disappear, April still faces the contradiction that dream reality cannot be reflected: If we are unable to change reality, do we have to give up our dreams to survive? Is the demise of idealism as inevitable as the aging of life? When a person reaches the end of the road and can only stand still, should one use false self-paralysis to give the meaning of the rest of life, or should he admit the desperate situation frankly? What about after admission? How to open up new ways to satisfy those fundamental desires that cannot be suppressed?
I have no answer.
I have only one interesting observation: in "The Moment", Laura lay in a humble hotel room and let the desperate flood cover her body, but finally she thought of her son; Wang Cailing in "Li Chun" adopted the orphan Xiaofan (the name The symbolic meaning of "Can’t be ignored), finally put down the shelf of the singer, wash your hands and make soup; more interesting is in another film of the same theme played by Kate Winslet "As a Mother" (2006, director and screenwriter Todd Field In ), the protagonist Sara's final return to life is still because of the child.
Children are the eternal hope of mankind. Fighting with the despair at the end of the road with children seems invincible. But in "Road to Revolution," April and Frank were forced to disintegrate, in addition to the psychiatric mathematician, there was also a baby who was just three months old. This "revolution" definitely raises a more difficult and gloomy question than previous works of the same subject: if even the eternal hope is swallowed by despair, if all the roads in front of us, all the roads, have come to an end, who will pay? Can you survive from death?
In the movie, April tried the actor, the housewife and the three roads of Paris that they had never met, but unfortunately they all lost. I sympathize with April. Although she is noble, stubborn, impractical, and ultimately "revolutionary failure", she is like Woolf, at least fought. Sober death may not be desirable, but the attitude of resistance should win respect, especially in the social tide that is chasing along with the crowd.
(5)
The example of the Wheelers may be extreme. The conflict is dramatized and exaggerated on the screen, and in real life, after all, there are only a few people who insist on being bullshit like April. I find it ridiculous, this thought turned out to be my only comfort after the film ended. I want to find some revelation of the remaining hope from the details of "Road to Revolution", even if it is only a glimmer of stars, but the result is pitch black, as cold as Yu Hua's novel, it makes people take a few breaths, from head to toe. .
The deep thinking inspired by the film cannot be separated from the depth of the original novel, nor can it be separated from the director's perspective, nor can it be separated from the superb and realistic performance. Needless to say, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, especially Leo, has made amazing progress; but it is not the protagonist who is the most brilliant in the film, but the various supporting roles are brilliant, and the tiny details are refined, making people shine in front of them. The most prominent among them, of course, is the psychiatric mathematician John played by Michael Shannon: both appearances are responsible for the incisive lines of "pointing questions", and each time is the driving force that pushes the film to a climax. If he picks the Oscar for Best Male The supporting role is by no means an exaggeration. Maureen Grube (Rising Star Zoe Kazan), Frank’s little girl secretary in the city, is charming, and Mr. Givins (Richard Easton) who finished the film is also unforgettable: Turn off the hearing aids connected to the outside world, and sink into complete loneliness and loneliness. Darkness...
Such dense and excellent supporting role performance makes it difficult for Kate and Leo to stand out in the performance without the green leaves. I predict that neither of them will win the Oscar for Best Actress or Actor (nominations are inevitable), but the film as a whole is very expected to win the 81st Oscar for Best Picture. Sam Mendes and Gus Van Sant may be compared. Going for the best director-I sincerely hope so.
The questions raised by "Road to Revolution" far exceed the answers it gives, or in other words, it does not provide any specific answers to break away from the dead end. In reality, not all problems have solutions. Sometimes, it may only be through acknowledgment of weakness that you can start to be strong. If we must summarize the practical significance of this film that has diminished political views out of the background of the times, I think that is to let each of us carefully re-examine our lives and really start thinking.
After thinking about it, I hope you and I can finally see the hope at the end of the road.
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