Dustin Hoffman: The Charm of Little People

Edison 2021-11-13 08:01:24

The little people on the screen are actually the objects I care about most. No matter how much I am fascinated by the heroes in the action movies, the vicious old man in the gangster movies, I still have to return to reality and be an ordinary little person. At this time, the movie depicting small people found me as accurately as a sharpshooter, and took me extremely directly, extremely domineering, and extremely naked.

The first little person in my mind is Dustin Hoffman. Both De Niro and Pacino look so extraordinary. As long as there is a little bit of publicity (even a small role) in the film, the two of them will immediately show outstanding characteristics, and they can't be washed. Lose. For Hoffman, what can't be washed away is his little character.

From a young age, Hoffman was not a handsome actor. Ahem, everyone knows that I am going to say "Graduate" this time. In "Graduate", Hoffman's physical acting skills are not as perfect as the 90s. The most touching part of him is his bewildered eyes. These eyes, from the beginning of the "sound of silence" melody, accompanied our sight, until the end, until he snatched Elaine back, the confusion still did not disappear. College students are actually confused, but our country’s college students are often confused when they are freshmen and sophomores. When they graduate, they leave the confusion behind and concentrate on finding jobs. Foreigners are often unable to turn their brains. They always take this kind of spiritual questioning very seriously, otherwise there will be no reflections and regressions like "The Matrix" (KaKa, using a psychological term) Conscious movie works too. After watching "Black", many people said to the sentence "free your mind" in it: "Isn't this just idealism?" Is it really that simple?

Pull back to "The Graduate". After reading the first time, I think the protagonist Ben is happy: he has been searching for his career and love, and now he has found one of them. Isn’t that happy? But I watched it twice later, and the more I watched it, the more I became suspicious: Did he really find his love? Young people are often impulsive and tend to project their objects on a specific person. The more confused and at a loss, the easier it is to recognize a person as an object. At the end, the eyes that are still confused, the clouds that still can't be erased, seem to tell me: Don't be happy too early.

"The Cramers" in 1979 is still an excellent movie that can easily beat most domestic small character dramas to this day. This movie allowed me to grasp the real performance of the little people, that is: laugh. Little people are always burdened with too much burden, too much responsibility, but they can’t cry, because if they cry, they are very likely to cry to death (Many times, in this world, it is indeed possible to make a person cry to death. ). They can only choose to laugh and face this cruel and uncontrollable world with laughter. This is not a strong, not a resistance, this is a helpless choice, this is an escape. You can say that this is a positive approach, but is it not a negative one?

So, when I read Mozart’s biography (Mozart was extremely poor in his later years, he was a small man in the economy), I saw a plot: Mozart begged someone to lend him 200 ducats (currency name), but the person only remitted it to He was a dozen (may be equivalent to a few hundred yuan), Mozart was shocked, and then overjoyed: "He only gave me this money, which means I don't have to pay it back, gentlemen, let us use the money to eat! "This is an extremely typical example of a small person changing from sadness to joy.

Therefore, when I was watching the "Mr. Bean" series, every time I finished laughing, I fell into extreme loss and sorrow; the harder I laughed, the more sorrow that followed. Han Dou almost never showed grief, so I was deeply moved by his grief once, when his car was crushed and he almost cried. When I saw this, I almost cried. But immediately, Doudou saw that some parts of his car were not broken, and immediately ran over happily. When I saw this place, I couldn't stand it anymore and turned off the TV at once.

The above two times were moved after watching "The Cramers". There are countless places where laughter is used for crying, laughter is used for anger, and everything is replaced by laughter. He was full of laughter, and joked with his son, but his own bad cooking skills immediately made him furious and revealing his true identity. There are too many examples of this kind. I give me one that touched me the most. It was when Ted and his son went to the amusement park for the last time (he lost the lawsuit and had to give his son to his ex-wife), he told his son that he would be with him. Parting, the son cried, but Ted laughed and comforted his son. What a cruel laugh! Because this is not cruel to others, but cruel to yourself. Ted’s face is full of smiles and looks extremely sincere, but his eyes can’t deceive people, his eyes tell us his sadness (the eyes show only a small part, how much real sadness is, let us imagine ). When I saw this, I felt cold and trembling, and tears appeared in my eyes uncontrollably.

The level of "Hero" in 1992 was by no means inferior to that of "The Kramers", but unfortunately the achievements did not catch up with the latter. The protagonist of the film Pony (Hoffman) is a kind little person, but in order to survive, he must turn himself into a pickpocket who is motivated by profit and lies everywhere. He is a man with a sense of failure. He even complained when the wiper on his car was broken when it rained: "Ghost God knows that my wiper is broken, so it rained the damn!" He also said. To maintain the image of a tall father in front of his son who lives with his ex-wife, this became his only shining point. He rescued most of the people on a crashed plane because a child begged him to save his father who was trapped in the plane, and the child's pleading look reminded him of his son. He always believes that "only fools can be heroes" and that only money is useful. He doesn't think he has saved many people and become heroes, but he is calling himself incompetent for his failure to save the child's father. His heroic identity was impersonated by others. At the end of the film, a female reporter who knew the inside story asked him privately: "Did you save me?" (The female reporter was also one of the passengers in the crashed plane) Pony replied with his usual villain face: "Miss, only a fool can do such a fool in that situation. Do you think I am such a fool?" Then the female reporter understood at a glance: the hero is Pony.

I spent the morning in Xidan Book Building reading a novel adapted from this movie. When I watched it, I wanted to throw this book off the third floor many times, and then jumped down with it. Because I think it’s written too real, cruelly real, and so real that I can’t bear to read it.

Let's look at domestic small character dramas, and make judgments. In order to express the sorrow of the petty people, domestic dramas often adopt the worst method, which is to let the petty people complain to the audience. This makes me feel disgusting and even angry: if you really are like this, would you talk about yourself with this little mess all the time? Why are you crying so much? Why don't you cry to death? !

Hoffman has played some extraordinary characters in recent years, such as "Terror Zone", "Sphere" and so on. Of course, Hoffman's performance in these films is not bad, but it lacks shock and uniqueness. But in the three films "The Graduate", "The Cramers" and "Heroes", I think his performance is unique and irreplaceable.

ps: Ha, I originally wanted to write a film review, but I unknowingly wrote it as an afterthought, probably because I have more personal feelings when watching movies.

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Extended Reading
  • Abbie 2021-11-13 08:01:24

    Meryl Streep is young and beautiful.

  • Vito 2022-03-28 09:01:02

    When Billy was stitching on the operating table, I thought of my dad's steadfast "Come on" in the long, narrow aisle in front of me being pushed into the operating room, and the redness that always flashed when I recalled the whole thing that happened to his daughter and me. Tears couldn't stop flowing. . . can not stop. . . Mom and Dad, I really love you both! ! ! Keep crying. . .

Kramer vs. Kramer quotes

  • Ted Kramer: My wife used to always say to me, "Why can't a woman have the same ambitions as a man." I think you're right. Maybe I've learned that much. But by the same token, I'd like to know, what law is it that says a woman is a better parent simply by virtue of her sex? I've had a lot of time to think about what it is that makes somebody a good parent, you know. It has to do with constancy. It has to do with patience. It has to do with listening to him. It has to do with pretending to listen to him when you can't even listen any more. It has to do with love - like, like, like she was saying. And I don't know where its written that says that a woman has a corner on that market. That a man has any less of those emotions than a woman does? Billy has a home with me. I've made it the best I could.

  • Gressen: Would you say you've achieved a certain status or position in your profession?

    Ted Kramer: Yes, I think I have a pretty good reputation.

    Gressen: Mr. Kramer, when you were working at Roth, Kane & Donavon what was your salary?

    Ted Kramer: I was making around $32,000 a year.

    Gressen: And now, I believe, you're working at Norman, Craig and Kummel?

    Ted Kramer: Yes.

    Gressen: And what is your salary there?

    Ted Kramer: Its almost 29,000.

    Gressen: Could you be more specific, Mr. Kramer?

    Ted Kramer: I make $28,200.

    Gressen: 28,200. Well, Mr. Kramer, you're the only person that I've heard that is working his way down the ladder of success.