In fact, in the 1960s, although there were still many big stars participating in Western films, Western films have already begun to decline. Later, the Italian Sergio Leone filmed "The Red Dead Trilogy", which established Clint Eastwood's image as a tough western cowboy wearing a carpet and biting a cigarette butt. This also made the Western movie once again important. Vigorous and prestigious. Later, the United States also made several very good Western films, but by the 1970s, Western films inevitably declined and were replaced by police films. Clint Eastwood later participated in several police films. He portrayed the unruly but righteous police, so he was also called the "city cowboy."
In 1993, he directed and acted in this movie, which was a sensation in the American film industry at that time. The Oscar is the best proof. At the beginning of the film, there is a subtitle. It is introduced that William Lanney's wife resolutely married the villain, but also because of his wife, he changed a lot, gave birth to a child, and the family lived a hard life. Later, his wife died. . Then the film started with this. The reason why some people say that he ended the Western movie with this film is because he, the once tough cowboy, can’t get on the horse (but I think when he got on the horse, the horse had been spinning around in the same place, so it’s justified.) . But this scene does add a lot of sadness.)
The biggest difference in this movie is that it blurs the boundaries of justice. The last defender of justice is not the small town sheriff who used to be regarded as the incarnation of justice, but a bandit who was once full of evil. When Ned was caught and tortured by the sheriff, he viciously told Lenny's "brilliant" crimes and wanted to intimidate them. Seeing this, we can't help but sigh, should this man who killed many women and children really be admired? But this change is really not abrupt. This is also Clint Eastwood's original intention. Human nature is inherently complicated. An important reason for the decline of Western films is that they are too modular. But in his movie, the western United States has become a dark world where the weak and the strong eat the weak, and the darkness of human nature is fully exposed here. His westerns have both violent catharsis and melancholic thinking. There is another subtitle at the end of the film. Lanny’s wife’s mother came to visit them, but at this time they had moved away. All she saw was her daughter’s tombstone, and she couldn’t understand why her daughter married such a violent person until she died. A fierce person. In fact, the film gave the answer when Lanney shot and killed the sheriff to defend the dignity of the prostitute. But this answer does not last long in this dark world. What this movie brings to people is no longer touching but endless thinking.
Clint Eastwood's thinking about society and life is really profound, which is why I like his movies. But I don't like to think that this movie is the end of Westerns, nor do I like to call him "the last cowboy". If there must be a "last cowboy", I think it should be Kevin Costner. But I will talk about him later.
I really like the silhouette-like photography skills in this movie, especially the point where Lenny and Ned are riding horses. It's so good to watch. I watched it several times. And at the end of the film, the subtitles are dedicated to Sergio Leone & Don Siegel, which expresses the warm feelings of a cowboy. The soundtrack in the film was created by Clint Eastwood, and many of his works have his soundtrack.
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