Like many people, I was first attracted by the promotional posters of the film. The bright watercolor colors left a beautiful look on my eyes and soul, with a touch of shyness and vagueness, as if to announce this film to others. The film is not an overwhelming movie, it is calm and safe. After the film ended, I habitually searched for other people's comments on the film and the behind-the-scenes sketches of the film, and found that some situations are as natural as the film itself. This film may be regarded as the lowest production cost of the Oscar-nominated film. It was first expanded by a 19-minute short film "Gowanus, Brooklyn" filmed by director Ryan Fleck in 2004. Here, this first determines that "Half Nelson" is definitely not an overly fancy film. Those movie lovers who like intense and exciting plots can ignore and skip this film because it is a vague plot. , The climax and the ending are too natural. If you don’t get used to its deep, depressing and slow tone at the beginning, you will throw it away ten minutes after the beginning of the film, and you will be a little bit upset by the dullness. Indignant, but I persevered. My 100-minute film slowly reached the end. The reason is what I said in the previous paragraph. I believe I can get the answer.
And I really did get it.
Those answers are detached, you have to hold it tightly to catch it, because it may be just a sentence, or it may be just an action, or it may be just a look. So I always think of a music style in rock music: Slowcore (literally translated as slow core, but it has a more vivid and beautiful name: slow biao), like a dark surge, calm but turbulent, calm and final The outbreak.
As the first protagonist, Dan enthusiastically discusses contradictions to his students in class. He affirms that contradictions are the only driving force for the development of things. His ideal is to use his own way to explain what he knows to most people. There are also some worldview methodology that he believes in this world. He tried to use a variety of methods to express the dialectical unity of opposites. He and his students explained and described it with the women in the bar who were interested in him, and his relatives. Explain, he has always believed that those contradictions in communion will push things to the perfect direction of change. In fact, when he breaks away from the nihilism of these theories, he has to face a life situation that completely deviates from the viewpoints he holds in reality. No one can take him seriously outside the theory. His girlfriend can't, his students can't, his family can't, the bar girls who are rushing by his side and drug addicts can't, and even his cat doesn't really care about him. His world itself is a huge contradiction that he can never reconcile. His depression and pain have deeply entangled my heart since the first shot of the film. He was not cowardly, but his powerlessness finally made him choose to escape. The way he escaped was to smoke some drugs when there was no one. His liberation was actually obtained from these deeply tormenting objects. He hid in the toilet of the school and carried out such indulgence painfully. In the end, in front of a open door, all his pains and contradictions were taken into the eyes of the second protagonist of the film, Drey.
From the very beginning, Drey showed her maturity and sharpness that did not match her actual age. However, Dan still couldn't see her as the real outlet for his liberation. He just trusted her. He was only in pain and despair. A sense of responsibility that is not reluctant. Their year-end friendship was established in Drey's skillful moves to find water for Dan.
Dan: One thing doesn't make a man.
Drey: One thing doesn't make a man?
Dan seems to have been using the capacity of a teacher to see this student who has already surpassed him, so he deceived her and said One thing doesn't make a man. Drey peeped at his fragility with a keen eye. She smiled and asked, One thing doesn't make a man? Drey knew that Dan couldn't complete the theory that "contradictions are the driving force for progress" that he emphasized.
At this time, it should be revealed that the film uses "Half Nelson" as the real theme of the title. It does not refer to someone or something, nor does it refer to the personality split of the teacher Dan. "Half nelson" is a term for wrestling. One-arm choking". It refers to being buckled by the back of your neck with one arm through the armpit from behind. Usually this is a situation where the opponent is controlled, but this is not a complete control, which means that you have a chance to escape. You can even see the hope of turning defeat into victory. The two characters in the film are actually in such a dangerous but not completely deadly situation. It is just that the film focuses on Dan’s side and slightly presses the part of Drey underneath. This treatment is even more important. Can bring out the difference between the two, Drey always showed extraordinary maturity, her face has an awesome depth and calmness, so he handled her and her brother, her and mother very well, The relationship between her and Frenk might be Dan's cowardice and contradiction that really made her painful. For more than an hour, the film slowly described the psychological state of the two in the "Half nelson" state, and was also secretly brewing the ending, whether they threw their guns and disarmed their opponents to admit defeat or seized a ray of light to turn defeat into victory.
Dan asked his students in class what kind of situations are considered contradictory in our lives, so his students pointed out students and teachers, whites and blacks. After leaving the class, the two contradictions came at the same time. They rode in the same car and walked slowly. Dan and Drey, the teacher and the student, the white and the black, their eyes were also contradictory, one hesitating, fragile and painful, the other tough and firm. Optimistic. In the few dialogues, their eyes are the only thing that communicates with the audience. It is these fascinating expressions and emotional expressions that made Dan's actor Ryan Gosling win Seattle with this film in 2006. The best actor of the film festival also won the nomination of the 79th Oscar for best actor (but the possibility of winning the actor is not very large). Dan also asked his students to tell some historical contradictions in the class, and then the film will switch the scene to show documentary materials of these historical events. These tiny things are actually shown to the audience. What is the root of the most fundamental contradiction among the groups that are contradicting in this era?
The climax of the film is natural. I can guess the climax when Dan warns the drug dealer to keep him away from Drey. Dan is always unable to see things clearly. He can't see that Drey is actually leaning on. These dangerous and sinful acts have only resulted in a small amount of meager living money, and he could not see that Drey was actually unintentionally involved in this dangerous life. Drey knew the dangers of drug abuse, such as hers. Brother, such as the drug dealer Frenk, said to him: "A drug addict has no friends." So she would ask Dan inadvertently: "How do you feel about sucking that stuff?" She is using invisible force to persuade him. With Dan. However, Dan is still unable to see it. I have no intention of guessing whether he is indulging in his useless philosophical theories, whether he is indulging in the depression of life, or whether he is indulging in the incomprehension of others. I would rather look at him. Be simple, unknown, and concise, just like his dialogue with his ex- girlfriend:
Dan: Some people change. Some people actually change.
ex-gf: l know.
Dan: No way.l'm still an asshole.
ex-gf: You're not an asshole. You're just a big baby.
Dan: l'm a big asshole baby.
Dan's fragility and simplicity coexist, It's like those helpless eyes are always covered by the thin eyelashes like milk hair. When Drey helped Frenk to deliver the drugs accidentally but logically put the drugs into Dan's hands, Dan smiled helplessly but extremely pitifully. His face wanted to be hidden behind the door panel of the room, but I was in Back then, I always thought of the tears on the corners of his eyes when he came out of his parents' house. After receiving the money from Dan bitterly, Drey returned to his usual silence, but after returning home, when she faced her mother's question, tears welled up in her eyes while she answered impatiently.
Drey couldn't predict Dan's situation at that time, Dan's world completely collapsed at that time, and he had no other way but to fall into the fog of drugs again. After that, Drey saw that the history teacher the next day was no longer Dan, and everything seemed to suddenly enter Drey's eyes clearly. So she went to his house to find him.
Dan was surprised. He took a lollipop that Drey had handed him, and held it in his mouth, the expression on his face turned from bitterness to smile. He must have recalled that Drey always rushed around with such a lollipop, and Dan finally understood that life is actually sweet with just a lollipop. That last lollipop may be sweet forever... They reorganized Dan's home, brand new and tidy, and let them smile together, Dan finally looks like him in the only bright place in the film-the classroom In that way, what he said is truly realized:
"Second chances are rare, man. You ought to take better advantage of them."
"The sun goes up and then it comes down, but everytime that happens what do you get? You get a new day."
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