Neat and mediocre

Lukas 2021-12-14 08:01:02

After the great success of "Out of Africa", Sidney Pollack returned to "Africa" ​​again and handed over this "Translation Storm" which also involved African content.

However, this time the stage went from the African mainland to the United States and the United Nations. From the perspective of the quality of the film, the switching of the stage and the upgrading of the context clearly made Pollack some thinking ability difficult to catch up. As a director, in the technical aspect, he obviously had no problems with the Oscar winner, and he produced a very high degree of neatness. However, in the ideological aspect, he can hardly give a strong persuasive answer to the subject he raised himself, and the film's foothold has become a vague and weak castle in the sky, which is unconvincing at all.

Where is the neatness? First of all, Pollack adopted a way of expressing things from points to areas and from small to big. He borrowed the interactive communication state of the male and female protagonists to insinuate his true theme: the relationship between countries, nations, skin colors, and races in this era. When the male and female protagonists are suspicious of each other, it corresponds to the intrigue political struggle between countries. This has been more positively expressed in the private negotiations between the United States and Matobo representatives, and President Matobo’s plan to evade the voting trial. With the final opening of the hearts of the hero and the heroine, the two discovered the commonalities between their experiences and life, and Pollack also expressed his wish: May the world be harmonious but different, and treat each other frankly-people in the movie Different skin tones, even using Asian faces as security personnel to make up the casting settings for the main skin color, have already been pointed out.

As an Oscar winner, Pollack is indisputable in the technical aspects. In the movie, he cleverly found the best stage background for such a story: the United Nations. As soon as the film opens, officials are evacuated, and the security guards say "They have entered the territory of the United States", which has fully emphasized the uniqueness of the United Nations: the common area of ​​all countries. And such an existence is undoubtedly the symbol that best fits Pollack's vision of harmony in the world-the phrase in the movie "At the United Nations, everyone uses language instead of violence to resolve disputes" is the best instruction.

And Pollack's use of the United Nations is not as simple as a symbol and concept. He captured the biggest feature of the United Nations: the juxtaposition of different languages ​​and developed it into an important metaphor for the theme of the film. At the beginning of the movie, there is a close-up of the mouth of the speech, and then the shots are pushed to the seats of interpreters in various languages. In the development department of the film, Pollack also repeatedly used "the U.S.-Malaysian talks need to be translated", "the cleaners of non-English speaking ethnic groups need to be translated when they receive questions from the American police", and a large number of characters use words and puns to quarrel. Fragments such as the word games of the United Nations reinforce a message: in the symbolic place of the "world" of the United Nations, communication between people is often blocked by differences in language. And this barrier also symbolizes the differences in cultural history, ideology, and political system.

Because of this difference, nations cannot form unity, and the vision and goals of the United Nations are just a kind of beautiful hope, and cannot be turned into reality. In the opening paragraph of the evacuation of officials, a fragment has fully illustrated this point: the black guide introduced the concept of the United Nations to the tourists, but was interrupted by the security guards with guns passing by in a hurry.

Under such circumstances, Pollack also brought out the true state of nations: complete opposition. The obstacles symbolized by language make it impossible to be united, and in behavior, it is embodied as confrontation and war-a plan in the shade, or a face-to-face fighting. In the performance of this part, Pollack once again gave a kind of neatness. First of all, throughout the article, Pollack frequently uses a large number of parallel editing-such as the intersection of the Matobo politician on the bus expressing free goals and the American police detective who shot into the terrorist's house, and in the climax part, The intersection of President Matobo's speech describing the concept of peace and the fighting in the second floor-to strengthen the original intention of the United Nations and the existence of peace in the world. In addition, Pollack borrowed the symbol of the gun and let it refer to confrontation-the heroine went from holding the gun to the death of her family and putting the gun down, to the flames of revenge, and then picked up the gun again and pointed it at President Matobo, and finally confronted the man. The protagonist put down the gun together, corresponding to her psychological process of becoming a member of an armed organization, joining the United Nations and devoting herself to the ideal of peace, and then to the destruction and rekindling of the ideal.

Even Pollack's pursuit of neatness has reached a point where it is deliberately excessive. In the movie, Sean Penn’s male protagonist is not as closely related to the subject as Nicole Kidman’s female protagonist. For most of the time, he is more of a superficial plot advancing, maintaining the label of "exploring" and "suspense" in the film genre, thus ensuring the commercial and entertaining nature of the film. And for such a character, Pollack also has to throw pen and ink from the beginning, portraying the male protagonist’s wife having an affair, and his grief wanting to kill the man’s mood, so that he can form and lose loved ones, want The heroine who revenges President Matobo constitutes a 100% consistency in her life experience and psychological state, thus using this close unity to explain that the two people share the same mind and communicate without hindrance in the final climax. Even, in order to show the hero's sadness to his wife, Pollack has to arrange a moment for him to refuse the female boss who suggests love, which is quite nonsensical. Obviously, Pollack's requirements for neatness have reached a point where the work is a bit bloated and cumbersome.

The bigger problem also arises from the theme of the film. The heroes and heroines rely on each other's complete consistency in life and mood, and the square shape becomes the degree of communication and heart. However, this is only a miracle made in heaven and does not have any universal significance. How can countries and ethnic groups in a normal state form such a state? Pollack also gave his own solution: rely on faith. In the climax part, President Matobo read his own writings in his youth, and expressed nostalgia for the lost young ideals: even the smallest whispers can surpass war. Pollack returned everything to "language", placing hope for peace in exchanges. However, the previous language problem obviously cannot be resolved. How can we make the power of language go beyond the limitations of "language"? Looking at the emotional energy of the hero and heroine, Pollack seems to have just given us an old-fashioned answer: relying on emotional interaction, relying on faith, and relying on love.

Obviously, this cannot solve any practical obstacles. Pollack’s answer is just like the language of the politicians he opposes in the movie—false, hidden, and profit-making speeches—without any persuasiveness and practical value. He has inadvertently created a metaphorical combination: the language limitation that cannot be surpassed by faith and love is like a realistic obstacle to the realization of utopia by ideals.

The huge difference in quality between this film and "Out of Africa" ​​is like the simple folk customs of the African continent shown at the beginning of the film. For Pollack, the Western world is obviously too complicated compared to the simple and straightforward Africa. .

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Extended Reading
  • Hoyt 2022-03-27 09:01:08

    I just thought it was awesome, and it changed my mind about Sean Penn. No five stars because it would be nice if the heroine was black and looked like someone who suffered from Matobo. The first film review of the brain-dead, repaying grievance with virtue? what logic?

  • Destinee 2021-12-14 08:01:02

    2009.2.28.20:37...Sydney Pollack work. Nicole Kidman. Sean Penn. Not as good as I imagined. But every shot of Nicole makes me drunk... It was taken in New York. With Bonus Features, the entire UN promotional film. ..

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