Eastwood: From the Soul of the West to the Best Director

Famous American actors and directors

Nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards twice.

Won the Oscar for Best Director twice.

It has been 64 years since he 1955 participated in the first film. During this period, his identity gradually changed from an actor to a director, which brought us many excellent film works. His life is a legendary one.

Western spirit

When I saw the vicissitudes of Eastwood in "Unforgettable Tonight", he fell down awkwardly because he was chasing pigs. I really can't believe that he created a handsome and upright cowboy image in the escort trilogy (A handful of dollars, Twilight Escort and Golden Escort directed by Lionel).

In his memory, he always wore a cowboy hat, a dark green twill cloak, an endless cigar in his mouth, frowning slightly, thinking about how to give the enemy a fatal blow. One man, one gun and one horse can wipe out those wicked people who are ruthless and evil. This kind of dongmu is really cool.

I put this series on the altar, leaving aside the technical aspects such as Lionel's precise control of scene scheduling and the superb score of the score master Molly Kandri, because I still yearn for the story alone. Things are hard, and we will be treated unfairly to some extent. At this time, a cowboy fell from the sky to help us get justice. How many people dream of this opportunity?

Take the Golden Escort as an example. The story happened during the civil war (186 1~ 1865). This is only a decade or two from the California gold rush in the 1940s. The desolate west is no longer just a barren land. When the tranquility here is broken, the federal law disappears. Outside the jurisdiction of the law, only violence can solve the problem. Naturally, we all expected a hero to fall from the sky, but he did justice and left without saying a word, leaving only legends in the Jianghu.

Great works can always see the creator's concern for the universal destiny of mankind and arouse the audience's strong feelings. The emotional core of escort agency series has something in common with China's chivalrous spirit, Japanese samurai culture and European chivalrous spirit. In essence, these spirits praise brave and just warriors and worship heroism and force. And Dong Mu has always been such a hero in my heart.

Rebellion and thinking

I really can't imagine that such an actor, who is famous for his western films, dares to make an anti-western film as a director 26 years later. This is undoubtedly a rebellion and challenge to his past.

This unforgettable film has almost all the elements of western movies: open wilderness, cowboys, pistols, horses and gun battles ... but it also erases the romantic feelings and legends that all western movies usually have, leaving only the true colors of things.

Bob and his autobiographer, the Duke of Death, were imprisoned in the cell of the police station. In the dim light, Sheriff Bill Jr. leafed through the writer's manuscript. When he read The Duck of Death vs kirkland with Two Guns, the audience of unknown so listened to the truth of the story from the biographer's point of view.

Drunk Bob shot kirkland in the dark because of a woman. Kirkland was so scared that he took out his gun and hit himself on the toe. Bob fired another shot, which was still empty. Kirkland woke up, but the pistol accidentally went off and exploded. Bob seized the opportunity to approach and shoot. Bang, kirkland died.

In the eyes of outsiders, the thrilling confrontation turned out to be the result of the writer's exaggeration in false facts. The truth of the matter is so stupid and ridiculous. Kirkland wouldn't have ended up like this if he had taken two guns for self-defense. The legendary hero is not so great, and the film has also reached the first step of anti-western anti-hero.

After the young cowboy "Fifty yards" successfully killed a wanted cowboy, he sat on a hill with his back against a big tree and looked into the distance gloomily. He confessed to William that it was his first time to kill, and he felt guilty about it. Every time he said a word, he poured himself a mouthful of wine, and his tears fell. William stared at him and said seriously, "Killing people smells bad. You took everything from him and his future. " At this point, the film has entered the second step of anti-western violence, which is also the theme that the film really emphasizes.

What is unforgivable? A mistake made by two cowboys? Or the sheriff's crime of torturing Ned and causing his death? On the surface, William can't forgive the sheriff for killing his friend. Finally, he broke into the police station alone and killed the sheriff and some policemen. The sheriff said before he died, "I don't deserve to die." Indeed, he didn't do anything wrong except kill Ned by mistake. He just wants to maintain order and peace in the town. Those cops don't deserve to die. They were just doing their job, but they died unexpectedly.

But now it's not a question of "whether or not". When violence occurs, chaos always accompanies it: when cowboys scratch prostitutes' faces; When the sheriff forced Ned to confess; The same thing happened when William killed the sheriff ... When the violence started, everyone survived.

At the end of the film, William didn't kill the autobiographer. After warning others to bury his friend well and stop bullying prostitutes, he flew away in the torrential rain, just like the legend left only a flying back.

Many years later, when people talk about it, they will definitely regard it as a legend. But who knows the truth? They will only hear exaggerated stories written by writers as talk after dinner.

In the first two hours of the film, the hero was pulled off the altar, but in the last ten minutes, William was once again shaped into a myth (from the perspective of an autobiographer). This is an anti-western and anti-violence film, and it is also one of the top 20 western films in Douban.

The theme music of the film "Claudia's Theme" was written by Dong Mu himself, which appeared three times: once at the dusk cabin at the beginning of the film, once at the end, and once at the sunset when William and Ned rode side by side.

This piece of music is soft and quiet, and every time it appears, it will be accompanied by a silhouette at dusk and sunset. Even the most oppressive tyrant can't help but calm down in such an environment.

In my stereotype, the soundtrack of westerns has always been tense, free and exciting. Lyric music like this doesn't seem to belong to westerns. But watching the whole movie, I have to say that such gentle and restrained music and such beautiful and romantic pictures really touched me deeply. They are the sublimation of this film.

Old William also committed murder and arson when he was young, until she met a woman as gentle as this music score. She helped him get rid of his bad habits and gave him the warmth of his family. Whenever this piece of music plays, I will follow William to miss his dead wife. The love between his wife and them is the softest and most cherished part of William's heart. He will hesitate when he kills again, and this character will become full.

I have to mention that Dong Mu, as a director, also brought me a surprise. During the duel between William and the sheriff, the camera shot William's face many times. In the dim pub, William's face can't be seen clearly, and some of it is always hidden in the darkness. William, a good man who loves his family, and William Moni, who kills women and children, are now integrated.

After this film, he also shot many excellent works, such as Perfect World, Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Baby, Letter from Iwo Jima, The Mystery of Changing Children, Classic Cars and so on. Through these works, I saw his exploration and thinking about family, gender, war and even the whole world.

"Political correctness" is a joke.

But Mule released on 20 18 once again exceeded my expectations. In the film, he met a black couple on the road. Their car broke down. When they stopped to help them repair it, he called them "negro". But if he is a racist, he won't help them repair their cars at all.

Dong Mu once ridiculed the absurdity of "political correctness" in public more than once. In an interview with HeyUGuys, he said this:

"I have never cared so much about what I said. After all, I have been in this industry for a long time. What can they do for me? Political correctness in this era is not good for us at all. It obliterates many people's ideas and weakens this society. But in my opinion, people don't have to take many problems so seriously. "

When you first read the first paragraph, you may think he is really arrogant, just like me. But after a few more times, you will find that "I have never cared so much about what I said" and the omitted second half sentence, "I" care more about what I do.

Rather than saying that Dong Mu does not accept "political correctness", he hates formalism. This is well reflected in his film Mule. When the protagonist was transporting drugs for the ninth time, his Mexican colleague was questioned by the police, but as a white protagonist, he sent the police away in a few words. Doesn't Dongmu know enough about the status of ethnic minorities in American society?

Take up to three pictures at a time.

In an interview with the American magazine "Mr. Fashion", Dong Mu once commented that Trump "is just a person who says what he thinks. Such people sometimes say the wrong thing, but I understand why he said it, even though I don't always agree with what he said. "

And this is my evaluation of him. Father Dongmu, who is nearly ninety years old, likes preaching more and more, which can be seen from his old cars and mules. Even though I don't quite agree with his point of view sometimes, I am always moved by his persistent pursuit of perfection in the script.

Before filming "Classic Car", Dong Mu's colleagues all said, "This book is a good one, but unfortunately the politics is not correct". The old man became interested as soon as he heard it. After reading the script overnight, he decided to start shooting immediately the next day.

Dongmu didn't pay much attention to the shooting technique when he made a movie. In his movies, a shot can be shot three times at most, and he thinks that shooting more than three times is purely burning money. Simple shooting techniques focus the audience's attention on the story itself. A good story is the core of a good movie, isn't it?

From an actor who has always played a tough guy to such a simple director today, we have witnessed his transformation from romantic feelings to realism. Dongmu's life is full of legends, but I think he is more amiable and respectable, because he is true, stubborn and practical after losing his aura. I hope the elderly can live a long and healthy life and bring us some excellent works.

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