Text/Sun Haifan
When the People's Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949, China still had all of Sichuan, Guizhou, Xikang, and Tibet in the southwest, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in east China, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in central and southern China, and hubei and Hunan provinces in the northwest, and parts of the southern part of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in the northwest were still in the hands of the Kuomintang government. To this end, the PLA units, which were pursuing Chiang Kai-shek's troops, continued to conscientiously implement the spirit of the instructions in commander-in-chief Zhu De's "Order to March to the Whole Country" issued to the whole army on April 21, 1949, on "marching forward courageously, resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly, and completely annihilate all Kuomintang reactionaries in China who dare to resist, liberate all of China, and defend the independence and integrity of China's territorial sovereignty." It is necessary to "chase the poor and the poor with the courage of the remaining brave." According to the situation of the troops in this period, the military writer Liu Baiyu quickly wrote the novel "Six O'Clock in the Morning", and in 1950, the Beijing Film Studio adapted Liu Baiyu's novel into an "educational short film" for release, which was the film "Peace Defender".
Film poster
"Defender of Peace" is directed by Shi Lan, starring Ge Zhenbang, Liu Jia, etc., the story synopsis is as follows On November 1, 1949, a certain unit of our army chasing and annihilating the enemy fleeing south, in the pursuit of two consecutive days and nights, took a short rest to prepare for a new battle.
At this time, the battalion commander Shen Guiliang and many comrades working in the unit held that the Chiang Kai-shek bandit army was about to be purged, and the work of the troops would be idle. Therefore, he wanted to change his career to do economic construction. He told the division commander about this idea, and when the division commander found that his idea was wrong, he pulled him along to listen to Chairman Mao's speech on the radio. Then, let him think about how to deal with the coming victory.
At night, Commander Shen Guiliang inspected the shop in the woods while looking back on his past combat life. He walked out of the woods and saw that the village in front of him had become a ruin, the children were snuggled in the arms of their mothers, the old people were curled up in the corners, and people were crying to him about their tragic experiences and accusing the atrocities of the Jiang bandit army.
Commander Shen comforted these people who had experienced the catastrophe, and remembered the scene of his hometown passing by. After the land reform, his hometown has completely changed its appearance, his family lives a peaceful and prosperous life, while the old man and children standing in front of him are still in hunger and terror, he feels the weight of his responsibility, and is determined to take up the barrel of a gun to defend the fruits of victory and the peaceful and quiet life of the people.
Late at night, the division headquarters held an emergency meeting to inform the enemy guarding the bridge that they were preparing to burn the bridge and flee to the sea, and the division commander ordered Commander Shen to seize the bridge before dawn at five o'clock to ensure that the troops annihilated the enemy.
The soldiers pursued despite fatigue and nervousness, and there was already a fire on the bridge in the distance, and Commander Shen ordered the hero of the battle, Zhao Zhuzi, to lead the assault team to take the bridge. The bridge head was covered with barbed wire, the machine gun fired crazy flames, Zhao Zhuzi threw grenades, blew up the enemy's fire point, and cut the barbed wire with a large knife, the soldiers bravely rushed to the bridge, but Zhao Zhuzi was injured by the enemy's bullets. The hygienist bandaged the wound for Zhao Zhuzi, and Zhao Zhuzi was about to rush up again, so he handed over his medal to the hygienist and asked the hygienist to hand it over to his superiors. The enemy constantly launched counter-charge, the fire pressure made the warriors unable to lift their heads, Zhao Zhuzi threw grenades, blew up the enemy's bunker, and himself was hit by the enemy's bullets and fell into the river.
The warriors finally took the bridge and successfully completed the combat mission. The division commander handed over the national flag of the new China to Commander Shen, and the soldiers rushed to the sea with the banner of victory holding high, annihilating the hordes of Chiang Kai-shek's bandit army. While everyone was celebrating the victory, American warships appeared on the surface of the sea. Commander Shen ordered the national flag to be raised high, and the warships of the US imperialists fled in ashes in front of the victorious banner of the Chinese people. Commander Shen and the soldiers felt the excitement of victory and realized that in order to consolidate the hard-won victory, they must always be ready for battle and defend the eternal peace of the motherland and the world with armament.
"Defenders of Peace" is an "educational short film" in the form of a feature film, which is expressed in the style of the film and the ideas and concepts that the actors will promote, and it is clear that this form is more vivid and easier to be accepted by the audience than the "documentary" and "reporting" films. Previously, Beiying already had educational short films such as "Gods and Ghosts", and since then, there have been "military teaching films" such as "Tunnel Warfare", "Mine Warfare", "Raid Warfare" and so on, which can be said to be very Chinese characteristics, and its charm still exists in many Chinese "main theme" movies.
Although "Defender of Peace" is an "educational short film", some of the details still have certain value, such as the huge southbound troops in the opening scene, which makes a deep impression and makes people feel the momentum of the People's Liberation Army's "victory and pursuit". In the film, the division commander took Commander Shen to listen to Mao Zedong's speech, and the recording of his speech announced that the vice chairmen of the Central People's Government were "Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Song Qingling, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan, and Gao Gang" and also had a sense of age; at the end of the film, the US warship of Chiang Kai-shek's army that fled to the sea saw the five-star red flag and fled in a hurry, and The long speech delivered by Commander Shen ying in front of the audience sublimated a film pursuing Chiang Kai-shek to the height of defending world peace and confronting US imperialism to the end. It also has the characteristics of Chinese films and is constantly imitated by latecomers.
The director of this film, Shi Lan, whose original name is Jiang Lixin, is a native of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. In the early stage of the Liberation War, he came to Beiping from the Anti-Japanese Base Area in Pingxi to serve as the director of the "Motherland Theater Troupe", was the secretary of the CPC Branch of the troupe, and served as the leader of the underground Party Work Department of the CPC in Beiping. After filming the film, Shi Lan was accused of defecting in prison and expelled from the party because he had been arrested by the Kuomintang authorities on the eve of liberation. Shi Lan later served as the director of the Central News Film Studio, directing many films such as "Dream in the Garden". After the Cultural Revolution, he was rehabilitated after finding the Kuomintang prison director and fellow prisoners who had imprisoned Shi Lan to testify that he had not committed any defective behavior, and Shi Lan directed a number of film and television dramas.
Shi Lan
It is worth mentioning that the songwriters Wang Xin and Cao Mars, Wang Xin is a native of Dangkou Town, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, when the film was filmed and produced, he had led his own mass drama company into Tianjin, when he was studying at the Central Conservatory of Music and was brewing the song "Singing the Motherland", in the movie "Defender of Peace", the main part of the melody of "Singing the Motherland" appeared in the film as a soundtrack, and by the National Day of 1950, this song officially began to spread throughout the north and south of the river, so the rudiments of the song "Singing the Motherland" should come from "Singing the Motherland" Defender of Peace".
Wang Xin
Another composer, Cao Mars, is the author of the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China.".
Cao Mars
The next issue introduces the first film in New China to show veterans, "Farmhouse".
(This article is based on the relevant information collation and writing, the picture comes from the network, if there is any objection to inform us to delete it immediately)