This is the bizarre story of a runaway girl who hides in a deserted mountain town, from wanting to stay in this remote mountain town, to wanting to escape from this sad place, and then to becoming a prisoner of dog town completely. Coordinates of the mountain village town of the western United States.
This is a thrilling, suspenseful, and terrifying drama movie. It is almost a stage play, presented to the audience with minimalist pictures, God's perspective and cold style. After watching it, it is sobering and thought-provoking.
Dogtown premiered in May 2003 in Cannes, and it's been 18 years now, but that doesn't stop it from being a good film. The length of the film is about three hours, and I have clicked on this film several times for more than ten years, but I have turned it off before I saw it for five minutes, and watching this film requires relatively sufficient time to prepare in advance, and to watch it patiently and carefully to have a deep understanding.
During the Great Depression in the United States, there was an isolated town deep in the mountains of the western United States called Dogtown. The town has only one main road called Elm Street, more than a dozen families, and a dog.
Dogville
A young girl who is on the run arrives in the town, and grace is treated well by the town's writer Tom when she passes through dogtown, and she wants to stay in the town by doing some handymanship. Tom, with the consent of the townspeople, gave her a two-week probationary period. For the past two weeks, Grace has been doing some chores for the townspeople every day to see if they can get the approval of the townspeople.
The word Grace stands for "grace, grace and virtue" in English.
Grace is a beautiful and kind girl who goes to communicate with the blind elderly in the town, helps the disabled to clean, teaches the children to learn, and helps the men to work in the fields. Grace's hard work and enthusiasm for her work were loved by the townspeople, who unanimously welcomed her and paid for her labor. On Independence Day, the townspeople gather for dinner. The blind old man McKay gave a testimonial: "Grace, you have turned dog town into a beautiful place. Your smile is as bright as the most beautiful flower in the world. "But then the police came to town to post a wanted notice, and it was learned that Grace was a young girl on the run. So everything started to make a difference. People no longer felt that Grace's labor deserved to be thanked. It was assumed that the town had protected Grace, and Grace deserved to pay the price. At the same time, the people of the town began to think that they were more noble than Grace. From this time on, Grace had to work more and get paid less every day to stay in the town and be sheltered.
Working hours are extended and labor remuneration is reduced
Grace, who is busy, still feels very content, and she loves labor and the town and the people in the town. Even though she was very tired every day. Grace and Tom, who has always been friendly to her, also began to have a secret affair, and she also had a very good vision for it.
One day, when the police arrive in town to search for the wanted inmate, Grace is cleaning Mr. Chuck's house. Chuck, who had long coveted Grace's beauty, forcibly possessed Grace under the threat of denouncing her escape. Beauty is destroyed, kindness is torn to pieces. When Chuck Young was gone, only a frightened, injured Grace was left shivering and crying in the same place. This is the first time Grace has been raped in the film, and she has chosen to endure in order to be able to keep her. And for Grace to be raped, the cowardly Tom actually chose silence.
Grace, who was hurt by Chuck
Once the filth and ugliness begin, the pace of sin does not stop. Chuck began to often insult Grace while working with her. The greed of the townspeople makes them increasingly arrogant to Grace, allowing Grace to do more work and no longer pay. Chuck's wife discovers that Chuck has misbehaved with Grace and joins forces with several women to accuse and insult Grace. Dogtown is no longer a shelter for Grace, but a place to exploit Grace. In desperation, Grace hopes to escape, and Grace consults with Tom and decides to turn to Ben, a truck driver who sells apples. After avoiding the crowds, Grace got into Ben's truck. The truck was flanked by boxes of apples, and Grace hid in the middle of the apple box, covered with huge canvas. After the truck was far from the town, just as Grace was rejoicing in the coming light, the truck stopped. Ben crept into the truck. Ben began to use his hands and feet on Grace under the pretext of insufficient fare, and Grace, who had no choice, could only let Ben possess his body. This is the second time Grace has been raped in the film, this time to leave.
Grace, who was hurt by Ben
Afterwards Ben continued to drive, and the exhausted Grace fell into a deep sleep. When Grace woke up again, when the canvas was lifted, she actually returned to Dogtown. Shameless Ben tells everyone that he will not allow Grace to flee the town, and he will not do anything to apologize to the townspeople. This scene in the movie is perhaps the most desperate scene. Suffering and then not even having the right to choose to leave.
Grace escapes but is taken back to town
The townspeople show great indignation at Grace, who chooses to flee, and in their eyes this is clearly an ungrateful woman. So Grace was put on the shackles of the original dog chain, and in order to prevent Grace from escaping with the shackles, the townspeople tied the dog chain to a heavy wheel with an iron chain. At this moment, the beautiful and kind angel Grace has completely become a prisoner of the town and a dog of the townspeople.
Grace still wears shackles and tows wheels every day for the townspeople. What is even more frightening is that the townspeople no longer feel any guilt for the abuse of Grace, and every night the male residents of the town, except Tom, treat her as a public prostitute and vent on her recklessly. Children and the elderly also take pleasure in molesting Grace.
Deception, enslavement, and humiliation took over Grace's entire life. There was another Tom who had been friendly to Grace before, and now Tom was also dissatisfied with Grace, and he asked Grace, "Why can anyone possess you at will, but I can't?" Grace exposes his cowardice and hypocrisy, and Grace tells him that if there is no love between the two people, then Tom can also rape him directly like other men. Tom's inner evil prevails, and he chooses to report Grace so that grace can leave the town and he can receive a bounty.
But the person who received the report was a gang boss and Grace's biological father. It turns out that Grace has been hiding from not the felony she committed, but the original family that hopes to escape from the gangster background. When her father's men rescue Grace from her shackles and bring her to her father, her father's soul torture makes Grace wake up like a dream. Father told Grace that you were an arrogant person who self-righteously placed yourself in the role of The Virgin. You should be punished for your own mistakes, and you should be punished for others who make mistakes instead of endless tolerance.
In the end, Grace chooses to punish, everyone in the town is shot, the house is burned, and The only Tom who always shows kindness to Grace and is actually the most hypocritical is shot by Grace.
It's over
Dogtown no longer has a town, and dogtown has only one dog left.
After watching the movie, there was a long silence. No testimonials, just a few words:
(1) Once a person with extreme material and spiritual deprivation holds power, violence and counseling are particularly severe.
2. The observation and silence of evil is no different from evil.
3. Don't overestimate human nature, and don't give up the beautiful vision of human nature.
Nicole Kidman