"The Last Wild Flower" is a gift from the great director Ridley Scott to female audiences around the world, the film is based on the adventures of the two heroines as the main line, the color is clear to give women the greatest respect and praise, is considered to be a feminist film masterpiece that fights against the patriarchal society.
Considering the discrimination, snub and violent injuries suffered by women at present, not to mention the lack of social status and discourse power, although it was a movie thirty years ago, but today when I revisit it, I still feel full of strength and resonance, which is the eternal charm of classic movies, although it has gone through vicissitudes without losing its value.
summary
The story of "The End of the Road" is clear:
After Therava, a housewife who lives in a dull and trivial household chore, and Louise, a close friend who works as a waitress in a café, get tired of ordinary life and work, they travel together to relax.
On the way, at a parking lot outside a bar, Selma was nearly raped by an unknown man, but Louise arrived in time to shoot the man with a gun. The panicked two turned around and fled, embarking on the road of no return.
The police quickly locked the clues to the two people, and pressed them step by step. Selma and Louis have experienced the tests of reality and spirit all the way, step by step to the road of no return that is opposed to the entire patriarchal society, and finally the two of them broke through the police siege hand in hand, resolutely drove to the canyon, and exchanged their lives for freedom!
topic
As an art form, telling a wonderful story is its basic task, but it is not only that, art is expression, excellent film directors are all telling a wonderful story at the same time, conveying a certain value, only the values hidden behind the story are the source of attraction to the audience.
At the end of "The End of the Road", the director shouted loudly through the mouth of the police officer Hal: How many times? How many times have women been bullied? The banner clearly raises the banner of feminism, shouting loudly against the rules, prejudices and oppression of the patriarchal society: No! Your patriarchy is supreme! I'm going to rebel! I want to be independent! I want to be free!
In the two-hour long film, from the beginning to the end, we can feel a theme very clearly and unambiguously: rebellion against male power, women's freedom!
At the beginning of the story, the housewife Selma is suppressed by her serious and authoritarian husband Daryl, who is responsible for all the housework and subject to her husband's curses and warnings. She played her role carefully, and in front of her husband, she felt timid, depressed, and did not even dare to say what she planned to travel with her girlfriend Louis on the weekend. Thelma at this moment is a passive person who is timid, obedient and obedient.
With the trials that follow: Harlan's brutal assault, husband Darryl's cold refusal, cowboy handsome joe (Brad Pitt's) deception and toying, highway patrol unexpected arrival, truck driver repeatedly foul language and other plots, and the police collective pursuit, while driving the story straight forward, constantly convey a signal: women can only truly gain respect and freedom if they dare to resist the oppression of patriarchal society.
And Selma completed the transformation step by step: sober and strong after being deceived by Jody, robbing a convenience store alone, locking the police into the trunk of the police car, reprimanding the truck driver, etc., symbolizing her completion of the role transformation from the humiliated person of the patriarchal society to the rebel, from the rebellious new woman with courage and strategy to independence and freedom, and was reborn from nirvana.
How did this all happen?
narrative
Hollywood's classic narrative is: beginning, confrontation, and ending, the three are closely linked, interlocked, starting from a triggering event, after a confrontation, towards an irreversible ending.
The beginning is the story building process, explaining the main characters and the core needs of the main characters. In this session, the unfolding of the story, driven by the events that triggered them, brought about a twist on key events and manipulated the audience's curiosity (what happens next).
The confrontation link is that the main characters overcome many obstacles one by one, and on the road to reaching the core needs, they are invincible.
The ending link is the end of the main character's pursuit of core needs, whether it reaches its core needs or not, the main characters and the audience have experienced an extraordinary journey and have obtained some kind of change.
The narrative structure of "The End of the Road" perfectly illustrates the above principles.
At the beginning of the chapter, Luis and Selma meet for the weekend, so they pack up and drive out, which is the triggering event, the starting point of the story, simple and ordinary.
Subsequently, the drinking in the bar relaxes, freely releasing the usual emotions, attracting Harun's attention and active conversation, dancing and further attempts, which naturally develop naturally and naturally.
However, when Harlan, despite Selma's wishes, hardens the bow, a twist occurs: Louis, a companion who had been injured in Texas, appears in time to shoot Harun, and the story really begins.
Here, we can make a clear distinction between raising events and turning events.
The ensuing confrontation, a series of plots and the appearance of the characters, all force the two to rush towards the end, and prompt the two to change their hearts, until the two fly to the canyon without hesitation.
The construction, confrontation, and ending of the story are handled smoothly and concisely, without dragging mud and water, and interlocking with each other. The appearance of the characters in the play has its value: that is, on the road of escape of the two, the difficulty of the two is increased layer by layer, and the two are placed in an increasingly dangerous situation. At the same time, it also indicates that the two have finally got rid of the shackles of the patriarchal society and run to freedom!
scenario
In addition to the clear themes and smooth and concise narratives mentioned above, excellent directors are also worth studying and learning in scene processing. The following is a brief analysis of the scene after Selma and Louise get rid of the trouble caused by the cowboy handsome Jody, driving through the vast western plains, encountering the inspection of the highway patrol.
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The five-minute-long plot, with its beginning, confrontation and ending, is a complete scene, showing the coping process of Selma and Louise in the face of crisis (police patrol), starting from parking, advancing step by step, from passive to active, to the final successful escape from danger, in one go. We can see that every action and dialogue is full of tension and meaning. The reason why the audience likes such a plot is because they have experienced emotional processes such as worry, tension, release, long breath, and pleasure.
But is it possible to arrange such a scene just because it is a complete paragraph, simply because the viewer can experience psychological changes?
Definitely not!
This scene has even greater value: it presents Selma's inner transformation and puts the duo in a more dangerous situation.
How to explain it?
It was Selma's change and courage that saved Louise from danger and strengthened Selma's change, which we can see from Louise's stunned expression how surprised she was at Selma's transformation. If Selma robbed the convenience store in the middle of the way, with a kind of luck and imitation, at this moment, in the face of the representative of the power, the patrol police, he did not hesitate to show his sword, which showed that Selma had completed the last step of growth. One or the other.
Second, the end of this scene has pushed the situation of the two people to a desperate situation, and although the patrol officers are locked in the trunk, it is gratifying, but it also exposes the tracks of the two people, providing clues for the tracking of a large number of policemen.
These two aspects are the greater value of the overall story.
Therefore, in the movie, the setting of each scene and the choice of materials have their value, rather than deliberately stacking. On the contrary, the weak plots and insignificant dialogue in domestic dramas are not uncommon and unbearable to look at.
other
In 1991, Brad Pitt was under the age of 28, and two years later, he won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival for "California Killer", and began a brilliant acting career, with a series of masterpieces such as: "Burning Love Years", "Seven Deadly Sins", "Twelve Monkeys", "The Sixth Sense of Life and Death", "Fight Club", "Kidnapping and Robbery", "Troy", "Babel Tower", "Death of a Sharpshooter", "Rejuvenation", "Shameless Bastard", "Tree of Life", "Rage", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and other classic films.