"The Messenger" is adapted from a true story, as a clear type of spy film, it will inevitably be pulled to compare with similar movies, and when it is put together with "Pot Maker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", which also has a roll fu, and "Agent", which shows the brotherhood of spies, "The Messenger" is inferior, its game is not as difficult as the former, and the emotion is not as deep as the latter, which may also cause its unremarkable reputation.
But from the perspective of movie viewing experience, the linear narrative of "The Messenger" really reduces the difficulty of watching the movie, and the externalized emotional expression is also very infectious, in other words, the film is relatively popular in spy films, even if it does not understand the relevant historical background, it can be easily watched and immersed in the atmosphere of the movie.
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The Courier is set in the Cold War period, when the United States and the Soviet Union, as the world's two major nuclear weapons masters, were jealous of each other's military deployments.
Pankovsky, a senior official in the Soviet Trade Ministry, disapproved of Khrushchev's crazy plans and was successfully plotted against the American informant, intending to avoid a hair-trigger nuclear war by providing secret intelligence. The businessman with an innocent background, Greywell, was chosen as a messenger to enter and leave the Soviet Union in the name of developing a trade business and delivering messages.
The biggest attraction of spy movies is the sense of mystery, the unknown makes people afraid and exciting. The Messenger uses light and shadow to exaggerate this emotion, and whenever they meet, the scene is shrouded in darkness, symbolizing danger and secrecy.
Although it is a consensus that spy films use cold light, the more complex and accurate lighting of this film once again concretely shows the expressiveness of light and shadow.
In addition to the tone of the scene, the close-up of the characters is also under the stylized lighting, intuitively conveying the inequality in the power relationship. When Greyville was interrogated in the Soviet Union, the Soviets were cast in abominable by the lights of a horror movie.
In contrast, Greyville, only a pale light source shines on him, and his face, which is already thin to the point of skeletal, is even more as white and bumpy as a skeleton, showing the inhuman treatment he has suffered.
This kind of light and shadow treatment, coupled with the excellent acting skills of the characters, is full of tension, so that the audience can truly feel their situation.
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The main central idea of the Courier is the friendship between Pankovsky and Greyville, who belonged to the capitalist and socialist camps in the context of the time, but who cherished each other because of the common emotions and pursuits of mankind.
The film shows the way they break through the official relationship and gradually establish personal relations, precisely through their resonance under the unique human emotions of family, art, and justice, and in the context of the destruction of animalistic nuclear weapons and the struggle for territory, although this treatment may be preachy, it is sincere.
The most moving scene in the whole film is that they watch "Swan Lake" together, a ballet that makes two people from different cultural backgrounds burst into tears, and after the performance, they can't help but get up and shout "bravo".
In the 2018 hit South Korean spy film "Agent", two spies from North and South Korea gradually gained trust in many trials and confrontations, until the end of the two triggered the emotions of a watch.
In contrast, the friendship created in "The Messenger" is more abstract, and it is indeed lacking in the early stages, but this does not hinder the degree of touchingness in it.
And to say that the biggest failure of the whole film may be that the United States is portrayed as an absolutely righteous party in the film, especially Pankovsky's willingness to betray the Soviet Union's motives really cannot withstand scrutiny. Even if it's an American movie, it makes people feel that this setting is too arrogant.
Overall, "The Messenger" is still a movie worth watching, in addition to "good looking" in a broad sense, the performances of the two male protagonists in the film are remarkable, especially the image of Curly Fu being abused and thin, which is impressive.
| This article is original by the front film (ID: "qianfangdianying"), reprinted by private message.
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