In Hollywood, "death row inmates" are always taken by directors to talk about things.
Some are exiled to isolated islands and left to fend for themselves;
Escape from Ice Magic Island
Some were encouraged to modify and organize outlaw racing cars;
Death Car
Some were recruited by the crew to star in the battle royale reality show.
Battle Royale
Today, Ben Tomato also wants to take you to pick up a "death row movie", and the prisoners in the film have become guinea pigs in drug experiments.
《Control》
Lee is a death row inmate.
Scarface's face is angry, and his evil eyes are fierce. If you look at the face, you will know that this is a demon head full of evil.
Not long ago, the bold Li "black eats black" and washed a criminal den in blood.
Six headshots: five lives, plus one passerby who was seriously injured and disabled.
However, after being arrested, this killer, who was supposed to be executed by injection, unexpectedly got a chance to "live in the dead".
He was selected as a drug subject by a company called Bucks Pharmaceuticals, and the mastermind of the experiment was the professor played by William Dafoe.
Tomato's impression of Uncle Dafoe has always remained on the villain Dr. Spider-Man.
Although uncle Dafoe still plays the crazy professor in this movie, his new drug will not turn death row inmates into green devils, but will turn evil people into good people.
The professor's research team has developed a new drug that can make people "change from evil to righteousness", and Li is simply the best experimental object.
Violent personality, playing a shooting game can smash the TV;
The means are fierce, waiting for the opportunity to escape when ko more than a dozen security personnel effortlessly;
With a vicious mind, he took the professor hostage and threatened to poke him in the eye.
It is such a vicious antisocial personality, after being forced to take the anti-riot drugs developed by the professor, the personality has really undergone a shocking reversal.
Li began to lose sleep at first, and his mind kept flashing back to innocent passers-by who had been seriously injured by himself. It didn't take long for the mob to begin to show a strong sense of guilt.
This disposition becomes too fast like a tornado.
A few months later, Lee washed off his tattoos, erased his scars, and was transformed into a kind uncle with a smile on his face.
The professor's plan has become more and more bold, and Bucks Pharmaceutical, with its ability to reach the sky with its hands and eyes, has arranged a new identity for Li to let him re-enter the society.
Tomato originally thought that the plot would change from "raising tigers for trouble" to "releasing tigers and returning to the mountains".
However, after Li returned to society, he was really at ease to find a job, and even made a beautiful girlfriend, as if he had opened up a posture to prepare for a new life.
In the conventional setting of film and television dramas, those Jiangyang thieves and bloody hands are surely more difficult if they want to wash their hands in the golden basin.
Just as Li washed his mind, the plot suddenly began to take a sharp turn.
On the one hand, Lee's former enemy, the Russian mafia, came to the door, and they sent professional killers to swear to kill Lee;
On the other hand, Li's identity was accidentally exposed, and the brother of one of the victims recognized Li's identity. In revenge, the latter not only kidnapped Lee, but also killed the security personnel of the Bucks Company.
This also directly led to the misconception that Li began to blacken and kill, and the company's top management also issued a sniper order against him.
Has Li really put down his butcher knife and become a Buddha?
How will he get out of the trouble that ensues?
Everything became unknown.
"Control", Douban score 7.5.
After finishing this movie, Tomato involuntarily associated it with the cult god "Clockwork Orange".
The protagonists of both movies are murderous and unblinking demons,
One is keen to kill women with piano music, one likes to double-gun headshot ten steps a person;
The protagonists of both films are forced to undergo therapy to become "good people",
One is blinded by irritation, and one is regularly taking anti-riot pills.
However, the two protagonists are very different.
Aris in Clockwork Orange doesn't really become a good guy, and he stops doing evil after being treated simply because the idea of violence makes him feel seriously unwell.
On the contrary, Li in "Control" is sincerely repentant, and he even risks being misunderstood, secretly finding the home of Gary, who has been seriously injured by himself, just to express his apologies.
However, the reason why Li was able to abandon evil and follow good was actually nothing to do with the small pills he took every day.
Professor and Lee have been kept in the dark:
From beginning to end, Lee never took anti-riot drugs, and all he took all day long was a placebo that the company used as a comparative test.
There is a detail in the film.
At the beginning of the treatment, Lee was quite resistant to Professor Mike's various questions. But when the professor mentions Gary, who was mistakenly injured by him, Lee's anger is clearly mixed with hesitation and regret.
Human nature is also a mixture of good and evil. To cultivate its good is to be a jishi, and to cultivate its evil is to be an evil one.
In fact, many times, the interlacing of good and evil in human nature is only between one thought. The reason why Li was able to abandon evil and follow good is obviously that he experienced a redemption of human nature.
Lee once had an unhappy childhood, and the film chronicles the atrocities he experienced in his childhood through flashback clips.
His stepfather even brutally murdered his mother in front of Lee.
It is this masochistic encounter that allows Li to learn to use violence to protect himself and fight against society.
After becoming an experimental subject, what Li really changed was not the pill, but the environment in which he was in.
As the professor and his lover really entered his life, Li Cai, who felt the heat of the world for the first time, really let go of his guard and was reborn.
However, the influence of the surrounding environment on people's good and evil is not so much.
After watching this movie, Tomato can't help but ask ourselves: When faced with a reformed and evil person, are we willing to believe and accept him.
In the film, whether Lee who receives treatment is good or evil has always been the biggest variable in the film.
(There are spoilers in the following, so please be careful!) ）
Don't hide from everyone that Ben Tomato initially believed that Lee was still the fierce killer, and the meekness he showed was only temporary, and there will be a reversal later in the film.
But not only do I think so, but the brother of the victim Gary in the film thinks so, the Russian mafia thinks so, and the executives of Bucks Pharmaceuticals think so.
Bad guys, where is it so easy to get better?
However, no one waited for Lee's blackening again. He maintained the style of "not fighting back, scolding and not returning the mouth" until the end of the film, and was a good person until his death.
The reversal that should have come did not come, but became the biggest reversal.
When we face a movie character, we firmly believe that they will not be so easily reformed, let alone face the people who have hurt themselves in life.
In today's society, we have seen too much ugliness of human nature, and we have witnessed too much malicious hype and whitewashing, and the "forgiveness threshold" of all people has become very high.
Why do so many criminals who have been released from prison commit crimes again? Some may be hard to change, and some may be forced by life.
Because universal social values do not give the "former wicked" a good home.
Many times, we are not only deprived of the right to choose good and evil ourselves, but also judge others with malice.
Throughout the film, Lee hovers twice on the brink of life and death, and returns to the light twice.
When he was an evil man, the things he recalled were all causes of violence;
After he became a good man, his thoughts were all the fruits of warmth and kindness.
In the end, Lee did not escape the fate of death.
He died, at the time he became a good man.
(Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Board: Ou Ou)