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It's no exaggeration to say that after this movie, Hollywood Westerns have to go silent for a while — even though it hasn't been good for decades.
It's what it is -
"Heroic Seven Dragons"
The reason is simple, the box office and word of mouth have been played.
In recent years, Hollywood Western blockbusters have basically been contracted by the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantillo, and in general, medium investment, can not make a lot of money, and can not lose.
(Coen Brothers)
And what about this "Heroic Seven Dragons"? It's not small.
Let's start with Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.
At the peak of Kurosawa Akira, toshiro Mifune, Yoshimura, and Keiko Tsushima, the story of seven samurai who joined forces to fight off bandits during the Sengoku period of Japan.
It won the Silver Lion Award at the 1954 Venice Film Festival; it won the first place in the 100 Japanese films selected by japan's "Film Shunbao".
It is not an exaggeration to say that Seven Samurai is one of the most important films in human history.
It was because the movie was so good that Hollywood decisively remade "The Brave Seven Dragons", directed by John Sturges and co-starring You Bernard, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson and other A-list stars.
After its release in the United States on October 23, 1960, it became a blockbuster at the box office and became a masterpiece of Western cowboy films.
(1960's "The Seven Dragons")
The soundtrack of the film has not only been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Soundtrack, but has also become an eternal classic.
Later, all the remakes of you sang and I appeared. But the influence is no longer as good as the previous game.
(Various remake versions)
But this time, MGM played a big, remake of the 1960 classic "Heroic Seven Dragons".
Originally invited Brother Atang, did not come, replaced by a brother of black stars, Denzaul Washington, plus "Peacock" Matt Pomo, "Star Lord" Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, South Korea's Lee Byung-hyun, the lineup, the wall is strong enough.
At the Venice Film Festival, it was unveiled as the closing film, followed by the opening film of the Toronto Film Festival, which was unique for a while.
Metascore is only 54, Rotten Tomatoes freshness 63%, IMBb7.1, word of mouth.
In terms of box office, North America won $34.7 million in the first week, ranking sixth in the opening charts of film history in September, but unfortunately, there was a lack of staying power, and finally the North American box office barely exceeded 100 million.
What's worse is that overseas don't buy it at all, with only $19.3 million in the first week of 63 markets, and there is no big box office in China, and the final box office is not optimistic.
This high-profile defeat was even more terrifying than the defeat of ten medium-investment Westerns, and sure enough, after this film, the adaptation of the legendary classic Western", "Noon", was lost.
(High Noon, 1952)
This movie from the beginning of the project, is a saving western film market doom cowboy, play well is a hero, play bad, that is, fork.
However, for this forked movie, Tomato Jun insisted on sacrificing his knees, and this ticket was smashed, but it was smashed!
A "bad film" that has a box office reputation on the street, what is there to praise?
The story is adapted from the 1960 version of the film of the same name, inspired by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's film "Seven Samurai", a story in a small village in Mexico, where seven warriors have a collective attack to protect the villagers and the villain.
At the beginning of the story, Peacock is destroyed by the biggest villain in the whole film.
In that lawless era of america's late westward expansion, the villain not only killed people, but also threatened the entire town, either agreeing to his plan or within three weeks his private self-defense forces would come to the town to take revenge on the residents.
Peacock's wife is no longer dry, too arrogant, I want to find someone to avenge my man!
This one she found was Sam, the bounty hunter played by Denzel Washington.
But she didn't have much to pay him, only chicken soup for the soul—
What I want is justice, and we should all be.
Can Denzel Washington watch women being bullied like this?
So he gathered a vote of outlaws who had been abandoned by this society.
Veteran gambler and murderer Chris Palat, former Southern sharpshooter Ethan Hawke, his good friend Asian killer Lee Bingxian, Mexican gangster Manuel García Rulfo, bearded stalker Vincent Donofeo, and Martin Sansmeyer, a Kamanqi warrior who was expelled by the tribe.
(The only Asian face in the movie - Lee Byung-hyun)
In short, it is a camp of multi-ethnic unity in the United States, a politically correct team.
It must be said that the weakest part of the whole movie is this part, because the audience did not understand in the end, except for Denzel Washington, who is avenging his family, everyone else wants money and no money, although it is a group of outlaws, but there must always be a reason for desperately trying, right? Not a cat.
Just like the common dog blood scam in legal programs, a group of unjust bosses were deceived by Denzel Washington to play for their lives, and they died heroically without getting their wages.
But if you think about it, it's not that simple. What they participate in the suicide action map is not money, but identity. Even if you die of addiction, you must find your cowboy identity.
The later story can't be wrong to guess with your toes...
The first time the tavern bright guy, the skill was amazing. Next, he was forced into a desperate situation step by step by the villain. An hour and a half passed.
The director just tells you clearly that we don't do anything in front of you, just consume it, hold your breath, what do you do? The last half hour bursts out and kills you!
Sure enough, the last half hour, it was one thing: dry! dry! dry!
A group of outlaws, for the sake of justice, went to their deaths one after another. Whoever is killed, don't say, see for yourself.
Anyway, Denzel Washington lived to the end, and the big villain, one-on-one.
The ending, it is not difficult to guess, can not be the big villain, Denzel Washington will definitely not end the work.
Such a story, just a word, vulgar!
Because the director held back the climax of the whole play to the end, the whole movie was an hour and a half before the boring.
Losing Akira Kurosawa's philosophy in The Seven Samurai is not as cool as the 60s versions of Tiff McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn.
(Stills from the 1960 version)
This story is really not good, compared to the "Avengers" superhero film, the film's small climax is too little, and the story rhythm is handled very un-Hollywood.
So the question is, what exactly is director Fukuia waiting for?
Viewers who persist until the last half hour should know that he is waiting for one of Hollywood's most painful action scenes in recent years! A big drama, it is necessary to make straight men cool to fly!
Fuquia himself said, I'm not Tarantillo, I don't play tricks.
Indeed, the action scenes of this movie are just two words - sincerity.
The films made by Fukuia, the action scenes, have always been clean and neat, paying attention to the coolness of one-hit enemy.
(Directed by Anthony Foqua)
This time, Fukuia also wants to play a big game, combining the new era photography method with the traditional Western shooting method, and using the traditional Western film method to tell the story of a traditional Western.
The most retro shooting method - positive and negative.
Positive and negative combat is to lengthen the time between positive shooting (shooting look, action, posture) and back shooting (shooting posture) in the shootout, filling the gap between shooting and shooting, thus creating a sense of tension between good and evil fighting.
This technique first appeared in Westerns for the simple reason that it was easy to do.
In Hollywood, where photography and editing techniques are not so mature, the use of front and back shots is indeed the best way to create tension and rhythm in action scenes, how fast and save.
Of course, this classic gun battle shooting method of "one positive shot, one reverse shot" has long been outdated.
What is popular today is the "Spy Heavy" style of smooth and fierce action scenes.
However, in this film, Fuquia adopts this traditional shooting and editing method throughout the film, and not only gun battles, but also the duel parts of weapons such as bows and arrows, knives and Grimm machine guns.
Therefore, in the bar battle and final showdown, the film appears a large number of shots of this traditional Western style, bringing the audience back to the era of blood-boiling Westerns.
In addition, Fuquia's fascination with the grand panorama of traditional Westerns is also extreme.
It can be used to shoot the western wilderness and the scene of the galloping horses with a large panorama, and it is not wasted.
Mirror concave shape, concave to the limit. It can be seen that in many shots, the director simply has no intention of creating characters, he only wants to do one thing: cool.
Tarantillo's Western transformation method, the Coen brothers' Cohen-style Western shooting method, while going, Fuquia is to highlight a western era that has passed.
Does the Western's mirroring and soundtrack that audiences are familiar with make sense? It doesn't make sense. Interesting, so special!
These shots are like saying, the Era of Westerns has passed, right, I just don't believe it!
It's hard to say how clever Foqua was, but in fact, he still inevitably used a lot of fast-cutting photography, but he retained the technique of Westerns to the greatest extent.
Many people think that tradition is useless. But Fukuia, who does not play tricks, took a large Check from Hollywood and paid a fierce tribute to tradition, which is really extravagant.
Even if this tribute is commercial, I recognize it.
At least in this era when Westerns and Westerns techniques were abandoned, Fuquia did not want to make progress, and retrieved some of the soul of Westerns, enough!
If a Western does not have a group of pure masters like Uncle Dan of the Star Lord, it is like there is no bullet in a cowboy gun, not to mention, there is more than one Fukuiah with feelings.
In this film, whether it is a cowboy, an archer, a knifeman. Blacks, whites, yellows, all hard stubble.
Although the character of the film is shot, there are only two.
Star Lord's gambler and murderer character is a scoundrel in the standard Western cowboy with a full body of cases and no trace of integrity.
In the eyes of outsiders, this person has not been saved. Eating, drinking, gambling, cheating, and bad diseases all over the body, without a trace of greatness. It is simply impossible to expect this kind of garbage to uphold justice.
However, at the critical moment, the point of righteousness that should be sacrificed, not hurried, not slow, only smoke, fire, or opponents give.
Then, I gave up my life for righteousness, didn't blink an eye, and pulled a vote of people to accompany Uncle Me on the road.
This character, stinky face is true, the bones are a bad child is also true, but this character can be placed in this desert yellow sand, justice scarce Mexican town, is enough taste:
In the face of the leper, it is the bones of a tough guy.
Let's look at another protagonist, Denzel Washington. The director also created a very suitable role for him: the leading big brother.
(Denzel Washington)
The last time he played the role was the bald tough guy Yu Bollenne.
(Yu Berner)
Compared with the old version, the new version of the character is more entangled, not as strong as the old version, and finally the duel with the villain, one shot and one accurate, all biased, almost a little, the ambition to die before pay.
This leading big brother is the weakest in the adapted version of the past, but it is this hero who is not heroic enough, who has been performed by Denzel Washington with full brilliance.
These complex characters together interpret the final feelings of the Western in "The Heroic Seven Dragons".
In Tomato Jun's view, the new meaning of performing these characters who have been played countless times is not the most difficult, the most difficult thing is how to shoot the unique flavor of the Western era on top of the established fate of the characters.
Strictly speaking, the character shaping, flat, cheesy, especially several supporting roles, lack of novelty, the only female character, with good looks, no aura, always almost meaningless.
But in an era when Westerns are dead, it depicts a bunch of unenlightened, imperfect guys who take the audience into the pit of the Westerns, watch them fight for their lives together, and finally die generously.
I think this is quite cattle.
The Western is finished playing again, but the blood in the bones is still there!
Saying that this new version of "Heroic Seven Dragons" is a masterpiece, I myself do not believe it, and the box office and word of mouth have also voted against it.
The shortcomings are indeed too obvious, such as the narrative is too bloated, slow and hot, the characters are superficial, and in many places, we also see the stylized rigidity of Hollywood. Judging from the breakthrough of westerns, the originality is almost zero.
In the end, it is just to find a group of stars and pass a western addiction.
However, saying that it is a bad film, I am not convinced to die.
Some people say that it is wrapped in the skin of westerns and loses the soul of westerns.
But what is the soul of a Western?
Is it possible to completely abandon contemporary film technology and audience tastes, and completely return to Wayne's time, and then find the Western?
Westerns, the skin does not exist, the soul will be attached? What soul is a Western film that cannot even be found with a sense of form?
Specific to "Heroic Seven Dragons", it is imperfect and unsatisfactory.
But there is a reckless force hidden in the film, and in the era of Hollywood superhero blockbusters, the edges and corners of those Westerns have not been smoothed out.
You say that it is deliberately retro or a tribute to tradition, but such an exciting gunfight scene, such a kind of western pride, has not passed for a long time.
The burning sensation of a few pure masters collectively riding their horses to the mine has not been seen for a long time.
At the end of the film, the old theme song that has been played countless times, with that kind of magnificent and sad feeling, has not been heard for a long time.
This year, superheroes are flying all over the sky, what western cowboys, have long passed.
But this movie, still with the huge amount of money from Hollywood, restores a rough and vigorous Western era for us.
From those seemingly ingenious shots, you can still see a Hollywood artisan director's heartfelt love for that blood-boiling western era.
In the era of Westerns, if it is gone, it is gone, and there is only one elegy left. But Tomato Jun still wants to recommend it to you.
Not only for the elaborate gunfight scenes, not just for the powerful acting skills of Denzel Washington, but for a clichéd Western, the immortal energy of the Western cowboys, hiding the old soul of a Western.
This era is no longer a Western, but the more time is not given, the more we have to do it to the end.
In this sense, the film itself is also like an overdone Western cowboy, who has fought with this era without self-control. It was dried down, but the bones were still hard.
So, when you all say this remake of the Western sucks, I angrily beat my middle finger.
Even if this American version of "Seven Samurai" is not applauded or popular, I will applaud him to the end!
The Western was completely screwed up again, yes! But it was also very painful!
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