As we all know, Lin Biao is one of the top ten marshals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, ranking third when he was awarded the title in 1955, after Marshals Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.
During the war years, Lin Biao showed outstanding military talent, rarely recorded defeats, and he was the main commander of the famous three major battles, the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign.
As an early leader of the cause of Chinese people's liberation, Lin Biao made great contributions to the construction, development and expansion of our army, which has long been recognized by history, and the official also has a fair evaluation of him in this regard.
Later, he rebelled against the party and the country, and fell to his death in the "913" incident in Öndur Khan in Mongolia, ending a shameful end.
It is precisely because of this that in 1991, the Bayi Film Studio encountered a problem when shooting the movie "Armageddon", can Lin Biao make it?
As the main commander of the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign, without his image, the two major battle scenes presented to the audience would be mutilated and unreal in any case.
But the crew's doubts are not unreasonable, before the film and television works Lin Biao's image appeared very few, the greater impact is the 1980 large-scale drama "913 Incident", Li Xuejian played Lin Biao in the play, wonderfully interpreted a "careerist" image.
This is a completely negative character, portrayed by Li Xuejian into three points, when someone commented that this boy went to Tiananmen Square to stand, must scare a few people to death.
It was also with this play that Li Xuejian won the "Plum Blossom Award", the highest award of Chinese drama that year.
Please note that Li Xuejian won the award because of his superb acting skills, but the character he created is negative.
However, Lin Biao's performance in the three major battles is completely different from what he did later, and there is no doubt that if he wants to truly reflect this history, Lin Biao must appear in a positive character image.
This was very different from the propaganda at that time and the impression of him in people's minds, how could such an ambitious, negative model appear in a positive image?
The crew hesitated for this reason, and after several discussions, everyone formed three opinions:
First, simply do not write him, only show Luo Ronghuan and Liu Yalou;
The second is to give a few side shots, slightly over, point to the end;
The third is to appear as a negative character.
To be honest, this is just a point of view put forward at the beginning, if you really shoot according to this opinion, I believe that today's "Armageddon" will not become a classic under any circumstances.
In fact, the other two opinions are not a realistic attitude, because of this, the crew has a great difference, has not been able to form a unified understanding, and no one dares to set the tone.
Later, this incident was reflected in Yang Shangkun, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The filming of "Armageddon" was a decision of the Central Military Commission, which was implemented by the Bayi Film Studio, and from beginning to end, the Central Military Commission attached great importance to this work. At the beginning of 1986, Yang Shangkun clearly instructed the Bayi Factory to organize all aspects of the force and complete this task as soon as possible, to this end, he also received the crew of "Armageddon" three times, and made clear instructions on the creative guiding ideology and theme style of the film.
After learning how the crew encountered problems in how to show the character of Lin Biao, Yang Shangkun said a sentence, "There must be Lin Biao in the play, if there is no Lin Biao, then who fought the battle in the northeast battlefield that year"?
Immediately afterward, he clearly instructed, "When writing Lin Biao, we must seek truth from facts, and we cannot write this person as bad from beginning to end because he is not good later."
After the release of the film, all parties received rave reviews, and its magnificent momentum and the true portrayal and restoration of historical figures not only made the audience feel shocked and fresh, but also the veteran soldiers who participated in the three major battles of the Great Armageddon were also very satisfied, including some of Lin Biao's previous old subordinates.
It was also through the "Armageddon" trilogy that the audience saw Lin Biao for the first time on the screen with a positive image during the Liberation War.
Since then, as long as the character of Lin Biao appears in film and television works, he will give an objective display, and the merit is the merit, the excess is the fault, and it will not erase his contribution to the liberation cause of the Chinese.
The actor who played Lin Biao in the film version of "Armageddon" was Ma Shaoxin, an actor at the People's Art Theater in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province, who stood out from more than 30 candidate actors at that time, thus becoming the first Lin Biao to show a positive image on the screen.
In order to create this historical figure well, Ma Shaoxin really made some painstaking efforts, not only personally visiting Marshal Luo Ronghuan and the wife of General Liu Yalou, but also visiting Lin Biao's daughter Lin Doudou, secretary Xia Tong, and Su Jing, former director of the Siye Operations Department.
Every time he visited, he carefully and meticulously took notes, returned to the crew and repeatedly speculated from various aspects such as looks, tone of voice, eyes, walking, and speech, and accurately grasped Lin Biao's cautious, lonely and somewhat suspicious personality, making this character both physical and divine, and becoming a classic on the screen.
At present, the TV drama version of "Armageddon" directed by Gao Xixi is being broadcast, and Lin Biao, played by Yu Hewei, has once again aroused heated discussion among the audience, and the focus of people's attention is in addition to whether to restore history, that is, this character is not like the archetype.
Realistically speaking, Yu Hewei version of Lin Biao is very good at portraying this character's gloom, caution and wisdom, but the face shape is slightly fatter, and there is still a big gap with the real Lin Biao in appearance.
Especially with Ma Shaoxin's version of Zhuyu in front, it is almost impossible for Yu Hewei to surpass it.