On August 1, 1991, Comrade Yang Shangkun, who was then president of the people, accompanied by a group of party leaders, watched the premiere of "The Great Armageddon" at the Great Hall of the People, and after the premiere ceremony, Yang Shangkun was very satisfied with this masterpiece that reflected the three major battles of the Liberation War and gave high praise.
Soon, this magnificent and realistic masterpiece was released nationwide, and in a flash, the Chinese people flocked to the theater, and after watching the movie, people praised it even more, and this masterpiece, which took six years to complete, finally captured the hearts of Chinese audiences.
In fact, until today, the Armageddon series is also an insurmountable existence in the history of Chinese cinema, whether it is the cast or battlefield framing, the three films of the Armageddon series can be called milestones in the history of Chinese cinema, of course, the reason why this situation has occurred, there are certain objective reasons, because the production of this huge work was put on the agenda under the leadership of the Party Central Committee.
To explain this matter clearly, we have to start from 1986, when the reform and opening up was in the midst of reform and opening up, and the life of the people of the whole country was also renewed, in this case, in addition to eating and wearing warmth, Chinese also needed a certain spiritual entertainment life.
In that era, the film industry in other countries and regions in the world was extremely developed, not to mention Hong Kong films, which were in a stage of vigorous development, but in the continent with a large population, there were few films that could be taken, so the central government decided to prepare for the filming of "Armageddon", which was precisely to make up for the lack of this aspect.
However, the reasons we have talked about above can only be regarded as part of the reasons, the most important thing is that our People's Liberation Army urgently needs a masterpiece that can reflect its own history, and the three major battles during the Liberation War can just reflect the revolutionary history of the People's Liberation Army.
Of course, the three major battles are related to the national fortunes, and it is also Chinese's earnest hope to put them on the screen, it is worth mentioning that as early as the fifties and sixties of the last century, in fact, many film studios wanted to put the three major battles on the screen, but the shooting conditions in that era were limited, the technology was backward, in this case, it was still very difficult to complete such a large-scale masterpiece, so this matter was shelved.
Until after the reform and opening up, the shooting conditions have been greatly improved, and finally led by the central government, this arduous task was handed over to the famous Bayi Film Studio, after receiving the task, in order to better restore the three major battles, the planning party first became the three major campaign script writing team, the Liaoshen Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign and the Huaihai Campaign were separated for independent creation.
As for the creation of the script, many central leaders attach great importance to it, especially some of the old and veterans who are still alive, they are particularly concerned, and constantly accept interviews with the script writing team members, telling them about the events of that year, hoping that they can make this movie well.
Among them, Marshal Nie Rongzhen personally went to the general director Li Jun and his party to introduce the specific situation of the Pingjin Campaign in detail, of course, Marshal Nie Rongzhen, as the commander of this big war, his explanation was still very convincing, which provided great help to the script creation.
Therefore, with the participation of witnesses, this is also doomed to be irreproducible in the Armageddon series, but it is also during the script creation that the team responsible for the script creation of the Liaoshen Campaign suffered a difficult problem, which made them inaccurate about the size of the film script.
It turned out that the personnel of the Liaoshen Campaign Script Creation Group were overwhelmed by how Lin Biao was shaped, and at this time, a debate was formed within the Script Creation Group, some people thought that Lin Biao should write how to write, but there were also many people who advocated that Lin Biao should be abolished and Lin Biao should not be written directly in the Liaoshen Campaign script.
In fact, in that era, such problems not only appeared in the creation of the script of the Liaoshen Campaign, but also as early as when the military history writing team of the Central Military Commission was compiling the history of the Four Fields Army, such a problem occurred, and whether the members of the group wrote Lin Biao into it can be described as a lot of discussion.
However, Comrade Chen Yun, who had made great contributions to the northeast battlefield and cooperated with Lin Biao for a long time, personally gave specific instructions on this matter, and he believed that Lin Biao's historical contributions should be written into the book, so as to make military history more convincing.
Of course, Chen Yun not only affirmed Lin Biao's contribution to the northeast battlefield, but also pointed out some of the mistakes that Lin Biao made during the entire decision-making process during the Liberation War, such as on the eve of the Great Armageddon, Lin Biao was unwilling to go south to attack Jinzhou on the pretext that the grain problem had not been solved, and even started a telegraph with Chairman Mao.
But Chen Yun was in charge of the northeast economy at that time, and he knew that on the eve of the Liaoshen Campaign, the grain problem could be solved, and the reason why Lin Biao was unwilling to fight was that he was worried that he would not be able to eat Jinzhou.
In the end, it was Chen Yun's decision to make the military history of the four fields objectively presented, but after all, military history is different from the film script, because only a few people watch military history, but after the film is completed, it is different, its audience is the people of the whole country, and its degree of influence is bound to be different.
So at this time, the Liaoshen Campaign Script Creation Team faced internal controversy, and did not know how to be good, if you do not write Lin Biao, although it is a hundred, but this is obviously not in line with the historical situation at that time, if you write Lin Biao, in the special context at that time, how should you grasp the strength? Unable to make a choice, the staff quickly sent the problem to Comrade Yang Shangkun.
After Yang Shangkun learned of this situation, he attached great importance to it, worried that the script creation team members had a psychological burden and could not shoot a real armageddon, so he quickly gave his attitude, Comrade Yang Shangkun said on the shaping of Lin Biao:
"There must be Lin Biao in the play, if you don't write Lin Biao, then who fought the battle in the northeast battlefield that year?" Moreover, lin biao must be realistic in writing, and he cannot write this person as bad from beginning to end because he is not good later. ”
Comrade Yang Shangkun's words can be described as playing a key role, but also let the script writing team members put down the burden, in this way, in the Armageddon series, this has ma Shaoxin played the classic Role of Lin Biao, which is also the first time Lin Biao has been put on the screen.
In fact, the Liaoshen Campaign itself was a big battle completed by the Northeast Field Army alone, and as the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Field Army, Lin Biao, he was bound to be unable to get rid of this big war, including the Battle of Pingjin, although there were two major field armies participating in the battle, Lin Biao was also the protagonist.
Of course, leaving aside all this, as far as the history of the Chinese revolution is concerned, it is also inseparable from Lin Biao, who as we all know, since graduating from the Whampoa Military Academy, has thrown himself into the revolution and participated in the Northern Expedition, and later when Chiang Kai-shek reacted on April 12, he followed the rebel army in the Nanchang uprising, thus becoming a member of the Chinese revolutionary battlefield.
Since then, Lin Biao has experienced the agrarian revolutionary war, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and among all the generals in our army, Lin Biao's reputation is also the largest, and his victory in the Period of the War of Resistance Against Japan is even more famous all over the world, so it is necessary to objectively restore his historical contributions.
Of course, Lin Biao also made mistakes later, but we should also adhere to the attitude of dividing into two, and we should not erase all his contributions because of his mistakes, so Comrade Yang Shangkun's words are very fair and objective, and the phrase "who fought the battle" even more embodies Comrade Yang Shangkun's seeking truth from facts and is worthy of the fine work style of the great revolutionaries of our party.
Of course, with these words of Comrade Yang Shangkun, the script writing team let go of its hands and feet, and finally on the screen, restored a flesh-and-blood Lin Biao for us, in addition, these words of Comrade Yang Shangkun also gave the crew other ideas and inspiration.
For example, in the Armageddon series, Chiang Kai-shek is a character that must appear, and in that era, the most famous actor who played the role of Chiang Kai-shek was Sun Feihu, who had played Chiang Kai-shek in many historical films, but due to the limitations of the times, although Sun Feihu played Chiang Kai-shek perfectly, he had a flaw.
This is Sun Feihu himself to portray Chiang Kai-shek, always stay on the extremely negative character, so although the Chiang Kai-shek he plays is very similar, there are many traces of deliberate ugliness, of course, this is not to say that Sun Feihu's acting skills are not good, can only say that he has accepted such a concept, it is difficult to change.
And the Armageddon series, strive to be real, so Sun Feihu to play Chiang Kai-shek, the crew believes that it is not very perfect, after all, in the real history, although Chiang Kai-shek is the dictator that the People's Liberation Army wants to fight, he himself is definitely not an incompetent person, otherwise the revolution would have been successful long ago.
Therefore, in the armageddon, the crew also wanted to create a Real Chiang Kai-shek, in this case, Zhao Hengduo played the role of Chiang Kai-shek, and his performance was obvious to everyone, and even later many Kuomintang people watched Zhao Hengduo's performance and agreed with it.
All of the above, whether it is lin biao's shaping problem or Chiang Kai-shek's casting problem, in the final analysis, is actually just a problem, that is, whether we can persist in seeking truth from facts and be objective and fair.
Speaking of this, the author believes that the great Comrade Yang Shangkun is indeed our example, and Comrade Yang Shangkun has warned the people around him many times before his death, saying that history exists objectively, and that it is necessary to treat history correctly and truly record history, and only in this way can we be worthy of our predecessors, worthy of today's people, and worthy of future generations.
Today we recall this historical past, but also hope that everyone can learn from this spirit of Comrade Yang Shangkun, his life is great, not only loyal to the revolution, but also loyal to himself, thus making his due account of history, let us pay tribute to Comrade Yang Shangkun, he is always worthy of our future generations to learn!