I would like to call Greyhound the "first film" of the pandemic era.
In fact, judging from the size of the production or the significance of its appearance, it is indeed worthy of this title with epoch-making and ritualistic colors.
On July 10 this year, the "online movie" "Greyhound", which claims to be the largest investment cost in history (rumored to be as high as $50 million), was launched on Apple TV+.
This World War II war film written and acted by Tom Hanks has become the "spiritual straw" for audiences who have no blockbusters to watch during the long epidemic, and after the release of the online news, they have strong expectations for it.
Judging from the results, the strong airborne landing of "Greyhound" and the chemical reaction of the audience's long-standing desire to see the two collide can be described as a great joy.
Since the launch of the movie, nearly 40,000 users of Douban have scored a high score of 8.3 for the film. In the same type of film, "Greyhound" was classified by the audience into the "annual must-see" film list.
Is it the audience's "retaliatory praise" for the head movie in a special period, or does the film itself really have a level that can stand up to scrutiny?
Most people choose the latter.
But I'm sorry, I think it's the former.
First of all, a question needs to be answered: what is a "retaliatory praise"?
Only take the films that have been fixed before and after the theater resumes work.
Before the notice of resumption of work was issued, Elephant Point Screening's "The First Parting" as the first producer announced that it was scheduled to resume work on the first day of the theater. So far, the film has grossed 4.23 million. Three days before the resumption of work, the film was very popular, ranking at the forefront of a number of re-screening films with a solid popularity foundation.
On July 17, the day after the official announcement of the resumption date, just as the film was at its peak, Light Pictures announced that the animated film "Mr. Wonderful" was scheduled for July 31. The film was originally planned to be released in the New Year file last year, but it was decided to withdraw due to market factors such as competition and word of mouth in the same period. At the beginning of this market recovery, the filmmakers aimed at the opportunity of the super blockbuster not entering the market for the time being, and took advantage of the opportunity to finalize the new schedule of "Mr. Wonderful".
Rejoice, applaud, appreciate, look forward to.
Combined with the previous market law, assuming that there is no current "resumption of work", with the volume of "The First Parting", it is difficult to escape the fate of the half-day tour of the theater.
Another "Mr. Wonderful", last year's New Year file had several on-demand screenings, and the reputation fell far from expectations.
There are not a few "weak market brigades" who are in a hurry to set the file in the special period. For large-scale films such as "Tang Detective 3" and "Jiang Ziya", the market heat of the resumption of work is indeed insufficient, but for non-first-line cinema films such as "Parting" and "Mr. Miao", which lack absolute competitiveness in itself, taking advantage of the audience's high desire to watch movies and the market is relatively cold, it is necessary to strike decisively, with the blessing of "saving the market" feelings, it is another "daytime playing method".
Simply put, it is the characteristics of the market that provide a more efficient "package marketing" for the film than the regular operation.
As the saying goes, when you are rich, you pick the fat and choose the thin, and when you are poor, you are hungry and choose not to eat.
In the resumption of work, for the first core consumers who enter the theater, what to see is not important, what is important is to be able to watch. Any film willing to be released at this stage will, to some extent, be a "good film" in the eyes of the audience. As for the specific benefits, they are not necessarily less than when the market is fully integrated.
However, the "praise" deduced all the way from "feelings" does not necessarily meet the conventional film judging standards.
Back to Greyhound.
In terms of production battles, "Greyhound" does not lose any of the current new films that are fixed by taking advantage of the momentum. The film originally planned to land in theaters, but later because of the outbreak of the epidemic, the theater was closed, and the decision to transfer the network was made under the balance of interests.
Obviously, this is another serious and irreversible damage to the big screen.
Don't take the "Big Winner" and other transfer network cinema films to benchmark "Greyhound", as mentioned earlier, not an order of magnitude.
In terms of story genre, "Greyhound" provides an authentic Perspective on World War II, telling the story of a destroyer captain leading his fleet to negotiate with a German submarine group to escort wartime supplies - naval battles, which is the main part of the story.
On the visual scenes, the film's extreme war film Zhang Chi scheduling, the cab close to the moving photography of the characters, with the rapid and tight dialogue, the dark scarlet lights, the sharp and cold editing, and the enemy's breakthrough of the radio, the occasional one or two dirty taunts, creating a claustrophobic suffocation feeling, it is not difficult to experience the imminent disintegration of the warrior's heart off the screen.
On the other hand, the high-altitude vistas interspersed from time to time in the film and the naval battle situation rendered by skillful CG technology create a visual atmosphere that is no less than any Hollywood super war blockbuster. Although it is shown as a "net big", it is not framed by the vulgar production battle in the impression, real money and silver are banging, smashing out of the overwhelming naval bombardment, brain supplementing the screen effect, and repeatedly intracranial climaxes.
Needless to say, Greyhound is a sample product created on an extremely mature film industry chain.
Bullish? pretty.
Cool, burning.
But movies must have a story after all, and if in the past we had a fairly rational low tolerance for Hollywood popcorn movies with weak storytelling, then now, when faced with a movie that has basically no plot advancement except for the "countdown" clue, we should not suddenly be generous.
"Greyhound" is based on the novel by C. Lee. S. Forrest's novel The Good Shepherd. But even if it relies on the ready-made story blueprint, the film's drama is still very pale.
Tom Hanks played by the protagonist captain, almost no shaping ink, after a brief synopsis, he began to wave in the cockpit, full of professional terms and tactical command, the marshal is handsome, but can not get rid of the serious traces of facialization.
Second, because the film is too focused on naval battles, the audience has little time to speculate on the role of captain. So that when the war is extinguished and the story is about to end, it is strongly uncomfortable with the sudden main chord law highlight.
The captain who had retreated from the front line moved to the lounge, took off his blood-stained slippers, and slept peacefully, the sunlight outside the cabin shone in, like a pair of eyes from heaven, watching, shrouded in a remorphosed savior hero.
In the blink of an eye, the war film transformed into a biopic with the main theme, but due to the lack of sufficient pre-plot deduction to pave the way, it left a sense of déjà vu.
Positioning is blurred and expression is offset, resulting in a serious rollover at the end.
Most of the time, "Greyhound" has a clear genre expression, full of refreshing image impact, and indeed brings a long-lost visual feast to the audience who have not had a blockbuster to watch for a long time during the epidemic.
Can calm down and look back, the whole film to the story without a story, to the characters without characters, empty a few jingle bells of the sea game, after the hilarity, it is inevitable that it is empty and boring.
Some viewers said that they should be grateful to see such a movie during the epidemic period.
I don't deny it, I'm really grateful, and I'm deeply grateful.
But what is the difference between such behavior and evaluating a poorly acted traffic actor and saying, "Do you know how hard he works?"
The particularity of the period should not become a fig leaf for "bad", nor should we be reduced to the puppet of "praise".
That's true of the world, and so is the movie.
I know how hard you work, but it's not good, it's not good.
(The picture in the article comes from the Internet)
Vanguard Editing | Xiao Wei
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