The "Darts Trilogy" is known for subversion, from the time of "Red Dead Redemption", Westerns have been on fire for half a century, and everything that should be filmed has been almost done, and the genre shooting method has put westerns into a creative dilemma, and it is urgent to make some changes.
Therefore, Westerns, whether it is the soul core (heroic culture) or the genre structure (style, form), need to be injected with a new vitality, and this vitality is the root of the re-emergence of Westerns.
We mentioned how hero culture and confrontation affect the story when we talked about the first two parts of the trilogy, and at the same time, they are also influencing the development of Westerns, not only that, but in "Golden Triad", the concept of group portraits has been added, so that Westerns have extended in the character elements.
Culture and pattern, the influence is only in the film structure and ideology, although the confrontation in the pattern involves the internal confrontation between the characters, but its main core is still built under the framework - this confrontation between the details of the characters will eventually evolve into the ultimate confrontation between good and evil or life and death in "Twilight Double Dart", showing the formal confrontation in the big framework, which is a connection, not a foundation.
What the foundation is, in fact, is the role.
The confrontation of the pattern allows the character to have depth, and this depth is highlighted in the internal confrontation, and the vivid and delicate backstory gives the characters a dimension and tension, and the external confrontation gives this tension a breadth.
The confrontation between the inside and the outside creates a connection between people, it is non-human, it is a fixed form in the structure of the film, therefore, it must be based on people to play an effect.
Therefore, the step of character shaping is indispensable.
Hero culture shapes the heroic protagonist image, using the appropriate culture to create a textual context, pointing out a way out for character shaping, in "Red Dead Redemption", hero culture is the basis of the story, but also the core, it makes the connection between people become credible, and in "Twilight Double Dart", the inner hero culture is given a personality label, the two protagonists, precisely because of the difference in personality shaping and a certain confrontation, here, the character shaping provides the basis for the connection between the characters.
The interpretation of the group portrait in "The Golden Three Darts" is based on this kind of character shaping.
From one in "Red Dead Redemption", to two in "Twilight Double Dart", and then to the three protagonists here, the increase in hero roles, in addition to making the confrontation complicated, also increases the difficulty of shaping the role, at the same time, this is also inconsistent with the hero culture context, in theory, in the general hero culture, there will often only be one or two heroes, more than this number, the role will be difficult to control.
Usually there are multiple protagonists of the film, will take a certain protagonist as the core, such as "Three Fools Bollywood", although the protagonist has three, but the real role is shaped, only Rancher alone, such a concentrated shaping, is conducive to the audience to talk about the emotions associated with a role, so that the emotions are more concentrated, but such a shaping will also weaken the existence of other characters, making it flat.
"Twelve Angry Men" has a wonderful show in shaping the group portrait, here, there are twelve characters, each character has a different personality display and attitude proposition, the integration of personality labels and personality roles, so that the film can still maintain a stable situation in the chaotic roles, the character label makes the movie characters much clearer; "Heroic Seven Dragons", the role is less, the remaining seven, but the shaping is really unsatisfactory, the main advantage is in the control of the field, action scenes and large space, has become the standard of this Western But there is a big framework in the air, and without a soul, it seems very boring.
If making a movie interesting is something worth thinking about, "The Golden Three" does a good job.
What is the most distinctive feature of this film?
It's about personality labels.
As mentioned earlier in "Twelve Angry Men", there is also a character label shaping, so even if there are twelve characters, it can make a good charm, in the final analysis, it is the character shaping that helps a lot.
Generally we rarely add too many main roles in a movie, the reason is that there are many roles, it is difficult to control, if you can make each role live, not falling behind, is a technical work, a lot of characters, the relationship between people has become complicated, you need the director to have a strong ability to control, in case it is not good, the role is easy to become flat, blunt and boring, no dynamic.
So how do you express the dynamics of the characters?
The answer lies in character building.
The three in "The Golden Three Darts", say less, say more is not too much, just three, but doomed it can not use the traditional way of shaping the role, in the past to shoot two protagonists, we also use confrontation to deepen the role connotation, but no matter how many roles, the limited shaping space does not allow us to do this, a story, the volume of a movie, at most can only support two roles, not only Westerns, even comedy, "Dumb and Agua", "Shy Iron Fist" is an example.
Therefore, we need to use the group portrait model to shape the character, in this mode, the character personality is highlighted.
The character labels in "The Golden Three", as in "Twelve Angry Men", have been strengthened, and the introduction of the first three characters has been marked with unique labels, and at the same time, the labels have also shaped the characters in turn, in this movie, the three characters represent good, bad, and ugly, respectively, so that the character labels are linked with the characters, so that the audience can instantly remember these roles.
You watch such a movie, even if you can't remember the various details in it, but you will definitely have a deep impression of the three characters, which can also show that the film is extremely successful in character shaping, and on top of this successful role shaping, the movie story is also very interesting, not to mention the classic and good soundtrack, good movies are often good in details, group portrait interpretation, more attention to the creation of details.
Group portrait shaping emphasizes skill, but not only skill, it is not a psychological film like "Fatal ID", there is no need to use dramatic conflicts to strengthen the way of character connection to shape tension, its way of shaping tension is very unique, that is, starting from personality, looking for exits from the simplest character confrontation, therefore, good, bad, and ugly cover almost all the confrontations of this film.
This confrontation is of course a product of the internal culture of heroes, because no confrontation can escape the big framework of culture, because this film is still a Western, but it is farther than "Red Dead Redemption" and "Twilight Double Dart", and it is more skillful in character building, because its look and feel is definitely much better than the first two.
And after that? In addition to culture, pattern, and group portraits, what else can we add to the Westerns to make it fuller?
I think That Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" actually gives the answer, here, we find the era of Westerns, and each Western, corresponding to an era. "Golden Dart" is the best in the "Dart Trilogy", because it has achieved a complete set, so that the series can draw a complete end, but the Western will not be stopped.
Born in the early 20th century, this great genre, even in the 21st century, has a living vitality, "The Eight Wicked Men", "The Ballad of Buster Scruggers", although niche, but very distinctive, they represent the Western film into a new stage, this genre may be difficult to lead the times in the future, may never become the mainstream, but the meaning and value it represents will not disappear, and with the passage of time, I think, it will always be a glorious chapter in history.
It has a long history.