The entertainment industry pursues clarity, and the investment circle wants to be "safe", so that the main theme and war films have become the fat meat that everyone wants to nibble, and they often shout to shoot "epic blockbusters" with hundreds of millions of volumes and all-star lineups.
But whether it will succeed or not, no one can say for sure.
For example, Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior" series (box office over 6 billion), Lin Chaoxian's "Red Sea Action" (box office over 3.6 billion), Guan Hu's "Eight Hundred" (box office over 3.1 billion), and Chen Kaige and Xu Ke's "Changjin Lake" (box office over 5.5 billion), have all created box office miracles.
On the contrary, the Sino-US co-production "The Great Bombing", which invested more than 1.7 billion yuan, lost all its money. Li Chen's directorial debut "Sky Hunting", starring Wu Jing and Fan Bingbing's zero film remuneration, is also thunderous and rainy, and only received more than 300 million box office results.
After watching a lot of war films with big directors and big productions, I look back and find more and more the "good" of "The Gathering".
It does not shout patriotic slogans, the war scenes it presents are not showmanship, it pays more attention to the "individual fate of small people", it makes the hero suffer all grievances, and only then does it shout out the deafening voice: every sacrifice is immortal.
After Feng Xiaogang finished filming "The Gathering Number", he secretly swore that he would never touch a war film again in this life.
Compared with Feng Xiaogang's previous "New Year's Eve films" with low investment and high returns, shooting this war film made him suffer a lot.
The shooting cycle alone is more than 100 days, and the daily working time is more than 14 hours, Feng Xiaogang was once tired to faint, but he did not dare to slack off when he thought of the huge risk he was facing.
The total investment of the film that year was 100 million yuan, and the remuneration of all actors such as Zhang Hanyu, Wang Baoqiang, Deng Chao and so on was only 1 million yuan, which was absolutely "a fool's dream" in today's view of the frequent hot search of "sky-high film remuneration".
In 2007, Before Zhang Hanyu starred in the male no. 1 Guzidi of "The Gathering Number", he played a supporting role for more than 10 years, but he was over 40 years old but still in the state of "small transparency" in the entertainment industry.
At the beginning, the role that Feng Xiaogang assigned to him was Zhao Erdou, but after Zhang Hanyu read the script, he was first deeply touched and cried, and then he went to plead with Feng Xiaogang: Let me play Guzidi!
When screenwriter Liu Heng wrote the script, it was Ge You in his head, and Feng Xiaogang naturally would not agree: this is for Ge You to act, you don't have to think about this.
But the more you push forward, whether it is director Feng Xiaogang or screenwriter Liu Heng, the more you feel that Ge You is not suitable. Also, at that time, Ge You was not young, and his heart was not good, which could withstand the toss of the "battlefield". On the other hand, Zhang Hanyu silently accompanied the new "Guzidi" audition, trying to go around, and Feng Xiaogang did not find the right one.
In the end, Huayi boss Wang Zhongjun made a decision: I see Zhang Hanyu acting!
In addition to the male protagonist, the other protagonists of "The Gathering" have also changed. For example, the original heroine Chen Shu, after a few days of filming, felt that the expected effect was very different, so he quit the crew; Deng Chao originally tried three roles of Gu Zidi, Zhao Erdou and instructor Wang Jincun, and later because of the need to coordinate the schedule for filming "Sweet Honey", he finally played the role of Zhao Erdou.
In addition, Yuan Wenkang, Liao Fan, Hu Jun, Ren Quan, Li Naiwen, Luo Haiqiong and other drama bones joined. On this lineup, Wang Baoqiang also said at that time: There are no big stars in this film.
Now many years later, have become big stars? Zhang Hanyu has become a "tough guy professional household" and is addicted to playing a positive and symbolic leadership image.
In 1998, director Steven Spielberg shocked the film world with the epic World War II film "Saving Private Ryan" for 65 million US dollars.
Feng Xiaogang was also shocked after watching this film, and decided to make a war blockbuster that is real enough and can be written into the history of film and localized in China in this life.
Therefore, at the beginning of the preparation of "Gathering Number", Feng Xiaogang planned to create an "international level", so Feng Xiaogang was determined to find the special effects production team of South Korea's "Taiji Flag Flying". Of course, there are also reasons why the domestic gun blasting and special effects makeup are relatively weak.
The Tai Chi flag flutters
The war film "Taiji Flag Flying", starring Zhang Dongjian and Yuan Bin, two male gods, is known as the Korean version of "Saving Private Ryan", which is also a large production with an investment cost of 15 billion won. Undoubtedly, the CG production and battlefield action design of the special effects team behind it can be called the top level in Asia.
In addition to the two films mentioned above, Feng Xiaogang also paid tribute to classic war films such as "Spartan 300 Warriors", "The Banner of the Fathers", and "General Patton" with "The Gathering Number".
For example, scenes such as broken arm stumps, burns and explosions refer to "Pearl Harbor", and raid battles and hand-to-hand combat refer to "Loyal Souls of the Vietnam War". The still in the picture below is almost a copy of the American movie "The Flag of the Fathers".
Assembly number
The flag of the fathers
By learning from each other's strengths, Feng Xiaogang undoubtedly created the effect of 1+1>2. Director Feng's successful experience tells us that it is always right to watch more movies and increase knowledge.
Just like the science fiction film "The Wandering Earth" with many bugs, it is worthy of the benchmark of domestic special effects films. Although "The Gathering" effectively imitates the chicken thief operation of the classic movie scene, it can indeed be called "a pioneering film".
Initially, Zhang Guoli recommended the short story "Lawsuit", which was only 13,000 words, to Feng Xiaogang. The original novel was printed out with only 3 pages, but Feng Xiaogang decided after reading it: this can make a very good movie.
Later, Feng Xiaogang went to great lengths to find the original author Yang Jinyuan, bought the copyright, and asked him if he wanted to adapt it into a movie script. Yang Jinyuan rebuffed: I have not written a script, you still ask the master of the industry to adapt it.
So, Feng Xiaogang found the screenwriter Liu Heng. Everyone may not be familiar with the name, but his screenwriting works "Ju Dou", "Red Rose White Rose", "Jinling Thirteen Chao", "My War", etc., have always heard of it, right?
From the original novel to the adaptation into a movie, Liu Heng and Feng Xiaogang have many "clever" choices.
Feng Xiaogang's identification of the "theme" is very clear, he is still concerned about small people, and does not want to express some grand, broad and correct ideas such as anti-war and historical thinking.
It is precisely like this that in "The Gathering", there is the hero Wang Jincun's fear of war, he hates war, he is scared, he trembles with blood, and he becomes the "laughing stock" in the army.
He has human weaknesses, but he will grow and become brave.
Gu Zidi was not a perfect hero, he did not accept the surrender of the enemy and once wanted to shoot and kill the prisoners, he did not accept the above to make the brothers of the Ninth Company angry and smashed the chair on the city leader because of the disappearance, and he even wanted to smash liquor on the tombstone because the secret of the regiment leader 'not blowing the assembly number' was revealed.
He is grumpy and paranoid, but he insists on finding out the truth.
Compared with the novel, the fate of Guzidi in "The Gathering" is much more "ideal".
Screenwriter Liu Heng once wanted to write the valley to death, and he wanted the millet to die on the coal mountain he dug.
The original author, Yang Jinyuan, made Guzidi "disgraceful" - it was not until the age of 70 that Guzidi stood in front of the tomb of the regimental commander who had died on the Korean battlefield. He forgave the regimental commander, but did not regain the honor of "hero" for the brothers.
Did the rally number blow or not? Nor is it like the movie has a clear result. In the novel, Gu Zidi's last thought is that war is cruel, and it is not clear who is right and who is wrong without blowing the rallying horn.
The closing sentence is even more "desperate", "In fact, many things in the world cannot be taken seriously."
Fortunately, "The Gathering" has a big reunion ending, the hero's grievances can be appealed, and the hero's reputation can be preserved. Thank you to every warrior who has fought for peace.
Maybe there will never be a movie like "The Gathering" again.
It dares to show the flesh and blood blurred limbs and severed arms in front of the camera, it dares to let the little people challenge the authority, it dares to make the enemy army equally fierce and good at war, it dares to let the hero suffer all grievances and the evening scene is desolate. It is unique among domestic war films.
A flesh-and-blood "hero" is real, cute and respectable, but the anti-war drama is full of invincible heroes, and there are fewer real "people".
I like the beginning and end of the movie, unfolding with a close-up of a trumpet and pulling farther into an icy environment. There, many nameless heroic souls were buried.
Finally, write down the top seven films in the Douban "Chinese War Film List", namely "The Devil Is Coming", "Red Sea Action", "Billy Lynn's Halftime Battle", "Jinling Thirteen Chao", "Cedek Barai", "Red Sorghum", "Gathering Number", "Gathering Number" only ranks seventh, but it is not as good as Zhang Yimou's "Jinling Thirteen Chao", what do you think?