They gave us theirs, I really don't understand, why don't they smoke each other' ones
When Cotin, one of the supporting characters in the film, stands at the mouth of the cave and hesitates not to rescue Dopsy trapped inside, the film begins to become more and more interesting.
Like the film translation of the western, when you look at it again, you will feel that this story is more like the story of film noir through the story of gold rush. It's not so much a combination of Westerns and film noir as a story about human nature under the guise of a gold rush. In the end, the whole story looks more like a fable, the regurgitation of lust, and everything is empty at the end.
Fred (Played by Humphrey Bogart), Howard (played by Walter Houston), and Curtin (played by Tim Holt) meet to pan for gold, and then after the elderly Howard finally finds the real gold, everything begins to change quietly.
The film tells the story of the three people's gold panning process and the success of the gold panning, and those seemingly cumbersome and redundant plots have deep meaning, all hint at the ending, and hint at human nature.
Fred
Fred, played by Bogart, is the villain, but also the protagonist.
The first act of the movie is a ragged, depressed he is begging, although he can't get over his face, he can still temporarily self-respect to beg people.
Interestingly, all three of his begging attempts in the film are directed at the same person (director John Houston's cameo as an American in a white suit). The last person who was begged couldn't bear it, "Help, and occasionally go to someone else's place to order." ”
Three times begging, the first time to eat and buy lottery tickets, the second time to do a hair trim (the oily back is ugly, serious suspicion that the director is deliberate), the third time also quickly spent, so there was a fourth begging, and then met the liar.
From these three begging, it can be seen that Fred is a person who only cares about the immediate eyes, and his eyes can only see the people and things under his eyes, and he can't see any more. As he himself said, he only saw the hand that gave the money and the money that was given, and did not look at the man who gave the money at all.
Later, the three of them chatted about what they planned after they had money at night, fred's plan was completely different from the other two, he was going to take a Turkish bath, he was going to buy a bunch of clothes, he was going to the café to order everything and then the waiter would scold a dog bloody head, this was not the intention, this was squandering or a kind of vent for the previous lack of money.
This series shows the transformation and madness of Fred in the future.
When the gold was getting closer and closer to him, he was getting more and more crazy, and the gold that was at his fingertips at the moment was the same as the gold that he thought he deserved when he first got the foreman and only got his own wages.
In fact, fred after the transformation represents the evil of human nature.
Even if he is a gentleman with a villain's heart, Curtin, who is wrong to want to kill the poisonous lizard, cannot change his greedy heart in the slightest, and the poisonous lizard thing will only make them deeper between each other.
And the various psychological changes after he thought he had killed Cortin were very interesting, although he was afraid, but not because he had done it, but also because he was afraid that the person he killed was not dead.
The satire in the film is focused on Fred, and after hearing Howard's story about the gold rush, he once firmly believed that he would never lose himself but would only take his share, but then everything he did was punch in the face.
Not only was he lost, but he also had murderous malice. And this malice eventually brought himself the misfortune of killing himself.
Fred, who was on the road alone, happened to encounter three robbers who had escaped.
Cortin
Of the three, Curtin had always been subordinate. Two people are subordinate to Fred, and three people are subordinate to two other people.
But Curtin is a representative of the goodness of human nature.
In fact, when the three people talk about their plans after having money in the future, they can clearly see what kind of people the three people are.
Curtin wanted to have his own orchard, and after hard work he sang guitar around a campfire at night.
At the mouth of the cave, he had also hesitated, hovering between good and evil greed, but this hesitation was only for a short time.
Fred was buried in the cave, and when he stood at the entrance of the cave and shouted that no one answered, his eyes began to flicker, and then he turned to leave, but after only one step he stopped, turned back, and firmly entered the mouth of the cave to bring Fredra out.
From this moment on, he made his own choice, so he would think of giving some gold to the widow of The unfortunately dead Cody, and would resolutely not allow Fred to swallow the gold alone when Howard was temporarily absent, and would he clash with Fred.
He was killed, but he was lucky enough.
Howard
The old man played by Walter Houston stole the limelight. He was the image of a transcendent wise man, and he understood what kind of greedy nature a man would show in the presence of gold, or he had already seen clearly what kind of person Fred really was.
Of course, Curtin's reaction to Fred's painful surprise at shooting himself to death was still calm, or he had expected such a day.
To say that he does not love gold is absolutely pretentious and unreal, but he can laugh when all gold is dusted with the wind. Even if the laughter is helpless, with ridicule, with unwillingness, the laughter is finally free and let go.
Rather than being a deified figure, Howard is an extreme human image, an ideal character who can see through, freely, and put it down.
The relationship between Fred, Curtin, and Howard is like the most solid triangle in geometry, and as long as this relationship is maintained during the gold rush, there is a high probability that nothing will go wrong.
And the one who plays an important role in this is Howard, who is like a libra hand, constantly paying attention to the scale in front of him, as long as one side is tilted, he has to add some weights on the light side, so that the scale can constantly maintain balance, so even if Fred becomes more and more nervous in front of gold, nothing groundbreaking happens to break this relationship.
But the director arranges for Howard to leave, he saves the drowning child, becomes the guest of honor of the tribe, and must accept their courtesy, so Howard leaves, and this triangle relationship is broken.
The death plot in the film is neither exaggerated nor deliberate (although it has something to do with censorship), whether it's Cody, who wants a piece of the pie, or the protagonist Fred Dobissi. Cody was shot through the throat and died silently. Fred was slashed several times by the robbers, and died silently without warning.
When all the dust finally returns to the dust, the picture is frozen on the cactus, and the cloth bag that originally contained the gold soil is hung on the cactus, whistling with the wind.
Everything has been empty, it seems to be back to the original point, but it is not completely back to the original point, they have experienced a test like a catastrophe, the gold temptation can also be stabbed, can be pricked, and may also lose their lives.