If voting for the greatest blunder in film history, The Shawshank Redemption must be on the list.
This is now the highest-rated masterpiece in the history of cinema, in 1994, under the guidance of director Frank De la Bonte, turned out to be successful, but after its release, it was dismal at the box office, and the Oscar lost to "Forrest Gump", fame and fortune.
Unwilling director Frank De la Bonte, 5 years later, filmed the sister story of "The Shawshank Redemption" - "Miracle in the Green"
Interestingly, this time he hired Tom Hanks, the "Forrest Gump" who had beaten him, to star.
Miracle in the Green and The Shawshank Redemption are similar from every angle.
First of all, they are all adapted from the works of Stephen King.
Stephen King is the best best-selling author of all time in the United States, and the New York Times once said that every American family has at least two books, one is the Bible and the other is Steven King's novel. It shows how influential Stigin King was.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is adapted from his novel "Four Seasons Story", a collection of four stories, as many as three of which have been adapted into movies, which shows how wonderful the novel is.
"Green Mile Miracle" is adapted from his novel "Green Mile", this novel is divided into six parts, as a serial novel launched once a month, completing a miracle in the history of publishing: all six novels on the New York Times best-selling list, ten positions he accounted for 6, and the six-part collection rushed to the top of the list without suspense, showing how good the novel text is.
Stephen King's novels have been criticized for being commercially more than profound, and these two works happen to be the most profound works he has recognized.
Second, both films take place in prisons, and the themes are redemption.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is a thrilling prison escape story from the perspective of a prisoner.
"Miracle in the Green" is from the perspective of the warden, telling a story full of magic.
The director's ambition to shoot "Miracle in the Green" after five years is very ambitious, and he and the film emperor Tom Hanks are bent on surpassing "The Shawshank Redemption".
Some people say that "Miracle in the Green" is only one step away from surpassing "The Shawshank Redemption", is this movie really such a cow?
Before Pigo analyzes, let's first understand the plot
During the Great Depression in the United States in 1935, Tom Hanks played a prison guard, Paul, who was suffering from urethritis and grinned in pain every time he urinated.
In the prisons he administered, the death row area was called the "last trip" because the floor of the death row area was green, they also called it the green tour, the name was good, but in fact it was cruel, and the prisoners who came here were taken to the execution room by the prison guards and ended their lives in electric chairs.
One day the death row area welcomed a special prisoner John, who was nearly 3 meters tall and suspected of killing two young girls, and everyone was frightened by his size.
But John was actually very gentle, the surrounding environment was very frightening, even at night did not dare to turn off the lights to sleep, he was always tearful, often said some strange words: "I can't help it, I tried to save, but it was too late." Paul felt that there must be something unspeakable behind this little giant.
Prisons are also a complex little society with all kinds of people living in it.
A prison guard named Pesci is a tyrannical man, who pretends to be the nephew of the governor's wife, runs amok in prison, breaks three fingers of prisoners without a word, and insults dead prisoners, and does no evil, although Paul is his leader, he can only tolerate him.
A prisoner named Billy committed many evil deeds, he killed three people during the robbery, one of whom was a pregnant woman, and after being imprisoned, he threw himself into a madman, spit on Paul, peed on the guards, and everyone could do nothing about him.
A prisoner named Dale, who regarded a rat as a friend and called it "Mr. Ginger", trained rats to do all kinds of complicated movements, and even had state officials come to see his rat friend perform, but this official was actually a repairman pretending to be a repairman.
Dale was on a show with rats, while the guards were rehearsing for his death sentence.
Before the execution, the only thing Dale could not rest assured of was the rat, and Paul promised him to send Ginger to a place called "Rat Village", which was a paradise for rats, each rat was skilled, and the children competed to buy tickets to watch the show.
It was The bad prison guard Pesci who executed Dale, and there was a process in the execution process, that is, to wet the sponge on the top of the head, so that the electric shock was more rapid and fatal to reduce the pain of the prisoner, but the vicious Pescie deliberately omitted this process, so that Dale was burned alive, and Percy also kicked the pet rat to death, and everyone scorned him.
The prison needs a light of justice, this time a miracle appears, it turns out that the little giant John has a special function, under his touch, the little mouse came back to life, Paul's urethritis healed itself, Paul's friend's wife's cancer was immediately cured, he also injected the violent qi of these patients into the bad prison guard Percy's body, Pesci shot and killed the bad guy Billy, was sent to a mental hospital, and the two tumors in the prison were removed.
Paul also learns through John's peculiar functions that he was wronged, and that the person who really killed the two young girls was the dead Billy.
Paul wanted to overturn the case for John, But John refused, and in a way he was the embodiment of an angel, and he was going to carry the suffering of all beings to death, and Paul learned the true meaning of life from him.
The three-hour story ends here.
After Pi Ge watched "Miracle in the Green", the biggest feeling was that although this film was cattle, it was still a breath away from the temple-level divine work.
Judging from the Douban score, it has 8.8 points, which is 0.9 points worse than "The Shawshank Redemption".
Judging from the awards, the film received a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, but none of them won.
From the perspective of actors, the film's lineup is more luxurious than "The Shawshank Redemption", but the roles of the two protagonists are too simple.
The prison guard played by Tom Hanks is a good man with little flaw except for the small stain of "suffering from urethritis", and Lao Tang has no room to play in interpreting this role, and he is not even nominated for an Oscar.
The little giant played by another protagonist, Mike Clark Duncan, is also too simple, and is a silly big man with tearful eyes and love from beginning to end.
The performance of the two protagonists is not even as good as that of those supporting characters, and the script of this movie wastes such a good actor.
In stark contrast is "The Shawshank Redemption", in which the two protagonists are flesh and blood, one is a banker and prison escape master, and the other is a prison old fritter and life mentor, such a multi-layered character is more conducive to the actor's play.
Judging from the story, "Miracle in the Green" is also weak.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is a process of "upper buckle" and "unbuttoning", the beginning describes how the prison suppresses the darkness, giving people a sense of suffocation, this is "upper buckle", the end of Andy's more than ten years of layout prison escape successfully, this is the "unbuttoning process", gripping.
"Miracle in the Green" has laid so many groundwork in front of it, but the final solution to the contradiction is: the protagonist has a special function, which immediately makes the front hold its breath and all the gas is discharged.
From the main point of view, "The Shawshank Redemption" is also more profound, and many of the classic lines in it are very evocative.
For example, "These walls are very strange, when you first come, you will hate it, slowly you will get used to it, and over time, you will find that you can't live without it, that is, it is institutionalized." ”
For example, "Some birds should not be kept in cages because their feathers are too rich, and when they fly away, you will sincerely celebrate their freedom."
These lines, combined with the twists and turns of the plot, give people a feeling of empowerment.
"Miracle in the Green" also has some golden sentences.
For example, "We all have to die, there are no exceptions, I know that, but God, sometimes, the road is really too long." ”
For example, "When I die, I stand before God waiting for judgment, and He asks me why I let his miracle die, what should I say, that's my job." ”
These lines are certainly wonderful, but there is a feeling of floating on the surface.
Therefore, on the whole, "Miracle in the Green" is better than "The Shawshank Redemption", but it is still some distance away from "The Shawshank Redemption", but as an independent film, its story is solid, the actors are superb, the directing skills are profound, and it is also a rare masterpiece.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: A Chicken
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