In 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates its 100th anniversary. The people of the world look to the East, and almost every inch of China's land is covered with red red flags and banners of celebration, and the national anthem of the Communist International continues to reverberate in everyone's ears, because the people of this land love this party deeply and vigorously. Without exception, all media have focused their lenses on history and great men, showing the fearless spirit of the Chinese revolutionaries in their struggle for the truth from different angles.
"Revolutionary" is a new revolutionary historical film released in 2021, produced by Guan Hu, directed by Xu Zhanxiong, and starring Zhang Songwen, Li Yifeng, Tong Liya, Peng Yuchang, Qin Hao, Song Qian and so on. The film mainly tells the revolutionary story of Li Dazhao from 1912 to 1927, his short and brilliant life, has been exploring the road to save the country and the people, yellow roll green lantern, with hard work, winter a silk coat, summer a cloth shirt, and finally for the revolutionary cause and heroic righteousness.
At the beginning of the film, Li Dazhao's children sweep the grave of their father, and the tombstone is buried in the land for fifty years before it sees the light of day, which is really lamentable. At the time of the country's life and death, Mr. Li Dazhao resolutely chose to sacrifice, never betrayed the party and the country, and used his life to care for the Swaddling Communist Party of China. If a country lives and dies by profit, it is better to avoid it because of misfortune and happiness! Mr. Li Dazhao's vision and boldness have a great impact on our young generation, so much so that we have high expectations for this film. When the final effect of the film did not meet our expectations, a sense of loss suddenly emerged.
Some people say that the non-linear narrative method of "The Revolutionary" is scattered, the plot is fragmented, and the whole process is bland; some people say that the characters of "The Revolutionary" have a large age difference and the character settings are not real enough; some people say that "The Revolutionary" pursues big scenes and talks about big ideas, which does not reflect the difficulties of our party's revolution; some people say that the plot setting of "Revolutionary" is not bad... Audience evaluations were mixed, but word of mouth was OK.
I privately feel that some of the scenes in "The Revolutionary" are still quite good, such as: Mr. Li Dazhao gathered the masses to seek justice for the dead newspaper boy; he resigned as the editor-in-chief of "Morning Bell" and led the students to investigate and launch in all social strata to explore new ways to save the country and save the people; Li Dazhao stood on the locomotive, waving a red workers' flag representing the light, like a lamp in the night, pointing out the direction for the Chinese who had lost their way, and so on. Among them, I was most impressed by the scene on March 16, 1926, when Mr. Li Dazhao led students and other workers to march in the streets to resist warlord rule, and a down-and-out young man took advantage of the chaos to steal steamed bread in the street, in stark contrast to the student workers who were moving forward. One person is only concerned about survival when the country is in danger, while the other group of people does not hesitate to gamble their lives for the sake of the country and the people, but also wants to denounce the national thief. However, when the minions of the reactionary warlords suppressed the marching procession and beat and arrested the revolutionaries, this down-and-out young man who had stolen steamed buns was touched by Mr. Li Dazhao's words and deeds, and in the extremely chaotic scene, he finally plucked up the courage and went to rescue Li Dazhao in spite of himself, so that we could see the rise of the patriotic consciousness of the vast number of young students and workers - this is a highlight of this film, the details are handled very thoughtfully, giving people the feeling of seeing the small and the big.
It's been almost two months since I watched the film, but I still remember two lines from The Revolutionary, "For many years, it was because we were afraid that they treated us like grass." Aren't they afraid? They are also afraid, otherwise how could they be a shrunken-headed turtle and allow the country to be destroyed? Of course, Li Dazhao is also afraid of death, but what I am more afraid of is that the people will be displaced and the land will be torn apart, and what I am even more afraid of is that watching your generations of young people, old, numb, and silent, is more terrible than death! "I have rebelled from darkness, but I do not belong to the land of light in the future. My feet are at the confrontation between darkness and light, and maybe one day, the darkness will swallow me up, but for you, so that you can go to the light and embrace the light, I am willing to face the darkness, because I believe that one day, the sun will shine on the whole land of China. These sonorous and powerful words vividly reflected the selfless dedication of the revolutionaries. Spiritual numbness and ignorance are more terrible than the pathology and weakness of the flesh; as a new generation of young people, we carry the hope of the motherland on our shoulders; we have ideals and responsibilities, the country has hope, and the nation has a future. How can such a knowledgeable, brave, and selfless Mr. Dazhao not like it?
Of course, the film "The Revolutionary" is also controversial, and we can point it out in good faith, but we cannot completely deny its value. There are two points in this film, which make me feel more uncomfortable, one is the camera editing, and the other is the actors, which affect my best experience of red movies.
In order to create a fuller image of Mr. Li Dazhao's "Gao Weizheng", "Revolutionary" deliberately breaks the traditional linear narrative method, takes the 38 hours of death as the support point, adopts the montage editing method, selects several stories, and portrays Mr. Li Dazhao in sub-units.
Montage is the most basic and unique artistic expression of film. To put it simply, it is through the editing combination of multiple shots, combined with the sound, and finally forming a clip or scene to express a certain meaning. The lens can be a picture or fragment of life at different times and in different places, and its effect is not the "sum" of the montage lens, but the "product", or even the "cube" or "nth power" - which is why film artists are keen to use montage techniques. So the question is, is the main theme of "Revolutionary" a film suitable for the editing method of "montage"?
I personally believe that the montage used in "The Revolutionary" is desirable, because a film has a limited time, often within one to two hours, the plot must be compact, and the narrative of the story cannot be too procrastinating, so the use of montage can solve the time and space problems of the film in the narrative process, and the flexibility is high. So why do some viewers reflect that the narrative of the film is scattered, the story is incomplete, a little incomprehensible, and the whole process is flat? This is one of the shortcomings of The Revolutionary. Past fragments and the current state of the characters, there is logical layering, do not switch repeatedly; the story of the memory is best true, do not invent at will, the audience is difficult to grasp the logical connection between these stories, such as the plot of Li Dazhao and Qingzi, Mao Zedong and Li Dazhao's dialogue on Tiananmen, can not be separated from historical facts, so as not to produce too much controversy. Since you choose this kind of editing, you should handle the lens editing well, don't ignore the details of the processing because of the pursuit of big ideas, pick up sesame seeds but lose watermelon, more than worth the loss.
Another aspect is the youthful cast of "Revolutionaries", I am not rejecting young actors to play revolutionaries, but individual actors are really uncomfortable, their age is not in line with historical reality, some subvert the audience's cognition. There is a scene in "Revolutionary", li Dazhao was arrested by the warlord Zhang Zuolin, his wife Zhao Shulan and daughter Li Xinghua were released by the authorities, Li Dazhao was 38 years old at the time, then his wife Zhao Shulan was 43 years old, Li Xinghua was 16 years old, but Li Xinghua and Zhao Shulan in "Revolutionaries" were not like mother and daughter, more like sisters, if there were no subtitles showing that it was the eldest daughter Li Xinghua, it was really difficult to imagine that the two of them were actually mother-daughter relationship, and Chen Duxiu, played by Qin Hao.
There is also a scene in "Revolutionary" where Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu met to build the party, which is a famous story in history: "Southern Chen And Northern Li, Meet to Build the Party." In January 1920, Li Dazhao became a coachman and braved the snow and wind to escort Chen Duxiu out of Beijing to Nanjing in the middle of the night to plan the establishment of the party. We all know that Mr. Li Dazhao was born in 1889, and in 1920, Li Dazhao was 31 years old, and Chen Duxiu, who was 10 years older than him, was 41 years old, but from the lens of their snowy night travel, Chen Duxiu was obviously younger than Mr. Li Dazhao. After watching this shot, my mind thoughts of Zhang Dongsheng, who he played in "The Hidden Corner", not Li Dazhao, and there is no connection between life and death and Mr. Chen Duxiu. In this way, it is difficult for the audience to bring emotion into the film, which I think is the second biggest shortcoming of "Revolutionary", a fly in the ointment. The director thought that with a few more traffic stars, the box office would go up, that is, it was a big mistake, and the audience paid attention to the quality of the film rather than the traffic of the stars. If the plot of the movie cannot impress the audience, cannot convince the audience's rationality, and makes the audience feel the truth, the film is not a successful work.
Overall, "The Revolutionary" is still a good Red Revolution film, I just simply state my viewing experience, say my personal feelings, and hope that the director can create more high-quality film and television works.
Text/Ye YuDi
Editor/Xiao Yang
The pictures in this article are from the internet