Two Smoking Guns is a crime comedy directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Jason Fleming, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Statham, and Nick Moran, which was released in 1988 and received rave reviews after its release, with a Douban rating of 9.1.
The film tells the story of Eddie and a group of his friends who participate in a gambling game, are tricked by the other party and lose, and owe a huge amount of 500,000 yuan. Eddie is wrong and accidentally eavesdrops on the drug dealer next door going to fight the robber, and the four little bastards decide to go to the next door to wait for the rabbit to steal their stolen money.
But they did not expect to be caught in a series of gun battles farces between the gangsters, drug dealers, and drug bosses behind the scenes, and the three parties were destroyed, but they were in a crooked situation, not only settling the arrears, but also leaving a small life and two antique guns worth 500,000 pounds.
Throughout the film, the close-ups, slow motion, and picture editing of various character shots in the film are full of the charm of the film. The plot full of black humor also makes this movie more absurd and funny, but it is precisely in this way that the later same time and space, several groups of people have different things to skillfully combine together, forming the final coincidence.
The following is a brief analysis of the charm of this film from the use of lenses, the style of black humor and the theme of the film:
This film has a lot of use of the camera, and the following is an analysis of the plot of Eddie's gambling money that uses the most lenses
At the beginning of the film, using a shallow focus and a visual angle, a piece of people appears, and as the camera draws closer, the important character "Guo Da" in the film appears. He was constantly selling the "fruits of his labor" that he had just obtained, and he and his companion Eddie performed a play, accompanied by a cheerful and fast-paced music, creating a "noisy" atmosphere.
The camera, on the other hand, shoots from multiple angles using a moving frame, showing "business boom". But the next second the sliver came, and Eddie and his partner fled the scene quickly. This scene reveals the identity of the viewer, and in the process of their escape, slow motion is used, and the film narration introduces Eddie's specialty, that is, he is best at playing cards and gambling money, (which also leaves suspense for them to gamble money in the casino later), and the film officially begins.
Eddie's four men scraped together 100,000 pieces and came to the casino. At this time, the dialogue at the door uses a panoramic view plus continuous front-and-back shot interaction.
Positive/negative shots (e.g., in a subjective shot, we see a shot of one person looking at another person and then seeing the person being watched)
This, combined with nonsensical lines, makes this a lot of fun. "Invitation cards, you know, the kind of little pieces of paper with your name on them." The security guard at the door said, "We have a hundred thousand small pieces of paper printed on the Queen of England, okay?" "
Eddie enters the casino, and at this time the camera goes from panorama to semi-panorama to close-up of his face, portraying the confident look on Eddie's face (in contrast to the way he later lost the game). With the continuous front-and-back of the camera, Eddie begins a conversation with the casino boss Harry, revealing a strong sense of provocation and gunpowder between the two.
Every time a hole card appears in the game, it is drawn closer in slow motion, giving the viewer a time to react. In the middle of the gambling process, the director uses surround shot shooting and fast editing to speed up the process of this gamble.
Until Eddie loses, the camera gives Eddie a close-up of his face, and the use of superimposition on the editing (the new shot is briefly overprinted in the previous shot) makes people look dizzy, but it can give people the first view of Eddie's state after losing the game.
In the fights of several later gangs, there were many fight scenes. They all use a lot of slow motion plus close-ups, including the dialogue between them is also a close-up of the face plus continuous front and back shots.
Therefore, under the use of such lenses, even if the film does not have a particularly gorgeous plot, the beautiful novel can make the film full of charm!
Black Humor: A genre of absurd, perverted, morbid literature that juxtaposes pain and laughter, absurd facts with calm unrequited reactions, cruelty and things
The four people who originally owed $500,000 for gambling money were unable to repay the huge amount of money, but they hit it by mistake, and Eddie heard that a group of drug addicts next door was preparing to rob another group of drug traffickers, so they had the idea of robbing the neighbors.
The four wanted to buy two guns, and inexplicably spent dozens of dollars on two old Mauser guns, that is, two large smoking guns, and later learned that these two guns were worth a lot.
The four grabbed a batch of drugs from the black men and wanted to sell them, so they found the fat man of the black market merchant. As a result, the buyer introduced to them by the fat man was the original owner of the drug.
The big and strong foursome next door had originally been robbed of money, and everyone was angry, only to find that the person who robbed them was the next-door neighbor, so they became angry and crouched in their home and ambushed.
On the other side, the drug boss "Old Black" knew that it was also this gang that robbed him of drugs, so he personally brought people to kill them, and happened to encounter a strong foursome who had been ambushing, they thought that Old Black was robbing them, so the two factions fought each other, and finally all but Dazhuang died.
However, DaZhuang, who escaped with a gun, encountered the father-son duo who collected money for wang Zhenhua, the owner of the sex shop, and Dazhuang threatened him with his son, so he drove into another car, just in time to hit the car of Eddie's gang, so the father and son took their money.
The four Eddie, who were preparing to pay back, happened to find that everyone was dead and did not have to pay back, so they wanted to throw away the two large smoking guns to destroy the evidence. However, in the end, it was found that these two guns were extremely valuable.
The film ends with an open-ended ending, did you throw away those two big smoking guns?
From these storylines, it can be seen that the 6 gangs in the whole movie are experiencing different things at the same time and space, and the director edits these seemingly unrelated events together by using parallel montage editing techniques, so that the plot is coordinated, watertight, and the audience's appetite is satisfied.
It seems that it is unreasonable, but it is all crooked because of various "coincidences". The black boss who wanted to shoot someone else in the head lost his life, and the two gun thieves who wanted to save their lives also accidentally killed their own creditors, and the four who were ready to pay off the debt also became the biggest beneficiaries.
The tragedy of the death of one gang after another, but in the misery, because of the funny plot, with humorous music and hilarious lines, the originally violent and bloody fight scene becomes funny and full of fun. That's the charm of black humor in this movie!
Every film has a specific theme and wants to express a specific meaning through it, and this film is no exception.
The absurd plot in the film is the expression of this theme, because it always does not follow the logic of the viewer, and does not conform to people's habitual thinking and cognition, but this is exactly what the director wants to express.
(1) Life is full of unknowns, tomorrow and accidents, do not know which one comes first, cherish today
There is a saying in the movie "Forrest Gump": Life is like chocolate, you never know what the next one will look like. Just like the plot in this movie, each gang has its own wishful thinking, has its own conspiracy and trickery, but in the end they all lose to reality and sacrifice their lives.
Tomorrow and accidents, do not know which one comes first:
One second Li Yuanba was still secretly happy for his defeat of Yuwen Chengdu, and the next second he was killed by thunder; Xiang Yu thought he was invincible one second, and Liu Bang called him a brother and a brother, and the next second he was forced by his good brother Liu Bang to kill himself; one second we had great ambitions, and the next second we might be decadent and degenerate. So life is always full of unknowns. All we can do is grasp the moment and cherish the present!
(2) Face the tragedy with a comedic attitude, turn crying into laughter, and maintain an optimistic attitude
The ideological basis of black humor is pessimism, and since what you have to face is death, miserable and sad, why not treat it with an optimistic and humorous attitude?
A death row inmate who was about to be sentenced to death was finally pressed to the execution table, and the executioner asked him what he wanted to say when he looked at the instrument of hanging in front of him. We might think that this death row inmate would say something like, "I don't want to die," and then he said, "Are you sure this thing is strong?" "
This is to face the tragedy with a comedic attitude, human beings face the absurdity of death, although they are distressed but do nothing, and finally they can only joke about their own pain, which is a kind of catharsis and a relief. Laugh in pain, turn pain into laughter.
For us, we may encounter a lot of difficult or very bad things in life, and trying to look at it in a comedic way may help us to be liberated.
Just like the petrel in Gorky's "Petrel", even in the face of a storm, laugh and say: Let the storm come more fiercely!
(3) Life is a multiple-choice question, and choosing different answers will have different paths
At the end of the film, an open-ended ending is left, deliberately leaving the audience to think about this problem and leave some suspense. In fact, in my opinion, this is a multiple choice question for the audience.
If he hadn't thrown the gun away, Eddie and his gang would have owned a huge sum of money, but at the same time, because it was stolen goods, they could have been arrested and jailed for their greed.
Suppose they throw away those two big smoking guns, then they don't have that huge amount of money, but they will not have any risk, although they can't be dashing, but they can live easily and comfortably.
So here's what the last shot of the film is trying to say:
Our lives are also faced with many multiple choice questions, and we will take different paths because we choose different answers. Maybe some people choose civil servants, then his life is stable and plain. Some people choose to start a business, then they will experience ups and downs. Some people choose to get married, and the face is tea rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea.
At all the forks in the road in life, please be careful to choose, do not forget the original intention!
The film prides itself on the first chair of black humor, and the speed of the film's mouth and nonsense lines are all better at showing a relaxed and funny atmosphere, but what is learned from the film is crucial.
Tomorrow and accidents, do not know which comes first, grasp the present. Trying to look at things in a comedic way when we encounter a desperate situation can make us a lot easier. Finally, in the face of life's choice questions, please be cautious, choose with your heart, and do not forget your original intention.