What kind of movie is Billy Lynn's Middlemarch?

First of all, let me talk about the subjective feeling of watching the movie from my personal point of view~

"Billy Lynn's Middlemarch"

Recommendation: 4 stars +0.5

Subtlety: 4 stars +0.5

Basic Information

Genre: Drama

Scriptwriter: Jean-Christophe Castelli

Directed by Ang Lee

Starring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, etc.

Release Date: November 2016 (Domestic)

The day before yesterday, Ang Lee's new film "Billy Lynn's Middlemarch" (hereinafter referred to as "Middlemarch") was released in theaters, and then the film and television circle earthquake. Ang Lee as a jianghu old-timer, never easy to strike, but where there is action, that is bound to the world's attention, accolades also come, his many masterpieces such as, "Brokeback Mountain", "Teenage Fantasy Drift" and so on proved this.

I watched "Middlemarch" last night and nearly broke down in tears when I saw Billy, the hero, standing motionless on stage as the clown who pleases the entire American public. As the movie broke up, I heard the girl behind me exclaim, "What was the movie about, I can't even understand it." There is a lot of controversy about the film's reputation, especially in Europe and the United States, where the commercialization of films is strongly demanded. The Metacritic website, which is known as the critics' list, rated "Middlemarch" at only 53 points (Ang Lee's other work, "The Boys' Adventure," was rated at 79 points on the site).

I've seen and enjoyed every one of Uncle Ang's movies. Uncle On is not a director who uses strong plots to please the audience, so many people watch Uncle On's works with the feeling that it is so boring and sleepy! I'm not sure how I feel about Uncle On's new movie, but I feel that it's just so awesome with ten exclamation points.

When I write a review of Uncle An's movie "Middlemarch", I should watch the movie a few more times, at least to deepen my understanding of the story. Because this movie has just been released, and technically it is in 120 fps/4K/3D specification, so the ticket price is particularly expensive, I can only watch it once, and the online information about "Midfield War" is particularly scarce. Then I can only write a movie review based on my memory, and if there is something wrong with the telling of the middle story, you can leave me a message and we'll talk about it together.

Next, specifically about the movie itself~

I. What kind of story does "Middlemarch" tell?

When it comes to this question, there are a bunch of explanations in Baidu's encyclopedia, I believe, but I always feel that they are incorrect. One of the best entry points to understanding this story is a technology: the 120 fps/4K/3D shooting format. Although we are not engaged in technology, may not quite understand the frame ah K ah D, but a brief sentence: this format is currently the world's highest specification shooting format. It is said that only five theaters in five cities around the world, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei, have five movie halls that can meet this kind of playback requirements.

Uncle Ahn is not Mecallon, and is not obsessed with technology to the point of bewilderment. He has his own explanation for the use of such technology:

"Movies, no matter what, are human feelings in the end, and they still have to serve the art, for the story, for the characters, for the drama. I've never felt that technology is on one side and art is on the other." Uncle An's point is that technology is in the service of storytelling.

Outsiders who understand this statement basically feel that it's nonsense; of course the technology of making movies is in the service of storytelling, why else would it be called the technology of making movies. You're wrong, my friend. I believe that "Middlemarch," the movie, had to be filmed with this technique in order for the audience to get close to the heart of the hero, Billy Lynn.

Movie stories are filmed for people, and the content within the story tells the story of people. Billy Lynn is the man in "Middlemarch" who has no story, only a position.

Some people say, you're raw and bullshitting, right? Without a story, there's no beginning, no end, and the story has no point of view, so what kind of movie is it.

Well, it seems that I have to admit that you say that the story must have a beginning and end, but you also have to listen to me to finish this "not a story, only the position of" the story:

Billy because his sister Katherine to teach her brother-in-law, guilty of something. Enlisting in the army was Billy's only option that pleased everyone (except for Catherine's objections). After enlisting in the army, Billy is sent to Iraq, where Saddam's regime has long since fallen, and where everything is ostensibly under the control of the U.S. military. Billy's squad is called B Squad, and the squad leader of B Squad is called Mushroom. Mushroom is a man who believes in karma and has a mind of his own, and he uses his own training methods for new recruits to exercise Billy in the army. Billy followed B Squad on normal duty in Iraq and saw too many messages from another country, such as the way Iraqi children looked at American soldiers: angry, hateful, frightened, greedy, confused and cowardly; such as the Iraqi masses' skepticism of American soldiers, fighting American troops with shells and their lives.

Mushroom, with his B Squad, is badly wounded in an engagement with the jihadists and is nearly taken by them. Seeing that Mushroom was in trouble, Billy saved Mushroom by running away and killing one of the Jihadists, but in the end, Mushroom died of his wounds.

The battle in which Mushroom died would have been a common one in Iraq. But Billy's heroic rescue of his comrade was recorded by the camera of a reporter accompanying the army, and spread to the United States. Because of the images of Billy's bravery in saving his comrades, Billy was awarded a silver badge, and he and Class B became the heroes of the United States. The U.S. government, in an effort to serve politics with a war staple, recalls all of Class B back to the U.S. so that they can tour the country with propaganda. As the story begins, Billy and the others are down to one last promotional event, and one of the most important: a halftime performance at the Thanksgiving Day open football game. The football owner even has the movie producer, Albert, promise Class B a $100,000 payoff for all of Class B if they will participate in a movie related to the Iraq War. The money made everyone in Class B rejoice, except Billy.

Why wasn't Billy happy, did he get PTSD from killing people in the Iraq War? Or is it just too little money? What the movie explains is that two days earlier, after Billy returned home as an American hero, he was warmly welcomed by his family, especially Billy's mother, who was proud of her son as a hero. The rest of this family is more proud than worried about Billy, with the exception of his sister, Katherine, who is y concerned about him.

Kathryn, because her brother enlisted in the army and went into the murderous land of Iraq because he was standing up for himself, was strongly opposed to his brother serving in Iraq after the national tour of publicity. Not only did her sister just verbally object, Catherine stated that if Billy would cooperate with her, then Catherine had the ability to keep Billy in the country. At this point Billy was faced with a choice whether to follow his sister's advice to leave the war effort or continue his career as a war machine.

Did Billy listen to Catherine? I don't know, but Billy looked sullen in the face of the promise of 100,000 dollars, as if Billy had a mind of his own.

Performing with Billy and the others in the final football open-field show were big names like Beyoncé and True Blood. Behind all the seeming glitz and glamor of Billy and Class B as American heroes, no one at home actually takes them seriously.

The stadium audience treats them as animals, because only animals will eat and kill people; the stadium staff treats them as a program to complete their work, because the program is completed in order for them to get off work; the backup dancers on the stage scolded them as brakes, don't ask why, I'm happy to scold you, as an American hero, you can still hit me in public ah; the good people say that they are the trenches faggot, there is no basis for it. What can you do to me? The owner of the football team treats them as a tool for earning money. All in all, everyone, had the feeling that instead of being called the American Heroes Propaganda Team, Class B should have been called the Zoo Heroes Tour, because they weren't treated as heroes.

Billy doesn't care about any of that, except for the distractions of war PTSD, and his sister getting him discharged. He falls in love at first sight with cheerleader Rainbow (whose name I've given away), and he adds Rainbow to his visions of the future. Rainbow is also in love with Billy, an American hero, and the two meet for two hours and are intimate for ...... minutes.

After the halftime show at the Thanksgiving Day open football game, Norm, the owner of the football team, calls in Billy to talk to Demme, the current head of the B squad. Because a movie about the Iraq War is likely to be made, which means Billy and the others are going to get rich. No treachery, Norm just don't care what you heroes, 100,000 dollars I can't give, five thousand you do it or not, don't do it right away, can't use you old man still don't make a movie or what.

In the face of Daim's treacherous press, Billy and Daim defend the dignity of the B class: 5,000 can not, must be 100,000! (This is one of the highlights of the movie, I'll talk about it later). The negotiation itself naturally broke down, because this is the last propaganda of the B class, the government arranged the end of the matter, all the B class will have to go back to Iraq to be the world police, the B class did not earn the 100,000 U.S. dollars, the sister Kathryn did not retain Billy, and the last Billy followed the troops back to the battlefields of Iraq, the end of the story.

The above story, which I have worked on, reverses the original order, as the movie is a crossover of two narrative threads (reality, memories).

With the story out of the way, what exactly is Billy's role in "Middlemarch" and what does he do? What is his battle?

Billy is always fighting, you alone just haven't realized it: there are two important threads of Billy's life, hidden by the director.

1, the structure of the story

Through the language of the camera in the film, it is not difficult to find out that when Billy is fantasizing in his own world, the dining table in the living room of Billy's home that is not cleaned up is in color, and the camera continues to go from the living room to the bedroom, where the image of Billy having intercourse with the rainbow on the bed is in gray. In other words, in Billy's mind, leaving the house after dinner and returning to the battlefield was his first choice, and being with Rainbow was what he wanted, but he gave himself up to erasing that choice.

B class after an indoor interview, Billy and Rainbow fell in love at first sight and made out backstage, the director did not film how they made out, at the end of the story, the director used lines to explain that Billy was still a virgin, which means that Billy and Rainbow were just kissing, and did not have intercourse. Billy met the woman he wanted to be with for the rest of his life, but still chose his status as a soldier. It's from that moment that the story shifts from Act I to Act II, and Billy's battle in the middle (growing up, identity, and more) is fought!

2, The Battle

Two days before Billy's final performance, Catherine told Billy that she had the power to keep Billy in the country, rather than obeying the government's orders to return to the battlefields of Iraq, if Billy would cooperate. What was Katherine's ability? Is it that she and Norm, the owner of the football team, and the psychiatrist have reached some kind of ****ing understanding: as long as Billy is willing to cooperate, for example, if Billy himself is sick, for example, if he listens to Norm's advice to make a low-priced movie, it is possible for Billy to stay in the country (this is a line that you can ignore, 1, Norm makes movies with the help of the main theme, and if Billy doesn't go to Iraq to turn against the war, it may be unprofitable for him to go back to the water, so maybe Kathryn hasn't reach a **** understanding with Norm; 2, very tired after swimming and watching such a brain-burning movie at night, only watched it once some plots I can't guarantee to be true)

The article started with me saying that I almost burst into tears watching Billy being treated like a puppet by people, standing on the stage. At the time, there was music playing on the stage and the lyrics were something along the lines of, I love you soldier so cause you're a hero and will give me hot tears and happiness.

As Billy and the others were leaving the arena, Rainbow appeared to say goodbye to Billy, who told Rainbow that he actually had a chance to be with Rainbow forever. Rainbow doesn't understand what Billy is saying and Rainbow's response is, "Aren't you a hero?" One of the words is that I think you're a hero before I'm willing to be infected and driven by you and sleep with you, or who do you think you are.

The explanation of this scene not only proves that Billy's choice to return to the battlefield is correct and shows the director's point of view from the opposite side, but also makes the whole story more complete, and eliminates the need for dragging out all kinds of explanations. (There are a lot of lines in the movie: "I'm not a hero, I'm just a soldier", "I have to go back, I have a promise, I still have a long way to go" cleverly to express Billy's heart.)

About the highlights, Billy and Norm when killing the price with Dem: "Five thousand won't do, it has to be a hundred thousand!" What a clever use of it. Let's not care that the five thousand is a deposit or give more or less, for example, there is such a chance that if you are given a hundred thousand, will you let me sleep with your wife for a month and then return to you, the answer is usually no, so what if I offer a hundred million? Do you still promise me this condition?

So I personally feel that in addition to explaining the story, the director is not another layer of meaning: the director himself took down the aura of war heroes of the B class, telling the audience that the B class, they are but also in the deal, the military is but one of their occupations.

About "Middlemarch", a lot of people say that the film contains anti-war ah social reality ah this and that highlights and intention, you guys just bullshit. As a director who is good at mastering delicate emotions, Ang Lee all heart is still in the character of Billy, the character performance is good, anti-war or other or not, are all shells, self-belonging aura only, but the premise is to Billy this person molded vivid up.

That's why the movie uses the highest technical specifications of 120 fps/4K/3D, and why it shoots Billy's face head-on countless times in the movie, and why it appears countless times in the world from Billy's point of view, which expresses to the audience Billy's inner battle about the world's adhesion.

Thoughts embedded in the movie

There is a classic case in the Buddhist scriptures: when a wise man stretches out his finger to point to the moon, a fool looks toward the wise man's finger.

So the fools are not thinking correctly? They don't see as far as the wise man, but they live by their own rules, and whatever the wise man says and does must be right.

Everyone's life may have infinite possibilities, but there are many jumpers in the world, both in thinking, in behavior, and in expression. There are possibilities in living. Before Zhang Youyi was 18, in her perception she might just be a husband and mother for the rest of her life, and never thought she would go abroad, and who would have thought that later on she would not only go abroad, but also become a professional manager?

But what is shown in the movie story is basically fixed. In every era, there are different values, and the perspective and thought process of watching the same movie is different in every era. Yet human nature is figured out, the world watches Billy, and Billy observes the world, he has to take a stand, he grows up, he has to grow up, because he puts down his cast (life and death with the mushrooms, kills a man), and enters the world of adults, he has to play by the rules of adults.

Going about things according to that kind of thinking, then no one cares if the wise man points to the moon, because no one is stupid. It's not that they can't see the moon, it's that they willingly recognize that the finger is the truth.

In Descendants of the Sun, the female lead asked the first lieutenant who would you choose if you had to choose between me and the motherland, and the first lieutenant answered the motherland. What a great melodramatic education! I have a question here, does the captain love his country or his profession?

If the country is unjustly waging war, we know that the war is just a continuation of politics, but also to continue the war, then the sacrifice of some soldiers still have meaning? In movies and TV dramas, the first lieutenant must be positively in love with his country, but if in reality, he is the one who has given the cast, and his worldview must be defended, even if it means with his life.

Submission are under, what else dare not do, the dignity of my world, must I come to maintain, I must also maintain!

The owner of the rugby team has made his pitch, so he's not a traitor to his own world: profit and the commercial landscape. The movie star in the movie puts down a pitch so he just greets the heroes politely to maintain his rippling image in the minds of the fans/or for fear of scandal (according to the language of the camera: in the backstage shot of the star greeting Billy and other members of the B class, the star's back is turned to the camera and he's facing the B class)

People in real life, how can it be that they don't have to put down a pitch. No matter what kind of cast, the junior in order to turn the main room poisoned to death; office Zhen Huanzhuan biography is staged every day, play dead one is one. The fact is that there is a lot of talk about the future of the world, and that is why there is a lot of talk about the future of the world.

Everyone has the desire for a better life, life is in the relationship between people get along with each other (father and son, neighbors, comrades, colleagues, etc.) to experience the fun, feel the contrast, learning to bring cognition and satisfaction. That is to say, everyone's fame and fortune has an intersection, and there is one value in this intersection that cannot be violated, and that is reason. Because this reason is not a threat to everyone's interests, this reason is, for example, justice, for example, kindness, for example, giving.

In a niche music program, the reasoning that everyone ****ing identifies with is "I'm a Singer," and that's where the heavy advertising comes in, which means that identity can be exploited.

Isn't that what Class B, the patriotic propaganda team in "Middlemarch," is all about, in the director's eyes? We placed our respective casts, each arranging our own destinies, and if you are obedient and at peace, then the whole world is sunny. Billy to the end of the choice of the battlefield, that is his initiative to choose, that is his life, growing up always have the heart, can not manage so helpless.

Billy in these light world, but is to find their own life path, that also blame what the real society in the falsehood, the American heroes as a cake to divide the interests of people of all colors? Let's go, let's go, everyone has to learn to grow up.

Throwing a final question: did Billy win in the end?

A complete movie with an end and a homecoming ending seems to be the standard, but I guess a good movie is like life, and life is more than one possibility.

Don't ask me why I have the money to watch such an expensive movie. Members of Bona Cinema, every year on their birthday, the theater will give a free movie to watch. I'm the master of Exclusive Memory, watching a lonely movie every year....... You'll want mushrooms by your side when you go to the movies again next year.