"Praise me for being the pride of Jewish women."

Leaning into Ryan's ear, Natalie lowered her voice, "If the film is okay, they'll support me this awards season." ”

"That's a good thing." Ryan nodded slightly, "Honey, if nothing else, your biggest opponent will be James?" Cameron. ”

"I met Jim last week." Natalie clearly disagreed, "He didn't think he would win the award, even though Avatar was as successful as you expected." ”

The lights in the theater suddenly went out, and the logo of the distributor Miramax appeared on the screen, and Ryan didn't continue to say anything, in fact, James? Cameron doesn't care about the little golden man anymore, and the weight of the Oscar for Best Director is probably not as important as a new film technology in the minds of the king of the world.

Cameron himself knows very well that such a sci-fi film made entirely in CG is unlikely to win the Oscars.

However, Disney will still promote "Avatar" because it can increase the commercial revenue of the film in a certain way, and the focus of public relations is definitely not on the best director.

In the past and present life, the biggest Oscar opponent of "Avatar" has kicked off on the big screen.

Company B's bomb disposal team consists of three people, and during one mission, they sacrifice the bomb disposal captain, so the film's protagonist James joins in. James is a man with a heroic complex, he is not afraid of his own death, he does not follow the operating procedures at all, always defuses the bomb single-handedly, and even takes off the bomb disposal suit again and again for the convenience of movement.

Rather than his teammates in a state of panic and "today we survived" praying, James is more of a crazy tech guy who dares to give up all security measures for the sake of more focus when he's struck a bunch of bombs.

This guy seems to treat such a dangerous job as bomb disposal as simple as repairing a car, just like a hacker is obsessed with Internet technology, and he is obviously "obsessed" with the process of bomb disposal. When people had already evacuated the area around the bomb and could safely detonate it, James refused to evacuate, and he always insisted on dismantling the bomb for the safety of his comrades and the lives and property of the Iraqi people.

To be sure, James gets a strong euphoria during the bomb defusal process, and when he finishes defusing the bomb and returns to the "Humvee" to light a cigarette, his expression is as if he has just finished having sex. Tired and contented.

Maybe James is really not afraid of death, but this person who is not afraid of self-death, but in the process of carrying out his mission, he was touched by the death of others, including American military comrades and Iraqis, the death of these people left an indelible impression on him, affecting his psychology and behavior over time.

James faces an invisible enemy and fights a war with whom he doesn't know who to fight, which makes him a little overwhelmed. But the unique heroism complex of the American in his bones made him figure out that his own efforts made the Yiqiē in front of him better, because in this seemingly illusory battlefield, the casualties of his comrades-in-arms were real.

And then there is this kind of heroism, when one has a strong conviction. When he has a clear sense of self and at the same time shows courage and courage beyond ordinary people in his actions, and achieves merit for the benefit of the group, it is said that his actions are heroic.

This is one of the positions of the film. Although the image of the US military in it is not high, and even as weak as those Iraqis, it is extremely positive. This may be different from the way "Transformers" shows the strength of the US military, but in essence, there is not much difference.

Because they are all creating a positive image of the US military.

Of course, these are the basic positions of the film, and it is all wrapped in 'reflection'.

The film uses the technique of documentary filming, and the dangling shoulder-mounted camera footage brings the real Iraqi battlefield, surrounded by terrified American soldiers and ant-like Iraqis, in the midst of war, everyone is weak.

American GIs, armed to the teeth, may get on a "dirt plane" at any time; Iraqi militants also fell lightly under the guns of the US military; Needless to say, any small clash between the two sides would be enough to crush them.

Perhaps it is true that the big scenes of war films are not enough, Natalie obviously uses more independent film literary and loose narrative techniques, through the eyes of Guò James, showing fragments one by one, although there is no compact narrative and overlapping high. tide, but it's really suffocating.

The dead bomb disposal in the opening scene is Natalie showing the audience the correct bomb disposal procedure, a demonstration of the regular procedure, leaving a reference for James's crazy 'personal heroism' behavior after his appearance.

The death of the bomb disposal man is actually the opening statement of Natalie herself, she first broke people's usual movie-watching psychology, and solemnly stated that everyone is weak in the face of war, and there is no Steve on the real battlefield? Rogers, and Rambo who didn't blow up dozens of times.

In the death of the bounty hunter, the shape of the hunter leader is extremely stylish, aside from the fierce costume, just the Barrett sniper in his hand can kill a large movie, according to conventional movie thinking, this is another superhero who can sweep all war movies without dying.

But a few minutes later, the leader of the hunters was shot in the heart by the Iraqis, and once again showed the audience the cruelty of war.

In the subsequent death of the medical officer, the psychiatrist officer in James's unit wanted to go out to actually help the bomb disposal team, so he found James's team who was about to go to work and asked to go on a mission together.

Unfortunately, an earthen bomb killed the colonel.

Again, in the face of war, rank and position are not a sign that death will let you go, after the colonel was blown up, a soldier rushed over and shouted in pain, "I was still teaching him how to use the radio just now......"

If you say no, it's gone, even if it's a minute of bragging together.

Natalie used the camera to tell the audience so coldly and mercilessly - war, that's it!

In the death of 'Beckham', James completely mistook 'Beckham' who sold DVDs, he thought that he knew Iraqis better than other Americans and could make friends with Iraqis, but in fact he was no different from other Americans, they couldn't even tell who was Iraqi, even the Iraqis with whom he spent their days and nights.

Americans look at Iraqis, Iraqis look at Americans, Westerners look at Easterners, Easterners look at Westerners, in fact, in everyone's eyes, people of the other race are the same, and it is difficult to distinguish clearly, this is the estrangement, this kind of estrangement across races, just like the struggle between faith and ideology, will never disappear.

Here, Natalie apparently changes the script and says that the Americans don't know what the Iraqis want, and the Iraqis don't bother to let the Americans know what they want, is probably an excellent portrayal of the situation.

Under the war, children are the first to bear the brunt, and although 'Beckham' is still alive, the children lying there as corpse bombers are real.

Although the whole film tends to be realistic and bland, there are also small highs such as the death of the "suicide bomb". Tide.

An Iraqi man took the initiative to ask the US military patrol for help, saying that he had a bomb strapped to his body, but he did not want to be a "suicide bomber" and begged the US military to save him.

This is a time bomb, leaving only two minutes for James, James is racing against time to defuse the bomb, according to the usual pattern of movies around the world, James will inevitably cut the red line or blue line at the last second to save Iraqi civilians, and then there will be a military-civilian gala.

However, time did not come to the end, James did not choose the red line or the blue line, so he gave up the bomb disposal, the Iraqis were blown into powder, James was swept to the ground by the air wave in the process of escaping, Natalie once again shattered the audience's extravagant hopes with a cruel ending, this is war, war is not a movie.

This situation shattered not only the hopes of the audience, but also the box office of the film, so it is strange that such a cold movie can be a big hit.

When James left, the Iraqi children followed the Humvee Jeep and threw stones, and James could not adjust to life after returning home and returned to the battlefield in Iraq.

The interplay of these two fragments shows that war has become an unbreakable curse, not only irresistible, but also impossible to escape.

In the hearts of Iraqi descendants, the seeds of hatred have been planted and will sprout and blossom in the years to come, while American GIs have become too caught up in war to adapt to a normal and peaceful life, as if war had become their only point of existence.

Both sides are victims, there is no strong or weak, and they are driven by a spell called "war......

As a director, Natalie did not make a direct moral judgment about the war in the film, did not evoke humanitarian sympathy through the cruelty of the war scenes, nor did she create dramatic scenes to satirize the reasons why the United States started the war.

Of course, she will not "stand" in Iraq and look at the war in front of her from their point of view.

Natalie has grasped the most important point very well, all the reflections of the film are from the position of the United States, and they are all based on the most basic condition that the United States is the victor in the Iraq war.

Just like "Saving Private Ryan", reflecting on the war is the privilege of the victor.

When war can be greatly benefited, they attack fearlessly; When the justice of the war is in doubt, they still do not give up......

In some ways, "Bomb Disposal Unit" completely inherits the fine tradition of Hollywood's war reflection films, and is fully in line with today's social politics, the needs of mainstream values, and the requirements of the Oscars, who always have to express their stance on politics. (To be continued......)