The French film master Godard once said, "To make a movie, you only need a gun and a girl". For movies, maybe the form is not important, what matters is the content, whether the plot is exciting, and whether the characters are full. And "Buried Alive" uses 95 minutes to prove to us: to make a movie, a man and a coffin are enough.

The film tells the story of a truck driver named Paul who was assigned by the company to work in Iraq, and after a terrorist attack, he suddenly found himself waking up in a coffin, with only a mobile phone, a lighter, a pencil, and a flashlight.

However, the film is unique in that it does not tell the clichéd inspirational story of how a desperate person can use his spirit of self-improvement to successfully save himself, but tells us a story of loneliness and despair in nature through Paul's death at the end.

When Paul was buried alive in the ground, he called the FBI, the government, and the company for help, but was met not only with indifferent rejection, but also with hypocritical perfunctory and deceitful comfort. Even calling their friends and family is not taken seriously.

In fact, despair is more terrible than death, and when you fall into this desperate situation, when the quicksand seeps into the coffin little by little, and Paul suffocates step by step, death is not so terrible compared to despair.

The film was not made into a fast survival guide such as "A Glimmer of Life" and "Sniper Phone Booth", but added political metaphors and human thinking elements to the film, making the film a higher level of concept. From this point of view, it is more like "Horror Live". Of course, considering the chronological order, maybe "Horror Live" is not necessarily based on "Buried Alive".

Even more terrible than terrorists is the indifference of the government, the neglect of their loved ones, and the resulting deep despair in their hearts.

(Students who love movies are welcome to follow >Hey_Jerry_, or search and follow my Zhihu column: God's Shadow on Zhihu)

When you wake up, you are found buried in a coffin in the desert

You found a phone number left by a kidnapper, who would you call to?

First of all, the police station, 110, the police department is most concerned about why the kidnappers don't just kill you, but bury you alive.

Then, the phone at home was not connected

The other half's phone was not connected

。。。。。。

You are desperate, and you start scolding desperately

The situation in the movie is more complicated

You're just a truck driver hired by a big company to deliver supplies for the Iraqi war, you have a wife and a two-year-old son, you're a civilian, but you're buried under the desert by some local Iraqi force.

You're having trouble breathing.

Rattlesnakes in the desert will crawl in through the cracks in their coffins.

911 won't care if it's not their area, you're in Iraq, they can't help it.

The company that hired you, from the moment it knew you were still alive, was busy preparing for a crisis PR after your kidnapping video went viral, your life, and didn't care.

But they also need you, they need to call over and record it, make sure that the contract you signed before is valid, in the name that you had sex with another female driver, announce that you have been officially fired at the time you were buried alive, and anything that happens afterwards has nothing to do with the company that hired you, and even if you die, the family cannot get an insurance claim.

You still can't get through to your wife's phone. Your wife's best friend doesn't know where your wife is. She doesn't want to help you get a government phone yet. You say Bitch

You call the government, and the government already knows about your situation, but the first person to answer the phone still wastes time confirming your situation and then transferring the call. The lady in the office, sitting in an air-conditioned room, told you slowly and calmly not to take any video asking for ransom. Save you with 1 million, impossible, the government stipulates that this cannot be done. I am sorry.

The FBI, hehe, is also a character. You're not an official, you're not a star, you're not an important person, and the FBI doesn't care how dangerous your situation is.

The government lady tells you that there is a hostage rescue team and they can help you. The captain of the hostage rescue team tries to find you with your phone's GPS and find the kidnappers.

The kidnapper asked, are you a soldier? You say, you're just a driver, you don't have a weapon, you're a civilian. The kidnappers asked, are you American? You say, yes. The kidnappers said, then you are a soldier. You choked up and didn't know how to answer.

You call your mother who has Alzheimer's disease and is in a nursing home, and the mother doesn't know who you are, she just remembers that her son is a little boy, and you say you are that little boy, and then she keeps telling you that she's doing well, and she plays cards with your dad every night. And you know that Dad is dead, but Mom's memories are stuck in the past. You start crying. Cry. Cry.

The kidnappers asked you to cut off a finger and use blood to get the US Embassy to rescue you with money, you know that this group of criminals will not let you go if they have money without blinking, you say, let me out first.

The kidnapper sent the video again: "I am an employee of **, because I did not follow the instructions of the kidnappers when I was kidnapped...... Then ——, died without waiting for a single shot.

You think you might survive by doing so, and you cut off your fingers.

There is no time, the broken coffins are slowly filling the sand due to air strikes. The wife called, and you said to each other "I love you, I love you, I love you......"

In 1 minute, the sand will bury you alive. The hostage rescue captain said that he found a coffin, and you insist. You use up the last bit of strength and the last bit of oxygen to say hurry, hurry, hurry! You even hallucinate that the coffin has been opened. At the last moment, you are told that they are looking for the coffin of another kidnapped person, am sorry. Well, in reality, they never rescued anyone. You don't have time to think before you're buried in the sand.

A matter of moments.

The story is over, I died in the movie, and I came back to life in reality, but I couldn't be at peace for a long time.

I felt utter hopeless.

This shouldn't be the emotion that a junior should feel.

Utterly, helpless, hopeless, pessimistic.

Despair engulfs sorrow, and grief wells up in the stomach of despair with infinite despair.

I am also an ordinary child from an ordinary family. My father and mother did hard physical labor. When I was in elementary school, the girls in the neighborhood would make fun of me in public. My classmates also looked down on my family. My parents work honestly and legally to serve the people, so why should manual labor be looked down upon? Why are the children of parents who sit in the air conditioner and go to work have the right to laugh at me? According to the level of education and the average level of education at that time, the parents of those of you who laughed at me may not have a high level of education as my father, and your parents rely on relationships and shit luck, your parents do not need manual labor, your parents occupy resources, and your parents give birth to you with your own skills of ridicule. FUCK! However, your parents' contributions and services to the people of the town per unit of time may be less than one-tenth of mine.

I had low self-esteem when I was a child, and I grew up feeling the worst malice in the world.

When I was a child, of course, there were many people who loved me and loved me, but I can't remember, and if my mother hadn't told me when I was older, I wouldn't have known at all.

Give me a little malice and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Give me love, I only remember for a few hours. That's what I remember when I was a kid.

Since the beginning of my junior year, I have gradually come to remember the kindness of others. This ability has grown by leaps and bounds. Now, malice I will forget, kindness I will remember for a lifetime. Moreover, the people around me are getting better and better.

Speaking of which, it doesn't seem like a movie review anymore.

My story is not brilliant at all. Because it's too general. Later, when there is an opportunity, we will show the details.

In short, what impressed me most about this film is that it shows how difficult it is for middle- and lower-class people to try to change their lives. Who really worries about you when you're struggling?

Well, it may be a bit inappropriate to say that the male protagonist is a symbol of the phoenix in today's Chinese society, but I still have to use this analogy.

Phoenix men and women have to put in more hardships to achieve a life that others can achieve more easily. Once the society is sick (the United States attack on Iraq is a manifestation of social pathology), the first to be hurt is always you, and of course the opportunity will find you, but the risk is too great, if you are not careful, you will be like the male protagonist, and your life will return to Huangquan.