Yes, everyone rejects disasters, but that doesn't mean we should avoid thinking about disasters. Because in the face of ruthless disasters, only thinking can prevent, alert and find inner strength. ...
Disaster films are the product of this kind of thinking-there have been many classic disaster films in the historical corridor of the films, and the nature of truth, goodness and beauty of human nature highlighted by the disasters described in the films always leaves us a deep impression and endless aftertaste. These disaster films will not only lose their market because people are afraid of the disaster itself, but will shine brilliantly-the most popular film in film history is the disaster film: Titanic (the domestic box office in the United States is 600 million, and the global box office is 65.438+0.8 billion! ) So what are the attractions of disaster movies? This paper will make a detailed comment on the charm of disaster films through the analysis of the top ten disaster films in film history:
The film that can best present the aesthetics of film.
Disaster films often have a common feature: that is, a large number of film technologies such as computer special effects, montage and lens segmentation are used to produce magnificent, shocking, realistic and gorgeous scene descriptions, which bring the aesthetic feeling of film art to the extreme.
The day after tomorrow, 2004), a movie special effects.
No director is crazier than roland emmerich to destroy the earth 10,000 times. From Independence Day to Godzilla to The Day After Tomorrow, and even this year's Prehistory, the "equivalent of destruction" in his films has doubled, which is enough for the audience to experience the pleasure of destruction from the perspective of special effects.
Just like the apocalyptic nuclear explosion in Terminator 2, what can you do when you see a tornado in Los Angeles, a tsunami in Manhattan, a hurricane observed from outer space, a hungry wolf escaping from the zoo, a sign of "Hollywood" smashed by a tornado, Japanese streets smashed by a shell-like hail, the whole of new york swallowed up by a tsunami, the Empire State Building was frozen rapidly, only the remains of steel bars were left in skyscrapers, and the peak of civilization instantly turned into dim ruins?
In disaster movies, big is beautiful. What is the flooded Twin Towers in The Lord of the Rings? Imagine a scene ten thousand times bigger than that! And your perspective will not only stay on the ground, but also be taken into the air, clouds and even space! The "people" are getting smaller and smaller, and the "environment" is getting bigger and bigger, which is why the film only shows the destruction of landmark buildings, and it is rare to see thousands of "little people" running around, which is always a storm eye with a diameter of tens of kilometers. Any shot needs to use a rocker arm to take a lot of panoramas, aerial photography, combined with models and computer special effects, to shoot a doomsday scene luxuriously!
The outstanding visual performance of The Day After Tomorrow lies not only in the large scale and quantity of disasters, but also in the infectious tone processing. With the passage of time and the change of disaster types, the color of the film presents rich transitions, such as pale and dim clouds before the disaster, wide and muddy streets when the rainstorm comes, dark cities full of dust after the hurricane, the horrible white world when the ice and snow are flying, and the dazzling white ice layer and the red sky reflecting the afterglow of the sun after the disaster ... Everything fully renders emotions, making people fully feel the sensory reactions brought about by climate changes such as cold, wet and warm.
Film special effects Titanic (1998).
The highest box office investment in history is also amazing: $200 million! If you think this is nothing, this article can provide a message: the film market before Titanic was an astronomical figure of $6,543.8 billion, and the film era of big investment and big production began with Titanic. A large part of the investment was given to special effects. Cameron perfectly combined CG special effects with physical models in Titanic, creating a magnificent background. Without this stage, it is hard to say how lethal the love between Jack and Ruth will be. This film won the 70th Oscar for Best Visual Effect (1997).
The movie special effects tornado (Twister, 1996).
The film Tornado (1996) is of course a legend about the wind, and all the staff in the film are inevitably destroyed by the wind. In order to seek the "violent" effect, director jan de bont abandoned the traditional super-large powerful fan (this kind of powerful fan was used in the last scene of Mission Impossible, which made Tom Cruise fly on the top of the bullet train! ) No, make artificial tornadoes with more powerful "jet engines". The special effects team installed the ice crusher on the trailer and used the Boeing 747 jet engine to launch a strong wind with a speed of 200 miles per hour. After dancing with heavy rain, hail, strong wind, mud, debris and dust for fifteen weeks, the staff finally finished what was described as a "cool super blockbuster". A huge black mushroom cloud covering the sun rolled up cattle and sheep, houses, trucks and uprooted trees, which was unforgettable. The "three sisters of tornado" are intertwined, and their strength and whereabouts are even more amazing. No wonder the audience who saw it added Tornado to the all-round version of Gone with the Wind.
Examples abound: In Deep Impact (1998), the earth was hit by a small comet, which triggered a tsunami, and the Statue of Liberty was washed to pieces by the flood, and comet fragments were scattered all over the place; The rolling lava in "The sky is falling" is so realistic and frightening; The explosion scene in "The End of the World" ... All these scenes and plots that ordinary people can only see in movies are vividly shown in disaster films. It can be said that disaster film is the film type that can develop film aesthetics to the extreme.
A tense and exciting plot rhythm
Disaster films are generally imaginative and good at constructing the way of the world in extreme situations; The rhythm is tense and exciting, and the plot is ever-changing; And most disaster films have large capacitance.
The day after tomorrow, 2004)
The plot of The Day After Tomorrow is the most rich and complicated. The film tells the fantasy story that excessive carbon dioxide emissions lead to global warming, and global warming leads to the melting of ice shells in the North and South poles, which leads to sudden changes in air pressure and temperature, and the earth enters the ice age in one day.
The relationship between the characters involved in the story is also extremely complicated, including the relationship between the scientist and the vice president, the relationship between the father and the adolescent son, the relationship between the son and his girlfriend and the children of another rich family, and the relationship between all kinds of strangers who have to hide in the library. ...
Imaginary disaster is the most important thing to examine the imagination of directors and screenwriters, and imagination is the most common in non-main plots-the film shows us profound skills in this respect-I remember a bridge in the film: the United States was flooded, so Americans wanted to cross the US-Mexico border to Mexico, but they were rejected by Mexicans (compared with real life, it was really ironic) ... There is also a small plot in the film: because of the extremely cold climate, they took refuge in the city library. Before burning books, the protagonists will discuss which books are great works that must be left behind and which books are relatively worthless ... These seemingly disconnected plots make the disaster more real, and while winning the audience's smile, we also admire the writers and directors' deep intentions.
At the same time, the film also well integrates various disaster elements: low temperature, hail, hurricane, tsunami, fire, air crash ... it can be described as a master of disaster films.
In terms of rhythm, the films are interlocking and climaxes are repeated, and the wonderful plot has always been close to the heartstrings of the audience, which makes people want to stop.
Poseidon, 2006)
In terms of plot rhythm alone, Poseidon is a purer disaster film than Titanic. Poseidon, which entered the heroic shipwreck scene from 10 minutes after the opening, is like Titanic with the dramatic code of thrilling love deleted, and its theme is magnificent disaster effect and desperate adventure. In order to meet the actual situation of the victims and minimize unnecessary conversations, the setting of running straight to the rescue also gives the film more opportunities to present tense visual effects. As far as the drama code is concerned, although this film is a disaster film, because most of the shots are inside the hull, it actually combines the elements of several disaster films. As far as I can see, the capsizing of the ship and the influx of seawater have produced flood elements; The feeling of the sky falling and land sinking caused by the capsizing of the hull is similar to that of an earthquake; Also, because the ship's electrical appliances are damaged, electricity leakage causes a fire; Finding a way out from the messy hull brings two disaster elements: escaping from the secret room and rock climbing-in fact, in the film, Dylan and his gang climbed the elevator shaft in order to escape from heaven, but at the critical moment, they had to give up one person because the rope could not bear the weight of three people, which is exactly the same as the classic paragraph in the mountaineering disaster film Vertical Limit ... From this perspective, Poseidon is not just about shipwreck.
Vertical restraint, 2000)
The main line of "Vertical Limit" is actually very simple and clear: Peter's family are climbers, but in an accident, after his father voluntarily sacrificed to save Peter and his younger brother and sister, Peter never climbed the mountain again out of guilt. Until one day, his sister was trapped while climbing the Jogory Peak, and Peter had to pull up the team and return to the Snow Mountain. On the way, he experienced many difficulties and sacrificed several team members, including a mysterious old man who lost his wife in mountaineering. But in the end, I managed to save my sister.
This film is more exciting than the rhythm. The film was very worrying from the beginning: a family of three was hung on the abyss by a thin ice cone, and the power of the ice cone could not bear the weight of three people. The father hanging at the bottom asked the middle son to cut the rope and save himself and his sister. What should I do? ……
Next, we have to face various threats, such as avalanches, explosions, and lack of medical care and medicine. Almost every three minutes, our lives hang by a thread. Every two minutes, we have a close call. Or one second ago, we were talking and laughing, and the next second, we were bleeding profusely (the film was treated in a virtual way, which was not too bloody, but shocking enough). The audience felt thrilling in the feeling of suffocation. ...
The brilliance of human nature in disaster films
Finally, last but not least, the reason why disaster films can catch people's eyes as soon as they appear is not only because their special effects can satisfy people's curiosity, or because they are luxurious for supporting cast, but more importantly, the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature shown in disaster films.
First, "the day after tomorrow": the family bond built by the disaster.
Introduction:
"The Day After Tomorrow" depicts science fiction story, with the United States as the representative. The earth suddenly cooled sharply in one day and entered the ice age. In the story, climatologist Jack Hall (played by Dennis Quaid) points out that global warming caused by the greenhouse effect will bring unprecedented disasters to the earth after observing the prehistoric climate research. Dr. Jack warned government officials to take preventive measures, but it was obviously too late. Dr. Jack Hall then urgently informed the Vice President of the United States that the American people south of 30 degrees north latitude should be evacuated to the equator as soon as possible, and the people north of the line should try their best to keep warm.
At this moment, Dr. Hall learned that his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) had gone to new york alone to rescue his girlfriend, so he decided to venture to new york to launch a rescue operation in the ice and snow. At this time, the disaster began in new york, and Manhattan skyscrapers were hit by a strong cyclone, and most of them were destroyed. Suddenly, the subway tunnel was flooded by the raging flood. The flood swallowed new york, flooded the United States, and Europe ceased to exist under the flood. Since then, ice and snow have covered the whole earth's surface, and the ice age has begun.
When the camera returned to the United States again, the surviving Americans fled to Mexico and asked to enter the refugee camps there. At the end of the film, the president of the United States has to sigh and admit that his climate policy is a huge failure.
Mental shock:
In this typical American commercial production, in addition to the thrilling spectacle of catastrophe, many details of humanistic feelings are very touching, among which the most fascinating is the love between father and son. The father-son relationship in the film was originally the same as most father-son relationships in spring, with some estrangements and misunderstandings, but after going through the test of life and death, it is particularly meaningful to have a affectionate detail at the end of the film. A series of bad weather swept the world. Jack Hall, a mountaineer, asked his 17-year-old son, Sam, to stay in the new york Library to avoid this once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm. He promised his sons that he would come to save them. After overcoming unimaginable difficulties, Hall finally came to the new york Library, which was covered with heavy snow. When he and his colleagues appeared in the library where Sam and his classmates were hiding like whispers, Sam and his classmates looked at him in surprise. Sam's girlfriend asked, "Who is that?" Sam's happy face is full of pride. He said, "That's my father!" "
Disaster revelation:
The day after tomorrow is very ambitious, because the real enemy in the film is human beings themselves. In this disaster planned by human beings, no one is innocent, so that fear is still strong.
It is a scientific conclusion that the greenhouse effect will trigger a new ice age. Faced with this future threat, mankind has not yet taken practical measures, so human civilization is submerged by ice water like a colossus, which is a nightmare in the depths of human consciousness. We only dare to imagine this ending, but dare not face it, so the appearance of the day after tomorrow makes us excited.
2. Titanic: Express the beauty of human nature through disasters.
Introduction to the film:
He is a wandering painter, and she is a noble lady. He was lucky enough to squeeze into the third class by gambling, while she boarded the first class with her famous fiance Jun-that's when they met.
On the world's largest and most luxurious cruise ship, if it weren't for that damn iceberg, it would have been a beautiful encounter. ...
But at least love is real. Tired of the snobbery and emptiness of the upper class, she poured out her depression to him: "I think this life is nothing more than that, as if I had lived all my life." Numerous banquets, dances, yacht races and polo matches are accessible to narrow-minded and careless people. I feel like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, and no one pulls me back, no one cares, and no one even cares. "He told her:" Enjoy every day ",that is, the meaning of life is to live happily every day, don't suppress your nature for vanity, don't let ethical codes bind your dreams, and he cheered her up again.
Back to the long-lost smile, she decided to give up all the splendor of life and follow him forever-happiness is just around the corner. ...
However, a terrible tragedy happened and the Titanic was in chaos. In a crisis, the goodness and ugliness, nobleness and meanness in human nature have become more distinct. Jack gave his lover Ross a chance to survive. He froze to death in the sea of ice.
Mental shock:
In fact, it seems that the production of Titanic is not the best. In those days, the special effects scenes that looked like rainbows have long been surpassed by countless rising stars, but the touching love songs in the film are unforgettable. Perhaps, it is the film's portrayal of the different mundane love between Ross and Jack that makes it more humanistic than ordinary disaster films and becomes an eternal classic in the history of disaster films.
Besides love, there are faith, grace and courage. Let's review the moments that touched us:
Scene 1: When the hull began to sink, the passengers panicked, and the small band came down to the deck at the captain's command, playing relaxed music calmly.
Scene 2: In the face of people running for their lives, a musician thinks that the performance at the moment is useless, and no one listens anyway. The chief violinist said, "They didn't listen at dinner!" " So they kept playing.
Scene 3: The ship is about to sink, and the chief pianist announces the end of the performance. The musicians shook hands, thanked each other, and then dispersed. I saw the chief pianist playing the piano alone again despite the chaos on the deck. Hearing the sound of the piano, the musicians who had left came back one by one and gathered around the chief to start the last round of performance.
Scene 4: It's time for you to go somewhere. The chief violinist put down his bow and said to his companions in emotional language, "It is my lifelong honor to cooperate with you tonight ..."
How do you explain all this? Say melodramatic, maybe a little; Talking about professional honor may be a bit excessive, but I believe that anyone who has seen Titanic will never forget the image of a musician who forgot to play in the cold night and the wind, and the cello floating on the sea at the end of the film!
Disaster revelation:
An important revelation from Titanic is that we should never be too proud in front of nature. Titanic 1909 was produced by British White Star Company. It was one of the best in terms of luxury, scale, technical level and safety factor at that time, so it was called "unsinkable ship". A crew member said to Sylvia Caldwell, a second-class female passenger, during the voyage, "Even God himself can't sink this ship." So the ship is not even equipped with enough life-saving supplies. But the unsinkable Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. Of the 2208 crew and passengers on the Titanic, only 705 survived. The painful lesson tells us that we should always be humble to nature and never be too confident in technology. In the era of knowledge explosion and the supremacy of science and technology, perhaps this will help us maintain a sober and human touch.
5. Tornado: Love based on career is the deepest.
Introduction to the film:
In 1960s, a terrible tornado violently attacked Joe Harding's family, and Joe's father was swept away by the storm to protect his family. Childhood experience prompted Joe to become a meteorologist specializing in tornadoes when he grew up.
In the 1990s, Joe's husband Bill Harding and his girlfriend Melissa came to Joe to sign the divorce certificate. Bill used to be a meteorologist who tracked tornadoes. In Joe's chase group, Joe told him that the tornado detector "Dorothy" he had designed before had been successfully manufactured; Bill was so happy that he finally decided to go with the wind again.
On the journey of chasing the wind, another team led by Jonas overtook them. Junas was sponsored by a big company, with advanced instruments and equipment, and stole the research results of Bill and Joe, hoping to become famous. In the confrontation between Joe and Bill and the tornado, the two "Dorothy" were scrapped because of incomplete design; Melissa, on the other hand, broke up with Bill because she couldn't stand this thrilling and turbulent life. She thinks Joe is more suitable for him.
Another big tornado struck, and Joe and Bill arrived and rescued Joe's mother in time. At the same time, the two men were inspired by wind chimes and improved the detector. The tornado storm struck again, and Junas ignored the advice and was swept away by the tornado. Bill made up his mind to take the risk himself and finally succeeded in releasing the last Dorothy. Through thousands of small detectors, the wind chasers finally received the complete information of the storm center, and they finally succeeded. Bill and Joe also relied on wit and courage to escape the attack of death. After the tornado, Tong Tong's adventure rekindled love in their hearts.
Mental shock:
In fact, this film is strictly a disaster ethics film. It tells the story of a couple whose marriage is on the verge of bankruptcy under the background of the storm. The story involves love, but this is not the love between handsome men and beautiful women who are as empty as Titanic, but the love between a pair of responsible and enterprising ordinary men and women. Their love is not so perfect-on the verge of divorce, even the man has a new girlfriend-more delicious, deeper and more extensive. There is a particularly intriguing clip in the film: the protagonist can't refuse the temptation of career. Decided to chase after the wind with the heroine's ex-wife, sitting in the same car, they began to chat and quarrel. Whenever the heroine just started-seemingly friendly boss, the hero began to refute in advance. This kind of plot design makes people feel very real, and only real couples can have that kind of tacit understanding and spiritual communication. Friendship is also the booster of their love. Although they have decided to divorce, in the eyes of friends, they are still a couple. When they are having fun with their friends, the hero's new beautiful girlfriend feels like an outsider. But what connects them more closely is their love and selfless dedication to the cause: going deep into the center of the storm again and again, ecstatic in the face of terrible disasters, desperate in the face of great dangers-in order to save and prevent hurricanes from threatening more families-when their struggle and struggle finally succeed, that is, when their love for fire is rekindled: to be exact, it is not a resurgence, but a new height.
Friendship, teamwork and striving for the same ideals and goals are also the obvious themes of this film: it is a positive theme. In fact, it is not difficult to have a positive theme. The difficult thing is how to make this theme real, moving and acceptable.
Disaster revelation:
In the film, the main characters devote themselves to the cause of hurricane warning, and their goal is to advance the time of hurricane warning from 3 minutes to 15 minutes. After long-term research and repeated experiments, they finally succeeded. It seems that science and technology and the spirit of selfless work of scientific workers can still benefit mankind in some ways!