Film Name: 特技狂人 / The Fall Guy
It’s a shame that after only its second day in theatres, the new film The Fall Guy hasn’t made much of a splash in the marketplace – isn’t it fun, interesting and funny?
Although the film is not strictly speaking a good popcorn film, with its odd pacing and flimsy narrative, it is interesting in its own way, thanks to its ‘making a film’ subject matter and stuntman-focused perspective, and the bad taste it exudes, and the thunderous sequences it contains.
In this film, the real protagonists are the relatively minor characters and elements of a normal film, a large group of people behind the scenes of the film and the ‘side dishes’ they provide, and in this regard, The Fall Guy is truly a ‘love letter to cinema’! In this respect, The Fall Guy is truly a ‘love letter to filmmakers.
[Spoiler alert: spoilers below].
Lest I be accused of bluffing, let’s be honest: The Fall Guy is not the kind of commercial comedy that is enjoyable enough to keep you entertained from start to finish.
The first half of the film, in particular, is very counter-intuitive in terms of narrative pacing and content, and moves into a kind of unrelenting, self-referential awkwardness of conversation and acting ……
At the same time, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s image and state of the two are of course very online, but the ‘Barbie Helmer’ duo as the hero and heroine is difficult to say that the call, talk about how much chemistry.
What’s worse, the character of the film’s leading man, Colt Sievers, is one of the most anxious (and universally representative) of the boring gourd type …… So, whether you want to see a smooth story or want to see the handsome and beautiful people to talk about love the audience, watching this film will not be too painful.
But just when I thought The Fall Guy was a bad film that lived up to its name, I gradually realised, as the plot moved into the middle, that I was focusing on the wrong thing.
Because the main course on the table is a bunch of side dishes that just don’t cut it.
In ‘The Fall Guy’, Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Tom Ryder, an outwardly strong, psychologically twisted bad guy, while the inept stuntman Colt is ‘forced’ to sing the C-suite (the latter is actually a scapegoat found by the former).
In other words, from the very beginning of the film, Tom becomes ‘The Fall Guy’, while Cort becomes ‘The Guy’. Coulter’s juggling, making fools of himself, taking the blame, and showing off his skills are the biggest attractions of the film.
In the film will often ‘destroy the rhythm’ of the action scenes, for example, Cort rolled with the car in the explosion scene, in the Jordy’s gambling in the constant fire wrestling, and confusedly opened a rubbish truck chase, but also with props gun to break through the villain’s roundup ……
These scenes would be a simple spice in a normal commercial film (maybe even a little inexplicable), but for The Fall Guy, they are meaning itself.
Simply because he is a good stuntman, Colt in the film becomes an omnipotent also can’t fight the true – protagonist, so with the extreme set presents the anti-cliché effect, the achievement of the film’s unexpected coolness.
Director David Leitch is a stuntman by training, and has served as a stunt double for Brad Pitt, ShanghART, and other stars. He is also an actor, producer, and director, so he is familiar with the business process on the set.
Thanks to this, almost all of the funniest parts of The Fall Guy come from the ‘sidekick’s turn’.
Like in the climax scene of the film, in order to expose Tom’s crime of murder and framing, the entire Metal Tornado cast and crew are all on board, the director cheats people into the jar, the group actors cooperate with the drama, the sound recordist leaves the evidence, the entire stunt team fights against the pursuers, and then the stuntman performs all kinds of miracles. …… At this moment, the boundaries between inside and outside of the theatre are blurred, and everyone who is out of the theatre is in the theatre. Blurring, each person is the protagonist.
In this context, even if the film describes the filmmakers in a slightly frivolous and playful tone, it’s still hot, crazy and harmless love.
‘If we’re going to make a film about kissing, we have to have flying cars, crashes and explosions, that’s what makes it hilarious!’
That said, I suddenly understand the twisted love between the hero and heroine of The Fall Guy:
On the surface, it is the unspeakable love of deep love, which can only be told when one is dead and enlightened; but on the inside, isn’t it precisely the dedication and love of behind-the-scenes filmmakers who can’t get to the front of the stage but are still committed to the film industry?
This group of people may never be able to decide whether a film is good or not, but without them, I’m afraid it would be difficult for a film to exist.
The same car rolling eight and a half weeks of footage, in the eyes of most viewers, may be just a few seconds of small visual stimulation, in addition to a few will watch the behind-the-scenes special features of the film fans and practitioners, simply do not care about how to shoot it ……
But in the eyes of the filmmakers who shot it themselves, they can’t help but shout ‘Oh!!!! This is fucking awesome!’
‘The Fall Guy’ is a love song to these lovely people.
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