雷雨影评800字.docx

1、雷雨影评800字雷雨影评800字雷雨影评800字（七）god must be crazy 英文影评800字左右吧、The critics must be crazyIve probably seen this film five or six times over the years,from its initial U.S.art-house run in the late 1980s (I can still vividly remember my experience seeing it in the Coconut Grove theater near where I was goin

2、g to university) to last night.Its been one of my most consistent 10s.Although my ratings tend to fluctuate on multiple viewings for many films,I dont believe that Ive ever thought The Gods Must be Crazy was lower than a 10.The film works so well because of its odd confluence of styles,which gradual

3、ly merge.You could almost say the structure is Hegelian,with a thesis,two antitheses,and something of a synthesis at the end.The common thread throughout is a very tongue-in-cheek critique,in the mode of a parable,of both culture/society/civilization and views about culture/society/civilization,incl

4、uding politics,religion,mores,and so on.The film begins with the story of Xixo,or just Xi (N!xau,in one of the many spellings of this actors name) and his fellow bushmen,who live in the Kalahari Desert.A narrator (Paddy OByrne) tells us about their lifestyle.Before long,this is contrasted with foota

5、ge of life in the big city in Johannesburg.The narration continues with the same tone,as if were unfamiliar with modern,western culture.We meet Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo),who is getting fed up with her white-collar existence.We move back to the bushmen.A man in a passing small aircraft nonchala

6、ntly tosses a Coke bottle out the window.It lands close to Xi,who has never seen anything like it before.Eventually it causes all kinds of problems and Xi tries to get rid of it.We are also introduced to a thread about Sam Boga (Louw Verwey),who is leading rebels in Burundi.We see them try to assass

7、inate the President.After this,theyre pursued by the Burundian military.Meanwhile,Kate has decided to go to Botswana to be a teacher,and there she meets Andrew Styne (Marius Weyers).Eventually,all of these threads come together.The plot may sound like a mess,and it probably would be under lesser han

8、ds,but producer/writer/editor/director Jamie Uys keeps the disparate threads remarkably focused and coherent.His timing for each and for the transitions between threads is impeccable,and the way they move together is nothing short of ingenious.There has been no shortage of ink spilled in (often-nega

9、tive) criticism of The Gods Must be Crazy.Unfortunately,a lot of the criticism is ridiculous and profoundly misconceived.Many see the film as racist.A lot of people who cant comprehend the fact/fiction distinction have criticized the film for inaccurate portrayals of bushmen and other characters.Uys

10、 humor and social critiques are frequently misunderstood.Its significant that OByrnes narrative tone is very similar to Peter Jones narrative tone for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.Whether this was a direct influence on Uys is not as important as the contextual clues it provides (the Hitchhike

11、rs Guide mini-series featuring Jones was not completed until 1981,but the BBC radio show,which was the original format for Hitchhikers Guide and which also featured Jones narration,aired in 1978).The narration is extremely tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic.Uys is spoofing bushmen,civilization,and also s

12、ome of the misconceptions about bushmen.The narration is also meant as a kind of distancing technique.Modern western civilization is explained to us as if were aliens learning about this world.This is all in service of a much more serious,different kind of point.The bushmen are shown as they are to

13、enable a Lord of the Flies (1963 & 1990,based on William Goldings 1954 book)-like examination of civilization.The bushmen are the schoolboys of Lord of the Flies in their initial shipwrecked state.The Coke bottle symbolizes the entrance of civilization in that virgin culture,and we see the havoc the

14、 new concepts cause.The Johannesburg and Burundi material both exist in the film to give us a flash forward to what that introduction of civilization can lead to.In the case of Burundi,its a direct extension of the fighting over possessions,including land.In the case of Johannesburg,its a spiraling

15、web of miserableness.Its not a coincidence that the bushmen learn both violence and unhappiness when civilization appears,and its not an accident that we initially examine these things from an alien perspective.Uys wants us to look at where we stand as a civilization and reassess it-an especially po

16、ignant message coming from a South African in the late 1970s/early 1980s.Dont forget that Xi is a hero here-hes the most authentic character in the film,and hes the one who enables the resolution of the dilemma in the climax.The material in Botswana,especially as the threads merge,suggests a kind of solution,a kind of balance,although its significant that the solution is far from perfect,and to an extent,parties go their separate wa