By Karen - 12 August 2021
I have always wanted to write a good review of the movie "Soldier's Girl". This film moved me, and I put a lot of energy into it. I watched it more than a dozen times in order to listen to the translation and adjust the subtitles. But every time I watch it, I dare not face the bloody scene. Because I know it happened before. There is no meaning to belittle the film-I have to say that the fact that it is adapted from real people makes it easier to impress the audience. Because if it were a fictitious script, I would be angry at the screenwriter's perversion, using simple love scenes, sensitive themes, and violence to win the eye; however, all of this is true, and Barry Winchell was indeed caught by a baseball bat in his sleep. The brain cracked.
What I want to talk about is actually divided into two parts: events and movies.
In fact, that kind of love is nothing particularly thrilling. When Barry met Calpernia, he was just a small soldier in his early twenties, and Calpernia was a sophisticated old world. "Her"'s mature and old charm is not something Barry can fully appreciate, in fact. He was convinced and bowed down. There is a large part of this. Who cares so much when love comes with a mixture of infatuation, admiration and sexual passion? He is a reticent person, and this reticence may just be due to the simplicity of his character.
It's hard to say how far this relationship can go. Generally, it should end without a disease, but the manipulation of fate makes its end a terrible tragedy. Like many tragedies, the motives of the murderer who ruined everything are always surprisingly stupid. After being reported by the media from the sensitive perspective of homosexual discrimination, this incident exerted a violent influence, and was eventually made into a movie. Calpernia was pushed to the forefront. She sold the rights to the story and soon used the money to complete it. Sex reassignment surgery.
How could I sum up this great love story so ruthlessly? Because it can be described in this way, and it does not violate the facts. Every moving story has such an insensitive side, but our human nature needs to be shocked and moved, so the movie came into being. One minute in a movie can be stretched to half an hour, and ten years can be condensed into one second. It allows you to observe the facial expressions of the characters close at hand, and it can also tell what happened in different spaces at the same time. It affects your emotions and affects you. Your judgment determines your preference. It is the teller of the story, and there are many angles of interpretation. Basically, this is a game of playing with our emotions. The great movies are those movies that have perfected the skill of juggling, and the great directors are those who can always create novel skills. The mediocrity will just follow imitating step by step, and this is probably the case in all fields.
"Soldier's Girl" doesn't play with many tricks. In fact, the filming method is very simple and sincere. I don't know if it is a cost decision or a deliberate approach. This film style is formed from a professional attitude based on respect for real events. A fringe subject matter that can be made to be deeply moving and not artificial is probably not unrelated to the director who is the chairman of the Oscars Association. The film is handled very smoothly, the rhythm is rightly grasped, the plot is progressive, showing the development of love affair is very natural and true, and the atmosphere for explaining military life is in place in a timely manner. The perfect performance of Calpernia's charming feminine charm in the film allows the audience to experience Barry's love immersively, and the grasp of the development of the two people's love is both implicit and shocking. On the one hand, it is the sincere emotion that the two care about carefully, on the other hand, the pressure is getting worse and worse. The tension of the drama deeply envelops the audience in this specific story situation and cannot extricate themselves from it. The tragic and bloody scene in the end pushed the drama conflict to a climax, the audience's heart was broken, and the dream was shattered. When Calpernia bends over and crouched and wailed in the most authentic voice, the heart of the stone will melt. Our numb human nature was finally oppressed and asked: Why? !
Movies that allow people to think about this issue are not simple.
I can't say that this is my favorite movie because I don't want to watch it again. I can probably say this: I like its shocking power, because such a movie will make many people recognize the ignorance and ugliness of our human beings, and abandon the prejudice and discrimination concealed by ideology.
