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 crazy

I"ve 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 going to university) to last night.It"s been one of my most consistent 10s.Although my ratings tend to fluctuate on multiple viewings for many films,I don"t believe that I"ve 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 gradually 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,including

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 actor"s name)

and his fellow bushmen,who live in the Kalahari Desert.A narrator (Paddy O"Byrne) tells us about their

lifestyle.Before long,this is contrasted with footage of life in the big city in Johannesburg.The narration continues with the same tone,as if we"re 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 nonchalantly 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 assassinate the

President.After this,they"re 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 hands,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-negative) 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 can"t comprehend the fact/fiction distinction have criticized the film for inaccurate portrayals of bushmen and other characters.Uys" humor and social critiques are frequently misunderstood.

It"s significant that O"Byrne"s narrative tone is very similar to Peter Jones" narrative tone for "The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy".Whether this was a direct influence on Uys is not as important as the contextual clues it provides (the Hitchhiker"s Guide mini-series featuring Jones was not completed until 1981,but the BBC radio show,which was the original format for Hitchhiker"s 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 some of the misconceptions about bushmen.The narration is also meant as a kind of distancing technique.Modern western