Chapter 74: First-Class Designer

A girl unfolded the poster in her hand and held it up in front of several companions. "He is definitely the coolest and most charismatic old man in all of Hollywood!"

"Irene, how many times have you repeated this?"

A black-haired girl pouted in dissatisfaction, signaling the other four companions to walk toward the AMG Theater across the square. "No matter how cool or charismatic Lee is, or how legendary his experiences are, it doesn't change the fact that he's an old man! We prefer young handsome guys…"

"Oh, God…" she said with a lovesick expression. "Just thinking about Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt makes my heart swoon."

"So you guys definitely want to see *Interview with the Vampire*, right?" Irene asked, rather displeased.

"Yeah!"

Three of the girls said in unison, "We came here to see *Interview with the Vampire*!"

"What about you, Anna?"

As they entered the theater, Irene asked her friend, who was studying film at New York University. However, Anna preferred fast-paced films. She shrugged and said, "I'm not interested in those two poker faces."

This remark drew angry glares from the three girls, prompting Anna and Irene to quickly avoid their gazes and walk to the ticket counter. Because it was late, there weren't many people waiting to buy tickets.

"*The Rock*, midnight show, two tickets!" Irene said.

*Interview with the Vampire*, midnight show, three tickets!"

The voices of several girls caught the attention of a middle-aged woman at the break area. Her name was Chris, an employee of a consulting company hired by Warner Brothers. She had been observing the ticket sales for *The Rock* and its biggest competitor, *Interview with the Vampire*, through her own eyes.

She had been sitting there for two hours, and the situation she observed was almost without suspense. Just like the girls buying tickets earlier, during the midnight show reliant on fan support, the ticket sales for *Interview with the Vampire* far surpassed those for *The Rock*.

As the time gradually approached midnight in the Eastern Time Zone, fewer and fewer people entered the theater. Most of those who walked in at this time came specifically for these two newly released films. Chris occasionally engaged in small talk with patrons to understand their viewing mentality.

Most of the audience choosing *Interview with the Vampire* did so due to the influence of the stars and the original work, while supporters of *The Rock* were mostly action movie enthusiasts who had been keeping an eye on the film since the Super Bowl commercials.

Among the audience Chris asked, nearly two-thirds indicated they had initially learned about *The Rock* from the Super Bowl halftime advertisements. The chase scenes featuring Hummers and Ferraris, along with the unique "bombing perspective," left a very deep impression on them.

With targeted advertising and suitable promotional platforms, Warner's marketing seemed to be doing quite well. Chris keenly captured a hint from this chaotic information: the advertisements for *The Rock* during the Super Bowl had a significant impact.

Sitting in the screening room, Anna took the water Irene handed her, casually placing it aside. She glanced around and noted about forty viewers, most of whom were male; women like them who enjoyed action films were relatively few.

The film soon opened, and like Duke Rosenberg's previous movie, *The Rock* also featured an extremely fast pace, with transitional scenes often flashing by, constantly stirring emotions with action, explosions, and car chases. Irene, sitting next to Anna, had been screaming since the first action scene, showing none of the grace expected from someone of a prestigious background.

Unlike Irene, Anna was majoring in film production at university. While watching, she kept analyzing the film's plot with a calm mind and gathered many insights by the time the film approached its conclusion.

In Anna's view, the storyline of this film was filled with trial and error at all costs.

In General Hammer's main storyline, he ruthlessly stole VX gas missiles for his subordinates who were in distress and could not receive timely compensation, leading to the loss of one person; he deployed troops to Alcatraz prison, bringing in two Marine elite troops through acquaintances, which was a significant strategic blunder and a fatal mistake; he eliminated the SEALs led by Colonel Anderson but overlooked two main characters, marking the first tactical error; he used hostages to lure John Mason out and imprisoned Mason and Gusty, only for Mason to escape and eliminate the elite Marines, marking the second tactical error; due to the concern of not wanting the missile to hit downtown San Francisco, he altered the flight path, which resulted in a mutiny that cost him his life at the hands of his subordinates, marking the third tactical error.

The righteous side also underwent constant trial and error. For instance, one of the protagonists, Gusty, nearly lost his life during the bomb disposal process because a colleague was playing with a doll; when called to the airport, he talked about his understanding of VX gas without knowing the situation, making him the best candidate for bomb disposal; he was easily defeated in an argument with John Mason; and because he had not received training, he barely survived in a fight, but lit a green smoke bomb a bit too late, getting blown into the sea by the blast.

Although the story advanced through trial and error, it did not come across as abrupt or stiff.

General Hammer knew that violence could not regain the conscience of Congress, yet his final actions caught the president's attention; throughout the film, he did not kill any civilians, even though his actions of kidnapping, imprisoning, and launching were considered acts of terrorism. His final words—"How could this happen? I did something…"—were enough to express his patriotism deep down.

His actions, while formally wrong, were fundamentally correct.

As for the protagonists, during discussions about the case at the Pentagon with politicians and the FBI, they knew that bombing Alcatraz would harm civilians, yet they reluctantly felt compelled to do so for the sake of national justice; they knew imprisoning Mason was wrong but still attempted to detain him again after the mission concluded; they were aware that Gusty was a rookie yet still ordered him to defuse the gas missile—nobody else could do it.

These decisions were not wrong in execution, but they were filled with blindness, desperation, superficiality, and short-sightedness, especially during the bathhouse ambush segment, where all the SEALs faced Marines from a high vantage point, with their MP5s rendered almost useless against assault rifles and heavy firepower…

This simple and direct emotional appeal left a profound impression on Anna. If Mason's revenge on Womack represented an individual's partial resistance against an unfair system and was a stroke of luck, the bathhouse ambush battle signified "the complete failure of righteous justice in the face of evil!"

Of course, this was merely her own perspective on the film.

Initially, the SEALs attempted to climb out of the sewer but faced laser alarms on the manhole cover. They tried to avoid detection by reflecting the laser, only to discover that the laser alarm was actually a vibration alert device that would trigger an alarm with any contact or vibration.

As a result, all the SEALs climbed out of the bathhouse brazenly, waiting for them were merciless bullets. Colonel Anderson's impassioned speech nearly swayed the military spirit, but war never considers appearances.

Since the entire film's conflict revolved around General Hammer's motivation to commit acts of terror, this segment's symbolic meaning was exceedingly intricate.

"First, he brandished a moral stick, probing evil's limits, only to discover that evil ignored him. Then he jumped out and sang and danced…" Anna shrugged in her seat, "but he was suddenly caught by the awakened evil, crushed like a chicken."

The struggles of Colonel Anderson and several SEALs before their deaths evoked a deep sense of helplessness in the audience, even more than his impassioned speech could touch her heart.

Even though the film advanced the plot through various trials and errors, it didn't mean it couldn't lead to an idealized ending.

Anna could tell that the young director, who was around her age, had prepared in advance in *The Rock*, and the trial and error ultimately achieved the best effect.

Although after the bathhouse battle, the film returned to the cliché of individual heroism saving the world, Anna felt no aversion to it at all, rather she found it equally exciting and interesting under the director's exquisite techniques.

After all, she had studied film production for several years and quickly formulated some analyses.

In dramatic expression, the frequency of conflict is limited; the camera language accounts for local scenes, and there can be 100 angles for a one-second plot, but not all can be presented to the audience—films cannot be shot this way—especially in fast-paced action films like *The Rock*.

After fully intensifying the conflicts and contradictions during the first 70 minutes of the film, it could no longer push the plot forward through grand narrative styles. Director Duke Rosenberg simply introduced a spiral structure, shifting the focus from the overall story to specific conflicts, driving the overall narrative through character conflicts.

This is a very clever transformation of technique, which seems simple to say but is quite difficult to put into practice.

The young director is obviously becoming more and more mature! Anna sighed inwardly.

Therefore, the film changed from the previous situation where the pros and cons sides took turns to trial and error to the situation where individuals on both sides took turns to trial and error.

Next, although the tension of the film's images is not as exaggerated as the previous hustle and bustle and team battles, the details are more refined, the camera language and the actors' individual performances are more tense, and the many foreshadowings preset in the plot become more and more brilliant when they are revealed one by one through lines and actions.

In "The Rock," this transformation is very natural, and a lot of foreshadowing was laid in advance, so the effect...

"It's like adding Gothic stained glass to Romanesque architecture, which instantly changes the dull and depressing feeling caused by insufficient lighting."

Anna said what was in her mind before she knew it. "If we use the concept of architecture to describe 'The Rock,' director Duke Rosenberg is definitely a first-class designer and on-site commander!"

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