Ang Lee’s Films
The history of Taiwanese cinema has more than a hundred years and reflects a long history of culture, along with Japan and China, the colonization of the island. In general, the film in Taiwan until 1949, mostly had only a form of renting movies imported from the mainland, from Hong Kong and the western countries. But during the 60-80-ties, along with the economic development of Taiwan, he began to blossom "island" film, which the director sought out their way to other continents. Along with the emergence phenomenon of Chinese cinema on the international stage, outstanding representatives of which are directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, and formed a new generation of Taiwanese directors, with a modern outlook on life and society. These masters of cinematography of true Taiwanese director Ang Lee (1954), today gathered at the international festivals impressive collection of awards.
"Taking Woodstock" is a feature film by Ang Lee about the festival "Woodstock", held in 1969. The screenplay was written by James Shamus, based on the autobiographical book “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life» by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte.
The film is based on real events of 1969. Elliot Tiber is a budding interior designer of Greenwich Village. His parents owned a small motel in a province of New York State. As a social work, Eliot carries the burden of the chairman of the local municipal council. In order to attract tourists in the town, he writes himself permission to organize a small music festival in the White Lake in Bethel. Just at this time, all over the country introduced a ban on music festivals, as politicians are concerned about the atrocities that accompany such events. Having the resolution, Elliot has an idea to offer this document to his friend from the world of the music industry.
Thus, the legend that is known today in the world as the festival "Woodstock" began. (Stevens D., 2009) Woodstock is the essence of the protest, the leitmotif of the era, which was the background for the story a simple person. This background could be a war, reforms, spy detective, but it became a three-day music festival and the world, and certainly not by chance
. Do not be afraid, be free, and the music and the world (as love to all that exists) will make your dreams a reality. The theme of the morality of society and the rejection of all new and non-standard is also presented in the film “Brokeback Mountain”. The spectator, which is familiar with the reenactment skill of Ang Lee, which can be seen in other his films, does not surprise in the ability itself of Taiwanese magician to recreate Babylon Woodstock lethally. Advocating for the absolute reliability, Ang Lee showed a bright poverty of narcotic visions. (Holden S., 2009) In his brilliantly furnished booth, maestro, who is renowned the ability to put conflict of characters and lifestyles, attitudes, as well as in the films "The Wedding Banquet" in 1993, "Eat, drink, man, woman," 1994 "Ride with the Devil" 1999, avoids a hint of the existence of any identity other than his own.
As the film Taking Woodstock, the other work, "Eat, drink, man, woman" is a story of a Taiwanese multi-figure family, which appear Chekhov’s, and in some sense - Shakespeare's motives. The film takes place in the capital of China's Taiwan - Taipei, where skyscrapers, megastore, airlines and fast food coexist with national archaic traditions. Thus, cosmopolitan and erudite Ang Lee puts the plot of Chekhov's play about three sisters from the province into a modern metropolis. Just as Chekhov’s peaceful life, in this film the director put up "events" because in it the poetry of life lives.
The lack of winning large roles in "Woodstock" is program. The director experiments on the brink of a foul by subtracting the dignity of drama and a psychological portrait of his historic fabric, so that eventually the audience perceive only refined distillation, that is, academic skills of the director, because Ang Lee no longer wills to share with anyone the propensity of the audience. Ang Lee scoffed at the old standards, together with his heroes from the "Feast" and "Eat, drink," get used to the era of forced virginity in "Sense and Sensibility", stood on the barricades together with Annie Proulx, and designed the position of all time in "Lust, Caution." Thus, plain dirty after the fall, the morning after the sexual revolution, the landscape after Oscar party - this is the inevitable result of all pleasures. Superior quality and promise of the film are freedom.
Not peace, not music, namely freedom, made available for three days for these people. Ang Lee cleverly intertwines comedy drama and documentaries. In an attempt to capture the revolutionary event, Ang Lee also covers the beginning of the sexual revolution and the liberal, sunset time freedom and the beginning of modern democratic regimes, when the dream of a world of colors seems to have an elusive, but still want to live in a world full of love and harmony.
The works of the young Taiwanese filmmaker are originally allocated by figurative language and deep psychology. All of them, one way or another, are about family values, especially about the problem of fathers and children, generations. A similar approach to the analysis of aggravated social problems and the destruction of centuries-old traditions Ang Lee showed in his feature debut - "Pushing Hands" (1992), the history of the old martial arts instructor of tai chi, who immigrated to America to live in the suburbs of New York, a son of the family.
There, in an alien environment for him, he is faced with the differences between him and his son. The film «Ride with the Devil" about the Civil War and “Taking Woodstock” are similar in principle, according to which the director makes to contemplate the events not of their center, and from a distance. For example, "Taking Woodstock" pointedly shies away from the spectacle, and so it is better to focus on the life of people. Structurally, these two films have much in common. (Holden S., 2009)
The movie Ride with the Devil describes the war and chaos in the United States in 1861. Roedel Jake and Jack Bull Chiles appeared in the gang for one reason only: because of Jack's father's murder. United by the thirst for revenge, they decide to lead a bloody war with the Unionists. Soon the inexperienced youngsters are desperate raiders.
Many times, only a miracle will save them. However, when fate makes a deadly twist and separates them forever. Doom hangs over Jake, and it seems that he did not leave him. This is a film about friendship and the American Civil War; it is a film about the tragedy of the Civil War in general, wherever it took place. It is even about fatalism - the possibility of go with the flow of events, taking only those solutions that seem to be true at a given moment, and are in within certain "common" morality, but in fact can make a dull life in a dead end.
Daniel Woodrell’s novel “Woe to Live On” first published in 1987, served as the basis for the film, which makes it similar to the film Taking Woodstock. (Holden S., 1999) The book tells about the events in the US Civil War during the 1860s, as shown in the film. There are no characters, to which one wants to empathize, the characters of the film give a reason to think about themselves, their lives and their decisions. However, they are realistic, beyond time and space. (Smith R., 1999) In the film, the special fighting between northerners and southerners will not show a couple of run-ins only. Here it is told about the people, who were forced to flee from their homes and fight for themselves, friends and loved ones.
The theme of war and the drama of human relations is also seen in the film “Lust, Caution”. There is no doubt that it is necessary to put the fact that he was one of the directors that have deployed Hollywood in the Asian culture in merit to Ang Lee. He showed himself capable of the same subtlety and precision transfer to the screen the works of Victorian literature ( "Sense and Sensibility"), to reproduce a picture of the life of a provincial America ( "The Ice Storm," "Ride with the Devil") and, at the same time, adapt the national culture to the demands of the western public. His work, one way or another reflect the changes that are taking place in society at the global level. Ang Lee, meanwhile, manages to respect the harmony between the mind and the senses, showing an amazing professionalism and possession of the new material.
Works Cited
Holden, S. Ride With the Devil: Far From Gettysburg, a Heartland Torn Apart. The New York Times. 1999. Web. 23 May 2016
Holden, S. What I Saw at the Countercultural Revolution. The New York Times. 2009. Web. 23 May 2016
Smith, R. Ride with the Devil. The Austin Chronicle. 1999. Web. 23 May 2016
Stevens, D. Ang Lee's slight and gentle-spirited Taking Woodstock. Slate.com. 2009. Web. 23 May 2016
