Rebirth in America

When "Little Fugitive" was released in the United States, the Venice Film Festival had just ended, and their film won the Silver Lion Award.

Morris urgently added this message when promoting it. Major newspapers in the United States also published the selection results of the Venice Film Festival. As an American entry, the news that they won the award also attracted much attention.

In order to save costs, Morris did not hold movie premieres like the big movie companies did, but he still gave some movie tickets to film critics he knew. The relevant personnel involved in the filming also received varying numbers of movie tickets, which was a benefit they earned.

The Carpenters were no exception. They gave their extra movie tickets to Joe, Paul and others and invited them to go watch the movie together. Alex also gave movie tickets to people he knew. He originally wanted to give one to Little Richard, but the movie tickets they had were from New York. Even if it was sent, Little Richard had to come from Atlanta if he wanted to watch a movie, but in the end it was not sent.

On the day the movie was released, Bart took his family to the cinema in New York and saw many acquaintances, including Morris, Joe Lao, Paul, and people who had made the movie together. There were more people whom I didn’t know. Judging from their clothes, they should be film critics invited by Morris.

There was no premiere, they just walked in, found their seats and sat down.

In the 1950s, the American film market was impacted by television and other entertainment methods. The number of people watching movies decreased year by year, but there were still a huge number of people watching movies.

They seem to have done a good job promoting the movie. The poster shows Richard's character Joey and reads "Little Fugitive". Looking at those clear and innocent eyes, many people can't help but stop. After carefully reading the movie introduction, most people will choose to walk in and take a look.

This poster didn't originally look like this. In order to save costs, Morris made it himself. The painting is also of Joey, but he is looking down at the camera, with Joey's eyes staring upwards, making him look like a wanted criminal. The effect is also designed based on the Western Wanted poster. This poster cannot be said to be bad, it is very good, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Alex thought about it and decided that it would be better to highlight Joey’s childlike qualities. Only in this way can he attract people’s attention. So from the large number of photos he took, he found one that met the requirements and modified it. After the final modification, Morris and the others were full of praise after seeing it.

Morris thought about it for several days, and finally promoted the poster painted by Alex as the main propaganda, and promoted his poster as a secondary one. What he was thinking about was that there were also many people who liked the feeling of western cowboy movies, and his poster could just give them that feeling.

He was right, Alex's poster did play a big role, and the one he drew was no less important. Many people came in after seeing these two posters because they wanted to understand why such an innocent and cute child ended up being wanted on the run.

The film begins, and it is introduced that Joey is 7 years old and his brother Reilly is 12 years old.

In the first ten minutes or so, their families, parents, friends, etc. are described. Their mother is busy working all day and has no time to take care of them, and Reilly has to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of his younger brother Joey.

As for the father, he doesn't appear at all in the movie, and the only time he's mentioned is when his mother complains, "Reilly, it would be different if your dad was home."

From the mother's few words, people roughly guessed that the men in this family were either busy with work and traveling far away, or they were on the battlefield. This is a mark of an era that is still fresh in the memory of those who experienced World War II and the Korean War. American men left home to go to war, and women had to do men's jobs in society to support their families.

Due to the age gap, Rayleigh and Joey couldn't play together. The older brother always tried to distract his younger brother so that he could play with his peers.

When the mother is away from home to take care of the children, Reilly has to take on this responsibility. Rayleigh was very troubled because he couldn't go to Colin Island on his birthday. He followed his partner's bad idea and teamed up to deceive his younger brother Joey. Making Joey mistakenly believe that he shot his brother Reilly.

Joey was so frightened that he ran away quickly and took $6 from home in a panic. He got on the train and went to Colin Island alone, where he observed this bustling society from a child's perspective.

The film was shot with a handheld camera, and many shots were shot from Joey's low perspective, giving adults the feeling of going back to their childhood. At that time, no one had ever tried to shoot a movie from this angle. It was absolutely novel and rare.

This is the director showing the audience the United States in the 1950s through the movie, with cowboys, toy guns, television, hot dogs, hamburgers, trams, amusement parks, baseball, bowling, Coca-Cola, beaches, horses, etc., a prosperous scene.

In the movie, Joey's memories of his brother's death are not shown, but when he sees the police, even from a distance, he will quietly take a detour, as if all the police are chasing him.

Joey was playing around in the amusement park and while riding the merry-go-round, he tried to reach out and touch the iron frame next to him. The scene at this time made the audience secretly feel a cold sweat for this child, for fear of an accident. Fortunately, the director did not arrange such a plot.

When Joey saw other kids riding real horses, he wanted to ride too, but he had no money left in his pocket. So I could only go to the beach to pick up bottles to exchange for money, and again and again, I picked up bottles to exchange for money to ride horses. The movie spent many scenes showing this plot until Jay, who was managing the horses, felt strange and asked about Joey's situation.

At this time, the audience became hopeful. They wanted Jay to help Joey get home. But the director didn't let people get what they wanted.

Jay's question made Joey feel very scared, and he ran away without answering. However, it was precisely because it attracted the attention of adults that Jay had the opportunity to learn Joey's address and called Reilly.

At this time, Reilly was worried because his mother would be home at 6 o'clock in the afternoon. This is already the second day, and my brother Joey has not come back yet. When he found out, he immediately went to find Joey. During the search process, Rayleigh suffered a lot and tried his best to find his brother in the crowded amusement park.

Just when people were worried, a heavy rain happened at the right time. Everyone went to take shelter from the rain, leaving only Joey picking up bottles on the deserted beach. When the two brothers met again, there was no bloody scene of crying or crying. Everything seems so natural, real and believable that the audience will be somewhat touched after watching it.

Riley just ran over excitedly and said that he was not dead, but just made a joke with Joey. Joey didn't cry loudly, but said aggrievedly: "You didn't tell me!"

Joey threw away the bottles he had collected so hard, without even looking at them, and put his hands around his brother's waist, and happily went home with his brother. The two reconciled like this, but it was even more real and touching.

The soundtrack of this film was played by Alex on a harmonica. It is very nice, concise, clear and natural, and can guide the audience's emotions at critical moments. When the video played to the end, the audience was surprised to find the advertising Easter eggs and MTV Easter eggs they had carefully prepared.

Some audience members had already stood up, and when they saw this, they all sat down again.

The first thing that was released was the advertising easter egg. At first, people thought they had entered the wrong set and saw a clip from a western movie. However, the ad was short and quickly had those in the audience laughing. Especially when Joey was screaming at the top of his lungs, people laughed the loudest.

Then came the MTV easter eggs. After the western music clips and reality music clips were played, they were still not satisfied. They felt that the floor wax oil commercial and the music performed by the two brothers were really a stroke of genius.

They were talking a lot, and even after leaving the cinema, there were still people talking about the advertisements and music that appeared later.

Of course they will find it novel, because Alex uses the method of later MTV to perform, with storylines, exciting music and scenes.

Seeing this situation, Morris felt a little helpless. He didn't expect that ordinary audiences would pay so much attention to these few minutes of music clips, so that his movie was overshadowed and no one discussed what the movie wanted to express. question.

However, on the other hand, the movie was a huge success. In particular, the Carpenter Brothers were already somewhat famous, and with the addition of these two songs, they attracted the attention of many film critics and journalists. Early the next morning, major newspapers rushed to report on the Carpenter brothers' film debut, and also made detailed comments on this novel musical form.

"The New York Times" said: ""Little Fugitive" is a movie full of childlike fun, everything is innocent, telling the adventures in the playground through the perspective of a seven-year-old boy. The Carpenter Brothers The performance was spot on, especially the commercial and music that appeared at the end, which made people’s eyes bright.”

"The Chicago Sun-Times" said: "Whether it is the script, rhythm, performance, soundtrack, editing, or photography, everything is just right. Especially the novel shooting techniques and special easter eggs, these can surprise people."

"The Washington Post" said: "A little joke led Joey to an amusement park adventure, showing the prosperous and prosperous post-war America. It has all the elements that children pay attention to and is worthy of the whole family's weekend time together. Go watch. Finally, I have to mention the Carpenter brothers who played the two brothers. Their performances were simply fantastic! What we saw was the birth of a pair of child actors."

Many mainstream media reports have made this movie extremely popular. People with families took their children to watch it, and those without families will also be aroused by these comments to want to watch it. After watching it, everyone will feel like traveling through a time tunnel and returning to their childhood. Under the guidance of their full praise, friends around them walked into the cinema to watch this movie.

Perhaps because Morris had sufficient funds, perhaps because of Alex's suggestions, the quality of this film is much better than the historical one. UU Reading www.uukanshu.net In particular, the use of novel shooting techniques, unique perspectives and music gives audiences of this era a different visual enjoyment than before.

The box office continued to rise. What is surprising in the end is that this movie with an investment of less than 30,000 US dollars actually reached a weekly box office of 300,000 US dollars. It is estimated that the final box office will be nearly 2 million US dollars.

The "Colorful Floor Wax Oil" company was surprised and delighted. What was surprising was that the movie had such a high box office, and the advertising expenses were not small. Fortunately, the company's sales have continued to rise, which proves that the advertising is very effective and the cost is worth it.

Even Morris himself did not expect such a high box office. When he received the box office data, he was simply stunned. He wanted to make a different movie, but he never expected that this movie would have such high box office revenue.

Also stunned by this data was Bart. As an investor, he owns the ownership of the film. Even if Morris is given 30% of the box office dividends according to the agreement, Bart will receive a lot of money. What he couldn't understand was why so many people liked watching this game.

Only Alex vaguely guessed the reason. On the one hand, the movie is fresh enough and has rich emotional elements. On the other hand, the Carpenter brothers themselves are very popular, and the music clips at the end of the movie are even more attractive. Go watch. Coupled with the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and the publicity from major media, they are all factors that make it popular.

As the saying goes, the time, place, and people are just right. Making a movie is like rolling a dice. A good shake only attracts attention. In the end, you have to rely on luck to actually win money.