Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
顶级的剧本打磨，细节铺垫不同视角的不同表现，呆萌和大本的编剧能力还是依然在线
What a boring and anachronistic adaptation of the tragedy of a progressive woman in 1300s France. 核心冲突就一个，“女人觉得一个男人有吸引力并不意味着要与其上床”在那个年代是不被理解的，把这个道理在2021年单薄地复述一遍有何意义？所谓“罗生门”的叙事手法，对付的应该是一个极其复杂的事情才有趣，单一个“是否被强奸”的疑点是撑不住的，由此造成叙事极其低效，第一章节基本就把整个事情讲完了。同时也造成人物单维（Damon正义，Driver风流，Comer憋屈）。在末尾的法庭戏，其实有向“女性的悲剧”这一价值靠拢，那么以女主为核心好好讲述就行了，前面一堆男人戏码并不重要。
恐怖的是，一旦老公决斗落败，身为妻子，女主将被脱光衣物，脖子套上铁圈，绑在木桩上，被活活烧死，而且在被烧二三十分钟后，死亡才会降临。而她老公依然瞒着她申请了决斗……最令人舒坦的结局，自然是两男决斗中双双身亡，但老公的死必然导致女主遭受火刑，因此，观众不得不希望男主获胜。女人有多难，可见一斑
好嘛~电影里决斗，豆瓣评论区里也决斗了起来。这剧里面大本演挺有意思的，他那个发型，真的好现代……
教士可以摆脱强奸案的控诉？繁殖癌的困惑。
虽是罗生门结构，但是每个人对真相的理解大体还是诚实的，只是在立场和程度上有所区别，这一点很现实主义；罪人知罪，倒是丈夫自我欺骗得最多。 // Ridley Scott执导细节把握得好，高潮决斗功力老道；本马达组合作为联合编剧的贡献或许比表演还要多。 // 一个有趣的点是，国王看似昏君，但在当时情境下看，所做的决策却算是最公平合理的。
虽然增加两个男性的视角会更加突出女主的困局，但这毕竟是发生在女性身上的事，单纯用女性视角也能很有力量的。现在的情况是既想以「罗生门」的立意开场，最终却往预设好了的方向走，不算高明，还显得片子臃肿冗长。
黑泽明的罗生门极尽人性之恶，不过好在导演仁慈，最后给了一丝雨停后的微光。雷德利·斯科特借用类似的叙事手法，从不同角色的视角讲述同一件故事，千人千面，揭露的正是不同讲述者的真正内心，男人求权、求色，女人只是被放在算盘上度量的物品，第三幕完全暴露前两幕的虚伪矫饰。
剧情可以概括为：兄弟睡了老婆而引发决斗。从丈夫、强奸者、妻子三个视角切入重新打捞起故事真相。每个视角带着自身利益陈述同一个故事，又因角度不同与微妙细节偏差产生截然不同的导向。犹如海报里夹杂在刀剑相向的女性身影，从男性视角回归到女性视角，古装史诗的包装下发掘的却是女性在旧时代家庭社会中的卑微地位。在父亲眼里，她是嫁妆，是筹码，在丈夫眼里，她是财产，是生育的工具，在强奸者的眼里，她是发泄欲望的好看女人。她的命运仿佛穿越历史映照当今女性困境，借古讽今的窒息感扑面而来。
老雷居然拍了大量的文戏，还是一个性侵的题材，当然也无需惊讶，毕竟他在早年还拍过末路狂花啊。段落结构上，是罗生门式的，有港片叹息桥的感觉，不同角色陈述同一件事情，内容发生微妙变化，前两段男人之间的戏也显示了不同的内容，有点像职场戏，却使关注点出现了些许失焦，核心表达点还是要以女性的视角作为基准去看。另一点，吊诡的是，最终事件的解决，是通过一场决斗，以男性+暴力+强权 式的决定方式，胜者全胜，得到认同，获得颂扬。这样来看，中世纪及至700余年后的当今，世界的运作，还是强者掌握话语权，似乎从来没有存在过正义、公理，或者公理也只是强者认定的公理。演员都很强，气场到位，年度十佳！
两个男人为了名誉来了个痛快的殊死搏斗，一个女人充当旁观者和赌注，群众在下面叫好。真是讽刺的一幕。
我Jo演的也太赞了！！就是剧情有些拖沓，在电影院没法倍速播放好着急！
前面两段太老套了，最后一段的叙事视角和决斗场面都很好。70
13.10.2021 | @ Regal Majestic | 媒体场点映。Jousting还是很爽的，弥补了今年没去Renn Fair的遗憾。以为是又一个罗生门，结果是一个完全没有反转的彻彻底底的#metoo故事。说好的unreliable narrator呢？！用这样的结构设置来讲故事，这不是杀鸡用了牛刀吗？有点失望。不过用山羊胡来遮盖屁股下巴，这一招不错！//再往深了想想，为什么我对这部metoo片本能反感，大概是因为这片的导演和两位编剧都是男性，而各处的男性凝视又格外显眼吧。现在网上的男性影评人（包括IGN）纷纷给出高分，我倒是很好奇最后评价的性别分化会是什么样子。
时至今日，女性依旧或显性或隐形地被歧视、被欺侮、被压迫，要彻底改变这一点，女同胞们依旧任重道远。
出人意料，第三段的女性视角将一个平淡的故事升华出了女权主义思想
感觉大本和司机拿错了剧本，这里的大本子感觉帅回了2000年，虽然我很喜欢司机，但是姑娘们对着司机的大长脸都称赞“英俊”有点太过分了。看到后面真的想让那两蠢货双双狗带，女主一人独美母仪天下就好了，事实上，当踩着猪粪浑身臭汗和血液的马特回到家里还要摆臭脸的时候，我已经开始想象女主毒杀亲夫的画面了……
《罗生门》式叙事，中世纪男性成王败寇的权利斗争与女性身不由己的命运哀歌。
非常不错
有意思的是一些看似相同的场景在不同的POV中的展示。实际还是在探讨中世纪女性的地位和生存现状。
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