There are too many elements in the play, so audiences of all tastes can find fun, and I think this is the success of this film.
1. Normal Interpretation
The lumberjack killed the blond brother (the reason why he said he was killed is because there is an obligation to rescue each other in field work), and then replaced him and went to the lighthouse to work. The old captain held the right to keep the lights, and arranged for the newcomers to do tiring work, and he was cruel and inhumane.
The guy held back for a few months, had sexual fantasies, and imagined a mermaid through the statue.
Drunk and missed the supply ship, the two could only rely on drinking to satisfy their hunger, and their spirits were even more broken. Finally, the guy saw the lighthouse log, and the old captain wrote him worthless, so he killed the old captain angrily and succeeded in seizing power.
Then after ascending the lighthouse, he went insane and died.
The myth of Cthulhu
The guy found an octopus tentacle while peeking at what the old captain was doing at the lighthouse.
When beating the old captain, he showed a state of being controlled by Mr. Ke.
Coupled with the picture of being pecked by seagulls at the end, it can be said that this is a surreal myth. But if understood in this way, the mythological background is too thin in the film, and the pictures are too few to have enough impact.
The split personality
Split personality is undoubtedly a deeper interpretation. This is implied from the beginning of the film.
1. The two of you take a boat to the lighthouse together. Note that the light on the lighthouse is on.
And there is a very obvious shift screen. The original two left, and the lumberjack and the old captain entered.
In the film, the lumberjack said that the old captain and the one-eyed assistant were here before, and the one-eyed assistant was crazy, so he came to replace him. This does not match the picture.
It is also unreasonable for the old captain to pick him up in person, because the old captain loves the lamp like his wife, and will always stand in front of the lamp when it is on, so why would he pick him up? What about the two people who came out of the lighthouse? So these two people were the caretakers of the original lighthouse, and the lumberjack came at the same time as the old captain. That said, the initial picture is misleading. The lumberjack is the old captain, the old captain is the lumberjack, and their real names are the same.
Plus, their experiences are real. The lumberjack couldn't help the blond boy, and the old captain killed the one-eyed assistant. The one-eyed assistant died on the island, and the lumberjack found his head (because the lumberjack has no memory of the one-eyed assistant, so the head he saw was real).
The truth is that the former lumberjack killed Golden Retriever and impersonated him to come to the island to be the lightkeeper with One Eye. Then One Eye treated him like the old captain, so he killed One Eye. But due to guilt or loneliness, since then, the lumberjack has split in two, cutting the memory of the island into the old captain personality. Referring to the one-eyed image, he imagined an old captain. Compare the looks of the one-eyed and the old captain. The facial features are very similar, even the beard is the same. And the old captain called him a dog just like the golden retriever he killed.
The old captain played the role of One-Eyed, because the lumberjack only had experience as an assistant, and he could not be upgraded to a lampkeeper, and One-Eyed became the former assistant of the old captain. The memory of his coming to the island with One-Eyed also became the one that came with the old captain. I don't know if you remember the scene when he first came to the bedroom? I believe that everyone thought he was the only one at first, which was also a hint. As a result, the old captain walked out from behind the pillar, and the old captain farted at him.
The lumberjack did all the work alone, because he was the only one. The old captain is just a virtual personality and can't do anything. The only purpose of his existence is to protect the truth - the light. All the truth was placed by the old captain in the only place he could not reach - in the lamp. Every time he goes to keep the lights, the lumberjack will switch to the old captain's personality. The old captain always loved fantasies, but also because he himself was the product of a desire. In fact, the old captain was the Prometheus figure who carried his sins for the lumberjack.
That mermaid was originally a lumberjack, which is why he fell back into fantasy so quickly.
Later he saw the lighthouse log, which was actually written by One Eye. So he killed the imaginary old captain like he killed One Eye. The old captain turned into a mermaid at a time, and a sea god at a time, indicating that he was not a real person.
After the lumberjack killed the old captain he created, he finally boarded the lighthouse, turned on the light, and got the kind of fire - his lost memory. So he couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide.
In fact, no matter what kind of interpretation is incomplete, it is what the director wants to express by mixing it up to develop imagination.
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