World, what can I do to save you?

Lola 2022-04-21 09:01:50

I haven't seen such a shocking movie in a long time. When the movie ended, I couldn't get my head around it for 10 minutes, didn't know what to say, and was completely speechless.

The plot of the movie is not complicated at all. A woman named Grace escaped from the pursuit and came to Dogville, where she was fortunately rescued by Tom. With Tom's help, the people of Dogtown took in Grace on the condition that Grace needed to work for the people in the town. Fair and reasonable, Grace readily accepts. Grace's hard-working kindness won the hearts of the town. However, the situation quietly changed as the police posted the first wanted notice for Grace in the town. People now feel that taking in Grace increases the risk, which obviously can only be compensated for by having Grace do more work. Makes sense too, so Grace agrees again. In this way, Grace needs to work from morning to night every day, and she has no spare time to contribute her labor force, but she has no complaints. However, with the arrival of more wanted and bounties, people are no longer friendly and kind to Grace. Finally, in a surprise visit by the police, Chuck rapes Grace under the threat of being found by the police. After that, Chuck, who had tasted the sweetness, made sexual assault on Grace a commonplace. After the results were discovered, Chuck naturally bit back and said that Grace seduced him. So, Chuck's wife Vera asked Grace to settle accounts, not only humiliating her but also smashing Grace's beloved little porcelain people one by one in front of Grace. Exhausted, Grace decides to leave Dogtown. With the help of Tom and the transport driver, Grace hid in a truck full of apples and was about to escape from Dogtown. Unexpectedly, the transport driver sexually assaulted Grace as an additional payment on the pretext that the police inspection increased the danger. Just when Grace thought that the nightmare was finally over and escaped from Sad Dog Town, she found that when the tarpaulin of the truck was opened, it was Dog Town that appeared in front of her! Grace is betrayed by both Tom and the driver. This time, in order to prevent Grace from escaping, the people of Dogtown put a collar and chain on Grace like a dog, and tied it to a heavy scrap roulette. Even so, Grace will continue to work one by one with this shackle during the day, and at night for the men in the town to vent. Tom intends to save Grace from this life that is worse than a dog again, so he arranges Grace to tell all the truth in front of the whole town, hoping that people can find out with conscience. However, no one was willing to admit their mistakes, and instead agreed that it was time to drive Grace out of Dogtown for good. Tom couldn't resist his weakness, and after being seen by Grace, he finally gave it to Gra on behalf of the whole town The fatal blow of ce was to call and report the person who chased and killed Grace in the first place. Thus, we ushered in the film's most shocking, climax and incredible ending. It turns out that it was none other than her gang leader's father who was chasing Grace. In fact, Grace left resolutely because she did not agree with the family's gang identity and practices. When the father appeared with his subordinates, Grace and his father had a very wonderful dialogue that could be called the finishing touch of the whole film. Grace finally completed the transformation from a kind and good girl to the new leader of the gang, and personally wiped out the entire dog town, yes, wiped out, all.

The ending was too unexpected, too shocking, too politically incorrect. It uses a strong impact to urge us to reflect, reflect on the evil of human nature, and what should we do in the face of the evil of human nature?

The people of Dogtown weren't that bad at first, they were just taking a small advantage. However, with Grace's tolerance and silence for these small evils, coupled with the stimulation of the bounty, they gradually became worse. Can these selfish, greedy, weak, blind human evils be moved by kindness? Defeated by conscience? Constrained by morals? Changed by tolerance? Obviously, the answer given by the movie is no. Grace's kindness and forbearance just made the people in Dogtown worse and escalate her bullying. Perhaps this is the nature of human evil. Since it is a part of human nature, it is impossible to conquer it by oneself. On the other hand, blindly forbearance and tolerance turn into connivance for evil and harm, but it will cause the evil to cause more and greater harm. In other words, the real kindness is not to tolerate, but to punish evil and promote goodness, and preventing the spread of evil in time is the greatest kindness. Therefore, it is quite ironic that although Grace came to Dogtown because she wanted to escape the family's underworld, it was obvious that Grace thought that the underworld was evil, but the experience of Dogtown made her understand that the connivance of every little evil is the greater evil. What Grace said before she made up her mind was, If there is any town this world will be better without, then this is it. She finally realized that only ending this evil is the greatest kindness to this world.

The whole movie is allegorical. The whole film does not have a live scene, it is completely in the form of a stage play, and even the props and scenery are simpler than the stage play. This kind of design helps convey the message of the film, because it doesn't really matter where the story takes place, and this kind of thing happens everywhere, whether it is in Europe, America or Asia. In the movie, Grace's little porcelain figures were bought one by one by Grace with the money she had worked hard to save in Dogtown. These little porcelain dolls are ugly in the eyes of the locals, but cute in the eyes of Grace. The process of her buying them back one by one is the process of Grace redeeming them one by one. But this Madonna-like redemption did not have any effect on Dogtown, but instead made Dogtown slide into the abyss step by step. Vera's decision to smash the porcelain man is the greatest mockery of this Madonna redemption. The scene at the end of the movie where the residents of Dogtown are shot one by one clearly violates the mainstream values ​​of any country. From mainstream values, they don't die, as Grace's father said, maybe just scare them off and give them some warning. However, Grace firmly believes that fear just makes people fear, and does not make people better. This movie was made in 2003. Looking at the world thirteen years later, the Virgin Mary and Xiao Qingxin have become more and more mainstream in the western world. What they say and do is to save the world with love and tolerance. However, the world today is more than before. Is it safer, or more dangerous? Just like Grace trying to save Dogtown with kindness and tolerance, Dogtown has become increasingly dangerous and cruel. Will this voice challenging mainstream values ​​still sound so harsh thirteen years later?

The conversation between Grace and her father revolves around the theme of arrogance. Perhaps the film is a flogging of the blind pride of mankind. To tolerate the mistakes of those who make mistakes just because they are poor, backward, illiterate, or pitiful is the blind pride of mankind, because mistakes are mistakes, no one has the privilege of not bearing the consequences of their actions, no one. Grace finally understands that tolerance means spreading evil, so the best way to save the world and humanity is to eliminate evil in time.

The original meaning of Grace is the grace of God. Grace's redemptive hope of saving Dogtown was ultimately in vain. When the whole dog town is reduced to ashes, can the only surviving dog remind people to relive the long-forgotten commandment? Because the dog's name is Moses.

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Extended Reading

Dogville quotes

  • Narrator: How could she ever hate them for what was at bottom merely their weakness? She would probably have done things like those that had befallen her if she had lived in one of these houses. To measure them by her own yardstick, as her father put it. Would she not, in all honesty, have done the same as Chuck and Vera and Ben and Mrs Henson and Tom and all these people in their houses? Grace paused and as she did, the clouds scattered and let the moonlight through, and Dogville underwent another of those little changes of light. It was as if the light previously so merciful and faint finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly, you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a gooseberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and flaw in the buildings and in the people. And all of a sudden, she knew the answer to her question all too well. If she had acted like them, she could not have defended a single one of her actions and could not have condemned them harshly enough. It was as if her sorrow and pain finally assumed their rightful place. No. What they had done was not good enough. And if one had the power to put it to rights, it was one's duty to do so - for the sake of other towns, for the sake of humanity and not least, for the sake of the human being that was Grace herself.

  • Narrator: [as McKay explores even further with his hand] It was not Grace's pride that kept her going during the days when fall came and the trees were losing their leaves, but more of a trance like state that descends on animals whose lives are threatened - a state in which the body reacts mechanically in a low tough gear, without too much painful reflection. Like a patient passively letting his disease hold sway.