's body is their last weapon. This is the definition of a terrorist and a revolutionary, and a watershed between true faith and all cults. Fasting, in the past, was an assiduous, silent way of almost all religions. In the past hundred years, it has evolved into a remarkable and political appeal. Now, a search on the Internet is mainly related to weight loss.
This is the most shocking work of the year, and some media rated it as the top ten in the world. 7 nominations at the British Independent Film Festival. Director McQueen said that filming this IRA hunger strike story has given him a new understanding of fasting in religious traditions. From religion to politics; from facing God to facing the crowd; from Jesus' forty-day fast in the wilderness two thousand years ago, resisting the temptation to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. In the past 100 years, there have been countless hunger strikes in prisons, squares and streets. Are we living in one world or two?
This 90-minute film took 23 minutes to describe a conversation Bobby Sands had with a priest. In the 17-minute shot, the camera position did not move at all. I even think that this rare long shot is almost comparable to the famous "Inquisitor" dialogue in "Brother Karamazov". McQueen's ambition was to bring the two worlds represented by revolutionaries and priests together. He excitedly said in the interview that who has such an opportunity in the film to talk about the ultimate topic in dozens of minutes of dialogue.
So I was reluctant to read this paragraph over and over 4 times. Sands, a prominent figure in the Republican Army, staged "dirty protests" in prison for legal status as "captives" rather than "criminals." For four and a half years, the members of the Republican Army in the prison did not bathe, did not wear clothes, and smeared their urinals all over their cells. The first half of the film describes the process of their confrontation with the police. But Mrs Thatcher's voice-over was as firm as her wedding vows, "Murder is murder, there is only one crime of murder in British law, and we will never admit that there is a kind of murder called political murder."
In the past, the priest presided over Mass in prison and recited the scriptures of Jesus' crucifixion. The bottom is like the worst first grade class, since these young people are already going to cross themselves, how can someone else's cross impress them. Only Sands, at this time, paid attention to what the priest said. With a solemn face, he may have decided to go on a hunger strike in his heart. He is not trying to imitate Christ, but to replace Christ. It means that redemption has not yet succeeded, and comrades still need to work hard.
A good friend, once enthusiastically participated in disaster relief. During media interviews, he used "Lei Feng Possession" to describe his actions. I think the dialogue between Santz and the priest is actually a contrast between "Lei Feng's possession" and "Imitating Christ". In the assassination of Hitler, many people felt that Colonel Stauffenberg was not heroic enough, at least not Dong Cunrui. If you don't leave the wolf's den with a heart that burns all jade and stone, Hitler will be dead. However, this is what separates true faith from all cults. There is nothing in this world that you are completely sure of. Not sure, how to get hold? Priests represent a world that entrusts the things that have worked hard to be sure, to a God who is loving, holy, and righteous. For only love can fulfill love, and only justice can fulfill righteousness. So without a righteous God, you can't do anything. If so, he will do the uncertain thing according to his will.
Sounds like a myth. But it is this myth that can bring out absolute respect for the value of life. It is also very simple, only absolute grasp of the ending can bring absolute respect for individual life.
If you don't believe in righteousness, how will you survive tomorrow when you hear about Gillian's case? It's like when you hear the doctor come in and say that your father's esophagus cancer is at an advanced stage, how are you going to survive. After a month of tossing and turning, I finally told my father-in-law that no doctor is sure. In fact, we must admit that we simply cannot judge which plan is better, whether to go on the operating table or not; whether it is radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or give up Medical? We can never have an assurance. Any of our decisions can be wrong, we don't know the way tomorrow, so what we really need is to learn to trust.
Sands represents another world, and the last weapon of this world is life itself. My definition of a cult is any systematic teaching that advocates, encourages and supports the use of "death" to obtain a certainty. If there is no God, nothing but death can make a thing ironclad. Colonel Stauffenberg was a brave soldier, not a terrorist, precisely because he did not rely on death itself to improve the success rate of the assassination. So the kamikaze is the lunatic. Otherwise, what if Hitler died. To seek freedom by denying life. This is not a successful assassination, this is called virus escalation. So Sands is not a soldier, but a terrorist, because he wants to die, and as the priest asked, what do you want to declare by dying.
Cults mean that their message is always "declared by death." True faith is a message that flows with the light of life. And all the cults, big and small, have a skeleton painted on their letters.
Faced with questioning, Sands said, do you want to discuss the morality of hunger strikes with me? Although we are all Catholic, Irish and Republican. But we are still different. For you, what I'm going to do is "suicide". I call it "murder", it is the British system and oppression that is murdering us. I am willing to sacrifice myself for this nation at any time. This is my unbreakable belief.
"Sacrifice" means Savior. Those who do not believe that a savior has come on earth always wants to be their own savior. Those who desire sacrifice are not martyrs, but real cowards. If you dare not trust in a resurrected God, you can only trust in a dead self. The priest's tone was getting heavier and he said, I support your first hunger strike, because it was just a protest. But now you have decided to give your life. Life is nothing to you at all. How many people are you going to sacrifice, 5, 6? Their family means nothing to you. It doesn't matter to you that many families break up because of this. Freedom, to you, turns out to be the opposite of life. How can you say that you are "fighting for freedom"?
In the second half of the film, the process of Sands' hunger strike and death is described very realistically. Considered a hero by the Irish, he was elected to the British House of Commons during a hunger strike and died 66 days later. Since then, a total of 10 hunger strikers have died. The British government complied with all the prisoners' demands, but insisted on denying their status as non-criminals.
If the republic doesn't come, the democracy doesn't work, what if the system doesn't change until I die. What if the justice is not fair and the people's hearts are not old. If Gillian's dignity is not conferred by the judiciary, it cannot be deprived by the judiciary. Gillian is like us, every breath on earth, every prayer, trumps the reason for this country to exist. Love never ends, if this is not true, my father-in-law and Gillian will face the same ultimate question, what are you sure, the sun will rise as usual tomorrow?
Two hundred years ago, the great Hugo vaguely saw the arrival of a new world. In his "93", he wrote a famous sentence: "Every village has a teacher who lights a torch, and every village has a priest who puts out a torch." There could be no better footnote to this hunger strike story. Thanks to the director, Sants and his priest were placed on both sides of the table. And our world, apparently, has been on the left for too long.
2009-6-2.
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