watched it for the best foreign language film at the Oscars. I have always avoided watching this type of film before. I remember that I finished watching a "Schindler's List" in two parts. Unlike most movies, which focus on reflecting the protagonist's human aura or gain the audience's favor through clever narrative techniques and composition, Son of Saul is a close-up of the protagonist's front or back from beginning to end, with only a few occasionally. Fresh faces. The background, whether it is a filthy concentration camp or a dead body, is always blurred in the film, just as we can't focus when taking pictures. In the whole movie, except for Sol going to bury his son according to the ceremony, other events are not laid out in detail. And even in the incident of burying his son, the motive was not made clear. That is to say, it is difficult for the audience of the whole movie to find a sense of substitution, and it does not succumb to the obscenity of the audience.
Therefore, the perception is chaos and depression. But as some comments on the Internet have said, this film does not focus on reviewing history or highlighting the brilliance of human nature. It just wants to truly express the reaction of a specific group of people in that situation. Some people say that after watching this movie, we are one step closer to "real experience". Indeed, when we think about our lives, most of the time, it's not so chaotic that we can't even tell ourselves.
The film only talks about two days. The protagonist is a Jewish coolie in a concentration camp. What he usually does is to carry corpses, clean the gas chambers covered with blood plasma, and occasionally go to the shovel to shovel the ashes that are piled up like a hill. One boy did not die immediately after the gas chambers had processed a batch of Jews one day. After being carried out to be checked by the doctor, he still died, but the doctor asked to be sent to the autopsy room. At this time, the protagonist Sol rushed over and carried the boy's body to the autopsy room. Of course, everyone knew what was going on inside at this time. After seeing the doctor, Sol said that he hoped the doctor could give him the boy, and he needed to bury the boy properly. Since the doctor was also Jewish, he said Sol and the boy could be left alone for five minutes the next night, but then had to be sent for an autopsy and filed. So, in order to bury the boy properly, Thor started looking for the rabbi (the ceremonial burial person after death). At the same time, Thor's companions know that they will be executed soon, so they secretly search for various weapons and prepare for an uprising. Therefore, whether out of his own heart or the expectations of his companions, Thor has embarked on this road that no one has taken.
But the first rabbi I was looking for would rather jump into a river to commit suicide than admit to being a Jewish rabbi. Perhaps in purgatory like that, admitting this identity closest to God would be blasphemy against God, so it's easy to see why Sol Don't be a rabbi as a companion. Later, in a mass grave, note that he was shot directly naked, and then burned with a gasoline gun. In order to escape, a fellow Jewish confessed that he was a rabbi and was rescued by Thor. Since the executed people were not wearing clothes, Sol quickly draped his clothes over his compatriots. But before, Sol was sent by his companions to connect with the female worker, and he took the powder used as explosive and put it in his clothes. As soon as the clothes were changed, the explosives were gone. When he came back, Sol didn't show any remorse when he was scolded and beaten by his companions because he lost the explosives.
In the end, the massacre against Sol and his companions finally came, after the trial head shouted the uprising. The gunshots of the camp's resistance sounded, and after a small victory, Sol and his companions escaped. Of course, the boy's body was still on his shoulders. Before crossing the river, Thor began digging the grave with a stick and asked the rabbi to give his condolences. However, the Jew, who claimed to be a rabbi, could not even read a single eulogy. At that moment, the tenacious look on Sol's face was removed, as if the last hope had been dashed. In the process of crossing the river, the boy's body drifted away with the current. Even if, in the end, his comrades said that he would meet the rebel army after a short walk, or that he was going to fight in the future, Sol was still heartbroken and expressionless.
However, at the end of the film, a non-Jewish boy stood outside where Sol and his companions were resting. Sol and he both saw each other, and at this time, the only and last smile appeared on Sol's face. Because the boy was not Jewish, he was released by the soldiers and finally disappeared in the forest. Some people say that this is the "Son of God" who has not yet died. But Sol and his companions returned to their fate in the sound of gunfire.
Throughout the film, there are many places that are confusing. Most obviously, Sol went to bury a dead boy regardless of the lives of his companions and himself. Some people interpret that it was Sol who had seen their own destiny long ago, knowing that they would die sooner or later, and struggling was futile. And burying the boy was the only thing that made him feel that God still existed. Every day Sol watches the living people turn to dust in their wailing, as in the film's blurred backgrounds, noisy voice-overs, suppressed film proportions, and as he himself said, we are already dead. Only God can support the perseverance of that face and the submission to all kinds of beatings, but in purgatory, God also died.
Such a movie can easily make people reflect on the meaning of our lives. It can only be said that we witnessed the tragedy as a bystander, but after all, we cannot easily substitute it.
Movies are not about how strong they can make us, but about making us tolerant and gentle after understanding that kind of life.
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