In this Internet age, if you want to know any information, just search in the search box and you will find all the answers.
How long has it been since you flipped through a physical book? Not to mention reference books like dictionaries.
In today's era of ever-changing information, is there any need for paper dictionaries?
Japan's "Bai Zhou Ji" , South Korea's "Dictionary" , and the film I'm going to talk about today all convey a clear and unequivocal answer - yes !
The Professor and the Madman
The Professor and the Madman
The film is based on Simon Winchester 's biographical novel of the same name.
A story about a professor, a madman, and the oldest English dictionary in human history.
For this film, two Oscar winners were found.
Mel Gibson , Hollywood's most successful "acting and directing" , won the Oscar for best director twice with "Braveheart" and "Hacksaw Ridge" .
Sean Penn , a name torn between acclaim and controversy. But no one will question his acting skills. He won the Oscar for Best Actor twice for "Milk" and "Mystic River" .
Interestingly, the two have never cooperated before, but they have a mutual friend, "Iron Man" Robert Downey Jr.
And both of them are Downey's benefactors. Mel Gibson vouched for Downey to have a show, and Sean Penn personally sent Downey into rehab. Downey could not be where he is today without the help of these two friends.
Mel Gibson plays James Murray in the film .
Born in humble beginnings, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 to make a living and became self-taught.
One day, he was recommended to do something, set up an editorial board to edit the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
From the second half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century, Britain became the first country in the world to complete the Industrial Revolution.
Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the British Empire entered its heyday, expanding colonies everywhere, making English the most widely spoken language in the world.
There are many people who have said it, and naturally it is necessary to formulate norms and standards. To this end, the Linguistic Society in London, England, decided to compile an English dictionary.
According to their ideas, this dictionary should contain all English words.
Whether ancient or new, outdated or common, foreign or local, the nuances between each word should be recorded in detail.
Every etymological misunderstanding and every illustrative quote that an English-language writer might use must be recorded truthfully and exhaustively.
That means reading all the material.
With the level of human technology at that time, it would take at least a century to complete the compilation of a dictionary that meets such conditions.
20 years have passed and there is zero progress in writing the dictionary.
Until the appearance of Murray, he thought of a way: national participation .
In our words, more people are more powerful.
Have them read the material for the word the editorial board is looking for, then write down the word they find on a slip of paper, and note what is cited in the literature to describe the word, and then send the written notes back to the editor committee.
This method can be completed in as little as 5 years.
A similar approach also appeared in the Korean movie "Dictionary".
In the "Dictionary", Kim Jung-soo suggested that ordinary people from all over the country write their own dialects on paper and send them to the Korean Language Institute for compilation and editing.
Compared with Korean, English is used in a much larger time and scope, like a vast ocean, even if all staff participate, there will be mistakes.
Not only uncommon words, but even common words such as "Approve" , Murray and his assistants scoured the sources around them and couldn't find the source or citation of the word in the 17th and 18th centuries.
And this is just a word starting with "A", followed by B, C, D, E, F... If similar situations occur many times, it is unknown whether the dictionary will be available.
Just as Murray was at a loss, a letter from Berkshire gave him renewed hope.
The letter not only details the origin of the word "Approve", but also comes with more than a thousand words and their citations in ancient books and classic literature.
The most important thing is that these word data are accurate.
This has brought the once stagnant dictionary editing work back on track.
The person who sent the letter was named WC Miner (Sean Penn).
Miner appeared like a savior. After that, Murray would write to Miner for help whenever he encountered a tricky word.
Miner, like the search software we use now, helped Murray solve word after word.
In the past two decades, the two sides have kept writing letters, discussing many complex and detailed issues in English lexicography, but the two have never met.
Finally, the first volume of the dictionary (by A-ANT) was edited and published.
Murray thought it was time to meet Miner.
The conversation was described in the original book as "a very unusual conversation in the history of modern literature" .
Murray hadn't thought that the man who had greatly helped the dictionary editor was neither a doctor nor a Ph.D., but a mental patient.
Miner was originally an American military doctor, and the cruelty of war has always tormented his heart.
After the war, he went "crazy".
He often talks to himself and often sees someone chasing him behind his back.
Now we know that this is actually a "post-traumatic stress disorder" in modern medicine .
But due to the level of development of the times, Miner was regarded as a lunatic.
One night, Miner had hallucinations again and accidentally shot and killed a civilian.
He was convicted of mental problems and sent to a mental hospital.
When the two met, they were like friends who had reunited after a long absence, sharing their own experience and experience in language.
Miner's phrase "one smart and one crazy" fits the title of the film "The Professor and the Madman".
One side of the meeting is a self-taught professor from humble backgrounds, the other is a madman with schizophrenia, two unrelated people who are connected by "words".
The director seems to have no time to take into account the editing process of the most extensive dictionary in the English-speaking world, and pays more attention to the inner world of the two characters and their resilience in the midst of suffering.
In particular, the role of Miner is very full and moving under Sean Penn's excellent interpretation.
A netizen commented:
Any future role playing a schizophrenic should learn from Sean Penn.
Since the trigger was pulled, Miner's life has been like a hell, and the pain is unbearable.
What can comfort him is the boundless sea of books.
Because only reading can make him temporarily forget the pain.
Because of reading, his mind can leap over this wall, touch freedom, and reach the top of the world with the wings of words.
Only when there is no chasing after reading,
When I read, I'm chasing, following God's footsteps
The deceased's wife had hated Miner very much, because it was his shot that broke a family.
But as the time with Mina increased, she learned what kind of person Miner was, and understood that he felt guilty and remorseful for what happened.
Miner taught her literacy and gave her life a new lease of life, and she turned from hatred to love for Miner.
But this love became the last straw that broke Miner.
This love is too heavy for him to accept.
The madman played by Sean Penn exudes charming charm in his gestures, and the wrinkles in the vertical and horizontal ravines are full of light of wisdom, which has nothing to do with acting skills, and is a precious gift given by the years.
Looking back, the line between the professor and the lunatic becomes more and more blurred.
They are not opposing identities, but two sides of one person.
In the eyes of normal people, Miner is undoubtedly a lunatic, but in the eyes of Murray, he is a scholar full of knowledge.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Murray is a highly respected professor, but in front of a group of Oxford University professors, he was born from grass roots and played cards unconventionally as if he was a "madman".
Murray, who insisted on ideals and humanity, and Miner, who struggled between love and pain, established a friendship between soul and humanity, and jointly completed a hard work full of love and struggle.
Geniuses and lunatics are actually not important. History will not forget those who continue the light of human civilization.
Today, when the dictionary is less and less valued, we should all watch this movie.
It turns out that there will be people who don't do it for themselves or their own interests, only for a language, only for the inheritance of culture, and only for the continuation of civilization.
If love...then what?
If love, then love.
Love whoever you want to love;
If you have a career you love, and you have a goal to pursue, you must make unremitting efforts.
Because all great and beautiful things come from a glimpse and are not discarded in the dark .
View more about The Professor and the Madman reviews
