As the title "Better World" says, the theme of the film's macro sense is: why our current world is not good enough, and how can we make it better. For this reason, the film uses three unreasonable malicious acts as the introduction to the story, and uses the three main characters to deal with these malicious processes as the main body of the story, and interspersed with descriptions of the various things faced by people living in this world. The predicament and the choices they made, in this process, presented the theme step by step, from the shallower to the deeper.
The three unreasonable malicious attempts respectively refer to: (1) Pregnant women in Africa did not do anything wrong, they were stabbed by the underworld bully Big Man just because of their pregnancy status; (2) Elias living in Denmark is a good one. The child was bullied by a gang led by the school bully Sofus just because his front teeth were like mouse teeth; (3) Elias’ father Anton saw that his youngest son Morten had a dispute with another child and stepped forward to dissuade him. Lars, the father of the child, was slapped in the face, and was slapped again when he was confronted to ask for an explanation. And along these three main story lines, we have also seen: African refugees with a large base can only rely on a long line of foreign doctors to help them; Anton and his wife Marianne are experiencing a marital crisis, which gives them and their lives. The eldest son Elias brought deep pain; Christian closed himself up because of the death of his mother, and shut out his father, Claus, who loved him deeply, and his father didn't know how to communicate with his son.
Denmark and a certain country in Africa, one is a typical developed country, and the other is a typical third world country, but they represent two extreme modern civilizations in which human beings live. But even though there are great differences in material levels, people are fighting against sudden malice and are experiencing different dilemmas. It can be seen that what the movie presents to us is an unpleasant world.
Anton, Christian, and Elias are the main characters in the movie. When faced with these unreasonable malice, their behavior reflects three different attitudes to life.
First look at Elias. He is relatively weak and always avoids conflict as much as possible. Facing the bullying of campus bullies, he chose to endure silently. He was besieged on the way to school, ridiculed by classmates during class, and pushed the deflated bicycle home every day. The communication between parents and teachers could not solve the problem. However, Elias, who seems weak, is a kind person in his bones, and he always subconsciously avoids hurting others. Seeing that his bicycle was deflated, his first reaction was to push the bicycle home instead of destroying other people’s bicycles to facilitate himself; he had always worried that Christian’s blasting plan would harm others, but when he saw the innocent mother and child about to When they were bombed, they burst into full courage and risked their lives to save them.
Then look at Christian again. His style of acting is tooth for tooth-no matter what kind of malice he suffered, he would pay it back ten times, showing his muscles to the wicked. After being hit by a school bully with a nosebleed in basketball, he decisively responded with violence the next day, hitting the opponent with a bruised nose and swollen face, and even threatened the opponent with a knife to solve the problem once and for all. It can be seen that Christian is very aggressive, which also implies that his subconscious self-consciousness is excessive, or that he lacks empathy. After the death of his mother, he only cared about his own grief and vented his emotions towards his father, but did not realize that his father was also in suffering. He was about to use a bomb to explode the opponent's car, and almost killed his innocent mother and child. He also sent his friend Elias into the hospital, which caused catastrophic results.
Finally, Anton has the most drama. His creed is neither humble nor overbearing, to maintain oneself. In the face of an unreasonable bully who slapped himself for no reason, he would not show weakness, but he also had no intention of entangled with him; faced with the murderer who stabbed countless pregnant women who came to seek medical treatment, he had no plan to make friends with him, but he chose In order to comply with his own professional ethics, heal the other party. However, the nobility and ethics shown by Anton are destined to be ununderstood by others. When he didn't fight back Lars who slapped himself, he was questioned by his two sons and Christian in person; when he was treating Big Man, the nurses stayed away from him, the villagers quarreled with him, and the children stopped chasing after him. His vehicle, and it is ridiculous that Big Man also tried to win him as his own person. What is even more emotional is that although Anton does his best to be himself and avoid disputes, he is also a person with feelings after all, and there is a bottom line in his heart. When he heard Big Man mocking the dead pregnant woman with vicious language, Anton finally broke out and unceremoniously expelled him and let the angry villagers deal with him.
In the face of unreasonable malice, we can see: Although Elias is kind, his weakness prevents him from getting rid of the bullying of campus bullies on his own; Christian's tough style can strike down the arrogance of some bad guys and protect himself, but he is sharp. He is exposed, but it is easy to hurt innocent people, whether it is himself, his father, friends or passersby; Anton's modest style of doing things allows him to always stay out of the matter as much as possible and maintain himself with a detached mentality, but he is not understood by others. , And in the face of malice that has no limits and cannot be sanctioned, he finally used tough methods and violated his creed. It can be said that everyone's approach has its limitations, and the master key does not exist.
In addition to the malice on the surface of these three times, the movie also implies a maliciousness hidden in the dark. Isn’t the death of Christian’s mother an unreasonable malice from heaven in another sense? Death came so suddenly, bringing pain to the living and making them have to experience spiritual suffering. Including Elias was nearly killed and Christian nearly committed suicide. Although the parties were at fault, these tragedies were due to a series of coincidences and were beyond human control. Therefore, death itself, as well as these "coincidences" that lead to tragedy, can also be regarded as an unreasonable malice against the living.
From these perspectives, we can see that the movie deliberately presents these "unsolvable" malice to us, showing that there are too many problems in the world that we cannot solve as individual mortals. Therefore, we who are small and helpless can only make this world better. So, what should we do? The film did not give a clear answer, but it gave its tendency through some clues.
At the beginning of the film, Christian read Andersen’s "Nightingale" excerpts aloud at the funeral, expressing the meaning that Nightingale singing is not for prosperity, but to bring joy to people. Nightingale's selfless dedication obviously catered to Anton who went to Africa as a healer to rescue the dying and healed the wounded, and also included Elias who rescued mother and child regardless of their own safety. This kind of selflessness and kindness is the first quality praised by the movie.
Anton and his wife experienced an emotional crisis at first, but after Elias was involved in the accident for the first time, they tried to communicate on the phone; after Elias experienced a life and death crisis, they further accepted each other. Christian originally didn't understand and accept his father, but after experiencing Elias' life and death and the conversation with Anton on the white building, he finally embraced his father again. Why is this so? I think that it is precisely because of disasters and death that the white veil of life and death disappears in an instant, so that the living can re-examine everything they have, so they cherish the beauty in front of them even more. Learn to cherish, this is the second quality praised by movies.
After experiencing the death of his mother, Christian did not understand his father's pain, which not only made his father more sad, but also made him go to extremes. Marianne saw that the child was unconscious. Under her anger, she forced Christian who came to visit him to leave, and even condemned him by saying that Elias was dead. So Christian, tortured by the deep shame, chose to commit suicide by jumping off the building until Anton drove him away. Come to save everything. We have seen that although their emotions are all due to reasons, their actions have made things worse on an objective level and spawned more tragedies. Therefore, restraining one's own negative emotions and learning to feel the joys, angers, sorrows and joys of others, this kind of empathy and tolerance is really important. Finally, Anton and his wife took Christian to visit Elias. Christian and his father hugged tightly, and the grievances were resolved. It can be seen that tolerance is the third quality praised by movies.
The world we live in is broken, and our resistance may be weak, but we can make it more or less better. I think these contents are the embodiment of the theme of the movie.
Then briefly list several comparisons in the movie:
Claus looked through the photos while moving house and sorting his belongings. In the middle one is Christian and his mother smiling happily. On the left is the mother who had all her hair lost after cancer surgery, and on the right is the crying Christian. The seemingly random but well-designed composition fully embodies the devastation of the disease to the living, which also paved the way for Christian's paranoia later.
When Elias went home to see his mother, her mother tried her best to joking and playing with him, but Elias did not appreciate it. This was in contrast to the ecstasy when Elias went to pick up her father the next day, and it implied the marriage of father and mother. The problem also shows that Elias is more inclined to his father, paving the way for Elias to always seek help from his father instead of his mother when various accidents occur later.
When the campus bully Sofus was in the toilet forcing Elias not to tell what happened yesterday, Elias tremblingly said that he would not say it, and in the process, Christian slammed Sofus from behind with a stick and put a knife in his throat. Threats everywhere and use violence to curb violence. Here the director used a sound and picture montage, using the sound of Sofus threatening Elias in the toilet with the footage of Christian walking from outside the building to the toilet to commit violence. Elias’s weakness and Christian’s toughness are in sharp contrast at this moment, and a violent catharsis. It also gives the audience a strong sense of pleasure in an instant.
After Anton performed the operation for the people, African children ran and chased him when he left in the car, but when he had the operation for Big Man, no one was chasing him when he was in the car. The camera only caught dust. This comparison shows that Anton's choice is not understood by the people, and it highlights his loneliness.
When Christian visited Elias for the first time in the hospital, Marianne angrily accused him, saying that he killed Elias and drove him out; after experiencing the life and death of the White Building, Marianne held Christian on the shoulders and took him to him. See a doctor in the hospital. This before-and-after comparison shows the resolution of the grievances between the two families. The director also deliberately arranged the second visit to the hospital in the early morning. Under the shining of the morning light, the world seemed to have really changed for the better, bringing a touch of color to the story.
Finally, talk about the symbol of the white building.
The white building is intuitively the critical point of life and death: standing on the top of a tall building, there is only one jump from death. In the movie, the protagonists’ attitude towards the building reflects their values or their mental journey. Christian likes to stay in the white building, implying that he will not hesitate to take his life and revenge with violence; Anton thinks the white building is very dangerous, so Elias should not go, which shows his cleanliness and rationality, and his disapproval of Christian Acknowledgement; Elias followed Christian to the white building while being taught by his father Anton not to go there. Therefore, whether to go to the white building symbolizes the conflict of ideas between Christian and Anton, while Elias is vacillating between the two concepts. When Elias promised his father not to go to the building, it showed that he was inclined to his father at this moment; and when Elias accidentally exposed the knife Christian gave to his mother, his heart was full of guilt and began to change his position. I prefer to stand on Christian's side. At this time, the film again took a look at the white building and featured Elias standing on the tall building.
This is the end of my thoughts, thanks for reading!
View more about In a Better World reviews
