"Focus": The evil of the system is higher than the evil of the individual

Spotlight

"Spotlight in Focus" finally won the Oscar for Best Picture. Prior to the Golden Globe Awards and the British Film Academy Awards, it was twice lost to "Wild Hunter" starring Xiao Li. Fortunately, the more than 6000 judges of Oscars are still insightful. They know in their hearts that no matter how hard Li's performance is, the scenery of "The Wilderness" is more charming, the story, the plot, or the "Focus" is better. As an "old" newspaperman who has spent many years in traditional media, I really sighed in my heart when seeing such a film about the work of a journalist-now that the paper media has been declining, "Focus" is a revisit. The glory of the old days of newspapers.

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The story of "Focus on Spotlight" took place in 2001. At that time, "911" hadn't happened yet, and the "Beijing News" hadn't started its publication. Although the Internet boom has hit, the Chinese newspaper industry is still booming. Countless aspiring literary and artistic youths, with the dream of moving people's hearts with reality, have defected to the banner of the media (I am also fortunate to be one of them). At that time, we were young and full of pride, and believed that we could "make the weaker powerful, and let the pessimistic move forward" with a pen of our own. In Boston, on the other side of the ocean, there are also a group of media people with the same ideals. The nature of the "Focus" column is roughly equivalent to our CCTV's "Focus Interview", which is the kind of news designed to challenge the society. The Boston Globe to which it belongs is a place under the New York Times. The sex newspaper has a history of more than 140 years since its inception. In 2002, the newspaper published about 90 articles exposing scandals of Catholic priests sexually assaulting children across the United States for nearly a year, and pointed out that the church has known its love a long time ago, but it has always been covering up evil deeds. This perseverance and violent pursuit aroused global attention and finally alarmed the Holy See. The last article in the series was "The Pope of Rome accepts the resignation of Bishop Lao". This film is adapted from BG's ultra-long report that won the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. The theme of child sexual assault has always been a favorite theme in movies, such as the Korean films "Sowon" and "The Melting Pot" based on real events. There is no shortage of precedents that talk about sexual scandals within the church, such as Meryl Streep and the late Philip Hoffman’s "Child Abuse Suspicion", and the Spanish director Almodova has an autobiographical nature. "Bad Education"-Ador does not hesitate to expose his childhood experience of being violated by priests in the film. But also because of this, this content is also easy to be filmed "rotten", if you are not careful, you will fall into an overly sensational arrogance, not to mention right and wrong at a glance, the audience has already stood in line before entering the theater, except for the excitement again. What else can the movie do to raise the indignation in people's hearts?

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The scandal that broke out in the "Focus" column 14 years ago was quite shocking: the number of clergy involved in the case in Boston alone was as high as 271, and some had committed crimes for as long as 30 years. For such an astonishing story, the film is extremely calm and restrained. There is no hysterical crying, no angelic reporters of justice, and no debates and confrontations of verbal chattering, and some are just the daily bits and pieces of the media people's work. The plain narrative dispels the conflicts of drama and makes the whole work present a simple documentary style. At the beginning of the movie, the BG editorial department sent off the editor-in-chief collectively. Everyone joked, ate cakes, and then the camera followed Sasha and Matt from the "focus" group all the way back to the office. Matt accidentally mentioned that he couldn't eat cake because it would make people feel down. Why is it down? There is a deep meaning in this. The film is full of such seemingly inadvertent but meaningful lines and details. News about the new editor-in-chief circulated in the office: I heard that he was a difficult person, and I heard that he cut 15% of the people in Miami. Obviously in the US market environment, the impact of the Internet is coming sooner. For local newspapers like BG, the blow is multiple: the number of readers is declining, and the outstanding backbones are taken away by the boss NYT above and stayed. People still have to face the pressure of layoffs that lasts like a day (a few years later, in 2013, NYT finally sold BG for $70 million. You know, in 1993, it bought BG for $1.1 billion. , It also set the highest record of newspaper acquisitions at that time. In 20 years of fengshui, the rapid decline of paper media has greatly exceeded people’s expectations). Soon, the new editor-in-chief Marty Barron took office. Unlike most BG editors and editors who are of local origin, this introverted and silent media person has not even been to Boston before ("Focus Four" teases privately: maybe he should send him a map of Boston). But on the first day in office, Barron showed a strong work courage: not only resumed the ten-thirty in the morning forum, but also threw a new task to "Focus"-to follow the priest mentioned in a column. Cases of sexual assault on children. The scene of this forum was only more than 2 minutes before and after, and I watched it several times. In the eyes of ordinary audiences, this is just a slightly dull working meeting, but those who have had personal experience can appreciate the undercurrent surging under the calm waves. Every sentence is a foreshadowing, which is thrilling to see. Just like those hidden mystery dialogues in "A Dream of Red Mansions".

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With the help of Barron’s questioning, the audience learned a shocking fact: In Boston, the sexual assault case is almost an open secret. As early as 1976, victims reported the crime. The police, churches, and lawyers all knew about it, and even reported it. Some organizations of victims and lawyers of conscience have reported to the newspapers, and BG himself has made a few painless reports. However, no one stood up to stop it. For various reasons, many obvious facts were ignored, forgotten, and concealed intentionally or unintentionally. Violent pastors were still sent to serve in different areas, resulting in repeated evils. happen. It wasn't until one day that someone finally made up his mind to connect the scattered pieces together, and people suddenly discovered that the truth was so terrible. "If raising a child depends on the support of the entire village, then destroying a child and the entire village will not get rid of the relationship." The film uses the lawyer Gara Bedian to unearth a deeper meaning beyond "accusation and exposure." , That is, "the evil of the system is higher than the evil of the individual." The entire incident is not just an individual crime by a few people, but a crime of this magnitude is completely the result of institutional protection and connivance. However, in a city with a deep Catholic tradition, everyone was discouraged when they heard that they were going to be an enemy of the church. Only outsiders such as Barron and Armenian lawyer Garabedian would risk the world. Go and uncover the scandal. From the perspective of commercial films, it is undoubtedly that works such as "The Melting Pot" are easier to understand. The sharp contrast between the ugly and terrible principal and the weak and helpless deaf-mute child is too easy to trigger turbulent sympathy. But in this film, the leader of the entire investigation, Barron and the leader of "Focus" Robbie, are always calm and cold. There is no excitement in the words to uphold justice. The reporters involved in the investigation wanted to publish the list of pastors several times. Pressed by them. Because they fully understand the need to hold the entire system accountable, and cannot criticize individual perpetrators. Once the public focuses on the individual, the case is likely to be as major as the past: the church comes out to comply with public opinion. The criminal pastor condemned it and turned it into a good institution that cared for the people and walked the way for the heavens. At most, it only assumed the responsibilities of ineffective restraint and escaped punishment smoothly. As Barron pointed out, hitting the board on the individual cannot lead to fundamental changes. Only by attacking the entire system can the root cause of the crime be eradicated. This is why the first article in a series of reports on the BG sexual assault case chose "The Church Has Covered the Pastor for Many Years" instead of "70 priests involved in sexual assault." Compared with the sensibility of Korean filmmakers, American filmmakers are more than sensational and provocative on sexual assault cases, but provide a rational level of reflection. Facing a stubborn closed system (the church) and a numb society of acquaintances (Boston), "Focus" gave a scalpel analysis and made a textbook-level movie.

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