I haven't read the original "Testament of Youth" and don't know the female author Vera Brittain. I've seen several films "Mechanic Ji" and "The Bourne Shadow 5" starring Alicia Vikander. They are all very sharp characters. Generally speaking, I appreciate them more than I like them. Kit Harington only learned about Kit Harington after watching "Game of Thrones". I saw "The Last of Pompeii" starring him before, but unfortunately I didn't remember it at all, so I can't even talk about familiarity.
On the afternoon of the last day of the May Day holiday, I opened this film without warning, and when I watched the opening, the thought of going to bed if I was too bored flashed through my heart. Of course I didn't want to go to bed.
The picture at the beginning is beautiful. The youthful faces and bodies of the four young people, the freshness and tranquility of the English countryside, the golden age meets the golden age, and the moment in 1914 is as impressive as the finely crafted crystal. The more I understand Zweig's praise of "Yesterday's World" and the infinite nostalgia after the loss, it is the desolation and sorrow after seeing the crystal shattered and a mess. 1914 was the last year of the European Golden Age.
Vera is a girl who can decide for herself. She will not respond to the enthusiasm of Victor, a boy she does not love. She refuses the expensive piano given by her father. She would rather not get married or go to Oxford school like her brother Edward, even if a woman is destined to not get it. Bachelor of Science. She also rejected the kindness of Roland that she liked to help her study, which was somewhat related to her girl's first move but not quite sure about the other's thoughts. Persuaded by her elder brother Edward, her parents agreed to go to school. She finally got the coveted acceptance letter and bravely confirmed her love with Roland.
This paragraph is the culmination of happiness, happiness comes so quickly.
The First World War-the first large-scale meat grinder-like war broke out after a long period of peace. There is a paragraph in "The Fall of Europe" to the effect that people who grew up in a very stable age are eager to take risks, so War is full of temptations and makes people crazy, especially for young people with passion. Like having been helped by his brother to realize his dream, Vera persuaded his father to let Edward fulfill his wish to join the army, on the grounds that "everyone is gone, if he can't, what would everyone think of him." Vera said so loudly at the time. , So much so that his father agreed even though his face was heavy. What surprised Vera was that Roland had also joined the army, making the decision faster and more determined than confirming love with Vera. Compared with love, war is not only romantic but also has a sense of mission. How can young people who have never seen it resist it?
In a blink of an eye, the four of them went to Oxford together to become Roland and Edward and became soldiers. Only Vera and Victor remained in Oxford (they were still rejected because of unqualified eyes). One day, a disabled soldier appeared on the streets of Oxford, where the years were quiet, and the female tutor received a notice of death from her family. The true face of the war has clearly appeared in front of Vera. At this time, Roland went to the front from the rear again, and Vera could no longer stay out of the war.
Vera is a girl who can decide for herself. She decided to suspend school to become a nurse. When she applied, the female tutor was surprised and even angrily said, "How can you give up hard-won opportunities so easily?" Yes, not only Vera's struggle with her parents made all this hard-won, and people who have been wounded or died on the battlefield also made all this hard-won. Moreover, there are many people who can be nurses, but only a few can be Oxford students. I also think she is doing stupid things at this time, at least stubborn girls are usually easy to do stupid things. But from the moment when she put on a nurse's uniform seriously and said that she was grateful to someone who was strict with her when she was making things difficult, I completely changed and felt her great kindness. After watching the film, I was even more sure of this. Yes, more than that, she is also a girl who will always do her best to make things better.
As a nurse in the back, she faced blood, stumps, painful groans, and despair before she died. Even if she was afraid of trembling, she would hold onto her face. Roland went home to visit relatives. He didn't tell Vera that he was indifferent when they met. He no longer had the passion when he first applied for the military and then took the initiative to apply to the front line. He looked lifeless, cold and gloomy. Vera comforted him to hug him and kiss him, bit by bit to warm him up and brighten him up. They decided to get married next time they come back from the Christmas break. The world is in chaos, each other's hearts are set, how I hope it is. On the day of the appointment, she was waiting with her parents in full costume and eyes flashing, but the news of Roland's death was waiting. The death notice stated that the death was "peaceful, dignified, and great." She asked everyone she could find to understand the truth. The truth was cruel: severely injured, died of pain in the helpless rescue, and said a word before death that no one could understand-it was a poem, the way he talked to Vera . She wanted the truth, faced the truth, and still comforted Roland's family, saying that her death was "safe, dignified, and great." When she saw Roland's relics, she trembling and stroking them one by one, her fingers were no longer the warm skin of her lover, but dirty, tattered, blood-stained, so desolate and broken, how heartbreaking!
Soon, she met Victor in the hospital. The boy had gone from disqualified eyes and refused to join the army to a blind and wounded soldier returning from the battlefield. The only thing that remained unchanged was kindness and love for Vera. Vera took his hand and said that he would take care of him for the rest of his life. He was very happy and he could see the smile on his face, but while he joked, "Are you asking me to marry me?" he got a positive answer. Then gently refused. One day after he died quietly in the hospital, Vera went to see off by his bed.
Vera applied to be a nurse on the front line, to the place closest to Edward. After walking through the muddy camp with a suitcase, she was given care of wounded soldiers from the enemy German army. Although there was a short period of dissatisfaction, she quickly went to work and comforted the dying German as a lover. Win the respect of your companions when you are a soldier. At that moment, it was Roland who flashed before her eyes, how she wished she was beside him at that time, how she wished there was a girl like herself beside him at that time. Later, Edward came unexpectedly. She turned him out of the pile of dead people wounded by the poison gas, guarded him by his side, and snatched him back from death. It was so happy to rescue his dear brother, but Edward, who recovered in a blink of an eye, had to return to the battlefield again.
Upon receiving a letter from her mother who was critically ill, Vera went home immediately. The family didn't seem to change much, and her mother looked good. She was about to turn around and leave, but she found that her mother just looked good, but in fact her spirit had collapsed. She was at a loss about what to do with her life, like a walking dead. She stayed to clean, scrub, cook, comfort her parents, and restore the home to something more or less the same. But death came anyway, this time it was Edward. I think Vera was desperate at that moment, she couldn't save her relatives even if she worked hard.
The war was finally over and Vera returned to Oxford, but she was no longer the free and curious girl she used to be. She was like a lonely stray goose, like a lifeless wandering soul. Struggling, trance, eyes dizzy and alienated, I don't know what she is thinking. Fortunately, the sun still shined in. There was a scene that moved me very much. Vera was walking in the small woods on the campus, her fingers fiddled with the branches, the sun was shining from the gaps, and her face was radiant and smiled.
So far, three of the four young people at the beginning of the movie-Vera's lover, friend, and brother have all died in the war. This is really a sad movie. My tears can't stop, and I must cry more than Vera. However, this is another movie that showed me great kindness and power. Wars must not be initiated by ordinary people-the bigger the war, the more powerless it is, but the ordinary people must bear the suffering-the bigger the war, the less no one is spared. Vera is one of the ordinary people, but while she is suffering, she also invests in what she can do, even if it makes things better, even if it's just a little bit for the same innocent and helpless people. Help, even if it's just to help get through the pain and fear before death. When other people advocated paying a tooth for a tooth and blood for blood, she came out and advocated stopping all harm, just to prevent the suffering she had endured from happening to others, even the "enemies" she once suffered. Little children. This is great kindness and great strength.
In the end, the score of this film is not high, and a score of 7 is barely a pass in my system. After reading some comments, some people said that this is a movie with only one heroine and other supporting roles, so the whole film is from the perspective of the heroine, the story is fragmentary and the characters are thin. I agreed with the first half sentence and gave a high score for it. I saw the whole process of the formation of the heroine's anti-war proposition, and was deeply moved. This is an autobiography-whether it is a novel or a movie, what it should be like.
Be a person who can decide for yourself, be a kind-hearted person, and be a person who does his best to make things better.
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