In the film "Shawshank's Redemption", Red has a line, which is also the most famous line in the film: These walls are kind of funny like that. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passed, get so you depend on them. That's institution alized.
The walls of the prison stand high, with barbed wire fences and guards with guns. But outside the prison, the wall is everywhere. It is invisible and invisible. No one is guarded, but it can shape people, change people, hurt people, and even destroy people.
Luce's film tells the story of a young man surrounded by such a wall.
Unlike the big hits during the awards season, this film appears to be very low-key. I first went to the goddess. After all, who is superstitious in acting who doesn’t like Naomi?
But after watching the film, I took a deep breath, thanking me that I didn't miss the film. In 2019, when the masterpiece is like a cloud, the film can also be ranked in the top three of the individual film list. Whether it's plot, meaning, performance, soundtrack, or photography, the film is top-notch. The theme conveyed by the film is like an abyss, making people nervous, disturbed, and contemplative.
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The protagonist of the film is a black teenager from war-torn Eritrea. At the age of seven, he was adopted by an American couple and named Luce.
Luce is very upbeat. He became a star student in high school and gave a speech at the school meeting. He is the main player of the track and field team and has excellent grades.
A small incident happened: Luce's history teacher Harriet (female, black, this identity is very important), through a paper by Luce, suspected that Luce had extreme thoughts about violent revolution, and worried that he would do extreme behavior, so he searched Luce without authorization. A bag of non-smoking fires was found inside the locker. Harriet found Luce's adoptive mother, Amy, to talk about this, hoping that Amy would talk to Luce.
As a result, Amy and her husband Peter had a disagreement on how to discuss the matter with their adopted son, and the fireworks were discovered by Luce. It was originally a trivial matter, but it spread out and almost became out of control. This trivial matter reflects the American social system’s shaping of human identity, the source of people’s prejudice, the hypocrisy of the American middle class, the self-righteousness of educators, and the obstacles to ethnic minority self-identification. The plot is intertwined and the rhythm is tense. Coupled with the quirky atmosphere created by the excellent soundtrack, it constitutes an excellent suspense movie.
At the end of the film, there is no clear answer, but the exploration of social system and human heart is already in place. The self-proclaimed American democracy in the United States has liberated humanity or is it forcibly shaping humanity? Race and ethnic issues have become what they are now, are they more free or overcorrected? When you are an image in the eyes of everyone, are you obligated to continue to play this image, so that the image becomes the shackles that bind your nature? The issues discussed in this video are complex and profound. I will try to discuss one of them.
Going back to the line quoted at the beginning of the article, prison, as an extreme example of institutionalization, is used to discipline people who violate social norms. People stay in prison for a long time, they will gradually rely on an institutionalized life, and it is almost impossible to leave. This kind of institutionalization appeared to contrast Andy who loves freedom, so we can say that we should get rid of the shackles of the system on people.
But what about society's constraints on people? Luce came from war-torn Africa and came to a middle-class family in the United States. His parents were very successful in his education. He was excellent in both character and learning in school. It can be said that he is a successful case of American democracy reforming people. He is the pride of the school and the source of parents' self-confidence. Therefore, the school teacher prefers him and even does not allow him to have any problems. If his classmate is expelled from the sports team for smoking marijuana, he can be fine. People's preference for Luce, to put it bluntly, is a kind of self-confidence in their social system, and Luce is their work. So when Mr. Harriet doubted Luce, everyone was very nervous. As Mr. Harriet, who had the same identity as Luce, seeing through Luce's performance, he pretended that Luce must have an unfathomable heart, and it must be a deeply hidden extreme. molecular.
You see, people on both sides use their own concepts to define Luce, but they are not willing to understand what kind of person he is. Maybe he is not so good, but maybe he is not as hypocritical as Teacher Harriet said. He may just be an ordinary young man with shortcomings, making some mistakes that he would make when he was young. If this happened to a white man, everyone would understand and say "Oh, young, I always make mistakes." But once Luce makes a mistake, his background will be mentioned. The "reform" he has undergone so many years will be in danger of being denied. Proud Americans will not allow others to question the social system they have worked so hard to manage. .
Teacher Harriet, played by Octavia Spencer, is an extremely complicated character in the film. From the perspective of perception, she is the most uncomfortable character in the film, but you can't deny that some of her words are right. She ruthlessly uncovered the situation of African Americans in the United States, and uncovered the sharp knives hidden under the warmth of American democracy. However, such a thorough observation may bring her misunderstandings. Human nature is complicated. Teacher Harriet thinks she has an insight into the system and human nature, but she doesn’t know that Luce is a more complicated person. She is too confident in her answer, which makes her neglect the complexity of Luce as a person, and more importantly She thought that she had already integrated into American society and could represent the system behind her. As a result, in the eyes of Amy and others, she was still different. Her extremes and prejudices were originally sinful, so she was neither completely Knowing Luce, but also abandoned by the system behind him.
There is also a character in the film: Teacher Harriet's sister, who suffers from a certain mental illness. Teacher Harriet looks after her sister very much, but in fact she is tired of the trouble her sister brings her. The younger sister got sick and ran to school to take off her clothes and made a big noise. The students raised their phones to take pictures. The security guards controlled her and took her away. Teacher Harriet shouted, "Can't you give her a piece of clothing?" But what did she do? Yes, she never approached her sister from start to finish. When her sister was taken away, she just watched. So is she really as rational, smart, and kind as she said? not necessarily.
Race and ethnic issues are extremely sensitive in the United States today (yes, I have never been to the United States, and I dare to speak so arrogantly). People are implementing all kinds of racial norms, as strictly as looking at the manual, public figures dare not talk about it. Start any topic about race, otherwise you will be verbally criticized. However, the media and the people who criticized them may not necessarily defend their system as much as they originally intended. Most of them are merely acts of avenging private revenge under the banner of the system. However, with the backing of the system, this kind of verbal criticism has become unfavorable. Today's society always likes to switch seamlessly between the extreme left and the extreme right because the system is used by people and becomes a weapon for personal attacks and personal gain.
And our country also has many sensitive topics, and our attitude towards such topics is better than that of the United States. Every time Trump, Japan, or a certain island appears in the news, some netizens are like dogs whose tails have been stepped on, jumping up high and looking for targets with red eyes. Anyone who speaks a few words rationally will be scolded immediately. . WG has been over for more than 40 years, and everyone still has no long memory. Spilling through the system is a very destructive evil. Whether it is the so-called ethical democracy of the United States or the Internet mob who has just gained "freedom of speech" here, the result is a more rational voice. The smaller and smaller, more and more "extremely correct" monsters appear in the society.
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