The title of "classic anti-war war film" itself is very paradoxical - trying to express the anti-war theme through making war films is often either hypocritical or a failure. As a commercial type of film, the audience it attracts often comes from the beginning to stimulate the thrill of adrenaline and male hormone secretion for violent and bloody scenes, so whether it is intentional or not, it ultimately promotes people's aggressive tendencies.
So how can we achieve the goal of anti-war? (1) Prophet type anti-war film (Prophet): "Apocalypse Now" uses Colonel Coates to rescue the Vietnamese children after the Vietnamese personally cut off the children's hands. As a result, his spirit was severely damaged. Disappointed by the official lie, he became a defector. The premise here is that Coates is well-bred, so he has sympathy for Vietnamese children and skeptical scrutiny of American officials. However, this premise is often difficult to establish in reality. The soldiers who actually lead the troops are often either brainwashed or those with common interests with a firm stand, or they are rough people who only want to shoot guns at all. (2) Brotherhood: "Saving Private Ryan" uses a certain mother's group of children who died until the last one left. This was passed on to the military, so the military wanted to show off. For the sake of brotherhood, the comrades in arms rescued this man and pulled him back, told him to stop fighting and go back to honor his mother. But just like what Peking University students said when they questioned the President of the United States when the Yugoslav embassy was bombed, is your mother your mother? Is your son a son? So in fact, this anti-war is not complete, more people are not the last son, you have to continue to fight, let alone the son of the enemy. Brotherhood can be an excuse to retreat, but it can also be an excuse to fight harder with hatred. This can be seen in the final monologue of "Black Hawk Project". (3) Dog-living: "Counterfeit Maker" is about Jews who use their own housekeeping skills to help Germany make counterfeit banknotes in order to survive in the concentration camps, thus realizing the high personal right to life. Regarding the values of collective interests, even though the film itself has been plagiarized, it continues to cover up its lack of confidence with the contradictions and struggles that were inexplicably born in the heart of the despicable villain. Someone quoted from Pascal's "Book of Thoughts" "A man has the right to kill me just because he lives on the other side of the river, because his ruler has a quarrel with my ruler, even if it has nothing to do with me. , is there anything more absurd than this in the world?" to demonstrate the rationality of the common people's non-war. But the problem is that if two highly democratic countries are at war, and all citizens of both sides are rationally fighting for an irreconcilable conflict of interests, the story is no longer as simple as the rulers playing with the lives of the people, maybe fighting a war It is precisely the best way for the villain to survive. This can be seen in the "professionalism" reflected in the US hiring of tank soldiers in "Fahrenheit 911".
Therefore, in fact, in the past anti-war war films, few of them are to the point. It is worth mentioning the story of Father Hopkins and his three sons participating in World War I in "The Burning Years". The father himself was a former officer who was sent to kill Indians, but he quit, and since then Become an anarchist, Brad Pitt's second son Tristan has inherited his mantle perfectly. He has always implemented his father's ideas in the anti-apartheid and anti-prohibition laws, and acted according to his own principles. Don't take the government's call seriously. Helpless, the eldest son is an orthodox gentleman, and the third son is a hot-headed patriotic and intellectual young man. The two brothers went to the front line, but they had no choice but to catch up with Tristan. As a result, he still couldn't save the foolish third son, and he blamed himself for it. And decadent for many years.
From the plot point of view, the most similar to "Battle of Passchener" is "The Burning Years". But "Battle of Passchen" does not hide in the lair of negative liberalism and ignore the existence of collective interests. There is faith, country, honor, community, and feelings in "Battle of Passchener". The hero Michael returned to his hometown as a fighting hero. He was neither escaping from the world nor showing off his power, but just a low-key job, doing his due diligence as a reserve officer. During the recruitment process, he was also full of Canadian youths who were the same as the German youths killed by him. Caring and compassion. And the whole film is about war, not government: the front of the war, the back of the war, the enemy of the war, the instigators of the war, the participants in the war, the bystanders of the war. In this way, the usual excuse of "conspiracy theories" of a small group of government officials is eliminated, and the essential motivation of war is expanded to the whole community and even all mankind, thus leading the reflection of anti-war reasons to a deeper and broader perspective. thinking space.
The anti-war theme in "Battle of Passchanel" hits the nail on the head when the Canadian nurse Sarah and his younger brother David have a German father who died fighting for the enemy. This problem is complicated. It is different from Qin Han in "Nanjing Massacre" who found a Japanese wife. This self-seeking contradiction is too hypocritical. Here, Sarah's father and birthplace are innate and have no choice. , so the dilemma of how the parties deal with themselves seems real and natural: if it were you, would you escape from the public opinion of the community and live in secret? Or go to the battlefield to show your patriotism? Or simply flee back to Germany? Will it be called a spy by the Germans again? The actor Michael's dual identity of Degas in the face of Sarah is far more natural and more real than Colonel Coates, who sympathizes with the Vietnamese. He accepts this information step by step, and has a lot of foreshadowing before: from killing Germany with his own hands Young and guilty, when she woke up from a coma and saw the female nurse Sarah, she has repeatedly avoided saying "I'm not what you think, I'm different from you", from knowing that her father died in the same war, she suffered from heartache, to Only finally did I know that her father was from Germany... The process of knowing their hostile status is exactly the process of their love growing, from protecting her from retaliation, helping her detox, persuading and protecting her brother, and finally for love And to die... that makes a lot of sense. Moreover, it is not hypocritical in that Sarah is not a female spy of an enemy country. She did not stage another "Lust and Caution" erotic drama of the battle between heaven and man. She is just an ordinary woman. The nurse does her part and never thought about whether her profession is supporting the Allies or the Allies. She is neither as great as Mei Lanfang nor as hysterical as Cheng Dieyi. Her ordinaryness is precisely the achievement. The classic "Battle of Passchen". In the context of the war, Michael's feelings for Sarah transcended the hostility of the neighborhood community towards her and her own struggle against her father's death in the enemy country. Even the love words were condensed into a precious sentence: Don't die! But Michael's symbolic death of carrying a cross for love has completed his own redemption.
The cross montage of brother David's cheating and recruiting speeches is really creative. What's even more amazing is the cheating scene where Michael and Sarah are on the front line with the sound of gunfire. Although it is very shocking and commercial, the inner humanity is not lost. Inking intention is still good. The scene of David finally rushing into the German trenches is too surprising and too reasonable. This wonderful design shows his long-held desire to eliminate self-denial and human cowardice, with dignity and honor. , has been stubbornly not wanting Michael's help, but it was not until the moment of death that humanity prevailed. He finally shouted "I am German". This shouting did not make him a complete traitor, but made this character truly stand. When he got up, he was finally able to face the self-personality without "boundaries". It was the German officer who also had no "limits" to allow the unarmed Michael to come up to lift the wounded, which saved David's life. The soldier who respected and sympathized with each other nodded acquiesced. This finishing touch made a huge The gray character group "Germans" is described as "people".
The biggest highlight of the whole film is the panoramic depiction of the psychology of the people behind the war, which is more accurate, delicate and full of wisdom than the large scenes of machine guns, tanks, planes, and corpses. The people on the scene of the conscription meeting were full of different expressions, some were enthusiastic, some were timid, some qualified and pretended to be injured, and some did not meet the conditions but showed ability. Through the dialogue between Michael and the one-armed comrade in arms, people's worship of heroes is shown. The military officers who really know the truth are mixed with good and evil. Some have sympathy for Michael, and some always suspect that he is a deserter... Personally I think the only shortcoming is that the villain's recruiting officer's accidental death and forgetting are too scribbled, and his personality is too facial. It would be much better if the reasons behind his personality or subsequent changes could be added to make him three-dimensional.
The war film is interspersed with such a large number of social and historical style paintings. I really admire such free brushwork and free movement. These plots are undoubtedly necessary and soulful, and it is rare for us to see such a freehand war film with music and pictures. Canadian Paul Gross, who is also the screenwriter, director, actor and producer of the film, should be impressive, and he always has Eric Bana in "Munich Incident" and Tom Kerr in "Assassination of Hitler". Ruth generally has a strong and melancholy temperament. Why war? Here, don't mention any doctrines, and don't mention any interests. Paul Gross simply paints a beautiful ideal picture, and answers our ultimate question of why we are anti-war - a cowboy is captured by a woman's kiss by the river at the foot of the mountain. For love, that's the best reason.
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