Titled "The Great Detective Story", this is an atypical noir film, and the director doesn't focus on how detectives solve crimes - in fact, several of the cases involved in the film are trivial (except for the murder doctor Schneider). and four-time felon Charlie) — instead focusing on how detectives handled the suspect. I have to say this is refreshing to me.
The male protagonist, Jim, is a detective with a clear distinction between right and wrong. He always believes that the law is an iron rule and immutable, but anyone who violates the law is a bad person. This character reminds me of Sheriff JaVale from Les Misérables. The same absolute faith in the law, and the same hard heart. The reason why Jim is like this is mainly because he witnessed his father's abuse of his mother when he was a child, so he vowed to bring such bad people to justice; secondly, I think it is also out of a responsible attitude towards the prisoners. When a colleague asked him why he refused to forgive the young man who stole his boss's money, he said that a few years ago he caught two young car thieves and let them go because they were pitiful. Later that night, they were shot in another block for stealing. Jim felt insulted by his momentary compassion. He didn't want to repeat the mistake. He wanted to use severe punishment to reform criminals so that they wouldn't lose their lives for committing a bigger crime.
I think it is because of this that he finally chose to let the clerk who stole the money. His wife's reprimands made him understand that he shouldn't be bothered by his father's sins, and the madness of repeating Charlie in the end also made him understand that if he didn't give the occasional wrong person a chance to correct, he would eventually be forced to go further and further down the wrong path. Far.
But by the time he realized it was too late, his wife was fed up with his meanness and left him, and for him his wife was everything. I believe that as an experienced police detective, facing the collapsed Charlie with a gun, he should understand the consequences of rushing forward. But he still did, so I guessed—or believed—that he wanted to die. Mistakes have been made and cannot be changed, and in his view, death is both a relief and an atonement for those wounded by his stony heart, including his wife.
Now I want to discuss the relationship between law and human feelings. I have to admit that the current domestic society is a "human society", people tend to ignore the written laws and pay more attention to the unwritten "hidden rules". Some people say it's amazing, everyone else does it, and you're not only uncomfortable but openly criticizing it, what's the point? But everyone, have you ever thought about whether the "human society" itself is reasonable? The existence of the law is to maintain justice, because the legislator must make the law from the perspective of justice. However, in the age of capital, "human affection" has long since faded into a spokesperson for interests. It distorts the law and even makes it useless. What a legal society needs is the ability to enforce the law with integrity and the ability to think about the independence of the judiciary.
But the law is, after all, a product of high altitude. It represents the virtues of a perfect man (God), but in reality everyone is imperfect. This requires the root of "human affection" to make the law grow firmly on the ground. What I mean by "human affection" is of course not the "private PY transaction" above, but forgiveness, love, and judgment based on people's morality and conscience. After all, the purpose of the law is to persuade people to do good, not to punish revenge. At the same time, the existence of the law should also ensure the implementation of the civil rights and rights of every citizen under its rule. Being vague about rights and being strict about obligations can only make "persuasion" degenerate into "brainwashing", and after losing confidence in the words of "brainwashing", they will inevitably lead to the wrong path of being punished.
The great writer Hugo once said that he was "dark integrity" when evaluating Sheriff JaVale. I think it's not a bad idea to use this word to evaluate Jim. The Chinese have always said that "morality is the mainstay of punishment", but I think that in modern society, the enforcement of laws is the first thing that needs to be guaranteed. However, besides the law, there are also human feelings. Law enforcers must embrace forgiveness and give violators a chance to make amends. Punishment must not be done just because of punishment. Otherwise, we can only go further and further away from an ideal legal society.
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