this article written after watching the movie late at night, I couldn’t sleep. Please forgive me for language confusion.
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The movie Snow Country Train, I give it 10 points.
Not because I agree with all the values of the work, but because it is extremely artistic, dramatic, and full of strong emotional expression.
Not much to say these words. Next, let's interpret the various political metaphors of this movie.
1. The train
There is no doubt that the train is a metaphor for all class societies in human history. The movie plot has shown this metaphor more directly, from the rear of the car to the front of the car:
*The rear compartment, symbolizing the laborers at the bottom of the class society, is the most miserable and most GM-like;
*The protein block production compartment, symbolizing giving The bottom of the society provides the lowest service class that provides the bottom line of life;
*The army that maintains the order of the train symbolizes the country’s violent machinery, and they are on the edge of the bottom;
*Plants, aquariums, etc., symbolizes the middle of technical laborers Relative to the bottom class, the treatment is slightly better, but they are at a loss for social changes. They not only obey the authority of the ruling class, but also have sympathy and fear for the bottom laborers;
* Senior passenger compartment: a symbol of the decadent ruling class, the more Going to the front of the car, the more thorough the degeneration
* Engine compartment: symbolizes the highest ruler of class society, the fewest people who have always controlled the direction of human society.
These metaphors are already very straightforward. In this sense, a line in the climax of the movie is too straightforward: "This train is the world, and we are all mankind." If you pay attention to the beauty of white space, you don’t need to be so blunt
about the second metaphor of the train, the "Ark" philosophy.
Second, the violent organ
of the train appears in the movie. The governing organ of the train symbolizes several types of class society. Representative authoritarian violence.
For example, the soldiers who appeared at the beginning were completely dressed up in the image of American soldiers. In fact, many equipment details are redundant. Such a similar image reflects the violent institutions in the modern capitalist "democratic society."
Pay attention to one detail. When the soldiers are carrying out the order, they will say "mam" to the women. Madam, the words are also very polite. Compared with the violence that followed, the hypocrisy before was obvious. This implies that the protection of the people in the name of modern democratic society is actually the state machine that defends the class social order.
The female leader with glasses and dentures in her mouth is reminiscent of 1984. This image undoubtedly alludes to the totalitarian bureaucracy under the so-called "Stalinism." From this perspective, the author's political inclinations may be more biased towards Trotskyism and the Fourth International. However, the theoretical faction disputes that have arisen since then cannot conceal the GM nature of the film itself.
The masked army in front of the Shuiyuan carriage reminds people of contemporary far-right Nazi nationalists, militarism (note that the masked people also shout long live in Japanese), and various fascists. The weapons used are also full of blood and cruelty. They certainly symbolize the totalitarian and violent ruling institutions of the extreme right in history.
From American soldiers, to totalitarian bureaucrats, to fascist butchers, this order of comparison reveals the author's understanding of the hypocrisy of class society. The order of the class society comes first. The more fierce the resistance of the workers at the bottom, the more hypocritical masks of the ruling class will be. Their nature is far-right fascist.
3.
Personal names I personally believe that the names of all characters have metaphors that conform to Western history and culture. But the personal knowledge is too poor to tell the inner connection. Here is skip
four.
The image of the elderly mentor Gilliam Gilliam is very similar to Trotsky. The metaphor in the movie is the GM prophet.
There are two key stories surrounding Gilliam, one is the meat-feeder, and the other is that he and the train inventor Wilford are good friends. Both require detailed interpretation.
5. Mentor Gilliam and the conductor are old friends
Let me talk about the old friend's problem first. The prophet of social GM, Marx and Engels, is himself a senior intellectual, even a member of the ruling class himself. Most of the ideas studied at the earliest were tools used by the ruling class to maintain its rule. They should have been the most direct propaganda tool of the ruling class among the people at the bottom.
Gilliam and Wilford are old friends, this is the relationship. In addition, the conductor said that the old Gilliam often talked with him for a long time. This is in line with history, because a large part of the energy of the prophets of GM is used in dialogue and debate with the old ruling class philosophy and theories, such as Capital.
6. Gilliam’s new life to GM. The
old Gilliam went from the assistant of the conductor to the prophet of GM. One key point is that he cut off his own meat for others to eat, in order to stop the rear carriage Cannibalism. It was the suffering of the people, especially the children (symbolizing the future of mankind), that awakened him. Cutting off one's arm is definitely not part of the plan.
This is especially like Engels. Engels was originally the son of the factory owner. He was originally sent to the factory to learn management techniques. But Engels saw the workers' suffering firsthand, and instead grew into a firm GM.
In addition, Trotz was basically the son of a rich peasant. He couldn't understand his father's exploitation of hired workers, and he sprouted GM consciousness. Of course, Mao is more typical. Mao claimed that his first GM was his bourgeois father.
7. The periodic GM
train conductor Wilford said that he had discussed with Gilliam's old friend and asked him to go to the rear of the train to regularly instigate GM. Use GM to weaken the bottom and upper populations and keep the train balanced.
The metaphor of periodic GM in the train intuitively symbolizes the periodic social crisis in class society.
The periodic interpretation of GM, the conductor, is precisely the interpretation of GM by the exploiting class. Many anti-revolution theories, especially the ruling philosophy represented by Malthusianism, interpret social crises and GM in history as over-development of human beings and insufficient productivity. The resulting chaos is chaos instead of chaos. Progress (revolution). This chaos reduced the population and also reduced the contradiction with the productive forces, thus returning the society to stability, which is of course the stability of the class social order.
On the other hand, Marxism regards economic crises as a direct result of exploitation, and social injustice, especially economic injustice, causes economic crises to occur periodically.
8. In the note
film sent by the conductor , the train said that he was the creator of periodic GM. This metaphor is exactly in line with reality. In a class society, whether it is a natural disaster or an economic crisis, the highest level of the exploiting class actually saw the crisis happen. Instead of trying to stop the crisis, their choice is to use the crisis itself for profit. There are speculations during food famines, when stocks fall, they can sing empty, buy bottoms during financial crises, resell arms during wars, etc...
They not only have more information, but they will also think about everything when they see the coming of the social crisis. Ways to get more benefits in social crises.
In contemporary conspiracy theories, there is even a view that the very few oligarchs who dominate the world plan to create a series of disasters and reduce the entire human population to about 500 million to maintain their extravagant life. As for the destruction of the earth's environment.
A pervasive mystery in the movie is who actually issued the red paper instructions in the protein block. The ending tells us that this was actually sent by the conductor himself.
9. Old Gilliam used the note to control the rhythm of GM.
According to the conductor, Gilliam knew the purpose behind GM. If he didn't cooperate with the conductor to carry out the conspiracy, why should he guide GM according to the instructions of the note instead of exposing it?
This metaphor is exactly in line with the GM principle of Marxism. The exploiting ruling class knows that the social and economic crises are coming, and regards moderate resistance as a relief valve and at the same time as a major opportunity for shearing sheep. But at the same time, for the GM of the bottom laborers, it is only in the critical period of economic and social crisis that GM's climax opportunities will be ushered in. Therefore, after Gilliam awakened, he also had to pretend to cooperate with the conductor in order to promote GM. Even at the expense of
ten, the duality of old Gilliam
The main argument for this slander of GM is historically unsuccessful GM. This is also a premise and the opposite of the birth of Marxism. Before Ma, En, and Lie, gm's consciousness is divided into two types, one is that the slave turns to become the slave owner, and the peasant turns to become the emperor (will be analyzed in detail later). The other is a limited struggle, typical of which is trade unionism. Although these struggles are also vigorous, they are only fighting for the short-term interests of the low-level individuals, but they cannot subvert the fundamental order of class society (the train cannot be broken). Objectively, they became an accomplice of the ruling class.
A very important piece of Marxism-Leninism is the opposition to trade unionism, revisionism, the Social GM Party, the Fabian Society, the fallen Socialist International, and so on. Among these factions, the most representative is of course the Social Democratic Party of the Second International.
These ideas either advocate the use of mild resistance to win concessions from the ruling class; or they advocate blind terrorism to vent their hatred of exploitative rule. But they don’t understand the necessity of rebuilding a new order.
The old Gilliam represents this type of GM and is also the coordinator of the conductor (the highest ruling class). More specifically, he symbolized the Social Democratic Party created by pioneers such as Marx and Engels. So Gilliam called himself "I am the shadows of shadows".
The killing of Gilliam is also an interesting metaphor. The conductor said he could not control the pace of GM. This also metaphors the status of the contemporary socialist party in class society. They represent the people at the bottom and fight a limited amount of struggle when the social crisis breaks out. At this time, their status is recognized by the ruling class. Once the Socialist Party becomes more GM in nature, it will be regarded as a betrayer by the ruling class and will be strangled endlessly. Liebknecht and Luxembourg, as the most progressive leaders of the Social Democratic Party, were very similar to being shot and killed after the First World War.
11. The relationship between the old Gilliam and the new leader Curtis The
Social Democratic Party became an anti-GM force after the First World War due to the lack of thoroughness in theory. But on the other hand, the Social Democratic Party also gave birth to ccp. Later, the Russian ccp led by Lenin was also a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik).
The elitist Social Democratic Party gave birth to a more mass-oriented ccp, which is consistent with the process of Curtis, the male protagonist trained by the old Gilliam in the movie. Compared to the old Social GM Party, the Lenin-style ccp advocates absorbing progressives from the working people, especially the progressives among the workers.
The transition of leaders from Gilliam to Curtis is also a metaphor for the evolution of social GM from elite intellectuals to GM led by the bottom people themselves.
Curtis' final decision allowed him to completely surpass the old Gilliam. The new GMs not only stand on their shoulders, but also surpass them in the opposite way, and no longer become facilitators of the highest ruling class.
12. The original sin of Curtis
reaches the end of the movie. We know that Curtis ate people after he got into the car and fell into a famine. He even knew that babies taste the best. This is the deepest original sin in Curtis' heart.
This is precisely the most profound analysis and exposure of class society. At the top of all class societies, the people live the most impoverished lives. After natural disasters and man-made disasters, the tragedy of eclipse has actually happened. The eclipse in the movie is a particularly strong metaphor. In addition to the eclipse, the poor people in the bottom society are also caught in cheating and robbing each other. Use poor-quality food to scam money, robbery, steal, etc.
The powerful class used this to criticize the lowest level. In the words of the children in the education carriage, they are pigs that eat their own shit. Don't forget, what is the cause of all this-"As soon as we got on the car, the soldiers took away all our belongings." This is the root cause of eclipse.
The most fundamental reason for the tragedy of dirty, messy, and poor workers at the bottom is that the exploiting class has exploited the bottom to the point where they cannot survive and are powerless to resist. People at the bottom often fall into a moral desperation where they will die if they don't plunder other poor people. At the same time, the exploiting class lived a prosperous life. The so-called "Zhumen wine and meat smelly, there are frozen bones on the road."
The tragedy of people eating each other at the bottom of society was ended by the earliest idealists who cut off their own flesh to protect others. Their fearless dedication has awakened the humanity of the people at the bottom, so that they can learn to unite instead of fighting each other and resist class society together.
13. Curtis said to seize the engine of the train
Curtis believes that the past GMs were not successful enough because they didn't go far enough to take the engine. He must make up his mind to seize the engine. This is a very crucial metaphor. The engine is a metaphor for the supreme power of the country.
As mentioned earlier, historically, there are two types of rebels representing the low-level masses. One is the moderate rebels, whose mistake is "not to seize the engine"; the other rebels, their clear goal is to "capture the engine". engine". In the Marxist-Leninist pedigree, seizing the engine means "dictatorship of the proletariat." The biggest difference between the Social Democratic Party and other rebels of all kinds (especially the bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeois democratic parties) and ccp is whether they try to "seize the engine" and use violent GM to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat.
14.
The metaphor that Curtis did not seize the engine of the train in the end implies the core contention of socialism, the attitude towards the "state". The main point of Marx's "French Civil War" and Lenin's "State and GM" is to tell the truth. As far as the proletariat is concerned, once the seizure of the country is achieved, it itself becomes the greatest scourge. The state apparatus must be broken to make it evolve into a new form
. The metaphors in the movie are very subtle. When Curtis finally reached the engine compartment at the head of the train, he saw the whole truth. Everyone lives on this train. "We are all prisoners of this train." Only by maintaining the progress of the train and maintaining the balance of the "ecosystem" in the train can everyone survive. The cruel truth is that the parts of the train are damaged. To keep the train moving, it is necessary to rely on children of the right size as mechanized slaves to maintain its operation.
When Curtis finally reached the head of the train, he realized that even if he controlled the train, he could never change the dark order of the train. This is equivalent to the problem that GMs only see when they climb to the top of society. If the old state apparatus is to continue, they must become a new exploiting ruling class, not to end the order of class society, but to maintain its continued operation. .
Peasant uprisings in history are all like this. Even the socialist GMs led by ccp have moved towards revisionism and restored class society. That’s why the conductor is so confident that he can convince Curtis that he should be the new leader of the train, just like the leader of the peasant uprising is the new emperor, or the vanguard of the proletariat is the new monopolistic exploiting class. .
15. Snow Country, Train, Ark
Now we will introduce the deeper meaning of the metaphor of train again. The world is plunged into a snow country, and most of human beings are extinct, and they can only live in a Mercedes-Benz train. This implies the origin of human society. In the earlier period of primitive society, human beings lived in a world of the law of the jungle. They formed a country to defend themselves, acquire resources to multiply, and transform the surrounding environment.
After the emergence of class society, the biggest ruling ideology of the exploiting class is this: the world is a world that is difficult to survive, and the country is the "ark" for all mankind to live together. Once the country is broken, as if the ark is broken, everyone will be buried. This is the most influential anti-revolution theory, which makes many people, no matter how painful their lives are, they dare not subvert the entire order, fearing that even their exploited lives will be lost in chaos.
This kind of community relationship is expressed in very dramatic scenes in the movie. That is, when the train passed the Ekaterina Bridge, when the New Year was passed, the two parties in the fight actually stopped hacking and counting down collectively, cheering "happy new year". Such a surreal picture implies that the rise and fall of the state is used to kidnap the oppressed people in a class society in order to maintain the "order" of the class society.
16. Circular rails
Circular rails imply the historical cycle rate. Since destroying the engine leads to the demise of mankind, and protecting the engine means that the GM is called the new ruling, it means that in our country, it is called "the prosperous and sudden death". The circular railroad tracks are spread all over the world. It is a metaphor that if the train itself is not broken, the GM cannot change the class society. The repeated history will be the common destiny of all civilizations of mankind. It implies that the only way out for GM is not to seize the engine (regime), but to break the train (class society) itself.
Seventeen. Seven people who
died of freezing The seven people who died of freezing were the earliest group of GM. They thought they could survive in the snow and ice world, but they froze to death. This is a metaphor for the first pioneers who tried to get out of class society. And their escape and freezing to death directly metaphorized utopian socialism. The failure of utopian socialism in the perspective of historical materialism is because they lack scientific theoretical guidance and the objective conditions for the establishment of socialism.
And this "objective condition" is shown in the movie as the ice and snow is finally melting, and the theoretical concept of metaphor is of course the further development of productivity. From the perspective of historical materialism, it was in the era of capitalist industrial civilization that scientific socialism was truly realized. This view is written into the ccp manifesto.
Including Curtis, in the face of this prediction (the Koreans want to blow up the train door), your first reaction is that you are crazy, right? This is a metaphor for the surprise and disbelief of people in the old age in the face of the scientific socialist prophecies that broke all class societies.
18. The train
conductor The train conductor was the first wise man and the greatest person. He anticipated the advent of the Snow Country and built a train with a perpetual engine, which saved many people. The conductor metaphors the origin of the country, and he also symbolizes the earliest sage of human civilization. However, these first sages have slowly evolved into the supreme rulers of class society and into the exploiting class. If placed in Chinese history, the train conductors are Fuxi, Bao Xi, Xuanyuan, Shennong, etc. Until Dayu ruled the waters, his son became the first monarch of the Xia Dynasty. From then on, the country is no longer the public, but for the selfish interests of the ruling class.
In the end, the ruling class constructed and maintained a class society completely according to its own will, turning it into a prison for all mankind.
After Curtis understood trains and history more and more deeply, he fell into a dilemma with the conductor, which also symbolized the question: what if the leader who is most beneficial to the people has transformed into the chief culprit of exploiting and oppressing the people?
19. Destroying trains and
trains means class society, railroad tracks means repetition, and perpetual engine also means eternal order of exploitation. GM has become a tool to slaughter people to achieve "ecological equilibrium". The ultimate goal to break this cycle rate is not to seize the engine, but to destroy the entire train. This of course metaphors the highest ideal and only way out from the ccp declaration, the French civil war to the state and GM, to transform the state apparatus and end class society.
The consequence of destroying the train is an avalanche and the car crashing and killing people. From the perspective of Marxism-Leninism, this is of course a very pessimistic argument. It will definitely trigger a discussion among movie fans: Should GM or give up GM?
But the protagonist Curtis made his choice. When he understood most of the truth, he fell into a deep bewilderment, wondering whether he wanted to maintain this cruel and exploitative society. But when he saw the child being enslaved as a spare part, the conscience blinded by the poisonous tongue was completely awakened. In order to protect the child, he did not hesitate to destroy the train.
This is Curtis's choice, a metaphor for the source and determination of the GM spirit of the ccp people. This spirit of the most thorough struggle is always with the most exploited and oppressed classes. There is a famous saying in Chinese history: "Sunday is mourning, I and you die!"
Audiences who question this result should also think about the famous saying in "Three Body", "Give civilization time, or give time Civilization?"
Twenty. About the ending, the
ending has a strong eschatological sentiment and religious color, reflecting the author's pessimism. This is something I don't like.
21. In some other metaphorical
movies, GMs hide their weapons for fear of giving a bad impression to their children; while the particularly kind and lovely pregnant female teacher blatantly draws a gun and kills people in front of the students. The servants who distribute New Year's gifts seem to be charitable, but they are actually the executors of the massacre. The meaning of these two metaphors is self-explanatory.
In the movie, children symbolize the future of mankind. There are three kinds of children, one is the children who survived stubbornly among the workers at the bottom; the other is the children who are deeply brainwashed by the powerful class; the third is the children who are eventually used as train parts to mechanize the maintenance of class social order. This also symbolizes the three futures of mankind.
The mentor Gilliam was awakened because of a child. He cut off his arm as an atonement and embarked on the path of complete GM. Echoing each other, Curtis finally became a GM completely in order to protect the children.
Fire has many applications in movies. Once it was a torch to illuminate the darkness, and once it was a fire that ignited explosives. Its meaning is also self-explanatory. A sentence from "No Man's Land" is particularly suitable for use here, "I think the difference between humans and animals is not to give up selfishness, but that humans will use fire."
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