(Spoiler) Many religious beliefs are meant to liberate people, but in the eyes of others, religion is the source of oppression. There are also many examples where different believers refer to each other as oppressors and consider themselves liberators. In fact, it is not limited to religion, but also among different ethnic groups. These are all political activities that involve people's minds and bodies at the same time. "Jimmy 's Hall " ( Jimmy's Hall ) is a story of religion and political power cooperating to fight the rebels, and their thorn in their eyes is a spontaneous folk dance hall.
The film is adapted from the deeds of the Irish left-wing politician Jimmy Gralton (Jimmy Gralton) in the early twentieth century. The screenwriter selected a period of time between 1932 and 33 for Jimei to adapt. Although it was short but very tortuous and critical, because Jimei who participated in the Irish War of Independence in the early years fled to the United States, and after returning home because of the dance hall The matter was deported again, and he has never been able to set foot in the country again. The style of the movie is simple, but because of the scarcity of historical materials about Jimmy, this drama has a lot of fiction and is not a realistic work, but it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the work of director Ken Loach.
Indeed, Jimmy’s ballroom is not an ordinary dancing place, because Jimei is not an ordinary person. Believing in communism, Jimmy was once active in politics. Its ballroom was named after James Connolly and Padraic Pearse, the leaders of the struggle for Irish independence. To the regime, he is a power trouble; to the church, he is a cultural enemy, because he introduced "morally corrupt" jazz beats and dance steps, poisoning young people; in the eyes of the landlord, this communist is even more It is Yu Kou. However, this time when Jimmy returned home, she did have the intention of retreating at first, to accompany her elderly mother to live a quiet life. But he did not leave the country for ten years and has become a legend admired by local teenagers. Old friends also support him to reopen the dance hall, because it is not only a place for recreation, but also under a suffocating religious and political control. A public space where you can taste the free air. The ballroom is actually a community hall spontaneously initiated by the people. In addition to tap dancing and listening to jazz, they also hold drawing classes for children, or recite poems by William Butler Yeats together—of course, they will also discuss current affairs. This is a direct provocation in the eyes of the local Catholic Church, because cultural affairs have always been "exclusively managed" by the church to ensure that young people take the "right path." Jimmy and Father Sheridan are old rivals, and revolutionary ideas and the free and open style from the United States are enemies of religion. Jimmy was expelled once; this time, he was asked to never return.
It can be said that the church has joined hands with the government; it can also be said that the church is one of the people in power in that situation. What the priest did was to publicly humiliate the young believers who participated in the ballroom activities as a shepherd who drove the sheep away. But his partner's methods are far beyond that. Jimmy is a tiger who doesn't want to be a "good pet cat", but it's a pity that he can't fight the evil dragon. The dance party was shot, the dance hall was burned down, and then Jimmy was hunted down and then expelled. Those in power did not implement fair judicial procedures, and Jimmy did not have the opportunity to defend publicly, only violent acts in dark corners. The irony is that Jimmy was accused of being an "illegal foreigner" and was forced to leave his hometown-perhaps he was really an "alien alien" who was born in Ireland but had the ambition to change Ireland; Father Sheridan was relatively speaking "On the ground" very much, twisting with the government on the ground, "let the central government rest assured." Later, when the priest finally confirmed that his enemy had respectable sentiments, and his allies had been committing abuses, everything was irreversible, and his condemnation of the latter also showed a certain degree of hypocrisy. When religion is at the center of power, freedom appears to have no value in it, because people must believe in it. Then, religious freedom, as a kind of freedom, is also worthless—if one does not have the freedom to unbelief, there is actually no freedom to confess faith.
(Originally published in "Times Forum" Issue 1406, August 23, 2015)
View more about Jimmy's Hall reviews
