For this movie, this is an excellent question. Similar to "Zodiac", Spotlight has a gentle rhythm, a slow plot, and a soft camera. The actors are restrained, the script is flat and straightforward, and the emotions are simple and simple. Even the suspenseful atmosphere of the Zodiac is nowhere to be found. Although contradictions can be seen everywhere in the plot, the audience doesn't even have the feeling of being affected at all. In other words, Spotlight is not ready to be critical, not planning to talk about feelings, or even ready to open its stance and tell a good story that is heart-wrenching. The best group show of the year in this mainstream movie, a cup of liquid that could have been made into a spirit was poured into a tea cup with water.
Obviously this is not a question of the director's skill. You have to know that this is the person who has written the script of "The Flying House of the Globe" and directed one of HBO's most acclaimed series "FireWire". He could be more hot, or he could be more gentle. But he didn't. He just shed light on the process of a newspaper editorial department reporting big headlines, so that people can see how every component works. The purpose of straightforward narrative is to allow people to draw the protagonist's plot line to be even with the emotional line of lawyers, social workers, scholars, and even bishops. When looking up, we found that everyone in the play, just like they said, is just doing their own work. Although they have their own subjective likes and dislikes and moral orientation, they are still doing their jobs.
Admittedly, this is where the focus is focused. Human society has never lacked evil. As spectators, we can easily accuse the bishop of being indulgent and irrespective of right and wrong. Just think of Germany and Japan, which committed heinous crimes during World War II, and think of the ordinary people who cheered for the dictator and even served as a beast. It is not difficult for us to find, We who are so busy every day have never been able to tell how far away our relationship with evil is. But the value of human civilization is that we have the soil for the breeding of evil and the light source that allows sunlight to pour into every dark side. We have volunteers who help disadvantaged groups and journalists who expose social evils. Most of us are not Joan of Arc holding high the banner of freedom, or even the volunteers and reporters in the film who can help the children, but if we don’t change our original intentions and do our own work, we can make the world. Get better, even if it's a point.
Not everyone can be a hero written in the history books, but everyone can find from their own ordinary things that make the world extraordinary.
At the end of the film, the reporters did not have the joy of victory. While they continued to be busy exposing more dark sides, they were still thinking about a problem, that is, why did the evil that could have been exposed more than ten years ago last so long? When we walk in the dark for a long time, we will be at a loss and blame each other in the sudden light. But we, who are obscured by the daily trivialities, really need this kind of light to refocus on the meaning of work and examine the original intention of the beginning of our career. And a strong workplace spirit, if there is no deep self-reflection, will it become the most terrifying fanaticism and the most indifferent connivance? Think of the priest who insists that he is not wrong.
But in any case, let us thank at least such a group of filmmakers who have awakened from the flood of commercialization and pseudo-artism, and have done their job well. A line from a movie, to be able to see such a movie is the only reason why people who love movies insist on watching movies to this day.
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