New Year's Eve, re-watched this movie. I have always felt the same way about this film. Some parts of Freddie are so similar to me that I feel "this is me".
The master always said that Freddie is an animal. In the eyes of the master, the high level of people is civilization and standardization. And Freddie, who lives in isolation and vents himself, is an animal.
So is the master right? Human beings are animals as flesh, and being "civilized" in a collective is nothing but domestication, when one puts others above oneself, putting together with friends and pleasing them is the most important , and they are only "fowl" serving the collective and civilization.
Let me say something very interesting: at the beginning, when Freddie was alone under the "house" he built, when he was playing with other soldiers, he gave a distant scene first, and then cut to a closer scene. No, he was in stark contrast to those soldiers. And when Freddie rushed from the edge of the picture to the sand statue to "make out" with him, a group of soldiers surrounded him, and almost all the soldiers' eyes were directed towards him, making him the center of the picture. At this time, he wanted to integrate into the group, but he looked like It's an "animal" being watched. In fact, think carefully about whether his character has anything to do with the military, a collective melting pot of "man" and brutal wars? Perhaps it was his remaining "hope" that made him get close to the master, the blue ocean he was looking at.
In fact, no one questioned the absurdity of the master's idea? The intellectual questioned, but he was gagged by violence. The master's son questioned it, but like those who ridiculed the corrupt leaders all the time but ended up submissive to the leader, he only submits to the authority of the leader. The law also sanctioned the master, but the power of this sanction was limited, because the master's disciples only bought spiritual comfort from the master, and the capitalism maintained by the law is not against these.
And the only person who can truly defeat the master's civilized authority is Freddie, who symbolizes wildness and can drive a motorcycle and leave resolutely, not to mention that he is an animal, because in the end, only he maintains the dignity of "human".
At the end of the film, when the master and Freddie parted, they still cherished each other. At that time, it was still "Spring and Autumn", and civilization and wildness could get along in a relatively peaceful way. And now it's the "Warring States", civilization and collectives are eroding humanity in an industrial horror, while lonely fringes like me, you, and Freddie who are far away from the cluster retaliate in a "disorderly" and "crazy" way ( From this perspective, you could say that The Joker is a continuation of The Master in a later era). Whether we can find a way to live independently and make "people" truly superior to animals is the question that each of us has to face.
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