The working class in the film is really not a very positive image, and there is no prominent representation as the expression of the image of the workers. It is true that the working class has always not respected individual heroism, but the film is actually oriented.
As for the workers who can be named, George is one, and the foreman who controls the main machine is also one. The former completed the important mission of letting the protagonist, the rich second-generation Fred, experience life. As for the task that Fred gave him, it was long since thrown into the clouds in the flyers of the Yoshihara Club. But this short ten-hour grassroots experience allowed Fred to complete the transformation from the bourgeoisie to the working class, and finally united with Maria to fight for workers' rights, although this transformation was short-lived after all, and the result of the struggle was not long-term. plan.
The bearded foreman who controls the main machine is more like the leader of the workers (different from the instigation of the evil Mary), especially in the second half of the film when the workers want to destroy the main machine, the foreman warns people that destroying the main machine will lead to the whole When the dungeon was flooded, and when all the workers were revelling, he also reminded people, "Where are your children?" Here I have to say that the workers in the film are chaotic, have no opinion, short-sighted, forgetful, and are eager to seek the will of the leader rather than seek it. truth itself. Mechanical labor has almost alienated them into inhumans, except for the sincere and hopeful light in their eyes when listening to the preaching of the Virgin Mary, or the fanatical affection when they were instigated by the evil Mary, all other times they were stern, His eyes are empty, his steps are consistent, and he walks mechanically with his head down. Here I can't help but think that the scientist Robert King said that if I give me another 24 hours, I will make the robot no different from the real person. I habitually think that it is to make the machine keep approaching like a human, making it more and more humanized, but thinking in reverse, Why can't it be that people are becoming more and more robotic?
The bourgeois characters in the film, the Fredersons, are even more interesting. Fredson, the big capitalist, is an exploiter in the underground worker city. The workers work for 10 hours without taking a break.
But at the same time he sent his son Fred to the dungeon to rescue the workers and their children, and he could have just kept him there. He is ruthless and can fire subordinates without changing his face, even if he knows he will go underground to work endlessly after being fired. But it is not really cold-blooded. He is infatuated with his late wife Hale, and loves his son Fred. This actor is also well-chosen. His eyes are deep and melancholy. He doesn't look like a cruel exploiter. I can't help but praise this character for being so handsome, even more so than his son. Fortunately, his son Fred has the same beautiful eyes. I still don't understand one thing about this character. Fredson said that he wanted to incite a violent revolution through the evil Maria, so as to "conquer violence with violence". Naturally, there is no such plot at the end of the film, nor does he reveal his army or Other means of violence, I don't know how he wants to "control violence with violence". Moreover, the destructive power of this revolution is too great, I don't know if the consequences are also in his calculations, the outcome is not as he expected, and I don't know what it should be according to his assumptions.
Fred has completed the transformation from a second-generation ancestor who only knows how to eat, drink, and play to a bridge that prompts workers and capitalists to shake hands and make peace. I don't know if the driving force of curiosity is too amazing or the power in love is too great. The film I see now is a restored version. It is very old. Maybe the performance at that time was very exaggerated. Coupled with some dropped frames, Fred's actions are always very dramatic. It seems to be a love scene, as if a kiss is about to happen in the next second.
Finally, Maria, who plays the role of a disseminator of theory and advocates peace rather than violence, but as we all know—revolution is impossible without bloodshed. The initiator or instigator of the revolution in the film is the evil Maria, and it is not difficult to see that the director does not advocate resolving class contradictions through revolutionary means. The result of the revolution in the movie is also a piece of chicken feathers, and finally the flood flooded the entire dungeon. It is true that destroying the machine will not bring liberation, but making peace with the bourgeoisie will never escape the fate of exploitation. Revolution needs the guidance of scientific theory, and neither Maria can play this role. Fear of the holy Virgin Mary, or the evil Mary who bears the seven deadly sins, has never changed the fate of the exploited, and of course, they have not thought about it subjectively.
As a sci-fi film, the imagery is also amazing. The design of the android Hull is really ingenious, which reminds me of Sora Yamaki's paintings
Fred entered the dungeon for the first time, saw the explosion and hallucinated, thinking it was the machine that devoured the workers, and that hallucination reminded me of an album cover by Travis Scott
"The regulator of the hand and the brain is the heart." The film ends with Fred, the middleman, making peace between the working class and the bourgeoisie. It is a very utopian ending. However, we know that the contradictions between the working class and the capitalists are irreconcilable, and the basic contradictions of capitalist society are antagonistic, which cannot be solved by the original system alone. Of course, neither can the moderate reformers, and can only use revolutionary means. . The image of the "heart" in the film is also a kind of good expectation, a humanistic concern in the industrial age, and a fiery emotion in a cold machine.
Proletarians of the world, unite!
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