It is very difficult to give up presenting content with inherent factors that attract attention. Today, when fast food and entertainment have become outrageous, it is quite worrying and incredible that a movie does not have hot scenes, dazzling special effects, funny plots, or even love eachother. Of course, we can also say that Man From Earth (hereinafter referred to as MFE) chooses such a method, which is also a manifestation of self-confidence.
MFE is a science fiction film, do you believe it? After watching it, many people are expected to be very disappointed, or even curse. As a science fiction film, there is no shadow of science fiction on the surface. Even the reminiscence shots (prehistoric life, historical fragments, etc.) that I expected to appear in the process of watching the film were not at all, and a trace of disillusionment brought me even greater surprise and admiration. According to common sense, inserting a few exciting special effects at the right time, going back to the Middle Ages or even earlier times, can at least make the film more popular, and it is also an easier way of expression for similar films. Moreover, even if such a method is adopted, perhaps the movie will not lose its color to the point of vulgarity. However, the director insisted on discarding any surreal plots, and the time line was meticulously followed in the present tense. He recorded the whole process of a discussion or debate abruptly, and presented it as a complete film. Tough persistence brings high thinking. Without any hints and guidance, the audience is forced to enter the film itself to ponder the ultimate question with the characters. This bringing in is natural and sober. Because there is no lure of entertainment elements, no emotional interference, and no visual sensory stimulation, you can only focus on the content. The film gives up some details, but it pushes the main point naked in front of the audience's eyeballs, forcing you to think together.
Think about what? Or, what exactly is MFE talking about?
The summary of the MFE story can be told in one sentence: John told his colleagues that he was a primitive man who had lived for 14,000 years. The content of the entire film is abstract and simple. Although another meaning of simplicity to the extreme is infinite moldability, the film still resolutely throws away everything that can be discarded, and the screenwriter and director ultimately choose the event itself. It doesn't matter whether John is a primitive person or not, what matters is the process of his telling, and the important thing is the collision, contradiction, and communication with other characters in the process of his telling.
The screenwriter carefully selected the identities of the characters: archaeology professor, human sociology expert, psychologist, doctor of medicine, Christian believer (also professor of religion), geography professor, female college student. The identities of these people represent almost all of the modern human spiritual civilization, and a conversation full of philosophical speculation by the fireplace began.
John's confession is undoubtedly a blockbuster. All the scientific elites present, after the initial shock, calmly used logic and their own subject knowledge as weapons to try to prove John's absurdity. However, John's eloquent answers led them to discover that John's situation was a real possibility, both logically and scientifically. Rational criticism became emotionally unacceptable, and the moment John was transformed into Jesus, the contradiction was thoroughly intensified.
Interestingly, the characters in the film not only have unique identities, but also show their personalities. John's calmness, the historian's neutrality, the religious professor's conservative and stubbornness, the archaeologist's romanticism, one-to-one correspondence with everyone's respective reactions after one-to-one correspondence - calm in the face of accusations, striving to maintain the meaning of the debate, incomparable resentment and hysteria , scornful contempt and anger, etc.
Screenwriters with ulterior motives put together various characters with special identities to create this interesting debate. The ubiquitous contrast brings the film's tension to the extreme. Whether it is the comparison between John himself, the "anomaly" among human beings, and other professors who represent the universal human beings, or the comparison between the attitudes, personalities, and speeches of the professors, they all collide with sparks of thought. The film itself, however, is often just a sputter of these sparks without elaborating, just being a faithful recorder with reservations.
I know that's the biggest intention of the movie itself. The director is very smart. He shaped MFE into a huge container, and packed all the philosophical thinking that was huge, esoteric, difficult and even metaphysical. John's narratives and his conversations with others encompass almost all the ultimate thinking in anthropology, biology, history, religion, sociology, and more. This kind of ultimate thinking itself has no answer and it is impossible to have an answer. MFE bravely displayed them in front of everyone. The film itself did not try to answer it, but just boldly made a philosophical experiment, borrowing the mouths of the created John and everyone to let them freely cross and collide, looking forward to Fabulous product after this.
You can say that the film reveals something, or you can claim to understand nothing. In itself, MFE is an open-ended, unanswered quest to find all ultimate questions, focusing on the process, not the outcome.
The film unfolds in a question-and-answer format, which is philosophical in itself.
The content of the film is like the famous super-short science fiction novel - there is only one last person left on earth, and then there is a sudden knock on the door - generally full of endless possibilities, and there are countless developments that can continue. Rather than characterize MFE, I would rather think that it is just a platform built with various ultimate questions, full of possibilities for exploration.
Back to the question at the beginning - what is the MFE to think about? MFE will slyly tell you that there is no answer to this question. MFE is a box full of mysteries, and what's in it, you can't tell until you put your hand in it.
You have seen the infinite possibilities of human evolution, and MFE is exploring the mysteries of human beings; you have seen various reactions of human nature to the unknown, and it is satirizing human nature; you have seen exploring the truth of religion, it is a great religion Movie.
It is unimaginable to express such open and free philosophical thinking in the form of a film. It's a wonderful balance between being caught in the horns of metaphysical obscurity, and the empty shell that's degenerated into general, shallow talk, and the movie itself proves it.
Love MFE's soundtrack. Without the current background music, the movie would be half the color. The meticulously controlled music conversion, how many times to polish the plot of the movie, bring the atmosphere to an extreme. It is often matched with an actor's look, which conveys infinite meanings.
At the end of MFE, John and the psychiatrist recognize the father and son's plot, which can be praised or disparaged. I always feel that although it can bring small surprises, it is slightly off the beaten track, reducing a bit of aftertaste.
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writing a film review is one of the most tortured things in the world, and I will never learn it in my life. Will write movie reviews.
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