Sometime many years ago, when the school was on winter vacation, it was snowing heavily outside and there was nowhere to go, so I had to stay at home and watch a movie to pass the time. For a few days, I have been watching the disc, watching and watching, the machine is running continuously from morning to night, except for three meals a day, I watch the film non-stop. From then on, the next problem was that I felt nauseous when I saw someone coming out of the theater on the street.
Of course, there are other feelings, as clear as a brand. It originated from a certain feature film I watched at that time. It is a foreign (UK? Hollywood?) film from the 1970s and 1980s. What's interesting is that the film's title, director, actors, and even the plot are all vague, but it left a "deep" impression on me!
That's actually just a bridge at the end of the film, a quote from Shakespeare's "Charles II" - "The most brutal beast has a pity, but I don't have it, so I'm not a beast."
I clearly remember on TV, A man like an angry lion stood on the speeding dilapidated train. He raised his arms and slammed towards the snow-falling sky, his mad howl from the bottom of his heart resounded through the valley. The locomotive sprayed thick white smoke and crashed into the cliff... It was just such a set of shots, rough and desolate. First close-up, then stretch to panorama.
What does it want to express? As I was still in elementary school (junior high school) at the time, I was still ignorant, why it was so clear and powerful, like a battering ram hitting my heart. That man, why did he threw himself towards death after knocking down his opponent, as if it was his long-lost hometown, and he opened his arms to embrace it. That power is so persecuting, it stirs up rage in my heart.
Wang Xiaobo wrote an essay, which is a reflection of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". He wrote in the article that this simple and pure work reveals the powerful side of human nature. Interestingly, compared to the remnants of this film, which I do not know, it is also a character, a fight (at least a fighting stance), showing a soul-shattering power.
"The most brutal beast has a pity, but I don't have it, so I'm not a beast." How should it be reinterpreted in this passage? What is mercy? Beasts, slaughtering for sustenance, though ferocious, are the one worthy of pity. Because God gave them life, they cannot decide for themselves how to live or not. On the other hand, people can decide their own destiny through their own actions, making themselves noble or humble.
I have been thinking, why does a fragment of an old film from more than ten years move me so strongly? Such a scene: the snowfield covered with heavy snow and the howling cold wind, the man with piercing eyes, looking uninhibited in the face of death. moments like that. He suddenly felt that although he was a dying person, he had no "pitiful appearance" at all. He was the incarnation of Xiao Jie's strength, and it showed a belief: nothing can stop the strength from the heart and the desire for freedom.
Few films today have such an impact. With the decision to die and the rough vent of emotions and atmosphere, a certain energy bursts out instantaneously, which is applied to the mind, not just the "visual impact".
Until the deadline, I didn't know that I was watching this movie, an old movie from the 1980s. It is actually a multi-country co-production, and the theme is really related to freedom.
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