The white man in HBO's TV movie "The Sunset Train" is just such a person. This is an old professor who has lived through his life. He has read more than 4,000 books in his life, but he claims to have never read the Bible. Everything in life made him pessimistic and made him feel that everything was meaningless. As the Sunset train galloped by, he jumped off and thought about this meaningless life. But this leap happened to jump into the arms of a black priest, and began to discuss the meaning of life between the black and white old people. In the whole film, there are only two actors who don't even have a name, but are named after black and white. The plot is that the two are constantly talking, and there is only one scene, that is, the black family. This is a typical boring film, but it is still quite wonderful and vivid, played by two veteran actors, Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. This is just a rivalry between two people. I have seen a movie before, called "Gender and Acceptance of Men and Women". That film shows the storm of language, while "The Sunset Train" directly points to the core of language.
In the show, naturally black people believe that life has meaning. He was originally a bad boy and a frequent visitor to the prison. He had brutally wounded people and nearly killed himself. However, he also pondered the meaning of life from it, and believed in God, taking the Bible as the standard of behavior. For a world-weary such as a white professor, it is naturally a responsibility sent to him by God, and he must shoulder the heavy responsibility of saving his life and soul. Thus, the verbal confrontation between the two began. The first half of the film, basically Samuel's performance, the black man he plays is full of wisdom, as well as the fraternity of Christ, and his eloquent words make him take the lead, like an angel. In contrast, the white man played by Jones, under the pressure of Samuel, seems to have given up his belief in death, cooking fruit, drinking coffee together, and the warmth of the world, as if the two have become inseparable An old friend who doesn't talk. The black angels drove back the attack of the white god of death.
However, the situation changed abruptly and the plot took a turn for the worse. The white man in front of him, who was timid, was sharp in his words. His doubts about God and his denial of the meaning of life made the aggressive black man retreat step by step, and finally his heart was broken. Everything he believed in became suspicious. Yes, what is the meaning of life, this is not a question of experience, but a question of logic, which does not support the existence of meaning logically. The white man, who has the advantage in knowledge, is naturally superior in logical discourse. He said the doors behind him were closing one by one, leaving only the last door, which was suicide. At this point in life, there is indeed no way out. Think about it, it's pretty scary. But the professor does not actually mean to be afraid, but has a mortal heart, thinking that death is the best relief for the meaninglessness of life. He opened the closed door of the black man and went out; and the black man fell back into the predicament of the white professor just now.
Can death really save a person from meaninglessness? Since it has been determined that life is meaningless, isn't this hopeless resistance to the meaninglessness of life even more meaningless? Suicide itself is a meaningless thing. It can only strengthen the meaninglessness of life. The only way to eliminate the meaninglessness is to find the purpose of life and live the meaning like Frank did. Otherwise, life is like duckweed, drifting with the flow and letting yourself go into confusion. Does the professor see through life? On the surface, it is seen through, as if to discover the true meaning of life and realize the emptiness of life. In fact, it has not penetrated into life, penetrated into life. God made people exist for a reason. White people do not believe in the existence of God, so in the end they can only deny their own existence.
Human existence itself is the meaning of life.
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