- Dante
If you've used Travelocity, read Lonely Planet, and stayed at Youth Hostel, you'll love this movie, or at least not be disappointed. Because no matter how bad it is, you can also watch it as a southern European style film. What's more, it contains almost all the elements necessary for such a good film: a long and difficult journey, a religious human redemption, humor and madness, and even an affair - even if it is just two eccentric "old people". ambiguity between people"—that doesn't even constitute ambiguity.
To apply Jung's theory, "travel" should be one of the innate psychological archetypes of human beings: people all over the world are enduringly fond of this kind of project that is almost equivalent to leisure and entertainment in the popular category. And, with the ever-increasing development of transportation, travel has become more accessible. But even so, this is by no means urgent for Tom, an ophthalmologist in the United States. It is even conceivable that even after the outbreak of the US financial crisis, when many white-collar workers took the opportunity to travel because they lost their jobs, Tom would probably sit in his clinic and look at the patient's eyelids.
But he had to go this time, too busy to say hello to his golf buddies. Because the son died, on a so-called "Road to Napoleon" - a bastard's English translation. The original name of the film is the Way, which is simple in words and profound in meaning, reminiscent of Bei Dao's chanting "The road is full of red poppies...". The real name of this road is "Santiago Pilgrimage Road", which leads from the south of France to one of the three holy cities of Christianity - Santiago in Spain. The city got its name from the burial of James, one of Jesus' twelve disciples (see Notes). As a result, pilgrims from all over the world flock to this 800-kilometer-long scenic road.
America's stubborn old Tom became one of them, of course not for a pilgrimage, but just to complete the unfinished business of his son, and at the same time "heal" for himself - to apply Jung's theory again, only when you really face the shadow , the shadow will dissipate. But Tom is too old. How old is it? This year, 2011, is significant in American history because the first baby boomers after World War II—baby boomers, who happened to be 65 years old, started collecting their first pensions. A generation officially announced its curtain call. No matter how much the baby boomers are criticized—they spend their youth, drug addiction, and sexual liberation, overdo it after middle age, and stare at the house and the bills all day because they are bored. America was dragged into an economic crisis. But it is undeniable that this generation is the cornerstone of the United States so far. Even if many people criticize them for occupying the dungeon and not shitting, they should have moved their buttocks to make way for young people. They have carried a country and created the present American culture as we know it. Their controversy even robbed the glory of later generations of the United States, making the young American people of later generations feel that they are not exciting enough. In the film, the screenwriter was afraid that the audience would not know what to do, and specially arranged for the woman who went with him to call him "Boomer" frivolously.
When a sad Boomer with the loss of a child, a pilgrim who is not a pilgrim, an Anglo-Saxon from the North American continent once again set foot on the European continent and embarked on his "return" journey, three A hundred years ago, the Puritans on the Mayflower were able to return to their motherhood again. And the religious implication of "The San Diego Pilgrimage" completely elevates Tom's journey into a spiritual return to the original teachings of the Puritans. The old hippies tried to find themselves in the psychedelics of drugs and orgasms, or used the exotic oriental mysticism to find meaning, but it was not until they started taking pensions that they found their origins. Consolation - it was the piety of the thirty-five Puritans on the "Mayflower", the wonderful poems in Dante's "The Divine Comedy", the humanism of ancient Greece, and the crusade-style succession. . . Where did they come from and where did they end up going.
Tom's journey is not alone. He's not the only one with impure motives infiltrating the ranks of the pilgrims. These people with different concerns may make up the vast majority of the pilgrims. Serious and sad Tom inherited the American arrogance (not derogatory here) and led a few impure people with different intentions to complete the pilgrimage. The setting of these characters is similar to the clown in "King Lear", which not only eases the tone of the film, dresses the film more like the scenery film mentioned above in a relaxed atmosphere, but also strengthens the story through their mouths The message itself is to convey to us. The purpose of the "pilgrimage" of the little people in the secular world can even be so vulgar that it is just to "lose a few pounds of meat and make my wife interested in him again..." The fat man from the Netherlands said this, as the so-called sad person has no arms.
The ending of the story, of course, is that everyone has completed the self-sublimation without any suspense after the journey, the fat can be burned, and the soul can be washed away. Although the ending of such an extremely "cultural hardship" is not very clever, it will always satisfy the good men and women who are planning to go to Tibet, Xinjiang and Jerusalem. Fortunately, we are far from retirement and still have time to hit the road.
FIN
Note: In the Bible, Jacob was sent by God to preach in Spain. He was beheaded by King Herod and finally buried in what is now Santiago. Later, due to the war, the location of Jacob's tomb became a mystery, until one day, a local peasant rediscovered the tomb with the guidance of starlight. This greatly inspired the fighting spirit of the Spanish restorers, and finally achieved the later Spain. Santiago means Saint-Jacob in Spanish.
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