I'm not a follower of any religion, and I don't hold any malice against any religion. I only give objective comments on the religious issues reflected in this film.
The film's intent to criticize the harsh canon of orthodox Catholicism is obvious, so it's understandable that the film's protagonist, Maria, died of her faith. I also think that it does have the side of suppressing human nature, but thinking about it carefully, although the canons are strict, they have existed for nearly a thousand years. Just because Mary's belief in God was too devout, she blamed her death on this belief. I find this attribution to be simplistic and arbitrary, after all this is a case study.
Some people may say that Mary's death was not only because of her pure faith, but also because of her mother's strict discipline, and the discipline was also based on canonical language violence. Therefore, after all, it was a religious issue. This also makes sense. While watching the movie, I also wanted to rush to the screen to slap the mother, but in the end, I felt that the mother was actually quite pitiful, and it was a mistake to put the blame entirely on her. Fair. Her way of disciplining her children is indeed not worth advocating today, but the criticism and abuse shown in the film is really not enough to make her take full responsibility for her daughter's death. It was also Mary's fault that was not allowed by the canon. In addition to what we call verbal violence today, her love for her daughter can still be seen. For example, when she was driving to pick up her daughter, she would also smile and caress her daughter's face, and when she saw her waking up with a runny nose, she also cared about her daughter. Whether she has a cold or not, she ignored her daughter's last illness only because Maria was usually sick a lot. The key is that Maria is a smart child. She knows how to cover up her illness. The negligence of a mother also made her a little wrong.
How much responsibility should Mary's mother bear? Let's think about it this way: If this mother is not a Catholic, and does not always speak according to the canon, but only speaks loudly about her daughter's mistakes, then we still feel that her criticism so hateful? Nope, so it's our prejudice against religion, combined with the good performance of the actor who plays the role, that makes us more willing to condemn this Catholic mother. Of course, the mother's ill-judgment is mainly due to her daughter Mary. Maria's pitiful and ill state (it's easy to think of Lin Daiyu), against the strong background of her mother, earned almost everyone's sympathy. Although sympathy for the weak is a major feature of human nature, she could not have been like this. If we carefully consider the details in the fourteenth station, whether we will not hesitate to show sympathy for her is really hard to say. Perhaps, Our empathy changes direction.
Some people may say that girls in such a situation are not worthy of sympathy, are you too hard-hearted. Actually, no, I have ample evidence that Mary's behavior was intentional, that she intentionally went against her mother. At the second stop of the Cross Road, her mother asked her to put on her coat for fear of catching a cold, but she didn't listen; she didn't cooperate when she asked her to be happy when taking pictures, which upset everyone, and finally she deliberately took off the coat she had barely put on again. , obviously, this is deliberately wrong. Because of this, he carried the "cross" of "disobedience and opposition to adults". She is a top student in the pastoral ministry, and it's impossible not to know that her "confrontation" behavior is not doctrinal, but what confuses us is also her cleverness, she can always find religious reasons to justify her ungodly behavior. Behavioral defense, at this stop, her defense is that she just doesn't want her mind to revolve around "looks and clothes." At the third stop, she wanted to accept an invitation from the Protestants to join their choir (although she did not agree at the time, but at the sixth stop after learning of her mother's strong opposition and the priest's persuasion, she still did not completely refuse the invitation), which was obviously against the teachings. , but she made excuses for her autistic brother; in the fourth stop, she not only talked back to her wrathful mother, but also lied, and here, too, she defended herself by the absence of a choir in her parish. These disobedient behaviors, we can say that she is a kind of resistance to her mother's strength, but her disobedient behavior is not only against her mother, but also against the religious canons he believes in.
For example, in her pastoral class, she wanted to sacrifice her life to God, and Father Weber told her that God required her to live in the world and to fight for her sect as a soldier of God, but she insisted on sacrifice; She could not listen to her words, but when confessing, the priest was speaking on behalf of God, and she still wanted to offer sacrifices. The priest not only still disagreed, but also told her that if she insisted, "sin is in arrogance," but she still insisted. Therefore, it is obviously wrong for some people to think that she died of her faith. If she really believes in her religion and is sufficiently devout to her religion, she will not die. Making her bear the "cross" of "disobedience" really didn't wrong her, every time she "falls" is actually the result of "disobedience".
She wanted to die from the beginning, and the process of her death step by step can be said to be deliberate. First, she made herself sick and took off her coat in the cold; she refused to make friends in order to prevent others from finding out that she was sick (her mother did not approve of her making friends of the opposite sex and heterodox, but she would not object to her teaching of the same sex). Even if the physical education teacher found out that she was different, she wisely avoided the teacher's questioning. She refused to run on religious grounds, most likely because her physical condition did not allow her. If she did this, if she did, she might faint, but she was not on the verge of hopelessness, which would make her plan all the futile; a male classmate in the next class who cared about her wanted to touch her forehead and look at her. She also avoided it very sensitively whether she had a fever or not; the au pair Bernadette lived in her house and was her only friend who could talk to her. Logically, she should be able to find out her strangeness. In order to avoid her concern, she encouraged her to Bernadette contradicted her mother (which she told Bernadette before she died), and her purpose was also to get her mother to warn Bernadette not to interfere in their family affairs, so as to prevent her sickness from being discovered by her friends; She lives like a loner in the world, and death may be her best destination. I don't want to say that her death was just because she wanted to sacrifice her life to God, and she just returned to God. In fact, she may have doubts about her own religion. If she really believed in her God, why would she sigh when she was dying? As for her loneliness, why didn't she think that God was with her when she should think of God the most? I hope my inference does not insult this poor girl too much.
Some people will say, how can such a simple little girl be so deliberate, is it because I am too black-bellied. Absolutely not. I have a friend. When her daughter took the third grade exam, she even got one side of the test paper right and left the other side blank to express her dissatisfaction with her discipline. Eight or nine-year-old children can do this. Is there any reason to doubt it? A fourteen- or fifteen-year-old smart scholar won't do anything deliberate? In my opinion, Mary's actions are just dressed in religious guise. Her death was not to sacrifice to God, but to wake up her mother.
Some might say that it takes such extreme measures to wake up her mother? Yes, ordinary people can't, and they can't treat ordinary people, but looking at her mother's performance, can ordinary methods wake her up? Just think about how strong she should be if she can make her husband feel like a mute in the family. Sooner or later, problems will arise in such a family. With Maria's intelligence, she should be able to see through this. Of course, most importantly, she wanted to save her autistic brother. Although the etiology of autism is unknown, it is very likely that a child who is in a critical period of speech has closed the door to the outside world forever due to some inadvertent scolding. Maria's death, although the director arranged a miracle to make her brother speak immediately, but in fact we all know that there are so many miracles, it's just the director's kindness, or the peace of mind for those believers and audience . But Maria's death will definitely temper her mother's strength. If so, her brother's autistic tendencies may change in the future, because the family will be full of joy. In this way, we can also understand why Mary is going to die. The value of her death is not only to wake up her mother, save her father, her brother, and the family she loves, but also to wake up the world. (by: heshenggen/2015-04-08)
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