Regarding the characters and love-hate relationships of the two protagonists, many comments have already been said, and I won't repeat them. What I want to say here is the soil where fascism was formed in Italy. The three stratum groups in the film: the landlord class, the fascists, and the peasant class have formed a complex relationship. At the end of the film, Alfred's criticism meeting, Olmo's passage expounds the view from the peasant class:
"You put Criminals are released from prisons, communists are put in. Fascism is not formed overnight like mushrooms, no, fascism is the offspring of the lords, the lords made them. These fascists, they start to make a fortune, loot money, Cause war. We go to North Africa, the Soviet Union, Greece, Albania and Spain, who is suffering? It's us! The proletarians, workers, peasants are suffering!"
Olmo said this in close-up to the camera, Alfredo Reid lowered his head guiltily in the blurred background behind him. This is what the film wants to say to all audiences, to the world.
Since Rome was captured by barbarians in the fifth century AD and the Western Roman Empire fell, the Italian peninsula has been in a divided state, consisting of several kingdoms or city republics with changing territories, and wars have been raging until the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Territorial unity. Since then, the national consciousness of Italy has been revived day by day, and the desire to make Italy great again began to be strong. This trend of thought is the soil for Italy to form power politics and military expansion strategies, and it is also the soil for the growth of fascism.
Anyone who has an understanding of international politics knows that the foreign aggression and expansion launched by many countries are strategies adopted to alleviate internal contradictions. The difference between the proletarians diverts the attention of the oppressed from the oppressor.
Therefore, the growth and growth of fascism may be caused by the ruling class represented by the landlords, but objectively the entire social class has played a role in fueling the flames to a certain extent, which is why Mussolini was so enthusiastically supported in the early days. To this day, there are still many Italians who accept the early rulings of Mussolini and Fascism, and emphasize the strict distinction between fascism and Nazism (in our educational philosophy, Nazism and fascism are almost the same thing), of course, The reasons for this are complex, largely related to the chaotic state of Italian politics over the past few decades.
The film's portrayal of fascists is too sham, which is of course political correctness recognized by mainstream values. Attila, the representative of fascism, is only a foreman, not a member of the family, but there is a complex interest relationship between him and the family. When Alfred came home from his father's funeral and officially became the head of the family, Olmo persuaded him to drive away Attila, but Alfred didn't do it, not because of weakness, because he needed it.
At the wedding, cousin Regina asked, "Why didn't you kick me out?"
Alfred replied to Regina and Attila, "No, I want you all to stay, you are part of my estate .” (The Chinese subtitles in the version I read translate “you” into “you,” which is misleading.)
This conversation is profound, alluding to the interests of the two classes.
In the second half of the film, when Attila was going to hunt down Olmo, Alfred announced his dismissal of Attila, but it was too late. Without the authorization of the landlord, the fascists could kill.
The reasons why Italy was involved in the Axis powers in World War II are very complicated, but in any case, the people who suffer the most must be the common people. This is also the focus of Olmo's complaint and represents the awakening of the people.
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