"My Father and My Lord" is a film directed by the Taviani brothers with a strong style. It depicts the father - he is the head of the family - educating and holding on to his son, and here is the contradiction and conflict between father and son, development and underdevelopment, progress and conservatism, power and individuality, farming and pastoralism The contradictions and conflicts between civilization and industrial civilization show the generation gap between the two generations and the contradiction between the two civilizations, especially the impact of industrial civilization on farming and animal husbandry civilization.
Throughout the film is the contradiction and conflict between the two generations. In the eyes of the father, he is the head of the family and the son of the son. Everything about the son is completely in his hands, and the son must completely obey his arrangements. From the traditional perspective of farming and animal husbandry civilization, the father should be the master of the son and use the son as a labor force, which is only natural. This is how the father came here, and the son should go the same way. His request for his son was simple: go shepherd the sheep and become a good shepherd in the future. Therefore, when the son was just 6 years old, the father would take advantage of him and forbid him to go to school. The stipulations of the law (that is, compulsory education before secondary school) must be followed, but the father said that poverty is more coercive, and that when his son goes to school, other children will starve to death. In the father's mind, filling his stomach is the biggest thing, and it is more important than obeying the law. In order to fill his stomach, his son can only drop out of school to herd and become a good shepherd, so that he can fill his stomach in the future. Herding, farming, this is the way of life in my father's mind, the only way to express power, authority, and prestige. The father once obeyed his fathers, obeyed the strong, and now, as a father, he wants his son to obey him. Because of this, he has to arrange his life for his son. Of course, he has a careful education for his son and has stricter requirements, which are strict and even inhumane. When he first went up the mountain, his father was patient, teaching his son to distinguish sounds and to deal with danger. However, he knew that his son wanted to escape, so he hid under a tree to block his way and beat him. The way the father pointed out to his son was to be a good shepherd in a lonely middle school, and if he found out that his son had strayed from this path and was in company with Antonio, he would beat his son indiscriminately. Antonio was also severely beaten, showing that tradition is like this, not just Gavino. After Gavino grew up, his father still did not relax his care of him. In exchange for an accordion, it would be a great treason. Although his father no longer beat him, the punishment for starvation was also very severe. Gavino had learned his skills as a soldier, but his father found him off track again, not only destroying his radio, but also working with his son. However, the father was resisted by the son, the tradition passed down from generation to generation was challenged, the crisis faced the father, and he could not resist the impact of the new civilization.
On the son's side, at first he was very dissatisfied with his father's arrangement, and then he tried every means to break out of this cage. As a child, he ran away, but was caught by his father. Then look for opportunities to vent your dissatisfaction, for example: hold down the sheep's head and ask the sheep to eat its own dung. It is a vent, a passive resistance. After he became an adult, he had more ideas of his own, and he had to get rid of this path and walk his own path. Negative venting turned into active struggle. Without his father's approval, he killed two sheep in exchange for an accordion, which was a rebellion by his son. This was a decision he made after many struggles. The film describes that he first pretended to be disdainful of the accordion, but when the two pushed the accordion car away, he quietly chased after him. Sheep, proposed to change the accordion. Although the rebellion paid a price, it was successful. Another of his rebellions was to go abroad to work as a laborer. Although he failed, he had to say that it was a sprint, and to his father, it could not be said that it was not a stimulus. When Gavino returned home after failing to go abroad, his mother gave him a warm welcome, and his father sat there with his back to him, motionless and silent, showing how exciting it was for him. When he arrived in the army, Gavino studied hard and read aloud every word. What he wanted to get rid of was the Sardinian dialect, which was a symbol of backwardness and a symbol of obeying his father (i.e. master), so it was also a way of getting rid of the old world and fighting for it. efforts for a new destiny. This effort has also been successful. Back home, although Gavino still farms and milks milk, his life has undergone profound changes: he is studying, he has his own radio, which is not only a symbol of modern civilization, but also through It made contact with the outside world and broke out of this closed world. He even slapped his father for the radio. In the end, he got out of this world completely and went to the university to lecture, and he succeeded.
In describing the contradictory struggle between father and son, backwardness and civilization, it is obvious that the director is on the side of son and civilization. However, while the film focuses on describing the difficult and inevitable growth process of the son, it also focuses on describing the contradictory character of the father. Father was a terrible man, but human, severe, but kind, rough, but with inner pain. His brutality, sternness, and terror were on full display when the father came to school with a stick to call Gavino, when he brutally beat his son several times, and when he drowned his son's radio in the sink. But he wasn't alone in that. He also had a compassionate, human, and intimate side. When Sebastiano was killed, his father came to his house and offered to say "I saw everything" and help his family with advice, showing his sense of justice and compassion. On the ranch, the father injured his son. When he started beating, he looked aggressive, but when he found out that his son was really broken, he was in great pain. He picked up his son and said affectionately: "You Can't die!" He was regretful, painful, worried. It can be seen that there is only one reason for his rudeness, strictness, and inhumanity to his son: being forced by life. When Gavino returned to his hometown from the army, he walked to the square and met his father. His father was still stern and raised his right hand. He tightened his head. At this time, the father raised his right hand and grabbed the hat on his head. Seeing his son's embarrassment, he couldn't help but smile. Therefore, my father is also a funny person. The film describes his roughness, which life forced, but also describes his sense of justice, compassion and wit, which are his own characteristics. The description and explanation of these two aspects make this character appear both complex and simple, full of flesh and blood, and extremely full. This contradictory character is demonstrating that his brutality, sternness, and inhumanity are dominated by the contradictions of social life, thus deepening the film's theme.
In this film, the sound plays an important role in forming the unique style of the film. The film describes the growth of a shepherd. On the mountain, there is no one to communicate with. Gavino lives in silence and in a closed world. After reaching adulthood, he entered the modern society, and when he communicated with the people around him, he also had a voice. From silence to sound, from isolation to communication, from farming and animal husbandry civilization to industrial civilization, this is the growth process of Gavino. The film is creative in using sound to create atmosphere and express themes. When Mother was dressing Gavino, she spoke of being alone on the hill, where the sound was like a bell, and it was a death knell. At this time, the bell rang, distant and desolate. In the first half of the film, this is the main sound of the film. After the father took the son to the mountain, as soon as the father left, the son looked around, and there was no one else. At this time, the bell rang for the second time. It was long and desolate, and it lasted for a long time. It created an atmosphere of loneliness, desolation, and terror, and also showed the situation of little Gavino vividly. After the father killed the poisonous snake and rode away on the donkey, the bell rang again, which brought the atmosphere created in front to the extreme. When Gavino was 20 years old, two people who sold the accordion came along with the accordion. The music was majestic and powerful, like a symphony, very imposing, and became an important means of expression in the second half of the film. Especially when Gavino was checking the radio, the atmosphere was very tense. Not only Gavino himself was anxious, but other colleagues were sweating for him. The officer checked the radio of the first soldier, and the voice of the speech came from it. The second is Gavino's turn, the officer turns on the radio, there is no sound, the atmosphere is tense, the film depicts the officer's finger pressing the key-type band button in close-up, at this time, loud music comes out, this is still the The piece played by the accordion, however, was more majestic and imposing. Gavino passed the exam, he succeeded, and this piece became his celebration. After Gavino learned to make radios, he learned to drive tanks. Inside the tank, Gavino communicated with his colleagues by radio in Latin, and the majestic tune was played in the background. This piece is a symbol of Gavino's awakening and his success. In the second half of the film, there is only one sound from the first half, that is when Gavino was just enlisted in the army, he could not speak Italian, but only the Sardinian dialect. But the officer gave an order: No one was allowed to speak any dialect. The officer left, and so did everyone else, leaving Gavino alone in the room. At this time, the bleak bell rang, which reminded him of the inhuman life in the past, and made him determined to break with the past and study hard. The bell again inspired him music, and thus his success. The author of the film successfully used the sound method to cross the unmodified natural sound on the empty barren mountains and ridges with the rhythm played by the accordion representing human civilization, so that the audience can strongly feel the confrontation and conflict between the two civilizations. This processing method not only highlights the main theme of the film before and after the two parts, but also highlights the theme of the film.
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